For the last month or so I have been looking at the possibility of getting a new Mac. I currently have a Rev A 14.1 G3 600 iBook that i ordered shortly after they were first announced at the Macworld Expo in January 2002. The iBook has been a great computer for me. It has also been the most reliable computer I have ever owned.

The iBook started with 10.1 and through 10.3.5 it has run just about every application I have tried with virtually no problems. However it is now getting to the point where some of the multimedia apps are starting to run at a crawl. The only other problem I have had was that I had to replace the hard drive in January 2004. Jonahan and I spent a sunday afternoon replacing the hard drive. I think we did a pretty good job even though we had 7 screws left over when we were done and the track pad quit working due to the fact that i accidently pulled the ribbon holder off the mother board. Nothing a good soldering would not fix. But overall my first Mac purchase was the best thing I could have ever done.

If buying a new Mac were like playing No Limit Texas Hold’em, I would currently be holding a pocket pair of Aces. The Ace of Spades and Ace of Diamonds to be exact. The reason I have this pair of Aces is that I currently have the money sitting in reserve for this purchase. This is the best position anyone could hope to be in because all i have to do is choose which of these beautiful machines I would like to take home.

Before the Flop I was considering getting a 15 inch Powerbook with a superdrive. I really love the looks and power of this laptop compared to my G3 iBook. The G4 Powerbook would allow me to greatly improve my productivity and allow me do video editing, graphic design and web design from anywhere I would like to work.

The Flop came out and we saw an Ace of Clubs, Seven of clubs, and the Jack of Hearts. I got a set of Aces and feel as though I am going to win this hand no problem. The other Ace that came out was the G5 iMac. This is another truly beautiful machine. The entire computer enclosed behind the LCD screen and less than 2 inches wide. Not to mention the fact that it has a G5 processor in it. The iMac G5 offers some serious computing power for a great price. For less than $1500 a person can get a G5 processor, a 17 inch LCD screen, a Superdrive, and the ability to use the greatest operating system ever created in Panther and the forth coming 10.4 Tiger. The G5 iMac is really a great value. I should go all in but I think i want to try and draw more value into this pot.

On Fourth Street we are dealt a Five of Clubs. With this card I begin to worry. There could possibly be a Club Flush out there that could beat my set of Aces. This card also signifies the recognition of my need for the portability of a laptop and more specifically the aforementioned 15 inch Powerbook G4. This card also represents the gamble I am about to take.

The Powerbook line is at a crossroads of sorts. It has been about seven months since the last update of the Powerbook line and if history means anything to the revision schedule the Powerbook is normally updated every seven and a half to eight months. There are a lot of questions about this Powerbook update.

The biggest question is whether we are close to seeing a G5 Powerbook. Most people seem to think we are still about a year away from seeing this dream come to reality due to heat issues and power consumption questions.

The other question is whether we will just see a speed bump or perhaps the implementation of the Dual Core G4 processors. I really think that the speed bump is probably the most likely scenario.

The only card that can help me now is the Ace of Hearts. The real gamble is whether this update is going to take place here in October or early November or be held back till Macworld San Francisco in January. The only thing I have to lose by taking this gamble is the ability to use my new Mac a lot sooner, however I think this gamble may be worth it.

I just hope the Ace of Hearts comes on the River and the update happens sooner than later.