The Daily Minutiae

To the armadas of college kids out there who flip open their MacBooks and MacBook Pros (Even you, you black MacBook owners.  Why you'd fork out an extra hundred or so dollars to get a black MacBook is beside me.), the new fleet of Apple laptops don't seem like anything special.

Let's start with aesthetics.  I think they look like crap.  Then again, I'm a purist, so take that bias into account.  I like the astronaut, 2001: Space Odyssey look of what I guess are the "old" MacBooks now.  Don't worry though, they've kept my "old" 13-inch whitey still around, I think a little bit cheaper.

Notice its black keys and black screen.  The video gave me a migraine just looking at the thing.  Though I will say, the video sells it very well.  Set to what should be The Greatest Hits of Britpop (Coldplay's "Life in Technicolor," and U2's "City of Blinding Lights" namely), three of Apple's higher up's in the design department talk about how making a computer as one unit is better and as always, throwing in how environmentally-friendly the new laptops are.  

Aside from the shoddy improvements in the regular MacBook, the ones in the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are just as marginal.  The only thing I saw at first glance was the new, ugly design for the 15-inch Pros, the old cool one for the 17-inch, and higher-end graphics cards.  

I don't even want to talk about Macbook Airs.  If you own one without stealing it, shame on you.  They either got a graphics card or improved the one that was in it.  Also, the hard drives are now bigger than those of most mp3's players.

Yes, yass, I know I'm being a Negative Nancy here; let's look at the positives.  I'm jealous Apple improved the touch pad.  Now you can apparently use a four-finger combo to toggle Exposé which is nifty.  Thats the only reason I want a Mighty Mouse right now.  The displays have improved too, now using glass and LED backlights.

The regular MacBook line has been upgraded, given an aluminum body, and the had price increased so now it's comparable to the "old" MacBook Pros.  The MacBook Pros have gotten a little better graphics card and the MacBook Airs are on the fast-track to being worth their price: graphics upgrade, improved, now-mediocre hard-drive space, same price.