Apple MacBook MC207LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop

Computer Technology and Software

January 2nd, 2010 by admin

Ships in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging
2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB on-chip shared L2 cache running 1:1 with processor speed
250GB Hard Drive, 8x Double-layer SuperDrive, 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with support for millions of colors
Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard, up to 7 Hours of Battery Life

Product Description
The MacBook uses a graphics processor that economizes space in a whole new way. A traditional computer logic board contains multiple components: the CPU, two chips that control communication throughout the computer, and the graphics processor. The logic board in the MacBook contains only two components: the CPU and a graphics processor with all of the core logic built into a single chip.Open your MacBook and you're instantly greeted by glorious full screen brightnes... More >>

Apple MacBook MC207LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop

5 Responses

FastMoneyPlayaaa writes:
January 2nd, 20106:48 pmat

My son has had a MacBook for about 2 or 3 yrs, and it has been a disapointment. I’ve got 3 Dell’s in the house, but my son insisted on getting a Mac because he thought it was better. First of all, for $1K, all you get is a basic computer with a small HD and only a 13″ screen. For ~ half the price, you can get a PC with a 15″ screen and more powerfull chip and drive. We’ve had several reliability issues with the Mac. One time, the bottom half of the screen stayed blank, so we had to bring it to the “genius bar”, and fortunately it was still under warranty – solution was to replace the screen. On two other occassions, we had to bring it in to have the disk drive replaced since the CD/DVD’s got stuck and would not eject. Another problem with Mac is they don’t run all the programs that a PC does. So my son just partitioned his HD and installed Windows7 on his Mac so he could run the programs his Apple OS won’t run. He conclueded that Windows7 is better, and he wants a Dell notebook for his next computer. My other son also wants a Dell notebook now.

My kids learned a valuable lesson which I am passing on to you – you don’t always get what you pay for.
Rating: 2 / 5
Paul C. Huang writes:
January 2nd, 20106:58 pmat

Consider the MacBook Pro instead.

For those who don’t want to carry the bulky 17″ or 15. 4″ just for the matte screen, this is a good alternative? Why? You may apply anti-reflective film directly over the image plane. This is not the same as applying anti-reflective film on the glossy unibody MacBook Pro, because the image actually project about 3mm before hitting the matte film, which degrades the image by reducing clarity.

The plastic body is a vast improvement from the flawed design from May, 2006. The plastic body is more resilient and is not as likely to be dented or be deformed from normal use. The bottom plate is rubberized aluminum. It may help heat dissipation. The previous version has a very poor record with heat dissipation, so hard drive failure rate is significantly higher than any other product on the market (regardless of brand). It is a sliver (like two sheets of paper) thinner than the predecessor. (SO WHAT!)

What’s so bad about this unit?

Let me list the negative aspects of this ‘new’ product, now I am done with the positive attributes, let me outline the bad and the ugly–regardless of how trivial they might be.

* At $999, it’s only $170 less than the MacBook Pro.
* No FireWire of any kind. Apple might as well call this the ‘NeuterBook’.
* No IR remote access.
* No backlit keyboard.
* Wider and deeper than the previous version (Sorry, we are not dealing with B-movies, so these are not good attributes).
* A few ounces heavier than the 13. 3″ MacBook Pro.
* No SD card slot.

I think we are easily giving up more than $170 of convenience and equipment.

Let this product fail. It’s not meant to be. Stay away from this.
Rating: 1 / 5
Patrick writes:
January 2nd, 20107:24 pmat

I have had my macbook for about 3 years. I love the interface and the aesthetics of the computer. Within the last year, I have begun to experience trouble with my internet speed. It took 30 seconds for a webpage like DrudgeReport, all text, to load. Trying to watch streaming video is almost hopeless. I watch video for 10 seconds, it loads for 3 seconds, I watch for 10, load for 3, etc. My blackberry Bold is faster than my 13″ Macbook!

I upgraded to Leopard and thought surely that will solve my problems. No, it did not. I bought a new router. That did not do a single thing. I am not a computer whiz but I have been using PCs for the last 20 years (actually, my first computer was an Apple IIe). I am not computer illiterate. It should not be this difficult to get my mac to perform as fast as a PC laptop. Incidentally, I can connect my wife’s Dell to our wireless and she gets blazing fast wireless, so the router and network are working just fine.

I am so fed up and frustrated with Apple. After doing online searches to solve this problem, it seems that many, many people share my frustration and have uber slow internet. There are a myriad of proposed solutions. . . not of which have worked for me. It should be easy and quick to fix any problems and updates should be made available from Apple.

Here I am, stuck with my thousand dollar computer which I purchase specifically so that I could easily and quickly access the internet and streaming media. I feel like I have gone back 12 years in regard to speed.

Buyer beware. . . Apple is not as intuitive or as functional as they advertise. Yes, it is a sexy machine but it seems that often it does not perform like it should. I would much rather have a PC than this white brick of a computer.

PS – forgot to add that the internal fan likes to run at 6000+ RPMs on a regular basis. It is LOUD and HOT. Also, when this fan runs so loud and hot, it suck up your battery and slows down everything else that you are trying to do. oh, guess what? Apple does not have a fix that you can download. WTF?! Seriously. You have to get a third party program that is fortunately free and fortunately it works. Apple should provide this themselves but they do not.

I cannot understand this company. They do some things so well but just drop the ball on other things.
Rating: 2 / 5
Skyhawk writes:
January 2nd, 20109:30 pmat

The absence of a FireWire Port is a MAJOR flaw.

Get the smaller MacBook Pro instead. (Only $168 more)

This Macbook is a non-starter due to no Firewire. Removing Firewire is like taking all the Philips screwdrivers out of a toolbox.

Firewire Target Disk Mode is arguably one of the most useful Mac diagnostic tools. With Firewire you can safely migrate, REPAIR, or perform component tests on a Mac, without damaging the internal drive. Ethernet may work, IF you have two FUNCTIONAL machines. The great thing about Firewire Target Disk mode was that if the Hard Drive or OS was corrupted, or the computer was for some reason unbootable you could still get data off of it quickly, without tools or special equipment. Firewire Target disk mode has saved my rear several times on every machine I have owned.

Thousands of devices are Firewire ONLY, with more coming out all the time and this Macbook will NEVER be able to use ANY of them.

Some FireWire advantages are:

True Target Disk Mode (ethernet can be used ONLY if the ‘Bad’ machine will boot)
FireWire can be daisy chained
Bus Power – FW – Up to 30V/45W vs USB 5V/500mA
Peer to Peer Connections (no host or CPU required)
Multiple Host on a bus support
TCP/IP Networking support
No Drivers Required (config ROM built in) aka Plug and Play
Remote Control of devices like cameras
CableTV Box Support
You can’t transfer (at full quality) a VHS tape or other Video tape using an Analog-to-DV Converter without Firewire
DMA transfers – device to device data transfer no CPU involved

Firewire allows two operating modes. One is asynchronous, like USB which suffers from latency, bus contention and collisions.

The other is isochronous mode, and it lets a device carve out a certain dedicated amount of bandwidth that other devices can’t touch. It gets a certain number of time slices each second all its own. The advantages for audio/video should be obvious: that stream of data can just keep on flowing, and as long as there isn’t more bandwidth demand than the wire can handle, nothing will interfere with it. No collisions, no glitches. Firewire is Rock Solid.

There are no USB to Firewire adapters. (Desperate Macbook owners are looking, but it can’t be done. ) Firewire MUST be in the computer. USB can not “keep up” with Firewire speed.

The Macbook Pro has Firewire. (The 13. 3 inch is Only $168 more. )

The MacBook has no slot for an Express Card. There’s NO WAY to connect any Firewire device to the new MacBooks. . . period.

Keep in mind that when Apple dropped ADB, SCSI and floppy drives in the Mac at least there where alternatives. USB floppy drives and usb to ABD adapters that protected your investment. There is NO option to connect existing or future Firewire products to the new Macbook.

When you have a Mac (with Firewire) that will not boot, it will most often still work in target disk mode making it possible to either fix the hard drive or at least back it up.

If you want to go into a creative field then Firewire is a must, and will be a standard for a long time, this includes video, photo, and especially anything to do with music.

Firewire is “isochronous”, basically meaning that you can pump “clocked” data though it in real time. USB works more like TCPIP, with the data chopped up into packets and later reassembled.

Firewire is continuing to improve. (Firewire 3200 will be out soon. ) Firewire is more relevant than it ever has been.

Apple has always been a visionary company, leading the way in new technology adoption. This one has me scratching my head. They have removed a mature, ubiquitous and robust protocol and replaced it with. . . NOTHING!

Get the smaller MacBook Pro instead.

Rating: 1 / 5
Sky Blue writes:
January 2nd, 201010:54 pmat

This review is for those who consider using this as a Windows OS notebook.

Although Windows OS (Vista or 7) works on Macbook via Bootcamp, the touchpad has always posed some problem. There was shifting or drifting of the cursor . Right-click using two fingers has always been a problem, as at the moment you put two fingers, the cursor will move around and select a wrong area. Right-clicking on songs in the Itunes has always been a pain — you end up using the mouse rather than the touchpad. That was with the previous version Macbook.

This new version makes things even worse. The supposedly improved touchpad is a nightmare, as now clicking is even harder — you have to push it really hard to click, and as you push hard, the cursor will almost always dance around. You end up pushing wrong buttons in your browser. Of course you can click in the center of the touchpad and the cursor will move around less (because you are not lifing your finger and you are using the same one finger) but the middle-part of the touchpad needs to be applied even more force to be pushed. This is truly problematic. So I am currently almost always using a mouse, rendering the touchpad useless. You don’t have this issue when you run the system using Snow Leopard. You have this drifting cursor issue only when using the Windows. I think this may be a driver compatibility issue. Lots of unwanted right-clicks too if you bring your hand too close to the touchpad. Furthermore, none of the much touted multi-touch capability would work in the Windows environment.

I have contacted Apple several times, but they are clueless and do not care. Their response is always simple: this is Windows OS problem, not our problem. (Of course, if you contact Microsoft, you get the opposite answer: this is a Mac problem. ) It’s like a ping pong game between these two giants and customers lose out in the middle. I’d say this is a Mac problem since Mac specifically advertises that the Macbook works seamlessly in a windows environment. It doesn’t. By design? I don’t know. But they don’t seem to care.

So I have this suggestion for Windows users: buyers beware until Apple irons this problem out. Otherwise you will end up always using a mouse like me when using the Windows.

This is just one issue, albeit the biggest one. You will always hear tick, tick sound when you are using the Windows on this computer. (You will not hear it if you turn off the volume. ) You may have all kinds of sound card and voice driver incompatibility issues — I searched the Internet for answers as my Skype did not work and had to install drivers that did not come with the Macbook. In other words, the Windows system on this computer — you must regard it as beta, or some sort of experimental stage. I do not think it is right for Apple to treat Windows users that way, since many of us have bought this computer based on Apple’s claim that Windows works nicely on this one.
Rating: 2 / 5