I often try to discover hard return on investment (ROI) whenever I buy some new piece of technology. Investing in tech is a key part of my work — staying up-to-speed on the latest-n-greatest stuff — and another part is to personally experience products and services so I can gain an intuitive understanding of it.

Last night I went out and replaced my aging Apple Powerbook G4 and 22" Apple Cinema Display (their first LCD panel shipped) with a shiny new Macbook Pro and 23" Cinema HD. As it turned out, I was right smack dab in the middle of a project needing to be completed this morning, so my sense of internal urgency was coupled with the joy of new tech as I bought them. Part of me also stood back to observe my own reactions when I got back to my office and hooked them up.

Others have observed that huge LCD displays enhance productivity and Apple did a study last year to prove the point. I can attest to the truth in this perspective. Just one more diagonal inch and a few hundred pixels either way made a HUGE difference in my productivity on my project since I could have palettes on the side without bumping up to them and triggering my dock. The brightness of the display on both the big panel and the Macbook itself felt like a room fully illuminated vs. sliding a dimmer switch to the 50% mark. The room is still lit when dimmed, but damn is everything vibrant and crisp when fully lit!

My next purchase is Parallels and Windows Vista so I can run both OS’es applications on one box. More productivity awaits…