Maccing

At some point recently I came to the conclusion that I should at least try to get into iOS development. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, and it's not the point.

This is my @i bought a mac@ post. That's sophisticated British geek humour. Get it!

I can absolutely see how these things get people, and I think they'll probably get me too. In the Leicester Apple Store, seconds after learning that i'd have to order my MacBook Pro online to get the screen I wanted I found myself marvelling at iMac screens, wondering had I ever seen a screen that crisp before. The screen on the MBP is nothing like it of course, but it's still great.

OS X takes some getting used to but I do notice that after only a few days I know pretty well what I need to do to accomplish most tasks. That said, I don't have any trouble with any other OS as a technically proficient type, so there's nothing particularly impressive about that.

What I like is very much what I like about the phone. It's polished. The trackpad is the best i've used, which is saying something given it's actually quite hard to physically click anywhere near the top. I've actually turned on the tap to click option which "everyone else" seems not to like. I don't feel much need for a tactile click. I also never agree that multi-touch is a fad. It's an absolute joy to use compared to finding that thin scroll strip on my Dell. The only trackpad functionality I miss is being able to click both buttons at once to open a link in a new tab, but there are plenty of alternatives to that.

The keyboard shortcuts are going to take forever to get used to. That's more to do with the MBP having a cut down keyboard on which some keys heavily involved in shortcuts i'd use are hidden behind other keys and require the fn key. The equivalent of Alt-Home in Windows browsers is Cmd-Home in most OS X browsers, but on an MBP that's Cmd-fn-left arrow. As I said, takes some getting used to. I can already tell i'll eventually fly on this keyboard though, which is something to be thankful for after recent disappointments with an ergonomic MS keyboard that I assumed i'd take to and haven't

There's not much else to say as i've had so little chance to play yet. I could certainly see ending up with a house full of Macs eventually.

I do also realise that today there are rumours of an MBP refresh which means i've probably made a rookie mistake (my iPhone 3Gs was bought the day after it launched, so I ain't dumb), but I did as much searching as I could 2 weeks ago and got the impression it could be any time between now or in 6 months. That would have been too long to wait, so I have no regrets. Nothing's confirmed yet, and it's my first foray into i5 anyway, so it should last me well. I might be slightly annoyed if these things gain an HDMI port next refresh, which looks somewhat likely, but i'm assuming the £13 dongle that should hit my mailbox within the next few days will do the job just as well.

Does it just work? Yeah, it does, but so do Windows 7 PCs. That's no longer really much of a unique selling point. I can't see becoming a Windows hater as a result of this new transition, but time will tell. Talk to me in 3 months.