Andrew Grant

Although I use a MacBook & OSX there are several Windows programs that I can’t do without and thus have VMware Fusion running almost constantly. In the year or so that I’ve been using Fusion I’ve discovered a lot of things that can improve performance, some obvious and some not so.

This will be the post I wish I could have found when I began using Fusion

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If there’s one brand where I have complete loyalty it’s Microsoft Mice. I can’t remember the last time I used a non-MS mouse for my home or work machines.

For my new MacBook I’d planned to pick up a member of the notebook Microsoft Mouse family similar to the Wireless Optical Mouse 4000 which I use for Media Center tasks from the couch.

Then I realized that Bluetooth MacBook = Bluetooth Mouse = No USB Dongles! 

Looking around I found the Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000. It’s basically the classic Microsoft Notebook mouse but using Bluetooth instead of IR. It’s a little more costly (though not as costly as losing the dongle for a traditional wireless mouse) but at least comes with a nice little soft case that will prevent it from scratching my MacBook while in a bag.

Using the mouse the only difference I’ve noticed is that it takes a little bit longer to be detected when first switched on, a result of the Bluetooth negotiation. The drivers have the same System Preferences panel that allow you to bind the button to different roles (hint – change ‘Zoom’ to ‘Forward’) and same sensitivity options.

All in all a very nice little mouse.

So I have the new MacBook and after a week or so I’ve got to say love it.

It’s easily the best machine I’ve ever had and the specs are better than my old desktop system that’s now been consigned to the bin (or at least eBay).

For quite a while I was torn about whether to get the 2.4Ghz MacBook or the MacBook Pro. The cheapest Pro is about $400 more and with the base model you’re basically paying for a bigger and slightly better quality screen (1440×900 as opposed to 1280×800). In the end I figured that at home it’d mostly be plugged into an external display, and for portability the MacBook is a better choice (smaller, lighter, and marginally better battery life). This was definitely the right decision, the Pro is nice but I’m very happy with the more compact MacBook.

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Two of the things I dislike about Apple are their strong attempts to “upsell”, and their at-times blatant nickel and diming of customers.

Examples?

• The 802.11n firmware update that cost $3 for “accounting reasons”.
• The intentionally crippled calendar app on the original iPod Touch.
• The iPod Touch firmware updates. (Yes, $20 for five apps that took more time and effort to disable than to leave alone – “accounting reasons” again).
• The removal of boxed add-ins with later product revisions to increase margins – E.g. Apple Remote, The lack of a dock in the new iPhone, or how the iPod now comes with little more than a cable and a sticker.

One particularly close to home example is the new MacBooks. These are the first MacBooks with custom display ports that don’t come with an adapter – so after spending $2000 on a laptop you have to pay another $30 for a part that costs $2 to manufacture. Joy!

But I digress

After running Bootcamp setup and installing Vista 64-bit I pop in my OSX DVD to install the drivers for Vista 64-bit, only to see a message stating "Boot Camp x64 is unsupported on this computer".

Wha!?

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