We came across a couple of forums featuring the same concern. It seems white MacBooks have a tendency to lose its immaculate color and turn a little yellowish around the trackpad and keyboard area. (These areas have matte finish to begin with which does look attractive but  a lot harder to clean than a smooth surface.)
 
The discoloration starts to appear anywhere from two to three weeks of use. It doesn't affect its performance but it is kind of an eye sore. It makes the owners look like they lack personal hygiene or something. The owner of the MacBook in the image says:

"The spots don't wash off, I've only had the MacBook for two weeks...can't be my hands. I don't smoke, don't use latex, etc. And for those who worry about my hygiene habits, thanks. I wash my hands." You're welcome.

The stains, in fact, are not even caused by dirt because they appear resistant to Windex, the universal formula that will wipe clean anything dirty except a guilty conscience. The discoloration is also immune to iKlear, non-bleach Chlorox wipes, 3M Magic Eraser and plain wet cotton towel.

Other concerned Apple People have forwarded some possible "cure" but as one discolored, err, disgruntled, owner observed, "Its seems like more than just a surface "stain" and seems like a change in the plastic itself, which is worrisome. I wouldn't mind so much, but i'm just concerned how this will look months down the road."

Apple has yet to address this issue.

The MacBook is probably Apple's most anticipated laptop to date. It may not be the first portable computer from the company that runs on Intel chips, but it is the first to have a consumer-friendly price tag.

In the spirit of competition, let's have a Fight Club of sorts, pitching the MacBook against other laptops in its class. Let's start with an Apple to Apple match-up - the iBook vs the MacBook. In general, the MacBook lords over the iBook. Although it's a hundred bucks more expensive than its predecessor, the MacBook compensates with just a slightly heavier 5.14 lbs of weight and a wider, brighter and glossier 13.3" screen. Let's not forget the 1.83 or 2 GHz Intel Core Duo processor.

Now, against other laptops the MacBook's I-can-play-all-programs capability, allowing a Microsoft operating system inside a Mac OS X, is a definite advantage. It's hard drive comes in 60, 80, 100 or 120 GB but is easily upgradable. You can even do this by yourself. It burns CDs and plays DVDs. Just add a couple of bucks and you can configure it to play or burn both CDs and DVDs.

The iSight webcam on top of the screen lets you conduct video web chats or just take pictures of yourself to put in your blog. The included remote control and Front Row software let you plug the MacBook into a larger monitor or TV. You can enjoy viewing your videos, music, movies and photos all day thanks to its long battery life.

And if you do not actually care about its specs and you want to buy it because it looks good and goes well with your outfit, the MacBook also has something for you. Previously only available in white, Apple has come out with a black variant - that one blogger dubbed as the DarthBook. These and its virus resistant, low-maintenance Mac OS X and ingenious hardware such as its trackpad (Drag two fingers across the surface and it brings up right-click menus) knocks down its competition.

  

A 13-inch MacBook doesn't come in cheap, so as much as possible you would want to spare it from all the harshness of this cruel world - all the dusts, dents, scratches, and other what-have-yous. So the people from a company called Wrappers came up with a MacBook Sleeve and Lap Protector that would ensure that your Apple baby will not have a hard life ahead of it.

The sleeve is tailor-made for the 13" MacBook, it is 76% rubber and 24% cotton. The trim of the sleeve can come in six different colors: black, purple, red, blue, green and orange. The people at Wrappers assure you that the spongey exteriors of their product will shield your MacBook from scratches and minor bumps.

It is not machine washable, but if you want to get a washable kind, that's no problem as they also create customized and washable sleeves (left pic). As for the lap protecting part, it could insulate against temperatures up to 250 centigrade. This will cost you £17.99 or roughly $34 USD.

Many people are contented with OS X running on their Macs, but Hans Verbeeck isn't just going to sit around knowing that Microsoft Vista Beta 2 can run on his MacBook Pro. So, just like the other folks who wanted to see for themselves how the new Vista would perform in a Mac, Verbeeck got the system up and running. His verdict? "It is just beautiful". With some reinforcements from Jeff Dorsey, a system engineer in Redmond, Verbeeck captures his successful attempt in pictures.

A bit of a boo-boo. Verbeeck downloaded the 64-bit version.

 

The Windows Vista screen. 'Install Now?' Yes please.

The partitioning scheme should look like this.

If you get this message, don't panic. All you have to is reboot from the Vista Install DVD and then select repair.

There you have it, Vista running on MacBook Pro. This dialog box appeared when Verbeeck plugged in an external screen.

To get Verbeeck's step by step installation procedure, click on the "Read" link.

With Steve Jobs being a powerhouse of ideas and inspiration for Apple, it's nice to see their hard work go rewarded with lots of media coverage - and, of course, praise. This cannot go much higher than attention from one of the largest and respected publications, Time Magazine. They've just selected the 13" MacBook as their gadget of the week, and Apple are so proud of this feat that they've listed this award under their hot news section.

Reviewing what the writer Wilson Rothman says about the laptop, I can't even help but smile. He explains that the unit is one of the perfect contenders for students and anyone who pretty much wants a unit that is easy to use, good looking and fairly priced for what it is. He states that it is nice for a lot of the technology which was already in its Pro counterpart to go into the MacBook. As we already know the base unit lacks some features, such as the large screen, lit keyboard, 2.16Ghz Processor and dedicated graphics card. However it makes up for these by including a media remote, iSight, MagSafe connections, Bluetooth and of course a relatively lower price.

Wilson furthers his strong argument for the unit by showing how his wife was pleased with a work obtained one. Her only complaint was of the lag she experienced in Rosetta (Apple's background PowerPC emulator), however even this was justified by explaining that it was a matter of milliseconds. Further arguments for the unit included its overall look and the options available for upgrade. He noted that if you wish to purchase a MacBook with the 'Black' high end specifications, do so by upgrading the white base model, in this instance, the overall price is cheaper for some reason. Again concerning options, he develops his point and advises us to upgrade at purchase and not after, as again it would be cheaper and for the RAM, upgrades mean throwing your old sticks away.

Ending points were based on the OS. The unit is perfect at dual booting, and the problem of right click can be avoided by an external mouse. Otherwise you have a future compatible laptop even capable of running Vista in requirement specification. A winner in anyone's book.

Letterbox is a plugin for Apple's Mail.app that rearranges the interface into three vertical columns. The message panel will be situated to the right of the message list rather than below it. In order for this layout to work well for you, you'll need at least 1280 x 1440 horizontal pixels. I can hear MacBook Pro to Dell UltraSharp owners screaming hallelujah.

To Install:
1. Download the plugin.
2. Quit Mail.app.
3. Have you previously installed one or more Mail.app plugins?
if yes: simply drop Letterbox.mailbundle into your ~/Library/Mail/Bundles folder.

if no:
a. open Terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.mail EnableBundles -bool true
defaults write com.apple.mail BundleCompatibilityVersion 2
b. open ~/Library/Mail and create a folder named 'Bundles'.
c. Drop 'Letterbox.mailbundle' into that folder.

4. Launch Mail.app and enjoy!
(I promise I'll make a friendlier installer eventually.)

To Uninstall:
Simple remove the file Letterbox.mailbundle from ~/Library/Mail/Bundles and restart Mail.

The previous 9 pixel wide divider has now been shrunk to 3 pixels. Known bugs in this version is a 3 pixel space at the top of the message pane which is being fixed as we speak.

Download: [Letterbox 0.11]

If you plan to run Sims 2, Quake 4, Doom 3, or the upcoming Civilization IV on the Mac Platform, pass on the Macbook.  Anything that relies on accelerated graphics will not run optimally on this machine.

On the other hand, the MacBook is still very nice in terms of affordability. If you don't mind not having the "latest and greatest," there are plenty of good games that are quite playable on this machine. Just make sure you've maxed out your RAM. A recent test using games based on the Quake 3 engine demonstrated this quite clearly. On a "medium" setting with 512 MB of RAM, a typical game played at 52 frames per second. However, installing the maximum 2 GB resulted in a doubling of performance, with a rate of 98 frames per second.

Other titles that work well on the MacBook are Jedi Knight II and Jedi Academy, X-Plane, and Railroad Tycoon 3. There is also a new Universal version of Quake II that plays quite well, although the full retail version of the game is required to use the Universal version. Generally, these games work better on the MacBook (which "borrows" RAM from the motherboard for graphics applications)  than on the old G4 using an high-powered graphics card.

Again, if you're thinking about running Quake 4 or Doom 3, find a different machine. MacBook may run these games at their lowest screen resolution with image quality and details at their lowest settings - but if one must do that, why bother? If it's a quality gaming experience you're after, stick with the Xbox 360 or Playstation2 - they're cheaper, and the graphics are amazing on a  high definition television. If, for whatever reason, you must do must gaming on a Mac however, you should at least purchase the MacBook Pro - and this may still be underpowered for most of today's games.  For the best Mac gaming experience, spend a nickel and get the Quad 2.5GHz PowerPC G5. The ultra Intel-based machine will be coming out soon, so you could probably get a heck of a deal on a Power PC G5 on an auction site.

If, on the other hand, you're just an occasional gamer,  the MacBook will probably work for you. Just remember to install the maximum RAM, and understand that the machine has limitations that game-specific consoles do not.

It's been revealed that Apple are continuing efforts to promote their recently released Intel-based products by obtaining larger shelf space at Best Buy stores across North America. Samir Bhavnani, an analyst with Current Analysis commented that the stores feature large displays and units of several Apple products.

Although the retailer already stocks a range of Mac Minis and iPods, this move shows Apples confidence in their line of products using an Intel processor. In addition, this initiative signifies a dramatic push to hopefully increase their market share and availability of products.

Best Buy are now also stocking the regular MacBook and Pro alongside iMac systems.

Your 15" MacBook Pro is almost perfect...but unlike its bigger sibling, the 17" MacBook Pro, the 15" variant does not have the fancy two-finger right click, which is a standard feature of the 17" type. Well those days are so over.

Apple Newton, an Apple geek, recently made up a package installer that will replace your 15" MacBook Pro Trackpad driver with the current one that is shipping with MacBooks and 17" MacBook Pro models. According to him, once you run the installer and restart, you must go to your trackpad Preference Pane (within Keyboard and Mouse) and enable the right-click option to use it (it is unchecked by default).

Also included in the package is an installer to restore the default 10.4.6 files in the event Apple requires them for future updates.

Download: [Secondary Trackpad Click for the 15" MacBook Pro]

There has been so many things said about the MacBook these days - too much thermal grease makes it hot, it can burn skin, and that the laminate on its vent should be removed to lower its temp. Well, it seems that some Macbook owners have had enough of it and would like to straighten out the overheating issue.

In this video, a guy measured the temperature of the different parts of his newly purchased Macbook (2.0ghz core duo, 2gb ram, 80gb drive) with an infrared gun. Apparently, the Apple flagship has already been running for 3 hours while streaming iTunes music, and working in Pages, terminal, Firefox, and other apps. If that's the case and those are the measured temps, then I think the results aren't that bad.