You know a computer is cool when your computer-ignorant philosophy major roommate thinks so. Even those without computer savvy know this is a marvel of engineering. With its sports car styling, processing power and phat hard drive, this is definitely the toy you want this year. If there was ever a time to salivate over new technology, it would be now with the new PowerBook.

Its G4 chip makes it the fastest PowerBook on the market and one of the fastest laptops available. So not only is it very elegant on the outside, it"s well-designed on the inside. Even better, its 10 GB hard drive (expandable to 30 GB) means you can store thousands of MP3s and video clips and take them on your next flight to Sierra Leone.

Obviously, its most distinctive feature is the titanium casing. This makes it better looking than its competitor, Sony Vaio, whose computers are all, ugh, gray and purple. Also, the silvery finish doesn"t hurt its suave design. Not only does the titanium look fashionable, it"s functional as well. The use of this strong metal makes it lighter than many other laptops smaller than it. You don"t feel like you"re lugging around a laptop, you feel like you"re carrying a classified piece of machinery.

The real breakthrough of this machine is its display. The 15.2-inch display makes it a perfect portable media unit. Anyone that uses their computer for anything more than word processing won"t be able to go back to a smaller display after gazing into this behemoth screen.

Most will probably take full advantage of the screen with the standard DVD player. While Vaio also has a DVD player, its display pales in comparison to the PowerBook"s. Also, those Vaios with DVD players are heavier and thicker than the PowerBook G4. With all of these features, the batteries still outlast the Vaio"s by a couple hours.

Being one of the first to have a built-in DVD player makes it clear that Apple has their hand on the pulse of what people are really looking for out of a portable computer. Basically, with a screen that dwarves everything else on the market and an included DVD player, there is without a doubt no better laptop to watch your favorite Police Academy sequel on. And with Mac OS X coming out soon, this combination is sure to be on the leading edge of consumer computing.