A game that’s sure to get a lot of play on the PC this holiday season is Call of Duty: World at War (COD5). The multiplayer beta has been available for a few days, and already I’ve logged a good couple of hours in online matches.

COD5 is an excellent test for the late 2008 MacBook Pro’s discreet graphics chip. Overall, I found the nVidia 9600M GT to perform quite well, rendering the game with a high amount of detail at comfortable frame rates.

For the deathmatch purist, having beautiful graphics is a distant second to having silky smooth frame rates. For my tests, I kept this in mind, but I was also thinking about the single player aspect, where graphical detail is important for providing an engrossing experience.

Starting at the highest resolution, a native 1440 x 900, the game felt a bit choppy and textures looked flat and lifeless at their lower settings. Dropping down to 1280 x 720 and having the details maxed out to ‘extra’ produced a gorgeous palette of colors and textures, but the frame rate took a noticeable hit any time the scene had to render a lot of objects. Working down to 1152 x 864, I found this to be the lowest acceptable resolution for the MacBook Pro’s 15.4” screen; any lower and the graphics looked too blocky, muddy and aliased. At this resolution, I chose a combination of medium and extra detail settings. The result produced acceptable frame rates for online play with graphics still pleasing enough to showcase the 9600M GT’s abilities.

Further tweaking and running the final code of the game may produce even better results. I can’t wait for Call of Duty: World at War to be released now that I’ve tried the beta. It might just give COD4 a run for its money!

Slightly higher quality video here.

How does a new unibody Macbook Pro compare to an older Santa Rosa Macbook Pro when it comes to gaming? I put these two MBP’s to the test, running the Far Cry 2 benchmark for a head-to-head faceoff. The results were dramatic.

The late 2008 MacBook Pro loads the Far Cry 2 benchmark over 50% faster (37 seconds) than the older MBP model (58 seconds). One could say that the faster 2.53Ghz Penryn CPU trumps the slower 2.2Ghz Merom processor, but this alone can’t account for such a large discrepancy in loading times.

During the startup sequence for most games, vast amounts of data must be decompressed and transferred from the hard drive to the system RAM and video RAM. It appears that the 120GB Fujitsu HDD that comes standard in the older MBP is quite a bit slower than the 320GB HDD found in the latest MBP, although they are both rated at 5400RPM. In addition, the latest unibody notebooks feature a faster (1066mhz) system bus and use RAM operating at this high speed. These improvements combined, allow the newer MBP’s to internally transfer data faster than the older Santa Rosa based notebooks, which can lead to faster game loading.

During the actual game sequence, the late 2008 MacBook Pro produces much smoother frame rates than the older Santa Rosa model (averaging 30 FPS versus 18 FPS, under medium settings at native resolution). Similarly, in synthetic benchmarks, the 9600M GT outperforms the 8600 GT by around 45%.

For most modern games, the bottleneck in performance lies with the GPU. It is a bit surprising then, that the older 8600M GT performs so poorly compared to the 9600M GT, as both GPU’s are similar, and each have 32 shaders. Thus, it would appear that nVidia’s successor to the 8600M GT has 3D performance optimizations beyond its modest boost in core and memory frequency.

To get playable frame rates (29 FPS) on the 8600M GT, the screen resolution needs to be lowered to 960 x 600, but this also made the graphics look blocky and heavily aliased. Perhaps a significant contributor to the performance limitations of this particular GPU is its miniscule 128MB of VRAM. It would be interesting to benchmark a 512MB version of the 8600M GT to remove this variable.

So far, my findings indicate that those interested in gaming should definitely consider upgrading to the new unibody MacBook Pro; the speed benefits are greatly noticeable. In addition, it has been widely speculated that future driver support from nVidia will further enhance the GPU’s used in the Pro and also help to optimize its logicboard chipset. These parts are still very new and there is plenty of room for improvement. Geforce Boost anyone?

Do you own a MacBook Pro, new or old? How do you like it for gaming?

After a month of daily use, I’ve decided to post another video giving some thoughts on my now battle hardened iPod Nano 4G. There’s a few things to like, but plenty to hate of Apple’s newest sharp looking (and feeling) pocket player. I hope you enjoy my video review and creative commentary.

Last week, I mentioned the loud click noise the trackpad made on my new late 2008 MacBook Pro. I even posted a video comparing the sound to an older, quieter model. Today, I think I may have found a solution.

On YouTube, a user commented on my video and mentioned how stuffing paper between the trackpad and battery could dampen the clicking noise. After trying this, I found that I could reduce the loudness of the click, but at the expense of stiffening the clicking mechanism; it’s actually quite difficult finding the perfect balance between click noise and click resistance.

My solution uses layered pieces of Kleenex that are sized to cover the underside of the trackpad, directly underneath the battery (no tools required). It’s something that takes a bit of trial and error, as you’ll need to put the battery and case cover back in place each time to accurately test any changes that you’ve made.

In the end, I settled with around 6 squares of Kleenex to made the click quieter than my early 2008 model MacBook Pro. The resistance to depress the click pad has been increased a tad, but it’s nothing my thumb can’t handle. So long as the paper doesn’t catch on fire (let’s hope your battery never hits 451 F), this fix has tackled one of my biggest gripes with Apple’s new unibody laptops.

In the future, I want to use some proper sound proofing material to see if I can further quiet the trackpad without increasing click resistance. I’m sure there are better materials to use other than toilette tissue, but right now, this is a very cheap and easy solution to try. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes.

UPDATE: I now have a video showing the procedure.

iSight

During the inital announcement for the new 2008 MacBook Pro, and the many reviews that followed, I didn’t recall reading about any changes to the notebook’s webcam. But after testing the new iSight in various environments, it’s obvious that the camera captures better content than its predecessors. The improvements are especially noticeable during nighttime, in low-light settings.

The difference may well be software based, but regardless, the camera is now much improved at sensing and adjusting to various light levels. Gone, are most of the under and overexposed shots that would plague the old webcam. Now, when you are seated in front of a bright light or white wall, the camera auto-adjusts to show the subject and background in a much more balanced way. Using the old iSight, it was always a fuss angling the webcam so that a dark t-shirt or a nearby lamp wouldn’t wash out half the image. With the improved webcam settings, there is also less picture noise and video looks as sharp as ever. It’s nice that Apple has tweaked this useful feature.

Ambient Light Sensor

A bane of the previous generation MacBook Pros was the position of its ambient light sensors. In past models, these elements were positioned under the speaker grills and would be sensitive to hand movements, such as when reaching for keys near the top corners of the keyboard. Obscuring these sensors would trigger an immediate darkening of the screen, which can be quite annoying when not intended.

Apple has remedied this nuisance by positioning a single sensor near the top of the glass screen. In this position, it is almost impossible to accidentally set off the sensor, and the feature now works exactly as it should—automatically, without any fuss. I wish the same could be said about my iPhone’s light sensor, which appears to do nothing!

Slot Loading DVD-RW

The new disc drive works exactly as you would expect, but I’ve noticed that it’s slightly quieter than the drives in the older MacBook Pros. Upon disc insertion and ejection, it still makes a sound similar to Robocop tackling a flight of stairs, but it appears that the sturdy unibody casing does a better job of suppressing the vibrations, and perhaps the new SATA drive is a bit better behaved. This is a pretty subtle difference, but it’s yet another refinement that I’ve noticed in the late 2008 MacBook Pro.

My full review of the Macbook Pro, late 2008 model is now live. I didn’t realize how quickly 10 minutes would pass when I was busy listing the pros and cons of this new laptop, so I had to whittle away about half my original footage to meet YouTube’s video length restriction. Still, I think I managed to capture the essence of Apple’s latest flagship product and my impressions of using it. I hope you enjoy my video review!

It’s no secret that many people are alarmed by Apple’s decision to drop matte screen displays from their lineup of ‘professional’ products. Many say that they won’t upgrade their existing MacBook Pro because of this feature. I can’t speak for everyone, but I find the new glass screen a general improvement over earlier models. Having said that, I realize that this is a highly subjective matter, and I expect there to be a lot of variance in opinion.  

Early reviews found that the late 2008 MacBook Pro had a much louder mouse click than older MBP models. My own tests confirm these findings and I’ve captured the excessive ‘snapping’ sound in the video below. Although it is difficult to capture on camera, I would say that the clicking noise from the new MBP is about 2-3x louder and has an unpleasant, higher tone.

Fortunately, tap clicking, where you lightly tap the trackpad without actually making it click, still works fine, but sometimes this method is less precise, such as when attempting to click without moving the cursor, highlighting text, or click-and-dragging objects.

As for the larger trackpad surface and the absence of a mouse button, it is another refinement in this model that I’m greatly liking. I use the trackpad for everything—I refuse to plug in a mouse—so the larger control surface only stands to improve my accuracy and freedom when controlling the cursor. It just boggles my mind how PC makers have fallen behind on improving the trackpad. I doubt they will continue dragging their feet for long…

Finally, a lot has been said about Apple’s use of glass in their new trackpads. It’s true, it doesn’t actually feel like glass, but this is probably a good thing. A quick test using my iPhone’s touchscreen and it’s obvious that the smooth glass surface actually provides quite a bit more resistance than one might expect. The late 2008 MacBook Pros feature a slight grit on the glass, which makes them feel similar to the early 2008 MBP models. But after a side-by-side comparison, it’s apparent that the new glass trackpads feature much less resistance. The fingers just seem to glide more and there’s hardly a jump or stutter when moving around or changing directions. The new glass trackpad is not just hype!

A couple weeks ago, I walked into a coffee shop during the evening hours on my way home from shopping. There was no one else in line, so I didn’t feel particularly rushed and I took a moment to ask the girl behind the counter what would be a good alternative to my regular cup of organic dark roast coffee.

She called out an exhaustive list of specialties and flavored drinks, but nothing really caught my attention. Then, she mentioned the macha latte, which I was sort of familiar with from my favorite summertime drink, the macha chillo. After serving up a cup, I gave it a sip and was immediately impressed by its sweet, creamy taste with just a slight hint of bitterness.

Macha is green tea powder, and for the latte, it is mixed with hot water and whisked in a bowl until it is completely dissolved. Then, the mixture is slowly added to hot milk and often sweetened with honey, sugar or vanilla syrup.

One thing that I have noticed from ordering this drink, now from several different coffee shops, is the inconsistency in which it’s prepared (at least around here). Some places will serve it unsweetened and bitter, whilst others will sweeten it without asking – sometimes over doing it! Also, like all good lattes, the macha latte should be served frothy with the powder completely mixed in; but already, I’ve had a few of them that were rushed. These ill prepared concoctions looked and tasted like green milk, so I guess it is best to stick to places that have proven to make it right. Unfortunately, getting the drink served right often comes down to the individual server that is preparing it, which makes the whole affair a bit hit-and-miss, I’m afraid…

What’s your favorite coffee alternative?

Not long ago, the only show that I watched regularly on TV was The Sopranos. But when that show came to a close, I found myself without anything to watch besides the occasional movie and, of course, plenty of YouTube. Then around fall of last year a co-worker recommended Prison Break. At the time, Prison Break was airing its third season, so I found myself with two complete seasons to watch at my leisure, and that’s exactly what I did.

At first, the whole idea of a prison breakout scheme seemed highly unimaginative, but as the story unfolded it grew more interesting with plot twists and the introduction of new characters. Eventually, I’d find myself at the end of season two thinking that it was a very decent show – not the best I had ever seen – but certainly entertaining, with consistent cliffhangers and some great acting.

With the third season came a new prison to breakout of, with new bad guys to contend with, and a new inmate for the protagonist to rescue. In other words, it was a shameless rehash of the first season! Along with this tiresome scheme came the extension of the show’s long running story arc involving the proverbial bad guys who are known simply as ‘The Company’.

For me, this is where Prison Break really started to fall apart. You see, we’re supposed to be heavily interested in uncovering the secret machinations of this Illuminati-like group, but unfortunately it’s a lot less exciting than trying to understand, for instance, the bizarre physics of the island in Lost or even the confusing supernatural elements in Battlestar Galactica. This is due to the show’s overly trite and uninspiring portrayal of The Company. As such, I now find myself totally disinterested in learning anything more about these antagonists. Who cares where they come from and why they act so evil?

Now in its forth season, the regular cast of Prison Break is back yet again, but it’s becoming painfully obvious that the characters haven’t grown since we first met them in season one. Compared with high quality shows like The Sopranos or Dexter, the characters in Prison Break are shockingly one-dimensional and only seem capable of displaying a limited range of emotions and personality. This has lead to the severe typecasting of its characters, such that the we now have: the smart guy, the tough guy, the loyal guy, the untrustworthy guy, the nerdy guy, the druggie guy – and the list of clichés goes on.

If that wasn’t enough, the ever extending plotline makes every obstacle thrown at protagonists seem completely artificial, and the motivation for the characters to continue chasing the carrot is becoming laughable. In the latest season, the crew must risk their lives going after the bad guys or else they’ll be thrown back in jail. I’ve played Milton-Bradley board games with better plots!

So, I guess this post is sort of my farewell eulogy to the show. It was a good ride early on, but now it’s like watching someone play the puzzle sections in Max Payne.