I did it. I finally upgraded to the Intel chipset. In plain English, that means I just bought a MacBook Pro. The package arrived this morning, and I fired her up tonight:
She’s a thing of beauty, and I’m composing this post with her right now. I had been holding out, trying to squeeze the most life I could out of my PowerBook. She’s still working well enough, but two things in concert forced my hand: 1) the prices of MacBooks dropped considerably with the latest models, and 2) Apple announced their upgrade to OSX, Snow Leopard, would not be available for PowerPC machines like my PowerBook. And so, the decision was made.
I have to say, I’m already pleased as punch. I’ve still got a lot of work to do to clean up my old files and applications before I migrate — I mean, I don’t have to, but I want to — so I’m not in the clear yet. I can tell I am going to love this machine, though, and for good reason. I downgraded from a 15″ screen to 13″, which means lighter and more portable for travel. This laptop is a refurb which means reusing a damaged electronic device that was returned and fixed up by Apple, with full warranty and some nice cost savings. Snow Leopard already seems to be a vast performance improvement over Leopard. And, of course, there are all the little things that Apple does so well, all the improvements like the magnetic power cable plug or the fancy battery life indicator or the totally slick multi-touch trackpad. What’s not to love?
My old machine served me well, and I will miss her. She was, after all, my first laptop. However, since she is in good shape, and people seem to still be buying that model of Powerbook on eBay, I think she will go to a good home instead of the e-waste facility, which makes me happy. Almost as happy as being the proud owner of a new MacBook Pro.
Filed under: Technology
