Andy Chase

Apple has made a fine computer with the Ti Powerbook, and it's the one that's going to get me to jump the Wintel ship just as soon as I can justify the cost.I've spent quite a bit of money on tech stuff (computer & related components like hard drives, network equipment, etc) and gadgets (PDA's and related accessories) over the last couple of years, thanks to a booming economy and good salaries at my last several jobs. I'll be the first person to admit that I probably should have put most of that money away for a rainy day (or couple of months, which was how long this spring's unemployment spell wound up lasting.)

The problem is that technolust was just too strong for this early-to-mid-twenties geek. The real gadget orgy started with my purchase of a Handspring Visor Deluxe, which I bought back in January of 2000 back when you could only order them directly from Handspring. The folding keyboard upon which this is being written came next, followed by a couple of Springboard modules, my Visor Prism (I actually received one as a Christmas gift, but I had already decided to buy one for myself), and culminating early this year with the purchase of a new Cell phone and a cable for connecting it to my Visor.

I've been a pretty good boy since getting laid off in February; my current salary requires it, but I'd also like to think those two months of unemployment were a little bit sobering. I did buy a Wacom Graphire tablet back in September when I got the creative itch that turned into this site, but that's about it.

Handspring hasn't released any new updates to the Visor line that I absolutely must have, which has been a blessing... for the most part, I haven't had any burning material wants since that cell phone / cable wireless rig. (Well, that's not entirely accurate - I badly want to purchase an Etherwave kit from Big Briar, but that's worthy of a whole other blog.)

Even Apple's rollout yesterday of the new iPod MP3 player didn't give me that pining feeling. Yes, it's a very cool unit and I'd love to have one, but I don't feel like I neeeeed one.

I shouldn't have gone to the Apple web site to read about the iPod, though; while I was there I thought I would take another peek at the Ti Powerbook, a computer that grabbed my interest when it was released earlier this year.

It wasn't lust at first sight because after all, it's a Macintosh, and I got really burned out on the whole one button mouse thing in 1997 when I worked on a PowerMac 9600 with OS 7 for the better part of a year.

But 1" thick...

and DVD-ROM...

and that wide, wide screen that's bigger than my damn CRT monitor at home...

The Ti Powerbook has been slowly but patiently working its mojo on me, and I visit it every time I find myself at Fry's Electronics much the same way I try to slow down as I pass the Audi dealership on Van Nuys boulevard to catch a glimpse of the TT coupes. I had heard about Apple's price cuts on the Powerbook about a month ago, but I didn't realize that in addition to dropping the price by $400 they had increased the processor speed and hard drive space on the low-end model. 550Mhz PowerPC plus a 20 gigabyte hard drive. (Hell, I could put OS 9, OS X, and Mandrake Linux 8 on that thing!) Anda free extra 128 megs of RAM through the end of the year.

:::sigh:::

I've got that pining feeling, and it's not going away.

The other thing that's hurrying me down the path to Camp Macintosh is Microsoft's Windows XP shenanigans; aside from their invasive and cumbersome product registration process, their .NET and hailstorm initiatives scare the hell out of me. Linux is fun, but not quite stable enough as a 24/7 desktop OS for my liking.

OS Wars aside, I also like the fact that Apple (love them or hate them) seems to understand the fact that Microsoft has won the shoving match for desktop market share; Apple's goal instead seems to be making quality computers that appeal to people on certain key levels; aesthetic (I really don't care what my desktop tower looks like; a beige computer works just as well as a shiny translucent grey and white one, but Apple does make some damn fine looking machines), philosophic (people bought into the whole iMac simplicity thing in a big way), and of course the fanatical (I promise, I won't become one of those people.) Just yesterday somebody made the analogy on Slashdot that Apple is trying to position itself as a sort of Harman-Kardon of computers... a higher end, niche market, but a very loyal one. I don't know if I would actually rate Apple as Harman-Kardon to E-Machines' Yorx, but you get the idea.

Microsoft gives me the impression that it will settle for nothing short of world domination over all aspects of computing from the desktop to the internet to the anti-terrorism ID chip they'll be putting in the backs of our necks soon - quality, usability, privacy, and security be damned. I'm really tired of it, and ready for a change. Apple has made a fine computer with the Ti Powerbook, and it's the one that's going to get me to jump the Wintel ship just as soon as I can justify the cost. Anyone need twenty two hundred bucks' worth of web development?