Electron Hut: Kyle Bedell’s Blog

My search for a new laptop ended abruptly yesterday, as I took a trip to the local Apple Store in the Burlington Mall (about 15 minutes north of Waltham on Route 95/128). After having read about so much awesome Mac software like MarsEdit (which I’m using to write this post), Coda (really cool one-page web development software from Panic), and OmniGraffle (think Visio, but much easier to use), I decided to take the plunge. I realize that there’s a Centrino 2 revision on the horizon, but at the end of the day, I figured the best of the present-day was fine for my purposes. Yes, I purchased a 15-inch Macbook Pro.

The machine is pretty zippy, having the following specs:

• 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo “Peryn” with 3MB L2 cache
• 2GB DDR2-667 RAM
• 200GB 5400RPM hard drive
• 1440×900 LED-backlit screen (matte finish)
• 802.11a/b/g/n wireless and Gigabit ethernet
• GeForce 8600GT-M with 256MB of VRAM
• Slot-loading DVD+/-RW burner

The first thing I noticed about the Macbook Pro was its all-aluminum construction. I’ve never used a notebook whose body was completely made out of metal (Lenovo’s high-end ThinkPads with their magnesium frames come the closest). It’s extremely solid, although the metal does tend to heat up more quickly than the plastics on my old notebooks have. The screen is the real shocker; this is the first LED-backlit panel I’ve used, and it is downright awesome. Not only is the screen super-thin (for something real crazy, go take a look at the Macbook Air in person), the colors are rich and the contrast and brightness are worlds-above what my X61 tablet could manage. I’m really liking the feel of the keyboard keys. There’s no flex to the keyboard at all, and when it’s dark in the room you’re typing in, the keyboard backlight automatically turns on to help you see. The only real issue I’m having has to do with my transition from Windows - I keep pressing Control-C/V/X to copy, cut, and paste (it’s Command-C/V/X on the Mac).

The speakers are better than the mono one on my old ThinkPad, but (as you might expect from a notebook with no subwoofer), they’re lacking in the bass department. I haven’t tried plugging in my headphones yet to listen for any line noise. The slot-loading DVD drive is a nice touch as well, but it’s pretty noisy, and I feared that my discs were getting eaten judging by the noises I first heard. Apparently, after some research, I found that slot-loaders DO tend to cause more wear on your discs after awhile. We’ll see how everything goes.

OS X is very shiny; there’s a lot more gloss spread around than there was on XP (or even Vista). I can see how the general experience is geared towards “creativity.” It’s almost like OS X is pushing you to just jump in and start making something (Apple has bundled movie, audio, and image creation apps right into the OS). I’m going to start playing around with GarageBand, so expect to see some horrible loop-generated music hitting the blogs soon!

I suppose my only real complaint so far is how expensive the 3rd party software is. Parallels (the virtualization software) runs $80 per copy, and other awesome apps like Apple’s iWork suite and Panic’s Coda run $80 per copy as well. I’d like to get copies of all of these things, but $240 is a lot of money for software.

So far, I’m liking what I’m using! I’ll keep putting up any additional thoughts as they come into my head.

I just sold off my Lenovo X61 Tablet, and I’m in the market for a new notebook for home and school. The problem is that I’m torn. My inner gamer, having used only portable computers with crummy integrated graphics, is clamoring for something that could handle TF2 on the go. On the other hand, this thing is going to be moving all over the place, so I’d prefer something that didn’t have a 17 inch screen and weighed as much as a small elephant. I have something hovering around a $2000 budget, so I’m fairly flexible in what I could go with.

That being said, I basically have three options that I’ve narrowed myself down to.

The lightest (and also the most expensive) would be a new Sony Vaio Z-Series. It’s powerful, portable, and has discrete graphics that don’t completely stink. Not so sure about the very MacBook-like keyboard, but the quality certainly seems to be there.

The middle-of-the-road model (and likely the most inexpensive) would be a Lenovo IdeaPad U330. It’s not a slim or light as the Sony, but the keyboard is the rock-solid ThinkPad one (I love ThinkPad keyboards) and it’s pretty powerful. The only issue (apparently) is that the “mirror-like” screen can cause headaches.

And finally, the heaviest option (at 7 pounds) is a Clevo M860tu (aka Sager NP8660). The bang for the buck ratio here is simply incredible (this thing is basically better than my desktop, crammed into a laptop shell). The quality appears to be top-notch as well. Again, the only issue at the end of the day is the weight (really heavy).

In a perfect world, LG would sell their P300 in the United States, but (despite what they’ve said), that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon.

Thoughts?

I’ve gone through a number of headsets over the years, both the good and the bad. All have failed to withstand the test of time in one way or another (broken microphones, generally), so when I heard that Astro Studios (who designed the XBOX 360) was making a high-end gaming headset and amplifier, I had to take a look.

The A40 headset and the MixAmp came packaged seperately in some extremely nice boxes.

Together, the two boxes have just about every cable you’d ever need to hook the headset into a PC, XBOX 360, or PlayStation3.

The A40 headset has a number of nifty features. The boom microphone is detachable and can be mounted on either side of the headset. If you remove the plastic covers on the side, you’ll discover four small neodymium magnets hold the “speaker tags” on:

They block out some external sound and serve to protect the sides of the headset. Astro says that they’re working on a way for folks to order customized tags in the near future as well!

But what about the most important part of a headset? What about the audio and microphone quality? Well, in short, they are both incredible. The microphone is (hands down) the best I have ever used, and the audio quality is phenomenal (in line with Sennheiser HD-555s). With Dolby Headphone processing enabled, the headset sounds even better. Just remember to have your computer or console set to output Dolby Digital 5.1 to use it to maximum effect. As far as comfort goes, the A40s are a bit heavy, but they rest comfortably on your head. I’ve worn them for 4-5 hours straight before and experienced no discomfort.

The MixAmp is feature-packed as well. In addition to boasting a slew of input jacks (including TOSLINK optical, coaxial optical, and more standard red/white and stereo jacks)…

…it also allows mixing voice and game audio channels on XBOX 360 consoles. Perhaps the coolest feature is that the MixAmp supports Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding and will output said audio signal in Dolby Headphone for any connected headset. This works surprisingly well; even though the A40s are a standard two-speaker headset, their audio positioning is on par with true 5.1 headsets like the Medusa SpeedLink. You can also daisy-chain MixAmps together and establish a lag-free voice channel for all connected headsets. While this has limited practicality for a single user, I can see serious potential for this feature at LAN parties and tournaments where communication is vital to success. For energy, you can either power the MixAmp with a USB connection, 4 AA batteries, or an optional rechargable battery pack (available from Astro).

While they’re expensive at $249.99 for the kit (or $199 for the headset alone and $129 for the MixAmp alone), I think the Astro A40s are a solid buy. You definately get a premium product for the premium price! Highly recommended.