White Macbook, a little piece of nostalgia
Apple has quietly pulled the magsafe plug from the white Macbook, and in it’s short life (born from the powerbook in 2006) helped bring Apple’s mobile computers to the mainstream. It nudged it’s way into many hands, although it certainly created it’s own controversy with it’s very similar specs to the 13″ Macbook pro in 2010-2011. And yes, it had it’s issues with the computer body yellowing and cracking, but as far as I know Apple tried to make this right by replacing the casing at no charge.
Oh, and we can’t forget when the only Macbook (non-pro) to choose from was the white version. Hey, what happened to the black Macbook? Ah for many of us gents, we couldn’t concede by purchasing the white Macbook. I mean what’s next, manis and pedis? In fear of being emasculated, we opted for the more manly aluminum Macbook Pro, and now according to macrumors, the 13″ model’s life in the Apple Store may also succumb to the same fate as our beloved white Macbook.
Just when I thought I knew everything there was to know about Apple products, I realized that I’ve been a little out of touch lately. So the other day I was speaking with a friend of mine on the phone, and he was interested in taking the leap to get another computer. He’s mostly been computing from his smartphone, which has served him well until recently. Now he’s in the market so he started asking me about portable computers. I’m not one for directing anyone onto a path that will impose a financial burden, especially for a device that may have more “oomph” then they really need.
Let me start by saying that I’m not against a Windows® machine. I just don’t use them. So after looking over some of the machines that he was mentioning, I noticed that many of the laptops were sporting those Intel Atom processors. Well, sure these machines have a nice entry-level price point for consumers, but at what cost? Time is money, and man have I wasted enough of it on these slower machines. Just to back up here a bit, I ended up purchasing a fairly inexpensive notebook that I installed Mac OS X on just to play around with (a story for another time). After I was done tinkering with it I decided to reload Windows® back on it due to some hardware conflicts, and just gave it to the kids. Every time they need me to provide a little help with it, I do cringe a bit because the hamster in that thing just doesn’t spin that wheel fast enough.
Anyway, after doing a little more searching, I popped on over to the Apple site to check out the refurb store to see what deals they may have in there. That’s when I noticed that the white Macbook had bit the dust. It was finally returned back to its final resting place. Somewhere beyond the cloud.
It seems that the entry level device has now been replaced by the 11″ Macbook Air. Well, I honestly feel that this is a hard sell for quite a few consumers. The screen real estate is smaller, the hard drive doesn’t have near the space that many entry level notebooks have, and for whatever reason folks just can’t get over not having a DVD drive. I can honestly say that I haven’t used that drive in a year, and probably just a handful of times in the two years I’ve owned my MBP.
So, the search is still on for my friend who is still in the market for a portable computer, and it will probably end up being one of the less expensive PC’s out there, but don’t think I won’t keep checking back at Apple’s refurb store just to see if the spirit of the white Macbook reappears every now and again.
RIP
[…] Kevin, at Innovative Nurse, is a social media using nurse after my own heart. He’s got a bit of nerdy goodness about white Macbook nostalgia. […]