The problem with high res screens!

Is that OSes don't support changing the font size well enough.

I was reminded of this problem today when one of Jason Snell tweets rumbled across my desktop.

Ever since purchasing a Mac Book Pro (Check out my lame unboxing if you're interested) I've had the same issue that @jsnell has, basically I am resizing apps all over the place. And the only application that really supports resizing well is the web browser, for the most part web pages etc respond brilliantly to resizing the text and with the exception of the occasional site that doesn't handle it so well (such as realestateview.com.au) it works pretty well.

The main reason for this is the ease of resizing, on Windows its as easy as holding control and scrolling and on the Macbook its even easier, just pinch on the trackpad using that awesomely intuitive two finger action that the iPhone gave to the world.

But other apps? Forget about it. Sure in Word you can resize with the zoom feature and that makes the document better, but what if you want to temporarily resize the menus etc?

What about other apps? Using a Air Twitter app? Better hope that the developers have put in a good text resize method.

Really there should be a good OS solution to this. You should be able to temporarily zoom, what if you want to sit back in your chair while surfing? Sure you can change the screen resolution, but that doesn't work that well on LCDs. And besides it should be as easy as selecting the desktop and pinching or scrolling away to adjust the size.

I feel better now that I have that off my chest.

Unboxing my new Mac Book Pro :D

I'm not going to post a whole heap of pictures there are plenty of other unboxings out there on the interwebz for you all to find. I just wanted to point out a few things that I thought where cool with my shiney new Apple MacBook Pro. Firstly, I'll just say,

"Wow"

This thing looks awesome, the screen is bigger than I thought it would be and I'm glad I got the high-res antiglare version the clarity is great and I can fit a whole lot of stuff on the stuff on the screen at once. Which for me is great as I work with dual 24 inch screens at work and always struggle when I have to go back to less screens. (I've been afflicted like this for a while, ever since I found an old PCI video card back in the day and had a 17 in Trinitron and an 'awesome' 14 in fish bowl CRT hooked up at home, going back to one screen even with more res just doesn't seem as good. Although the new shortcuts in Windows 7/Server 2008 are awesome (half screen etc)). Also, I'm loving the back lit keyboard, it looks schmick, although it must be said there seems to be enough room to put in a number pad. Not that you really need one and its probably better than squeezing it in like they do on some other laptops and sacrificing key size or usability.

I've always admired Apples sense of design (although as we can see it has apparently affected the reception on the iPhone 4, you can read my take on that here) but still, they pursue form and usability to an almost insane degree, both in their hardware and their software. They even put a lot of effort into their packaging, in the past they have won design awards for this.

Again, I'm impressed by their package design, first when you open the case you notice a large piece of foam stuck to the top of the box that protects the top of the laptop and holds it in place in the box, the second, which I admit is a total wank is the little popup tab that says "Designed by Apple in California".

It is a wank, but it makes sure that you all know who designed this beast and where, also it serves as a tab to allow the easy removal of the computer from the plastic that is holding it in.

A few things will obviously take some getting used to, the one mouse button thing and getting back into the feel of Expose and the dock, its been a while since I used OS X. On another note this could be my last update for a while as I am off to New York for a friends wedding and a two week holiday. While I'm there I think the first purchase on my list will be a case, something like this one.

Which still allows full access to everything but'll prevent me from denting the case, especially behind the screen. Thankfully I'll have some cash back after gertting my GST refund from the friendly folks at Australian customs (there is more info on that in an earlier post)

MacBook vs MacBookPro?

Uh oh, if you saw my earlier post "Should I buy in Australia or in the USA?" you would know I was all set on purchasing a Mac Book Pro, now with the new line of Mac Books, I'm thinking I'd be better off getting one of them and chucking a bit more memory into it.

So the question is whether the extra stuff you get with a Mac Book Pro is really worth it. Here is what you get.

1. Display: SAME
2. Processor: SAME
3. Graphics: SAME
4. Memory: 2Gb Standard versus 4Gb. Would cost $140 to upgrade to 4Gb.
5. Battery: SAME
6. Hard Drive: SAME
7. Optical Drive: SAME
8. Ports: Two USB ports versus Two USB ports and a Firewire Port and an SD slot
9. Wireless: SAME
10. Ethernet: SAME
11. Keyboard: Normal keyboard versus back lit keyboard.
12. Case: Polycarbonate versus Aluminium
13. Size: Slightly larger versus slightly smaller.
14. Weight: 90g. Slightly heavier (2.13kg) versus slightly lighter (2.04kg).
15. Price: $1249 ($1389) versus $1499

So basically are those differences worth the extra $110?

I'm not sure. I'm not going to be carrying it around too much (couch surfing FTW!) so weight probably isn't a big factor. Back lit keyboard is kind of cool (especially for the aforementioned couch surfing!). Who uses Firewire? Not me.

Does anyone know the differences in case longevity?

Does the Aluminum case cool better?

Should I buy in Australia or in the USA?

So I'm looking to get a new laptop and well having been an early Mac user (Mac Classic FTW!) and slightly more recently an iBook (circa 2001 G3) and also deciding that I'd like to try my hand at maybe developing an iPhone App or two I've pretty much decided that it'll be a 13in Mac Book Pro. I don't need anything fancier than the base model so that should do it. Another important factor is that I now have sufficient funds to get back into the Apple world. It still feels odd that I have money after being a money scrounging, penny pinching student for so many years.Whatever you think about Apple the word cheap usually doesn't immediately to mind.

Anyway, as I am heading the states in July I could purchase it over there. So I'm going to compare buying it over there to buying it over here and all the extra savings I can squeeze out of it. Because despite having more funds I still like to use them as little as possible.


So, to start with lets just compare basic prices. I can get it from the Apple Store in the States for US$1199 and I can get it in the Australian Apple Store for AUD$1499. So converting both to AUD (using todays conversion rate of 0.87281 from Oanda I get

US Apple Store AUD$1,373.23 versus AUD$1,499 from the Australian store.

So, looks like a no brainer at the moment, but the US price does not include sales tax, so lets check where I am going.

Sales tax in New York City is

City sales tax rate is 4.5 percent (in addition to the New York State sales and use tax of 4 percent and the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge of 0.375%), for a total Sales and Use tax of 8.875 percent.

So that'd make it New York City Apple Store = 1,373.23*1.08875 which is AUD$1495.10, suddenly it doesn't look so good there.

Now, sales tax in Washington, DC is 5.75% so in DC we get 1,373.23*1.0575 which is AUD$1452.19. Hmm still not that much better.

What about in Boston? Sales tax is 6.25% so we get AUD$1459.06

Lets dig a little deeper. Here in Australia I can get an Educational Discount which knocks $100 off the price and brings it down to AUD$1,399 which already looks better than the US prices.

Also, in Australia if you're about to travel overseas and you purchase something you can get the GST back via the Tourist Refund Scheme the catch is that you have to take the goods with you to present at the Airport to get the refund. There are other requirements, which you can see on the website linked but they are all met by this purchase anyway. So if you're eligible you can get a refund as follows.

The GST refund is calculated by dividing the total amount of the purchase by 11.

So, if I get the laptop for AUD$1399 and take it in my carry on luggage with me on the trip then I'll get 1399/11 = AUD$127.18 cash back. Which would bring the grand total for purchasing the laptop here in Oz to 1399- 127.18 = 1271.82.

So basically we get

US Purchase = AUD$1452.19

versus

Australian purchase = AUD$1271.82

I know where I'll be getting it.