MacBook Pro

Dell 2408WFP

You can evidently see that the Dell shows a purple instead of a blue. Very disappointed was I to think that a screen on which I just dropped some hard earned, can’t even display “BLUE”!

and then…

I just thought I would open it up the images in Firefox – just to check…. and voila

Unfortunately after a few more tests like the above – it seems across OSX is the same thing – ie. Finder when displaying the above photos – merely shows it in shades of purple as well.Now the only reason I even came across the fact that it could be an application specific error – is when I look at the photo in Lightroom 1.4, depending on which screen I have the image on – it changes the colours to suit the screen. So my question is – if Lightroom can do it – why can’t OSX?

Update

After re-calibrating both monitors with the Gretag Macbeth i1 Display 2, I have composed some windows together to show the difference between different applications and their adherence to the needed colour management.

The applications I used for this test, and in this specific order are:

1. Safari3.1 (5525.13)
2. Lightroom 1.4
3. Firefox 3.0b4
4. Preview 4.1 (469.2.1)
5. Photoshop CS3

Dell 2408WFP

The peculiar thing about the Dell, is that Lightroom actually showed a very strong purple instead of blue, and then after about a minute – without me physically interacting with the computer – it simply changed to the correct colour. Which is depicted in the shot above.

MacBook Pro

Analysis

It seems that in the initial shot with the 2408WFP, Safari obviously does the worst, showing a blatantly purple where there should be blue. Other applications vary slightly in the shades of blue, but otherwise display a fairly closely matched colour.

When it comes to the MBP to display the same set of images, Safari, Lightroom, and Photoshop – all display a shade of purple instead of blue.

The annoying part is that whilst writing this – if leaving the  specific application on either screen – it adopts the correct colour profile, and displays the correct colour.

As such – I have no choice but to personally conclude that it seems that OSX isn’t informing the application that it has been moved to another screen in a timely manner.

There have been reports that the Dell uses a new backlighting system that the i1 is finding difficult to actually meter, yet to me it seems there’s more software problems at play here under the bonnet of OS more than anything else.

Late last week I purchased the MBP from Apple’s Online store. Thinking about the resale value, I decided to spec up the bottom model. I added:

• Glossy Screen
• 250GB HDD

Picking against matte was a hard decision, and only decided to go with it due to the everyone I’ve spoken to, for some “darker blacks” reason preferring glossy screens – so I thought I’d go with it for resale value sake.

Unfortunately upon the much anticipated and late arrival of the MBP, thank you TNT – I discovered that not only where the hard drive was replaced was the seam in widened between the aluminum and the gray bezel. To add to the exceptionally poor quality control, when the laptop is closed, the lid remains ‘UNEVENLY‘ elevated from the base, and thus producing a very ugly gap.

As much as I enjoy using OS X, and Apple products in general, I am far from impressed about the build quality of their laptops. Apple should spend more time on testing the usability of their products, as sometimes it seems form takes over function.

Will this be the iPod in the realm of laptops or the Newton of PDA’s?

First lets have a look at the specs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor – 1.6/1.8GHz
• 2GB memory [soldered in]
• 80GB 4200-rpm PATA hard drive / 64GB solid-state hard drive
• Built-in 802.11abg +n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

This will have the grunt required to complete your word processing, email and perhaps even some Lightroom/Aperture + Photoshop thrown in. Although the people that would actually be purchasing a device such as this for the given price-tag are the early adopters with a thicker wallet, or the high-flyer’s for whom mobile is uber-important.

In the once again tastefully designed guided tour on Apples site, ‘John’ in his skivie runs us through the features of the Air. He mentions that Air is “optimized for the wireless world – only the way apple can do”. Well I’ll be damned – then if my guess is correct and their market is the high-end travelers who will use the backlit keyboard – where is the mobile broadband? Understandably – you can plug in a modem via USB – but Apple is all about one integrated package that simply ‘works’.

Another critique from the demo – one can see the various way in which the trackpad can be utilized. Personally I was expecting the same feedback as when playing on the iPhone/iPod touch. Unfortunately it seems that it isn’t as well implemented. The changes between states seem to be jerky and very coarse in intervals, this is especially evident with not only the font changes which you’d think would be gradual, but also the photo rotation (although this could be merely a limitation of the applications demoed ie. iPhoto). Now for one of the better implemented features is the Remote Disk. First I’ll say that even though the ability to remotely map and mount a drive has long been available – in Windows and *nix worlds – although Apple as they’ve shown with their phone implementation, can introduce a different way of using the technology and make it that much easier to interact with.

Where is the dock? Surely they would be aware of the fact that people with ultraportables tend to have a ‘base’ to which they come back. This will not be all extendible from a mere USB port. Have to do better than that on the connectivity front.

How will it fair vs. its competition – the Sony T series and the Toshiba Portege? Only time depth of wallets will tell.

The Sony weighs in at 1.2kg, whilst the Portege being a mere 780 grams. On paper – both have a higher set of credentials for features, and both come with a pedigree of at least 5 models.

Judging by Asus’s Apple’s rocky history with laptop manufacturing, it will be interesting to see how many people when needing a replacement flap – will require a complete laptop switch, due to the integration of the components. Due to the lack of quality control within Apple, is the only reason I’m writing this on a T60, and not a MacBook Pro.