It's 11:00 a.m. I'm sitting in the audience of a session at the Web 2.0 Conference, and I'm terrified. The power cord for my IBM ThinkPad snakes across the aisle, barely visible on the blue carpet, to one of the few power outlets in the eastern wall of the room.I have my foot pressed on the cord to prevent it from being yanked from my laptop by passersby and possibly damaging the power connection port. I've already caught several feet with the outstretched cable and every time someone passes, I prepare for the worst. If I hadn't already spent my battery power at a previous session, I'd be cordless and carefree. An extra battery would be the answer, but I don't have one.

A woman sitting behind me plugged her laptop into the same outlet. She has a MacBook Pro, which features a magnetic power cable connection that's designed to detach when pulled. She too catches the foot of a passerby, but rather than having to hold on to her computer as if she'd just caught a swordfish, she barely notices when the cord snaps from her laptop. She casually reaches down, reconnects the cord, and resumes her note taking.

I have Mac envy.