My shiny new MacBook Pro is sitting on my desk.
I called the Apple Store yesterday, not expecting any joy, and they told me that a few had trickled in, but were going fast. I jumped in the car and raced to the mall. 15 minutes later I jumped on the nearest Apple Store employee (and there are lots of them) and breathlessly demanded the computer. There was one left. Woo hoo!
Well, it’s up and running, and is stunningly faster than my 1.67GHz G4 PowerBook (soon to be Mrs AstroPlanner’s). This is going to make a big difference. My compile times have dropped from around 5 minutes to about 30 seconds. No longer will I lose track of what I was doing while the computer chugs away.
Now to transfer all my dreck from Machine A to Machine B, and install Windows XP.
Of course, there seem to be some issues with AstroPlanner on the new computer, but I suspect they will go away once I’ve transferred the whole enchilada across (which Apple makes surprisingly easy – connect a Firewire cable between the two and click a button).
Chris Todd | 23-Mar-08 at 4:22 pm | Permalink
Nice! I got a 15″ MBP a few weeks back (2.5 GHz, 4GB RAM), and I’m loving it. AP runs SOOOOO much more quickly than it did on my WinXP PIII 333MHz w/384MB RAM. 🙂
Now, as a “switcher”, I have a lot to learn (all the key bindings are different!), but it’s nice that AP feels the same.
I’m about to take it outside and use it at the telescope for the first time. I got the Keyspan USB->Serial adapter and will hook it up to my Intelliscope. I did a dry run in my basement a few days ago, and it worked pretty well.
admin | 23-Mar-08 at 4:32 pm | Permalink
@Chris
Since AstroPlanner V1.x is not Intel-native, it is emulated on the MBP using the incredible Rosetta emulator (completely invisible to the user). It runs on my 2.6GHz MBP about the same speed as on my 1.67GHz PowerBook G4. Not too shabby.
However, V2 _is_ Intel-native, and runs _much_ faster. Much faster. Oh, baby.
Almost ready to release the Mac V2 beta, which I might do before I start beating the Windows version into shape.