A while ago a colleague of mine got me interested in the Apple Macintosh range of computers. iStore opened at Gateway and Michelle and I often found ourselves wandering in there an playing with the various iMac and MacBook computers they have standing around. I followed the release of Leopard closely and in December my parents gave me and Michelle the opportunity to purchase new notebooks. We decided to go with the entry level MacBook, and neither of us has been disappointed since. Every aspect of these little powerhouses continue to amaze us, to a point were we both use them on daily basis, and carried wherever we go.

The MacBook comes standard with a Dual Core Intel 2.0Ghz processor, 1GB of DDR 2 Memory, 80GB HDD and a Super Drive. The first thing you notice when taking it out of the box is how light the 13.3" MacBook really is, and small enough to fit in small carry bag, rather then the bulky notebook bags a lot of us have to carry around. The power supply connects to the MacBook using a Magnet, effectively ensuring that no one can ever rip the notebook off a table by tripping over the power supply, and this has proven to work on one or two occasions while visiting my parents in Johannesburg. The second interesting item on the MacBook is the small button located on the battery, which when pressed lights up a set of led's displaying the amount of battery power left. Handy indeed, since there is no need to start up the MacBook to check for battery life when in a hurry. The last item to draw attention is the small remote control that comes with the MacBook. The remote control works in conjunction with FrontRow and allows you to complete control all aspects of Media Playing, including Music and DVD playing, while sitting in your favourite lounge chair. During a recent power failure this proved to be a handy tool when wanting to watch DVD's in bed.

The MacBook starts up in under a minute, irrelevant of what you have loading at start-up. Coming from a PC background this was a bit of shocker, and the concept of shutdown does not exist, and even hibernation can compete with the speed at which the MacBook sleeps or wake's up. Close the lid, wait 2 seconds and the front led starts throbbing, and the distinctive Apple logo goes does as the LCD shuts off. Open the lid and by the time it's open the MacBook is ready for work. Leopard is preloaded along with iLife 08, and a 30 Day trail of iWork 08. iLife provides powerful applications like iDVD, iMovie and GarageBand, which I will discuss is more detail in the next few weeks. Each one of them has proven to be powerful Multimedia editing tools. iWork consists of Pages, Numbers and Keynote, Apple's equivalent to Office, and extremely powerful programs as well, including support for the new office formats. The amount of application in Leopard needs a whole new post, however the built in iSight camera is absolutely brilliant, and a Skype conversation with Michelle's brother in Newcastle showed that it has everything it needs to be a brilliant voice over IP device among everything else it can do.

Configuring anything on the Mac takes no more then 2 minutes, with the biggest headache being incorrect settings on my Exchange Server, which once resolved allowed mail to easily connect and retrieve my mail using the built in Exchange support. Gmail was also a breeze along with configuring the .Mac subscription easily and quickly. All mail is now centralized in one application, and one inbox, with Gmail like conversation support as an added bonus. I have not had Outlook open for more then 10 minutes since using the Mac, and find Mail simple and easy to use. Loading the provided patch for Huwai USB modem allowed us to have 3G modem connectivity quickly and easily, making the MacBook even more handy when not in the office, and the built in wireless connected without any problem to my home wireless.

Battery life has been extraordinary, with each of the MacBook's providing up to 5 hours on battery when actively in use, and charging back up in under an hour. Our MacBook's have become the perfect travel companions, small and light. The screen, although only running at 1280X800, is a pleasure to work with, and along with Spaces built into Leopard provides more then ample screen space for day to day use. Oh and did I mention that with Parallels Desktop and Coherence I am running Windows XP at the same time as Leopard, allowing me full access to my development tools, while still using all those simple and light native Mac applications ?

Overall I am extremely happy with this new addition to the family. It has replaced my Acer as my travelling companion, and so far has proven powerful enough to do everything I do on a regular basis, just in a smaller package. Well done Apple, it really does just work!