PowerBooks

I’ve never really been a fan of laptops. While I can understand why other might like them, I’ve always envisioned myself as more of a tower person. Specifically, an Apple G5 tower person. After all, I’m a Web designer. I need to be able to run Photoshop and Imageready, and I need to do so while staring at a 22″ monitor set at, the very least, a 1600x1200 resolution.

But lately, I’ve been having a change of heart. For some reason, I’ve really begun ogling Apple’s PowerBooks, specifically that 15″ beauty (it certainly doesn’t hurt that it’s easily one of the sexiest pieces of computer hardware in existence right now). And Apple just released a new round of upgrades today: 1.5GHz G4, 512MB RAM, 80GB hard drive, ATI Radeon 9700 graphics processor, Airport Extreme, SuperDrive, super-cool backlit keyboard… pardon me while I clean up the drool. I was planning to put my tax refund towards something else, but now I might just have to plunk down the cash as a downpayment on one of these aluminum beauties.

Part of me is perplexed that I even want a laptop — like I said, I always thought of myself as a workstation kind of guy. But maybe this change towards nicer weather has got me itching to leave the apartment (a sentiment that I know will come as a shock to some of you), get out and about, and do my computing in a more social setting (of course, whether I’d actually do such a thing if I owned a laptop remains to be seen). Maybe it’s just the geek factor of owning a new toy, and let’s face it, there aren’t too many toys cooler than a G4 PowerBook (although a new 36″ HDTV comes pretty dang close). Or maybe it’s me just lusting after that sexy aluminum case. (Repeats to self, “It’s just a computer. It’s just a computer.”)

Sigh… whatever the case, $2,500 is a fair chunk of change (and no, you PC folks won’t sway me on the price factor — sometimes, you just need to pay for quality). But I can think of worse ways to spend my hard-earned casharollah… like paying off my student loans quicker.