I was in London (UK) this afternoon for a meeting and had some spare time, so I decided to pop in to the Apple iPod Store near Oxford Circus. The last time I visited the store (around Christmas time?), and boy does it seem to have changed….

On my last visit it was pretty much the same as the previous 2 visits, i.e. it was a store selling Apple Mac computers and iPods. I would now guess that around 50% (possibly more) of the floor space is dedicated to the ubiquitous iPod. They had everything you would ever need for an iPod, plus some things I didn’t even know were made for an iPod. Walls and walls and walls of accessories.

There were three or four Apple TVs (hooked up to Sony screens), a lot of MacBooks (I didn’t see many MacBook Pros), a few mac Minis and I can only recall seeing a couple of Mac Desktops. I was really surprised at the lack of desktops, I know the line is getting a ‘bit-long-in-the-tooth’ now, but there lack of on-floor presence was noticeable. This has got me thinking – and so I reached for my ‘Apple Rumour’ sheet… (see earlier post)… Is this a sign that the desktop line is due to be refreshed very soon?

One other thing I noted was there were still a lot of boxed copies of OS X 10.4 on the shelves…. read in to that what you want..

In an earlier post (read post) I complained that the new MacBook was sluggish and the machine seemed to suffer from the ‘spinning pizza of death’.

Yesterday I bought 1 GB RAM module and today I upgraded the machine.

Adding the new RAM was easy:

1. Shutdown the machine.
2. Remove the battery.
3. Undo the three screws that hold in an L-shaped plate at the back of the battery compartment (these screws can’t fall out!).
4. Remove the L-shaped plate two reveal the two memory slots.
5. Use the lever above one of the memory slots to eject a memory module.
6. Push in new memory module, replace the L-shaped plate. Insert the battery.

Two minor annoying things. First, the machine was configured with 512 MB RAM as two 256 MB chips. This means that I now have a ‘spare’ 256 MB of RAM. Second, the new memory module had to be really pushed in. The first attempt was not enough. I got the machine back together and it wouldn’t start (only 256 MB RAM recoginsed). The best way to check is to make sure the new module is flush with the factory installed RAM.

The question is, why does Apple sell a machine that is effectively crippled? With only 512 MB of RAM onboard the MacBook was slow, clunky and prone to the ‘pizza’. With 1.25 GB RAM it is fast and a pleasure to use.

My new MacBook Pro has arrived. This is good news as it means final tests of MMISoftware programs can be completed.

The new MacBook Pro is very nice. There is a very noticeable difference in speed between Universal (intel) and PowerPC apps.

The machine is very nice. Good solid feel. Built in iSight is not as good as the real thing, i.e. a ‘real’ iSight camera. The ‘magnetic’ power cord has pluses and minuses…. It would be great if I caught the lead with my leg, however, I have managed to disconnect it a couple of times just by picking the machine up and moving it. Maybe this is a good thing and just shows I was putting the old style connectors under strain.

Set up was dead easy. Started the machine and used the migrate option… Three hours later (more like just over 2 hours) my old home folder had been copied over.

One thing I have noticed is that it seems to run much hotter than my ‘old’ PowerBook G4. I certainly wouldn’t be able to use the machine for extended periods on my lap in a hot climate. In fact it is quite ‘toasty’… Nice on those cold winter nights!

Most ‘non-binary’ apps seem to run OK. As fast as on my G4, possibly a bit faster.

Right, back to making MMISoftware programs in to universals….

Just ordered one of the new MacBook Pros over at the AppleStore.

Looks like the laptop will be delivered some time in February. Should be interesting.

The MacBook Pro looks like a great machine and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

With the built in iSight and the faster Intel chip it should be a great development machine.