I don’t currently own<\/i> a laptop of any kind. All my mobility computing is in my iPhone and in my work laptop. For some reason I found myself thinking back over the various portable machines I’ve had (including during that stretch where I was entitled to any Apple laptop I wanted for work\/home use…and other times when work just sort of provided). In roughly reverse chronological order…<\/p>\n
Dell netbook (Mini 1012)<\/p>\n
2nd-gen black MacBook<\/p>\n
1st-gen black MacBook<\/p>\n
pre-production original MacBook Pro 15″<\/p>\n
12″ Powerbook G4<\/p>\n
12″ iBook G4<\/p>\n
15″ Titanium PowerBook G4<\/p>\n
original gray iBook G3 SE<\/p>\n
original bronze PowerBook G3<\/p>\n
14″ 233Mhz “Main Street” PowerBook G3 (first laptop, bought in 1999)<\/p>\n
The common theme here seems to be “consumer-grade low-cost and small”. Note that the move to a larger system has always been occasioned by a more powerful processor, and has always been succeeded by a smaller device with the same processor. (Aside from the netbook experiment, which was a special circumstance solely occasioned by the availability of Dell credit and birthday money.) On paper, at least, anything less than a 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo or 4 GB of RAM is a non-starter at this point.<\/p>\n
I bring this up because this time next week we’ll know what’s doing with the iPad 2. Which I have to think will include some sort of iOS update, whether to a notional iOS 5 or just a bump in 4. The combination of iPhone and Kindle has pretty much done for my previous bouts of iPad glee, but I’m still tempted – maybe because of the constant allure of Alan Kay’s notional Dynabook in the back of my head, maybe because I think I might actually do more blogging and writing and try to make something of it besides sharing the misery of Vanderbilt sports.<\/p>\n
But I’m definitely saving my birthday money for a bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don’t currently own a laptop of any kind. All my mobility computing is in my iPhone and in my work laptop. For some reason I found myself thinking back over the various portable machines I’ve had (including during that stretch where I was entitled to any Apple laptop I wanted for work\/home use…and other … <\/p>\n