19 May 2009

What's Happened to the MacBook Wind?

These past few weeks, I find myself more and more enamored with the HP Mini 1000 - or my MacBook Mini, spending less and less time with the MacBook Wind (see, I even dropped the possessive adjective "my" there) to devote it instead to my MacBook Mini. Heck I even endure sacrificing my own cells' well-being by not sleeping during the cell regeneration hours - 10pm - 1am - just to tinker with my (yes, "my") MacBook Mini.

If there's anything to prove how hooked I am and committed to my MacBook Mini, the screenshot below suffices:



(from my MacBook Mini; the MacBook Wind is still on 10.5.6 and I don't know when I'll bother to update it)

Seduction would aptly describe what happened between the HP Mini 1000 and me. I was just browsing the net, reading stuff about netbooks and then, with one click to enlarge a thumbnail on a website, the next thing I knew, I was carrying a black box with a plastic handle back home containing an HP Mini 1001TU.

At first, I wasn't ready to completely break it up with the MacBook Wind; the HP Mini was still running Windows XP at that time and OS X Leopard, the one thing my heart truly desires, was something that only the MacBook Wind could give me. But it wasn't long before I had decent broadband connection at home and completed downloading iDeneb and everything else fell into place.

What I love about my MacBook Mini:
Everything works great:
1) WiFi - is recognized as Airport and as for compatibility, see pic below:


(78.4 KB/sec download rate; not bad)


I was only leeching off of a neighbor's WiFi network (which wasn't password protected) and only had 1 bar - if you call it a "bar" - for signal strength.
2) Bluetooth - ok, it wasn't the Wind's fault that I got it even without internal BT but it's a relief that BT's built in on my MacBook Mini.
3) BT/WiFi switch - I toggle the switch so the blue led turns red and BT & WiFi turn off, I toggle again; the red led turns blue and BT & WiFi turn on again. Cool! I don't have to reboot the machine just to turn BT/WiFi on again.
4) Sleep/Resume - I close the lid and all turns off - fan stops, BT/WiFi led light goes off, hard drive stops spinning (as indicated by the white led light), leaving only the power led pulsating. And when I open again the lid, everything springs to back to life as well as BT/WiFi. Again, no more reboot blah blah.
5) Ethernet - Works great with the AppleYukon2 kext.
6) Sound - Yes, I've sound working on my MacBook Mini without the need of an external USB sound card. Not perfect though - volume adjustment is an enigma at best - but I can watch my fave series and DVD's now and can even use earphones without having to use Applescripts, thanks to VoodooHDA.

Who wouldn't swoon over these looks anyway?














I know I would and in my opinion, the HP Mini 1000 can definitely hold its own beside the MacBook Air -- the HP Mini with OS X, that is.

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