Eyeing the DarkSide - MacBook Pro

maddernc

Howdy All

Let start at the beginning, I am in the market for a laptop for photo work, mostly while travelling. The usual range of photo apps, PS, LR, C1 etc. Hence fairly high end specs are required for enjoyable use.
Given my desktop is PC and I have always had PCs it is my comfort zone, hence the thread title.
Currently my search has produced 2 contenders, a dell XPS 1210 or a 15" MacBook Pro. Here in Aus the fully spec'ed dell is a comparable price to the 2.16Ghz MacBook Pro. The larger macbook doesn't weigh that much more so its more just the physical size for travelling that maybe the issue.
Given my desktop needs replacing but funds dicatate only 1 large computer purchase this year, the laptop will be doing desktop duties for 6-9 months. That said my desktop replacement will be PC, i enjoy the ability to upgrade hardware easily. Given my current desktop is a P4 2.4, the extra grunt of the laptop will be noticeable step in the right direction.
Given i know next to nothing about Mac land I have some potentially stupid questions

1) My monitor calibration software/hardware is for PC. If I boot the MBP into XP, calibrate and generate profile, will the profile be usable by the Mac OS??

2) I have managed to do enough research to confuse myself about this Universal Binary term. Does it mean that a Universal Binary version will work on either PC or Intel Mac, ala LightRoom??
So if i get CS3 I can use it on both the MBP and the PC desktop.

I don't want a religious debate about PC vs Mac!! With the advent of the Intel Mac the differences are neglible, its just the personal preference of OS.

Regards

Cain

DavidTO

1) No. But the manufacturer may have a Mac driver?

2) Universal Binary means it will run on a PowerPC or Intel chip. It means, in effect, that it will run natively on the Intel chip you will be getting. 99.999% of the "other" (non-Universal Binary) apps will run under emulation (called Rosetta) on your Intel chip, and suffer some minor speed issues. CS2 is NOT Universal Binary, and runs under Rosetta. CS3 IS Universal Binary, and runs natively on the Intel chip.

maddernc

Thanks for zippy reply David.

1) Hmm, I have a Colorvision Spyder2 so I will have to check out their site.

2) Ok but will the one UB version work on the PC as well as the MBP? activation and licensing aside.

Regards

Cain

DavidTO

maddernc wrote:

Thanks for zippy reply David.

1) Hmm, I have a Colorvision Spyder2 so I will have to check out their site.

2) Ok but will the one UB version work on the PC as well as the MBP? activation and licensing aside.

Regards

Cain

2) No. Either way it's Mac software. You can run PC software on an Intel Mac, but you can't run Mac software on a PC.

Mike Lane

maddernc wrote:

2) Ok but will the one UB version work on the PC as well as the MBP? activation and licensing aside.

No. It simply means that the software is optimized to run on the powerPC and Intel processors on the Mac. It has nothing to do with PC's at all.

cabbey

maddernc wrote:

1) Hmm, I have a Colorvision Spyder2 so I will have to check out their site.

It should work just fine. See Apple's color management site.

DavidTO wrote:

You can run PC software on an Intel Mac

Just to prevent confusion: this requires additional software, you can't just install a windows (aka PC) version of some application under OS/X and have it work.

colourbox

maddernc wrote:

1) My monitor calibration software/hardware is for PC. If I boot the MBP into XP, calibrate and generate profile, will the profile be usable by the Mac OS??

ICC color management standards are cross-platform. You should be able to take profiles across platforms. I've heard you may have to give the profile and .icc filename extension on the Mac vs. an .icm extension on Windows, but it should be the same file.

maddernc

colourbox wrote:

ICC color management standards are cross-platform. You should be able to take profiles across platforms. I've heard you may have to give the profile and .icc filename extension on the Mac vs. an .icm extension on Windows, but it should be the same file.

Thats what I would have thought!

maddernc

cabbey wrote:

It should work just fine. See Apple's color management site.


Just to prevent confusion: this requires additional software, you can't just install a windows (aka PC) version of some application under OS/X and have it work.

I figure you are talkingabout BootCamp or Parallels.
Its not so much getting PC apps to run on OS X, though that would be handy!.
It was more the wishfull thinking of buying one version and being able to install it on both.

quark

I have owned both a dell laptop (D600) and mac powerbook in the last year and I would encourage you to go for the mac. Operating system aside the hardware is really nice and particularly well tuned for the laptop environment and size requirements. I also find that with the mac I miss my mouse alot less than with normal laptops because of the integrated scrolling and the fact that I don't need a second mouse button (ctrl-click).

Assuming you can work around your software issues they really are nice machines.

maddernc

quark wrote:

I have owned both a dell laptop (D600) and mac powerbook in the last year and I would encourage you to go for the mac. Operating system aside the hardware is really nice and particularly well tuned for the laptop environment and size requirements. I also find that with the mac I miss my mouse alot less than with normal laptops because of the integrated scrolling and the fact that I don't need a second mouse button (ctrl-click).

Assuming you can work around your software issues they really are nice machines.

Yeah i am leaning towards the mac, its thinner than dell, only weighs around 400g more yet is a 15". Not too mention it just looks a lot more stylish. I had a play with one at an apple store the other day.
I must admit i am not convinced about this one button mouse thing, i scream when i have to use a mouse without a scroll wheel these days!. Mind you you can get nice logtitech mice to work with Macs apparently

DavidTO

maddernc wrote:

Yeah i am leaning towards the mac, its thinner than dell, only weighs around 400g more yet is a 15". Not too mention it just looks a lot more stylish. I had a play with one at an apple store the other day.
I must admit i am not convinced about this one button mouse thing, i scream when i have to use a mouse without a scroll wheel these days!. Mind you you can get nice logtitech mice to work with Macs apparently

The Mighty Mouse is, in effect, a multi-button mouse, that can also be configured as a single button mouse. And yes, any USB mouse works with the Mac, AFAIK.

maddernc

Hmm, i will have a look at this mighty mouse in store. From the specs it sounds good but quite a few people are complaining about the right click not working properly and the scroll ball thingee gunks up quickly.

On the colour calibration side of things i got the following back from Colorvision:

You can run the Windows version of Spyder software under Boot Camp, and build a profile that will work on the MBP running as a Windows PC; this will all work; but I don't know if that profile will do exactly the right thing if you copy it over to OSX and use it there as well.

But:

You can download the OSX version of Spyder software from the ColorVision web site and run that directly in OSX, and calibrate your screen directly that way. The same serial number that you're using to initialize the Windows version of Spyder software should also work with the OSX version.

This is cool, so thats one hurdle down

colourbox

maddernc wrote:

Hmm, i will have a look at this mighty mouse in store. From the specs it sounds good but quite a few people are complaining...The same serial number that you're using to initialize the Windows version of Spyder software should also work with the OSX version.

Both are true. I love Macs, but I do not like the Mighty Mouse. It has a fake right-click where you won't get a right-click unless your left finger is not touching. Subtle but deadly. Half the time, the right-click doesn't "take" unless I make sure my right finger is near the right edge of the mouse. And the ball does gunk up. The only reason I have one is it came with my Mac Pro; I threw the Mighty Mouse in my backpack for laptop use. Get your favorite USB mouse of any brand and plug that in instead. Also, on Mac laptops, if you don't have a mouse connected, you can emulate right-click by Ctrl-clicking or turning on an option so that clicking with two fingers on the trackpad brings up right click.

What you describe with the calibrators is what I've done with both my old ColorVision and my current Eye-One. Download the software to Mac and PC. Move the hardware between both machines to make profiles.

DavidTO

I know I'm in the minority, but I really like the Mighty Mouse. One of the main things I like it for is horizontal scrolling, which comes in really handy for editing. I don't use the side buttons at all.

Yeah, the ball gets gunked up sometimes. Nothing that unplugging and rubbing on my pants leg doesn't fix. But yeah, PITA.

cabbey

DavidTO wrote:

Yeah, the ball gets gunked up sometimes. Nothing that unplugging and rubbing on my pants leg doesn't fix. But yeah, PITA.

Is *that* how to fix it?! I've been trying to figure out how to get that thing working again on my wife's mighty mouse for ages!

/me goes and tries it...



I don't even wanna know what made you think to try that approach.

DavidTO

cabbey wrote:

Is *that* how to fix it?! I've been trying to figure out how to get that thing working again on my wife's mighty mouse for ages!

/me goes and tries it...



I don't even wanna know what made you think to try that approach.

There's a more complicated method which includes feeding a strip of celophane tape through the ball socket. But I find a good smack on my thigh and a couple of good swipes on my jeans does just fine. Relieves some of the tension associated with the ball being annoying, too.

maddernc

, i think I might just go with a normal pc style laser mouse, no dramas that way. Though the ball on the mighty mouse does sound like an interesting idea.

wxwax

You can't unscrew the rim around the ball and drop it out for a complete cleaning?

DavidTO

maddernc wrote:

, i think I might just go with a normal pc style laser mouse, no dramas that way. Though the ball on the mighty mouse does sound like an interesting idea.

Yeah, I can't really defend the thing and tell you that you have to get one. I just happen to like it.

cabbey

wxwax wrote:

You can't unscrew the rim around the ball and drop it out for a complete cleaning?

This isn't that kind of ball. The mouse part is purely optical. This is a tiny, about 4mm exposed, ball in place of a scroll wheel top/center of the mouse. What's so utterly cool about it is that it's a 2D scroller... you can scroll side to side with it too.

colourbox

wxwax wrote:

You can't unscrew the rim around the ball and drop it out for a complete cleaning?

It's more like this.

The 2D scrolling is quite brilliant. It's unfortunate that it's dragged down by the long list of other shortcomings of that mouse...

DavidTO

Here's the tape cleaning method I was talking about.