For months now, I have been seriously considering buying a Mac laptop as my new computer for law school. There are four main reasons for my prospective switch: Macs are great for digital photo and video editing; iBooks and PowerBooks are slim and lightweight and pretty; I love Mac OS X; and I like the idea of having one PC and one Mac — as long as my old Dell is still (barely) functional — so that, at home, I can use whichever operating system suits me best for the task at hand.

Anyway, this project has been on the back burner for a while — specifically, ever since I blew much of my savings over the summer when I was an unemployed college grad. :) However, now that I am employed yet technologically frustrated, I am now on the verge of deciding to take the plunge and buy an iBook, financed by an Apple Instant Loan, as a Christmas present to myself.

The first necessary step that would allow this to happen, has happened. I was just approved for a nine-month “forbearance” on my student loan repayments, which clears up the financial picture such that I should be able to pay off a large majority of the Apple loan before starting law school, if I am disciplined about it. (I would have been paying $179 per month to Sallie Mae. Basically, I just need to pay that same amount to Apple instead.) I still have some more financial calculating to do, but I believe this is feasible.

The reason to buy now, rather than later, is simple. I’m getting to the point with my Dell where I can’t really continue to use it as my primary computer without significantly investing in it. It desperately needs a new hard drive, a new battery (or two), a new keyboard, a new operating system … the list goes on. But if I were to fix all those things, I’d be spending upwards of $500 on a computer that I mean to replace in nine months anyway, once I have student-loan money to pay for its replacement. That’s obviously a waste of money, yet my computer is approaching the point of non-functionality, so further delay doesn’t seem viable. Which raises the obvious question: if there’s a way to replace it now, why not just bite the bullet and do it?

I haven’t reached a final decision about this yet. But I want to decide by Dec. 27 (Saturday), because that’s the expiration date of Apple’s various Christmas offers, including a savings of $200 off an awesome video-editing program that normally costs $300… that’s 67% off!!! Also, I actually already applied for — and was approved for — the Apple Instant Loan, but I am under no obligation unless and until Sunday arrives and I haven’t cancelled it. So, bottom line, if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it by Saturday.

Which brings me to the point of this post: I know there are some computer-savvy people on this site, and I want your advice. Is this a good idea? My tentative plan is to buy the bottom-of-the-line, 12-inch iBook (still a rather impressive machine — a G4 with 800 MHz), upgrading to a 60 GB hard drive (from the standard 30 GB), plus Bluetooth and AirPort Extreme (a.k.a. 802.11g wireless). It would have 256 MB of memory. (Believe it or not, my current computer only has 64 MB! I just discovered this today — no wonder it’s so freakin’ annoying sometimes! Add that to the list of things it desperately needs if I’m going to keep using it as my primary computer.)

The total cost of the iBook, including the Final Cut Express deal mentioned above, and also the $249 advanced warranty (which, by the way, I am seriously debating back and forth — more on that later), comes to $1,690.

Of course, I would love to get a pretty, 14-inch iBook with a 1-gigahertz processor, or better yet, a kick-ass PowerBook with a weird-ass monitor size like Dane’s :). But with those machines, you go over $2,000 (well over $2,000 in the latter case) and I’m just not willing to take on that much debt during my “year off” before law school… well, unless someone can convince me that it’s really necessary to do so! But I really don’t think I need that much processing speed. Becky’s 500 MHz iMac is only a hair short of the speed that I consider “fast enough” for just about everything, and my 650 MHz computer’s speed is perfectly acceptable to me (when it’s working!). So I think 800 MHz is more than enough; I don’t see myself needing 933 MHz or 1 GHz. It’s not like I play high-graphics video games or something.

Anyway, this is my debate. Naturally, I have investigated PC laptops as well, and found that, oh yes, I could get a relatively light, slim eMachines computer for $1,100 or so. But Macs are just so much nicer, for all the reasons mentioned above. And if I’m going to spend that much money anyway, I’m inclined to spend a few hundred more and get something of quality that has so many advantages.

So if anyone has any input on any of this, please feel free to chime in.

Also, if anyone with knowledge of the AppleCare Protection Plan wants to give me advice on whether it’s worth the $249, that would be much appreciated, too. Normally, extended warranties on electronics are “automatic” for me — I always buy ‘em because I always need ‘em. But here, we’re talking about $250 for three years. If I don’t get the plan, I believe each tech-support call costs $30 after the first 90 days. So in order to break even, I would need to call tech support eight times the the course of 2 years and 9 months. Nine or more calls (an average of one every 3.67 months), and the plan would be worth it. But given OS X’s reputation as an extremely reliable operating system (combined with my ability to solve most simple, and even halfway-complicated, computer problems on my own, with the help of Google), I have to wonder how likely that is.

Thoughts, anyone?

Track flights live over the Los Angeles area!