Apple’s newest OS upgrade (OS 10.5, codename, “Leopard”) was released on Friday. There’s a ton of cool new features and I decided I’d head over to the Apple Store and pick it up. At the same time, in the back of my mind, I’d been thinking for a while now that it was time for a new laptop. I’ve had my iBook for 2+ years and I’ve really wanted one of the newer Intel-based MacBooks. So today, I killed two birds with one stone.

I bought a new MacBook, and that came with an upgrade to OS 10.5.

I was given the Federal contractor discount, which saved me a little over $100. I am now the proud owner of a MacBook 2.16 GHz Core Duo with 1 GB of RAM, 120 GB hard disk, built-in iSight, and all of the usual Apple bells and whistles. And as always, I also got the Apple Care to go along with it.

All told, it cost me $1,500.

I’m in the process of upgrading the machine to Leopard as I write this.

Now all I need to do is figure out what to do with my old laptop. I was going to give it to Doug, but he doesn’t want it. Most of my friends already have laptops. I don’t want to sell it on eBay. If I can’t find a friend who can use it, then I’ll donate it to charity.