Another Bite at Apple

2011 MacBook Pro

Apple's "Magic Mouse"

My extreme displeasure with Apple's online store was followed by a further deepening of annoyance this morning.  Apparently, despite telling me that a new MacBook would be shipped to me upon my deliverance of the defective MacBook to FedEx, I was informed this morning that not only had my replacement MacBook not shipped... but it had yet to be configured and assembled.   This was the situation described by the online store, despite the fact that the store reps assured me during the set-up of the return that I'd have a replacement MacBook in time for SXSW Interactive and a business trip scheduled for the weekend.  [note: the Dell Lattitude E5400 pictured with the new MacBook cannot travel, as it's power inverter for the screen is blown and thus the display doesn't function; this part broke right after the 1 year warranty had expired]

I expressed my irritation to the folks at the online Apple store.  They decided to refund the purchase so that I could go and buy a new MacBook at the Barton Creek retail store (and, we'll see how easy getting the refund turns out to be).  This actually turns out to be a bonus for me, considering that Apple introduced it's 2011 line of MacBooks just two days after I received my defective unit (it had the i5 processor and a 320GB hard drive) Thus detached from my connection to the online store, I drove over to the Apple retail store in Barton Creek mall.  Unfortunately, the retail store does not stock a 15" MacBook Pro with the glossy, high res screen.  However, the new model of MacBook comes with an Intel i7 quad core processor standard, along with a 500GB hard drive and a fairly cool graphics chip.  I ended up paying less for the new MacBook than I had for the defective one.   While I kind of miss the high res screen, the screen on the new unit is still very nice.

I've had the new MacBook for an afternoon and I can already tell that it's a better machine than the one it replaced.   It is charging without any problems.  The WiFi is working well.  Also, the Apple "Magic Mouse" is working well and I'm taking as a sign that the Bluetooth is functioning better on this machine than the defective one.  On the defective MacBook, it was so slow that it was basically unusable (and this was unfortunately, as I couldn't find another mouse which connected directly into a laptop via Bluetooth, without the need for some kind of USB receiver).   It turns out that a functioning Magic Mouse is actually kind of cool, thus I'm glad its working with the new system.   

So, at a minimum I can say that a new 2011 MacBook Pro is better than a defective 2010 model.  It remains to be seen whether I take to Mac OS or default back to Windows 7 (which, having been a Windows user for about 16 years, I find fairly easy to operate).