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Here’s how I have my MacBook set up when I’m at home:

The laptop is connected to my Samsung display (21″ at 1680×1050) via a Mini-Displayport to DVI cable. The speakers are actually connected to the amplifier under my TV (which is directly behind the monitor) just like the other pair of speakers next to my TV. The MacBook and my WD TV Live are then connected as input sources to the amp. This is cool because those speakers sound really good and it also allows me to use my AKG K 240 Headphones for both TV viewing and on my MacBook for music listening (since they are an older pair of headphones with like 600 something Ohm, they really need an amp to get a decent volume out of them).

Apple Keyboard + Trackpad Combo

The Wireless Apple Keyboard and Magic Trackpad combo is amazing. The keyboard is very similar to the MacBook’s, but the keys are a bit “easier” to press down. Apple’s Magic Trackpad is pretty much amazing if you want to describe it in one word (more so since Lion, which introduced a shit-ton of new gestures for it). It works flawlessly and you get used to it very easily. Since I’m not gaming on my Mac and only very rarely edit photos I don’t have a mouse connected nowadays at all. Plus it looks pretty cool next to each other, doesn’t take up much space (and is therefore easily movable if I need the space on my desk). The only downside is that the trackpad EATS batteries like crazy. A pair of double A batteries lasts me about 6 weeks on average. The Keyboard on the other hand has very little power consumption. I’m still on my first set of batteries (at 49% now) since I bought it about 3-4 months back.

Under my Macbook (which is conveniently resting on top of my OSRIC copy at the moment) are my hard drives and my external Blu-Ray drive, which are – together with my iPhone resting in the Universal Dock on top of the right speaker – connected via a powered USB Hub to my MacBook. The small 2.5″ one is my TimeMachine Backup, the other two are my Data Drive and the backup of that drive. One of these days I’ll probably get a dual enclosure for the both of them, especially since I HATE the power plugs on these cases which block two slots on the power strip each.

So yeah, after having had my MacBook for a couple of months now, I can safely say that it was indeed worth every penny I spend on it. It’s lightweight, easy to use, but comes with all the features I had under Linux as well. In fact other than the fact that it’s missing USB3 support (which for me isn’t too bad since I have no devices that require it) it’s the perfect laptop in my opinion.

Thanks to my graduation exams I didn’t really have too much time to post here, but now here it is:

I bought myself a new Macbook Pro (13 inch Version) and it’s fucking awesome.

It came to me from Shanghai 7 days after I ordered it via apple.com (taking the student discount while I’m still at school). Normally it would have been here earlier, but I opted to get a US keyboard installed (one of the reasons I wanted an Apple Notebook), because the german keyboard layout just doesn’t feel right to me after having used a US keyboard on my desktop for about 4 years now. It’s much better for programming in my opinion.

Also somewhat ironically, my old HP notebook died only a few days before my new Macbook came. Not that I used it in the last two years, but at least now we have some spare parts for my mother’s notebook (same HP model). On another note I’ve modified my living room setup. Also note the TP-Link Wireless Access Point (300MBit!!) on the left hand speaker. Now my room is finally covered with WLan as-well, which is nice, since this way I can take my Macbook to the couch and surf from there without a cable. Plus thanks to the 300MBit support I can transfer files from and to my desktop really fast (although a Cable with GBit would probably be faster still).