Jolyn have been kind enough to allow me to use our project earnings to procure a mac for further development. Well, I’m blogging on one now.

The mac is a wonderful piece of hardware that integrates design with performance. The one i got is a MacBook Pro 13″, one that is just updated a few weeks ago. I have been waiting to get this version so that i can have a go at developing Apps for iPhone and iPad. We consider this an investment.

Anyway, back to the mac.

The first look is impressive. It’s quite a piece of art, and the trackpad, although has me stumped for a moment, soon has me zipping along and scrolling, flipping windows and moving applications around. Its generous size is also a cool factor, although sometimes it’s not that responsive.

Keyboard is just nice, not squeezed together, and I can easily take to it in a few minutes.

Although impressive out of the box (the user experience is solid, as well as the sense of ownership), as a developer i have to go and find my own tools. A quick hunt revealed several web development tools available, little applications like CyberDuck, TextWrangler, and KeePassX. Online lists nudged me towards the commercial tools which has more capability and are more robust, but being a previous windows user, i do not feel the need to purchase software yet.

oh, i should warn potential buyers that the mac tends to get hot pretty fast. not sure why this is the case, but the time taken from the cool metal to become warm and possibly unbearably hot is pretty short, especially for a new computer.

Time to sleep. Let’s explore the iphone and ipad sdk sometime soon!

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