mac anticipation part 3 – hardware
March 21st, 2008
The majority of my hardware concerns stem from the fact that it is a laptop – which is not the fault of Apple Inc. I have mostly disliked laptops in general for a few reasons, but now I find that having a laptop will prove much more beneficial.
The keyboards are difficult to get used to and near impossible to upgrade, at least that’s what I have always been lead to believe – correct me if I’m wrong.
Starting with the Keyboard:
a) So much less pressing of the keys is required than regular keyboards. This annoys me.
b) Buttons are in the wrong places.
c) No number pad on the right
Then there’s the differences in Mac and Win keyboards. So Command = Ctrl? and Option = Alt?
Why can’t they be in the same place as their windows equivalent? After at least (estimate) 15 years my muscles and brain have been trained to do things a certain way and it will not be easy to change that. I did read somewhere of a way to swap Command and Option (not physically obviously). Nice way to confuse other Mac users…
The lack of a Delete key is awkward, but I’m sure pressing Fn won’t be too much of a task.
Mouse
The mac mouse has always bugged me. Only recently has it become in any way nice to look at, though to me it still isn’t as functional as it should be – so it can scroll sideways, that’s not really not necessary.
As Macs do have right click functionality, alone with most software, why can’t they stop being so obstinate and get two buttons on the mouse?
It isn’t going to be a problem for me anyway – I have my own [Microsoft] optical USB mouse which I will be using.
Next, the trackpad – no problems here at all. I’m aware of the recent improvements, with multi-touch which should be fun. Though wouldn’t it be interesting if it was slightly to the right for right-handed people…
CD/DVD drive
And finally.
Each time I have placed a disk into the Mac drive I have felt likeI’m scratching it as it goes in touching the sides along the way. And if something goes wrong? There’s no way out. No classic paper-clip option.
These are just a few of the obstacles that I will no doubt overcome quickly. Plenty of updates to come when it arrives.
I welcome any and all hits and tips!
