So I am still trying to get my brain around all the idiosyncrasies of the Mac world. This weekend’s project is to upgrade to Leopard and install Boot Camp. Yup there are enough things that Mac cannot do that I need so I am putting on Windows XP Pro.
However the thing that really cracks me up is trying to figure out a way to make it easier to use the MacBook Pro as a desktop machine. The idea being that I want to have the portable MacBook for when I travel but when I am home I would like to have a full keyboard (10-keypad for example), a bigger screen, wired LAN connection, mouse, iPod… etc. however to do all this I have to hook up everything manually. Seems small, but it just is a hassle to connect the following:
- Power Supply
- Ethernet Cable – turn off wireless also
- Plug in USB hub that connects the following:
- Keyboard
- Mouse
- Compact Flash Reader
- Printer
- Plug iPod in (it does not work on the hub)
- Connect Video
However my Gateway laptop that this MacBook Pro replaced has a dock that has all of this hooked up, and even came with a second power supply. So when I used to bring the Gateway laptop home, I would click it into the dock, all the things were connected, the Wireless connection even turned off when it was docked.
So I went to the Apple store and asked if they had a solution. Their answer was that there were third party solutions available but that it was not something that they were concerned about. Perhaps look at Mac Mini and network stuff for data consistency.
The end result of this experience is that it appears that Apple has not thought about the complete use experience and how a laptop is not only for portable use but is often a portable workstation that when at “home” is just a CPU.
