I finally have it in my hands. It’s beautiful. My new Powerbook 12″ arrived at my office at 9:01 am this morning, and, as only the most beautiful irony would have it, our IT guy Nathan delivered it personally to my desk. He wanted to see it. He wanted to touch it. He wanted to insert and eject CDs from the Superdrive over and over again.
Of course, there was the usual maligning of my gadget habit, and I don’t blame him. This month has been really something, even by my own estimation. I sold my old cell on eBay, and made an $81 profit there. Now that I have the phone with a built-in calendar and contact list, I found precious little use for the Tungsten, so I sold that to Dad, who will appreciate the thing far more than I have been of late. Then, thanks to the push of the $100 off coupon from the Apple Store, I got the Powerbook and sold the 12″ iBook again to Dad, who again will appreciate it more.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved that iBook. It was plenty speedy and plenty light. It did everything I needed it to do. But there’s the rub: it did everything I needed it to do… not everything I wanted it to do. Big difference there. Now, finally, I can burn DVDs.
But there’s something else that I appreciate only now. I’ve written before about the experience I have working with the Mac. The tactile experience of the Powerbook is an order of magnitude different than working on the iBook. The keyboard is faster, firmer, and more forgiving. The trackpad is more accurate and a little smaller. Dodge said last time he was in town that it really doesn’t matter how fast the machine is that you’re working on if you’re not a terribly proficient or efficient user. Over the last two years, I’ve become a more proficient and efficient user; now, the hardware is opening the door for me even more and getting out of the way.
I’m sure there will be more. I have yet to decide if it really runs too hot for me. It’s warm, no doubt, but I haven’t been burned yet. I try not to do so much naked computing as I did in my youth. Some, but not so much.