Geek & Mild by Sean Sperte

Feb 11th, 2006 Intel Shmintel

I stopped by my local Mac Store today — no, not the Apple Store, the Mac Store. I almost wish I wouldn’t have.

While browsing the myriad of iPod accessories they had displayed I overheard a gentleman ask one of the employees if they had any MacBook’s in stock. The female employee, who I could tell was fond of herself talking, replied by giving a long, innacurate summary of the MacBook Pro and what it is; finally answering that they did indeed have one in stock, in the back. This is where my interest was piqued and I stopped pretending not to hear — I turned and looked at the employee dead-on.

“We’re not allowed to put it out until Apple does,” she said, I guess implying that they have to wait for the Apple Store to put it out first … ? I rolled my eyes and went back to browsing. I could tell her knowledge went about as deep as the Finder help menu.

“So can I see it now?” the customer asked.

“It looks just like the previous PowerBook,” another (male) employee joined the conversation. “But they just have the 15-inch version right now.”

“Oh, okay.”

“… otherwise, it’s the exact same,” he continued. “It feels the same, looks the same …”

“Well, besides the iSight!” laughed the female employee.

I guess you had to be there, but at this point I realized these employees were, in fact, idiots. I felt really sorry for the guy who asked the question. They obviously didn’t have a MacBook and just wanted to “sell” the guy on one.

Anyway, they went on to tell the gentleman that they did, in fact, have a 17” Intel-iMac on the show-floor that he could look at. They pointed it out, and after a few minutes of playing around on it, the guy went about his way. I hoped on and double-checked to make sure it was an Intel machine. It was!

All I have to say is, Intel shmintel. The “noticable” speed difference wasn’t there. I don’t know what Leo and Amber were testing at MacWorld when they reported such amazing performance — it certainly wasn’t the same model I was on. Then again, having recently upgraded to a dual-core G5 machine I’ve probably become a little spoiled.

Okay, I admit, I’ve definitely become a little spoiled.

Still, I was expecting more — you know, because of all the “4x faster” hype Apple has been pushing. I guess I’ll just have to wait for the “real world” benchmarks, and the MacBook Pro’s release, to see if this Intel business is what it’s cracked up to be.