Looking around at the gadgets that are most crucial to my livelihood and happiness, including my Thinkpad X301, magical (I don’t want to understand how the e-ink works) Kindle, Blackberry Curve, and second-generation (i.e., old) iPod Nano, I find myself stunned to realize that only the last product was made by Apple… And what about software? I’m using standard Unix tools for development, including vim as my primary text editor (I do miss TextMate, but apparently not enough), Firefox and Opera browsers, an open-source music management tool that comes with Ubuntu, and my emusic subscription for online music shopping.

What happened to the OS X fangirl who attended WWDC ‘05 as a student? I would never have predicted that I’d stray so far from Apple products, and yet one by one I’ve drifted:

• I want a real keyboard on my Smartphone, so the iPhone was a no-go from the start and going through several Blackberries over the years has made plenty of sense.
• Now for the heavy stuff, I gave my 24″ iMac to my aunt because I’m too antsy to sit still at a desktop. After evaluating the Macbook Pros again, and the Air, I couldn’t help but daydream about my discontinued 12″ Powerbook and wish that Apple would go that small again. Also, is it really worth it to purchase a machine that looks pretty but cuts my wrist as I type with it’s rigid boxy edge.?
• And finally, an aura surrounded the Thinkpad x301 as I approached it in the NYU Computer Store. The moment I touched it I knew that it was meant to be.

Here’s hoping for real keyboards on smaller Apple devices in the future and smaller laptops. Or (gulp) maybe we’re just no longer a match.