I will miss the pure white shine of my first laptop

 

As a new chapter begin to reign, another says good night…and good luck. My trusty white MacBook has lasted a good 18 months, ever since I put down my whole paycheck on the Apple online store and thought I would never see this day.

The journey has been one hell of a ride. From the “it just works” ringing true and to the elation felt during the “unpacking” experience, I have become a true fanboy. Impressed with Tiger’s operating system, I did find the 1GB of RAM limiting. I subsequently doubled the capacity a week later, and then was truly satisfied. I was amazed that for such a slim laptop, it could handle all the functions and processes like the Windows desktop I’ve been using for the past decade. It was sublime. Everything I’d wanted in a computer. 

And it was a Mac.

 

“Why are you selling it?” pipped my mum.

“Because it is too heavy to carry around” I replied.

She nodded in agreement. She has had the privileged of carrying it once or twice.

“But what’s wrong with it?” she quizzed.

“Nothing.”

 

After another pause, I told her that I will be replacing it with the MacBook Air.

 

“Oh, that slim one?“

I was floored. My dear mother, who doesn’t even own a mobile phone knew which laptop I was planning on purchasing.

And that is the marketing power of Apple.

Even for those who claim to be computer illiterate, Apple sure has pulling power. Even when I did bring my MacBook into work to show my latest vacation shots, the gravitational pull towards such a beautifully designed, white laptop is astounding. 

But the time has come when in the technological world, and the electronic design of “planned senescence,” 18 months for a computing device is bordering on obsolete. Already the MacBooks have been revised – with a better LCD screen, bigger internal HDD and bumped processing speed. It was already making my MacBook look like the older sister.

But what made my MacBook look like the older, uglier sister, was the gorgeous MacBook Air.

 

 

 

The aluminium casing of Apple's slim beauty

 

The moment Steve Jobs announced it at WMC 08 in San Francisco – undoing the red string of a standard yellow office envelope and pulling out the thinnest MacBook, I just HAD to have one. But I could not justify the high cost and a second laptop. Even though it was marketed as a secondary computer, two MacBooks for an individual is ludicrous. Not even I could justify it.

But I have. Ultraportability without sacrificing the screen or keyboard size was realised in this sleek new device. Sure it didn’t contain an optical drive. I rarely used mine on the MacBook. Sure it only had 80GB of HDD. I would just have to purchase an additional external HDD and wirelessly sync my media and content. Sure that would mean forking out more money to bring the MacBook Air up to my standards of usage, but it was worth it.

The other features including an ambient light sensor, backlit keyboard, free Leopard OS X installed and it’s ultraportability design and stunning form factor was definitely a winner for me. So I now bid my MacBook good night. You have served me well. I cried as I selected the “Erase + Install” option last night. It is the final chapter.

It will go to a good home. And I will miss it’s white casing. It might be the last, as Apple plan to upgrade it’s MacBook and MacBook Pro lines very soon. They all might be turning aluminium. They all might be black. Who knows? At least I can see myself upgrading to another MacBook Air in 18 months time. So time will tell.

 

 

The changing of the guard

 

The thin factor difference is astounding