iPad 2 in Malaysia on 29th April 2011!

There’s a buzz among gadget blogs and gadget freaks alike on the arrival of Apple iPad 2 in Malaysia. Some say Singapore will likely be receiving the iPad 2 first before Malaysia. But now it’s official. Machines will start selling the much anticipated iPad 2 this Friday, 29th April 2011.

iPad 2 is finally here!

This is based on the SMS that I received at 10.51pm yesterday from Machines Malaysia:

iPad 2 available 29/4/11 @machines Mid Valley, KLCC, Lot 10, AEON Bukit Tinggi, Sunway Pyramid & JB City Square. http://www.facebook.com/machines.apple.reseller

Official prices are:

Wifi: 16Gb – RM1,499, 32Gb – RM1,799, 64Gb – RM2,099

3G+Wifi: 16Gb – RM1,899, 32Gb – RM2,199, 64b – RM2,499

Go get ’em, people!

My Long-term Test: Apple MacBook (White – Oct ’09)

I’ve been using my MacBook for about 6 months now, and I guessed it’s time for my long-term test.

My MacBook White Duo Core

Since using the Mac OS X, I’m getting more familiar with the OS, and almost 8 out of 10 times, I will usually opted for the Mac OS X over Windows 7. I won’t be dwelling on which OS is better, but it’s safe to say that I like Mac OS X very much. And very stable.

The spec of my MacBook is standard: Intel Core 2 Duo (1.07 GHz), 2Gb DDR3 RAM, 250Gb HDD and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphic card. Performance wise, no complaint. But I wish I can afford to add more RAMs, just to speed things up, if needed.

Since the MacBook’s body is all white, some kind of protections are needed. Therefore, I purchased the Moshi palmguard, rubber keyboard protector (brand unknown) and the Speck SeeThru’ Hard Shell Case. I also bought the Golla MacBook sleeve and the Deuter Giga Office Pro laptop bag to complete the protection aspect of the MacBook.

Cool design

So far I’ve installed several software into my Mac, and the more interesting ones are iLife ’11, iWork, Microsoft Office 2008 Mac Edition, Toast Titanium 10, TechTool Pro 5, Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, Aperture 3.0.3, CleanMyMac 1.9.3, iStat Menus, iAntiVirus, Parallels Desktop, jDownloader and some games (Drawn, EggFarm, Mystery of Cleopatra and Plants vs Zombies).

Sometimes I missed my Windows. Therefore, I need Windows on my Mac. Fortunately, Apple has an app for this purpose: Bootcamp. You can install Microsoft Windows on your Mac using a specific driven instruction in Bootcamp. I’ve installed Windows 7 Home Edition and whenever I needed my Windows, I just booted it up. Simple.

With all the applications and games installed, I noticed that the MacBook is a tad slow, and this is probably due to the applications’ resources in the memory and the not-so-optimum 2Gb RAMs. I planned to install another 2Gb RAM to further optimise the experience. While waiting for that, I think the MacBook performs quite well.

As for the battery, I can only get about 4 hours with full charge (far off from the quoted 10 hours). And this is with bluetooth and AirPort (WiFi) on. If I turned off both the bluetooth and WiFi, I still can get only 4.5 hours of usage till empty. This is bad.

Black mark on palmrest area

My worry before I purchased the MacBook is the colour. It’s too white. And it’s prone to smudges and definitely a dust magnet. The frame of the MacBook is made from shiny polycarbonate, and it can be quite dirty if handled roughly. I eliminated the problem by using the Speck shell to protect the exterior and Moshi palmguard to protect the palm area. As you can see from the photo above, the right side of the palm area has become dark through constant use. Imagine if there’s no palmguard to protect that particular area.

Discolouring. Notice the difference between the screen area and the keyboard

I also noticed that the white interior has become a bit yellowish, especially around the screen area. I don’t really know the reason for this, but probably due to exposure. There are already reports on the internet about the yellowish issues, and it happened to almost every owner. I guess I have to live with it, as long as I can use the MacBook normally.

Time to change to the aluminium-bodied MacBook Air?