Some time ago I bought a new laptop here in Korea, mostly as my previous laptop’s warranty ended in the spring and it is cheaper to buy a new one here than from Finland. And as I also wanted US/Korean keyboard more than Finnish one, as it is easier to write Korean when I can see correct keys and coding and using Aperture is much easier with US keyboard than with Finnish one.
My old laptop was old good 15″ MacBook Pro from 2007. Laptop before that was 2005 12″ Powerbook. Although 15″ was nice as I had enough screen, it was just too big to me. It was little bit too heavy and physical size was disrupting big, with it I needed big shoulder bags and using it on lap while sitting in my TV-chair was sometimes little bit difficult. Also in the lecture rooms the desk size was sometimes slightly too small for it. So when it came time for me to choose new laptop, I just knew that it is going to be 13″ MacBook Pro. And of course, as student, I didn’t complain about the fact that first time since 2005, the cheapest option was the best one for me…
By switching to smaller laptop meant some changes for me in how I use my computer. It took a while to get used to this smaller screen, as at first this felt just too small. All the time I was running out of screen and wishing that I just had bigger screen to use. But after a while I just stop noticing it anymore. And then I realized that the way I use my laptop has changed. Most of my applications are taking more and more the whole screen. I have noticed that it is most easiest way to handle pretty much everything. For having small screen, well using it all for one application at a time most of the time fixes the problem. Multi-tasking, well, human is pretty bad in that and some studies even has proven that trying to multi-task is worse idea and just slows down all tasks instead of concentrating to do one task at the time. Having only one application at the time on the screen definitely fixes the problem, as then I need to be active to see something else, i.e. from writing term paper to read latest RSS feeds, I have to notice badge on Reeder for Mac icon and switch to there to read. I feel that this woks for me nicely, as when I am really concentrated, all I can see is this one application window, and sometimes it takes a long time to notice that I have some unread posts.
This all makes me really waiting for next OS X version, Lion, as one of the promoted features is fullscreen applications. It is still unknown how many applications really are going to use this new fullscreen ability, but I really like this idea and hope that this is going to be adopted widely. Maybe this all new habit of using applications comes from heavy use of iPhone.
So, after all my laptop got a new bottom case and a new motherboard. And all these repairs caused one interesting side effect, my laptop seems to be missing a serial number. There was a sticker earlier on bottom case – not anymore. OS X told me in the about dialog computer’s serial number – not anymore. I don’t know if this is what should happen when motherboard gets changed but I still don’t like it. There is nothing now on my laptop that identifies it and links it to me. Earlier there was serial number that is registered with me so in case someone steals this, it can be tracked down. But not anymore. Well, I just have to contact Apple again and try to get my serial numbers back to my computer.