ibook vs. powerbook
Okay, let's pretend that money is no object... (dreams about money not being an object... fantasizes about calling hotel roomservice and ordering a steak even though he's not in a hotel... "How much would it cost to get it here at home?"...)
Seriously, though, a lot of people have been touting the virtues of powerbooks lately, but I recall a general consensus several dozen pages back that powerbooks were less durable, had poorer battery life, and worse airport reception than ibooks. If powerbooks were in every way vastly superior to ibooks, I'd be tempted to just go ahead and max out the ol' credit card and buy one. But I'm sure as hell not going to do that if it means paying $500 to get a machine that runs a abit quicker and has some nifty features, but doesn't do the things that I need it to do most (surf the internet in my back yard so I can do research and write papers outside).
Back to my car analogies: ibook = older Japanese car, does everything you need it to do with very little trouble, and gets great gas mileage; powerbook = fancy italian sports car, goes really fast, handles like a dream, but sacrifices fuel economy and reliability.
I'm going to post a version of this in the powerbook thread too. I really don 't know if any of this is accurate- I've never owned either, and I'm just going on what I've read, mostly here. If anyone would care to contradict me and tell me why the powerbook is really a good buy for those of us who don't require its muscle, please do! I'm just trying to learn as much as I can before spending my hard borrowed cash.