Industrial Design of the Apple MacBook Pro

For the past 6 months, I've been using an Apple MacBook Pro. As you may have guessed, I'm not using the new model with the frameless screen, all aluminum construction, and glass track pad, but rather the model immediately preceding that (as an aside, is any one else bothered by Apple not using unique model names/numbers making it next to impossible to be precise about which product you're actually using?). In a lot of ways, Apple has done an amazing job engineering the physical characteristics of the machine. And on newer models, they are making even more progress. For example, check out this video on the battery (that's right, their engineering the battery) on the new 17" MacBook Pro.

But this post is not on what they've done right, but rather, it has a few thoughts I've had on areas of improvment.

1. Hard drive activity indicator - I know this seems silly, but I can't count how many times I've been wondering if something is making progress or not, and that blinking light can be a lot of solace.
   
   
2. Power light - I know, this sounds even more silly. If the laptop's on, isn't it obvious? Why have another light stating the obvious. Well, believe it or not, sometimes things don't work as expected (that's right, my Mac hangs from time to time, especially when resuming from suspend). Its immensely useful to know if the machine thinks its on. I think it can be done elegantly (e.g., just illuminate the power switch), and I think it would be a great help.
   
   
3. Add keys for begin/end or PgUp/PgDown. I have two unused spots for keys near the arrows (and even more wasted space on the 17" models), and having dedicated keys for this functionality would be useful. While we're at it, is there any reason why the arrow keys and function keys are half sized?
   
   
4. No sharp corners. The front edge of the MacBook Pro is fairly sharp and when I rest my wrists on it (I know, I shouldn't be resting my wrists there), it digs in and hurts. A softer edge would be very much appreciated.
   
   
5. Power port on the back of the machine. This is a tough one, since the design of the MacBook/MacBookPro have the screen sink below the surface of the keyboard when the screen is open. This obscures the back of the machine, making it unavailable for ports. Unfortunately, I find when the laptop is in my lap (once again, I know the manual says I should be doing this), the power cord on the side of the machine frequently comes unplugged. My gut says, if it were in the back, it wouldn't be as big of a problem. Maybe with the 8+ hour battery on the next generation model, I'll be able to ween myself off of having my laptop constantly plugged in.
   
   
6. More mouse buttons. I know this is a common gripe that goes back through the ages. But, it's so frustrating know that I can run Unix apps on the Mac, but not having enough buttons to navigate them well. Others have suggested multi-finger clicks, etc., but the lack of tactile feedback makes me feel like I'm playing a Street Figher like game; when an action doesn't happen (especially infrequently used ones, like middle click), I don't know if I'm misremembering how to do the click, or if I just didn't execute it properly. Basically, I like tactile feedback telling me I'm doing things properly. As an aside, I very much like the design of the trackpad on the new MacBook Pro that replaces the button on the trackpad with more area to swipe. This is okay, because the whole trackpad still physically moves when I push on it to click.
   

One point that was going to make my list, no optical drive on the front of the machine, has been fixed in the latest generation of the hardware. Kudos to Apple for that. I'm sure there are other pet peeves I have about the MacBook/MacBook Pro hardware, but these are the ones that came to mind while writing this. Here's hoping to improvements in future designs!