My almost 2-year-old laptop is showing its age. Windows used to boot up instantaneously. It hardly lagged and was the perfect machine for my modest gaming needs. Not anymore.

Indeed, it has been great. It has been my trusty companion without which I wouldn't be able to update Odds&Ends regularly, meet my editor's deadlines and watch DVDs when I'm bored stiff. It gave birth to most of the stuff in my portfolio too, so you can imagine the amount of time I've clocked on the machine.

It may not be that great anymore, but I'm still pretty happy with it; it being fat and heavy (bulky) notwithstanding. Problem is, the new Powerbook is proving to be a hard-to-resist source of seduction. It's tempting me to take a bite from the apple and jettison my trusty Dell.

I was never into switching. But that was before Apple announced OS X Tiger. I was smitten with OS X when it first came out (if you've been one of my earliest readers, you'll remember that Odds&Ends used to have an OS X "dock" as its navigation) but it never really compelled me to dump Windows. Tiger is different; Spotlight alone is worth forgoing my familiarity with Windows and learn the curves of a new OS. The cool widgets are tempting too.

Succumbing to temptation is never good. It does come with consequences; the most apparent of which is that you'll be left with a big hole in your wallet. As Apple has proved, beauty does come with a price; somewhere along the region of RM10,000 last time I checked. That was the time when the condescending AppleStore staff told me that Apple won't be introducing new Powerbooks anytime soon (the new line of Powerbooks was on the official website a week after that and the 15-inch Powerbook retails for $1999).

Now, to get the money for what would be my shiny new friend and to live with the knowledge that I'll be ridden with guilt for blowing 10k on a heap of aluminium and silicon (when I do make the purchase).