Brian May, the guitarist of the legendary rock group Queen, recently got a MacBook Pro for his audio work, upgrading from his G4 laptop. Brian argues about some software problems (e.g. not getting a low battery warning from the system anymore) and the fact that the laptop runs very hot.
Brian May of Queen Reviews the MacBook Pro
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSAlert.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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What I’d like to know is what OS was on his G4? Was he running OS9 or X? Some of his complaints are valid — certainly if the Mac Book Pro isn’t warning him that the battery is about to shut his system down that’s a problem. Heat.. well that’s everywhere these days.
But the color folders thing.. that just confuses me.. I’m no Mac OS X expert, but when I try to customize I can change the name of the label but not the actual color. Was he using a 3rd party app on his G4 or something?
I thought he meant the folder background color, which you can change by showing the view options for a specific folder.
Only in Icon view (just so you do not waste your time looking it elsewhere).
Heat… well that’s everywhere these days.
Not all laptops burst into flames, a transmeta powered fujitsu for instance stays rather cool.
My HP48GX stays pretty cool, too. Maybe HP and Intel should team up to design microprocessors!
Well actually they had – the Itanic … a lot of good that helped.
I think that this exchange aptly demonstrates why I do not have a future in comedy.
Every great comedian needs a straight man.
While I love the added software freedom that the Intel transition had brought, there are some definite hardware issues. During the PowerPC days apple could just clock the CPU lower to deal w/ heat and no one would know the difference. Now w/ Intel there are direct comparisons to be made to PC’s and I think that is part of the issue. While the typical PC manufacturers are perfectly fine having 2″ enclosures, Apple still insists on 1″ or so. Heat becomes more of an issue in such a small enclosure. In other words I think Apple is trying to put the Core Duo in an enclosure that was not its intended target. Most of the thinner PC laptops are using the Ultra low voltage derivative, which Apple is clearly not. I for one would sacrifice some speed in order to have a cooler laptop. Also from what I understand (and I could be wrong here) the power management on the Core Duo does not clock down the CPU, but rather shuts down unused portions of the processor. On my G4 I was able to clock the chip down using the energy pref. to achieve a noticeable difference in temperature. The Core Duo method does not seem to help much with heat. Another issue that I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere is that the battery on my Macbook seems to take noticeably longer to charge than my old Powerbook. Overall I’m satisfied, but not wowed the way I was with my Powerbook so far as hardware quality goes.
I still like my macbookpro-or-whatever-it’s-now-called, it seems faster but it doesn’t matter that much, really. But it’s hot, even my 12-in PB seemed cooler… And the battery drains really fast. I’d rather have a laptop with less processing power but more usability (battery- and heat-wise).
From what I can tell, the spell-checker on Brian May’s MacBook Pro is busted, too. And what can you say when your battery dies without warning? Another one bites the dust.
Being also a PB->MBP upgrader, I can fully understand his points. The heat of the new ones is ridiculous compared to the old ones as well as the oversized power supply is a pain.
Unfortunately, he was a victim of Apple’s marketing – “OMG, the intels are sooooo fast”! Too bad that applies only to certain software titles that are
a) Universal Binaries
b) multithreaded
which does not necessarily apply to quite a number of music applications. I am in the lucky situation that my main application (Xcode) was UB from day one and profits a lot from the Core Duo. But if your main applications are Photoshop, Reaktor or Cubase, do yourself a favor and keep your PowerBook.
Do you envy those models who have such beautiful tanned skin? Are you keen on getting a good tan ?
But alas, you live in a cold country where the sun shies from showing itself too often. So what is the alternative ?
Get a mac OSX laptop. Just turn it ON and sit/lay down near it. In no time the heat & radiation generated from it will tan your skin.
PS: Make sure not to sit too close.
Personally I wonder what is holding Apple back from rectifying the problem. It has been going on for so long and has been the talk in the media. Recently, one of the (I think it is HP) laptops caught fire and it was related to defective battery. And I believe HP recalled all the batteries of that particular batch.
Edited 2006-09-12 05:52
>> Recently, one of the (I think it is HP) laptops caught fire and it was related to defective battery. And I believe HP recalled all the batteries of that particular batch. <<
That was Dell, not HP. Careful, first Google a little, you might get sued.
That was Dell, not HP. Careful, first Google a little, you might get sued.
Oops… Ofcourse it was a Dell. Sorry for the mistake.
I’m guessing that Apple has very little control over the manufacturing of their laptops anymore. They’re essentially rebadged PCs, and whoever is making them probably has bigger customers to worry about than Apple.
I laughed and voted it up at first but after a moments thought that is a really, really stupid, sub-moron analogy unless A. Agassi uses a particle accelerator in the daily practice of his vocation.
then it seems the macbook pro is unable to what the laptop of a neighbour did in windows. when the battery went low enough it triggerd hibernation, writing the ram to hardrive and shutting down.
its realy strange if apple was unable to make this work for their products. where did the “just works” go?
then it seems the macbook pro is unable to what the laptop of a neighbour did in windows. when the battery went low enough it triggerd hibernation, writing the ram to hardrive and shutting down.
its realy strange if apple was unable to make this work for their products. where did the “just works” go?
That IS really strange, maybe it’s a problem with his MacBook Pro? My MacBook does that perfectly, and I assume it should work in MacBook Pros too because the reason I purposely let the battery “dry” recently was this doc., intended for both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284
Quote from that tech article: “When the battery reaches “empty”, the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually keeps back a reserve beyond “empty”, to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. At this point, with the safe sleep function introduced in the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) computers, the computer’s memory contents have been saved to the hard drive. When power is restored, the computer returns itself to its pre-sleep state using the safe sleep image on the hard drive.“
(Emphasis mine)
I can confirm that my MBP does indeed sleep, then hibernate, when the battery is drained. When I plug it back in, it either wakes from sleep (2 seconds) or re-loads the contents of memory (15 seconds or so for my 2GB machine) and returns me to where I was when the battery died.
There’s something wrong with Mr. May’s laptop and he should get it repaired or exchanged.
Apple’s advertising has been yelling hallelujah on the Intel Core stuff, and of course they didn’t tell the public that they really had no choice but using x86 CPUs, since the PPC G5 was very disappointing in its power consumption and heat production.
One of the reason the G5 gets so hot, I was told, is because it’s designed on such a small surface. If the G5 surface would be bigger, it’d be easier to cool. So, making everything so tiny is not always clever in every circumstance. But now Apple put the Intels on its laptops in a too limited space. Apparently, they didn’t learn anything from the G5 adventure. Nobody likes a hot laptop, nor the fan noise to cool it. This must have been the point of departure for the laptop’s design. Especially when you haven’t designed an Intel laptop before.
Sometimes design obsessions (thin & thinner) will have you end up with a bad product.
One of the reason the G5 gets so hot, I was told, is because it’s designed on such a small surface.
No, that’s the reason why it’s more of a challenge to cool that chip, not why it generates more heat. Simple rule of physics, surface area ect.
With CPU cores, when you shrink the die size you also lower the transistor count, thus reducing heat output. This is why Intel and AMD have added a “heat-spreader” to their CPU package. It’s an aluminum plate almost as big as the board the die sits on, and it touches the die directly to transfer heat. With this heat spreader:
1. No more accidents in chipping the die when the user tries to install the heat sink
2. Larger surface area for more efficient cooling.
And are annoyed that Freddy has passed on. Fans wish Brian would do a project with some unknown singer so we can get something new.
That anyone would presume Brian is astute with OS X. He doesn’t list the apps he uses. We don’t know whether they are non-universal or universal.
As a mechanical engineer and computer scientist I never cease to meet many in my fields who couldn’t trouble shoot themselves out of a paper bag.
I love Queen and Brian is a legend but if he can’t transport about 5lbs worth of gear for god knows where on tour he travels then he better get a physical and check whether he has brittle bones.
The spare battery and adaptor is light enough a gradeschool kid could carry it with him daily.
Heat Transfer issues regarding case design are one matter. Heat Transfer issues regarding CPU design are matters only Intel can address.
Apple are marketed as a “computer for the people””. Just look at the Mac ads “better at the life type things”. Brians opinion is at least as valid as anyone elses, especially as Macs are commonly seen as the choice computer in the music industry.
He doesn’t list the apps he uses. We don’t know whether they are non-universal or universal.
Yes he does. He mentions it doesn’t feel faster with Photoshop (non-UB) and file-operations (native).
I love Queen and Brian is a legend but if he can’t transport about 5lbs worth of gear for god knows where on tour he travels then he better get a physical and check whether he has brittle bones.
The problem is the New And Improved hardware became heavier, and thus less easy to transport around.
I’m sure he installed macosx 10.0 ppc :p (how did he manage !)
I mean ok, there are issues he’s right about, but the whole background stuff (he actually says he CODED his backgrounds ?) is buggish
Also, the intels are much faster than any of the G4 powerbook, i had a macbook for a while (not pro) and its much faster than the previous high end G4 i played with.
I have mixed reactions to this: On the one hand much of what Brian says sounds a bit like an old version of OSX or lack of familiarity with the software. OTOH, a Mac should be easily usable by a user like him and if there’s really no empty battery warning (my only experience so far is with my G4 PowerMac) then that is simply sub-standard design.
Where Brian is definitely right is on the overheating problem. The MacBook Pro runs too hot, period. Lots of reasons for it have been bandied around — excessive thermal grease, bad fan management, over-slim case, whatever — but the fact remains that they are too hot. I want one but I’m not going to buy one until the problem has been solved. Just yesterday I visited an Apple dealer once again and felt the MacBook Pros on display: They were just sitting there doing nothing and they were all already WAY too hot. Uncomfortably hot on the handrest, and too hot to touch on the underside. So it looks like Apple has still not corrected the problem.
I would really like to have a MacBook Pro but I’m not willing to purchase a defective laptop. And a laptop that runs this hot is defective. Period. (And its battery life sucks too, unfortunately, also compared to many non-Apple machines with Core Duo processors.)
The only problem I sort of agree with it the Heat issue. The Background color thing is wrong. I just tried it on a Core Duo MINI and it works and does not spin any beach-ball. The power adapter being so heavy it hurts his back made me laugh out loud. I take my heavy old IBM Think-pad in a case on Network Service calls with all kinds of adapters, switches and tools in my laptop bag and it’s Heavy and my back does not hurt and I have health issues too. my 10LB cat could carry that AC Adapter without pain. Sorry, I think he is blowing a LOT of it way out of proportion.
Also I have compaired in many tests and in Universal applications the speed of an iBook G4 and Macbook and Intel Core Duo mini and the Intel Macs are way faster. Only time they are slower is with Adobe applications.
BRIAAAAAN???? Interested in linux? I’ll skin it as Mac OsX for free
Hands off Redmond! I saw Him first!
)
I just bought a macbook pro and it does get hot. So far it’s been just warm and no unbearable. Admittedly I haven’t done much that is processor intensive, but at the same time it hasn’t been idling.
Speedwise I think his problem could be ppc apps as it’s definitely fast enough. As for copying large files that’s more a bottleneck with the HD speed which probably hasn’t changed unless he got a 7200rpm drive which just drains more battery and generates even more heat.
From some sites I saw that Core 2 Duo (merom) is going to be hotter again. I have no idea how they are going to combat that given they can’t keep the current generation cool.
As a Macicintosh expert, he’s a wonderful guitarist.
Uniformed coloured jpegs as folder backrounds? He could mix any of tens of millions of colours with the pallet.
In any event he’s certainly entitled to his opinion, I’m just not sure this is the forum for it.
Brian May is not some poor guy that can be easily bulled. I can hardly wait to see Apple sue him for some stupid reason like those they used to sue the others who dared say anything negative about Apple’s next Big Thing. Do you remember the guys that got sued because they linked to an Apple manual on the very Apple site?
Don’t remember that.
What was that all about?
Here’s the link:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/04/apple_sa_deep_links/
If I remember well, the thing got solved, one way or another, but the real point was shutting off the discussion about “hot” macbooks from the offending forum.
I somehow very much doubt that Apple will sue Brian May for publicly commenting on his issues with one of their computers.
However, I do think there’s a good chance someone from Apple will get in touch and try to help him
he does not do what every dissatisfied customer does: call support or bring back the machine – I am sure he gets his money back. Why the hell does he think that someone from Apple has to come to him and fix his problems? I think it is a good thing that Apple treats all their private customers the same – regardless they are famous or not.
My opinion is, that he had a miscounselling in the case of getting a intel mac. Because it looks like most of the software he uses is still no universal binary.
and @ Eugenia: I have read many many good reviews from you – so you must know what made a review. Do you seriously call Mr. Mays statements a review?
Edited 2006-09-12 10:56
he does not do what every dissatisfied customer does: call support or bring back the machine – I am sure he gets his money back.
You must’ve missed the previous articles where it was shown Apple denies there even being a problem. Dissatisfied customers have complained..and been ignored.
Why the hell does he think that someone from Apple has to come to him and fix his problems?
Where does he imply this?
What he does, however, is express dissapointment at the level of quality Apple has provided with this product.
Why the hell does he think that someone from Apple has to come to him and fix his problems?
Where does he imply this?
From the article:
“I just want someone from Apple to come over and make the thing do what it is supposed to do without boiling my body.”
Why the hell does he think that someone from Apple has to come to him and fix his problems?
—
Where does he imply this?
—
From the article:
“I just want someone from Apple to come over and make the thing do what it is supposed to do without boiling my body.”
Ah, so you took that literally. A better way to read that would be: ‘I wish Apple would return to their old level of quality’.
Why the hell does he think that someone from Apple has to come to him and fix his problems?
—
Where does he imply this?
—
From the article:
“I just want someone from Apple to come over and make the thing do what it is supposed to do without boiling my body.”
Ah, so you took that literally. A better way to read that would be: ‘I wish Apple would return to their old level of quality’.
—————————————————-
If Ralf. & signals aren’t British, it’s not surprising that they took it literally.
He seems to have a faulty notebook. It *should* warn him about the battery being low, it’s nothing hardware-specific. It’s OS-specific! So better just go and try to exchange it instead of crying there like a baby.
How is it possible ?
My MacBook pro warns me when its battery is low.
It is hot but not very much.
I put different colors for several finders directory background.
So what is this false article for ?
And what i think is : even if this were true, this would be nothing. I would prefer that than to return to Windows.
Anyone minds if I write a counter-“review”?
I own a MacBook Pro 15″, it doesn’t get hot, retains memory when battery runs down completely and keeps any folder or desktop color. So… there’s not much to write about since it works fine obvivously! *the end*
But my opinion ain’t worth a shit since I’m not a celebrity person.
this is NOT A DECENT REVIEW! Just a guy who wants to blow of some steam.