Next Laptop?

My aging G4 Powerbook has eaten another battery and its been kicked to the curb for further OS upgrades since it's not sportin' an Intel processor. So...what to do.

It still runs solid even after 4 years but is obviously slower than the Vaio I picked up last year. I could burn another $80 on a battery and stick it out for another 18 months (which seems to be the life of a battery in this thing).

This was my first Apple product and I gotta say its a really nice piece of hardware. I've enjoyed using it and so has my wife. OS X is all good and iLife is a nicely done piece of software. The Apple is still my preferred photo management and DVD makin' rig even though it's noticeably slower than the Sony. Every single camera that I ever plugged in just worked. I could go on...

Now, my Sony ran Vista really well and it runs Windows 7 even better I will not complain about it or jump on the Microsoft hater-wagon. But the hardware, even brand new, was no where near as good as the Powerbook. This Vaio(VGN-CR320E) without a doubt has one of the worst trackpads I have ever used. The body creaks and flexes and the battery rattles horribly. But it works reliably...and the screen is lovely.

So what's next? Its gonna be a laptop, that much I do know. It will have DVD/CD burner. But other than that I am playing the field. Apple and PC have equal opportunities in my book. More later as this story develops