What I Don’t Like About the MacBook Pro
Sometimes Jobs’ vaunted taste has a tin ear. “MacBook” is awkward to say. It lacks what I’d call “verbal ergonomics” because it has too many hard consonants too close together, and “MacBook Pro” is worse because it has no rhythm. “PowerBook” had rhythm.
Pronunciation aside, I’ve used three PowerBooks in the last few years, and this new one is suspect because a) it’s the first major reconfiguration of an Apple product – historically too many of their 1st generation configs, portables especially, seem to utilize their customers as beta testers – and b) the metal cases of the titanium and aluminum PowerBooks limit their wifi reception. I hoped that the new pro laptops from Apple, whatever their case material, would have “the best wifi reception of any portable” as a selling point Jobs would crow about. Poor to fair wifi performance is one of the PowerBook line’s dirty little secrets, though it’s not little or secret.
Sleek metal cases and the name “MacBook” are equivalents of the round Apple mouse of several years ago: coolness in Jobs’ eyes, not highest performance, über alles.
I tried to post this at Dave Winer’s WordPress blog, but it won’t post.