MacBook Pro – Jean Snow [.net]

The current MacBook Pro really is pretty sweet, and makes for a surprisingly great upgrade from the Air.

I won’t go through my entire history of Macs, but until recently, my computer was a MacBook Air, and the two before that were MacBook Pros. Back in the day I felt the need for Pros because I was using my laptop to do a lot of visual work (web design, photos), but as I started working at PechaKucha and my freelance writing days were mostly behind me, I felt that my computer needs could be answered by something that wasn’t as powerful – and something lighter was attractive as well.

Another thing I discovered was that Apple’s refurbished system is pretty great, and so that MacBook Air I purchased (the 2012 model) was refurbished, and I’ve been very happy with it.

But it was now time to get something new.

My wife’s computer was my previous MacBook Pro, the one I used before getting my Air, and it was becoming unusable – too slow, unreliable, issues with the trackpad, not charging properly, etc. So the plan was that she would use my current Air – which is still fine, and she just needs it to do research/writing on – and I’d upgrade to something new. I had it in my mind that I would get another Air, since I’d been so happy with the model I had, but was surprised to see (in part because I don’t really follow Apple’s Mac releases liked I used to) that it looked like the Air was getting very little love these days, mostly because the regular MacBook and MacBook Pro have pretty much caught up to it in terms of size and weight, while trumping it with power and display (retina).

So I got a refurbished 2015 13″ MacBook Pro with retina display, and I love it.

At first I figured I’d be getting a MacBook – price is a huge issue – but when comparing everything, the MBP model I got felt like the best deal, with a slight extra kick that should mean it will last us longer.

I was warned that the best would be to wait until the summer as Apple will surely be offering upgrades to all its laptops (the current models all date back to early 2015), but I couldn’t wait that long, and in the end, with Apple, you’re always going to be lusting over the next model, no matter when you buy one.

It wasn’t enough that I’ve had to deal with the strongest sunburn I’ve had in 10-15 years — from hiking on Mount Tanigawa (2000m) this past Sunday — but last night’s attempt at installing Mac OS X Lion on my MacBook Pro ended up in my having to reformat my drive. It was damaged during the installation process, and all attempts (over the course of hours) to try to repair it or to get back to my original installation — or to simply re-install Snow Leopard over it — proved fruitless. Reformatting seems to have fixed the issue with the drive, and after doing a fresh install of Snow Leopard, I tried installing Lion again — I had nothing to lose at this point — and it worked without a hitch.

Now, of course, the hitch on my part is that I’ve been bad with backups, and so I have lost more than I’d care to admit, but most importantly two years of personal photos, and my entire music collection. Since my daily workflow rests on the use of Google products, my work hasn’t been affected much, and for that I’m thankful.

Despite all of this, I’m trying to frame it as a forced “fresh start” on my digital activities. Maybe it was meant to be.

Oh, and I have Time Machine back in action (I’d stopped because of lack of space on my external drive) — lesson learned.