Apple's redone MacBook is another winner

Apple MacBook white plastic equipment has been the most popular Macintosh sales to date. Therefore, it is hardly a surprise that Apple plans to keep right on the notebook being offered now for $ 100 less than $ 999.

However, the MacBook is the escalation in the situation. Last week, Apple unveiled two redesigned, including the $ 1599 model I'm testing. (The other gets $ 1299.)

The expense of buying extra loot you a bold new design of metal with a brilliant widescreen display with LED backlighting, buttonless wide trackpad Soup-up and Nvidia graphics for the players. You'll get the memory and storage, too. However, Apple and gives taketh away. The company removed the FireWire port that connects some camcorders and other devices. This is an agreement to break some of the people.

In many ways, these stylish computers resemble smaller screen versions, even more expensive cousin, the MacBook Pro. In fact, the MacBook Pro models are also produced from a single block of aluminum through a new manufacturing process called "unibody construction." Which makes them thinner, lighter and, according to Apple, more durable.

The MacBook I have no doubt that the test is robust. It is less than an inch thick and weighs 4.5 pounds, compared with 5 pounds of plastic to its predecessor. Apple is also trumpeting the machinery of the toxic material-free eco-friendliness.

However, Apple ticking exposures to users who rely on FireWire. Like many people, I still have a FireWire video camera, not to mention an external FireWire hard drive. Apple may want to drive customers the ability to FireWire MacBook Pro - models that start at $ 1999 - which are certainly better equipped for video editing.

The company also figures many of the friends who would do a lot of video editing latest camcorders own more than likely use USB instead of FireWire. Apple is not generous there, either: There are only two USB ports on the new MacBook.

You can still get FireWire in the entry-level MacBook plastic, but does not have the muscle for heavy-duty video editing.

I also wish Apple has included a memory card reader in their laptops. No.

Apple laptops tend to be more expensive than their Windows counterparts. But it is difficult to make a direct comparison. Windows Vista does not come close to measuring up to the rock solid Apple OS X Leopard operating system. Microsoft and its partners do not have a great answer Apple's iLife suite of digital media software, either, which is charged on all new Macs.

A closer look at the latest MacBook:

• Design. My test configuration has a bright, 13.3-inch screen, 2 gigabytes of RAM, 250 GB hard drive and a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, the same processor as in the less expensive MacBook Pro. As with other Mac laptop, has a built-in iSight camera, DVD recorder and a magnetic power connector that breaks out for sure if the same trip. The LED screen is bright, though I realized my thinking while watching a movie.

The most dramatic change - besides, perhaps, the metal box - is the new spacious trackpad, glass smooth. There are no buttons. Instead, this whole area is the "button". You can click anywhere on the pad, which may take a little getting used a. I tended to press the bottom of the trackpad, where the mouse buttons could have been otherwise. You can even "right click" by pressing on the bottom right of the trackpad area.

The wide trackpad also lets you use a series of "gestures". You can squeeze two fingers to zoom in or out of text or pictures, as in the iPhone. Or use three fingers in a swiping motion to navigate through photos. Not all the gestures feel natural. Rotating pictures with two fingers felt a little uncomfortable at first.

The backlit keyboard on my test model automatically turns in the dark, a feature not present in the cheapest MacBook. Typing on the keyboard felt good, but still prefer the keyboard of my old IBM ThinkPad.

• Graphics. Despite its popularity on college campuses, the MacBook age was never a player of the delicacy. NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics to help turn that around. I was pleased with the detail and fluid motion as I played Spore from Electronic Arts and Call of Duty 4 from Activision, Aspyr Media, and Infinity Ward.

• Battery. Apple claims up to five hours of battery life for the new MacBook, but the evidence does not factor in DVD playback. In my informal tests, I switched off energy-saving measures and simultaneously ran a DVD and Wi-Fi, something that would, for example, in an airplane. Even so, I have about 2 ½ hours before the battery gave way, enough to get through a movie. You can conveniently look at the indicator lights on the side of the machine to get a quick reading of the amount of battery power is left.

It is also easy to take off the case back to remove and replace the battery.

Apple has created a winner with the new MacBook. Unless you can not live without FireWire.