“Big things are happening in personal computers this winter. On the Macintosh side, Apple Computer has begun its momentous rollout of Macs with the Intel processors found in Windows PCs — a big shift from the company’s traditional anti-Intel stance,” Julio Ojeda-Zapata writes for The St. Paul Pioneer Press. “Nothing quite as seismic is occurring on the Windows side, but Intel has just debuted ‘Viiv’-branded PC designs for those seeking decent multimedia machines in simple-to-buy configurations. We tried out two computers, an Intel-based iMac and an affordable Viiv PC from Dell — one of dozens of PC makers to offer such machines beginning this year. Our test machines have one major factor in common: They use Intel ‘dual core’ processors that essentially consist of two processors on a single chunk of silicon. This means they can juggle more tasks at once without bogging down [and] they’re amazingly quiet.”
“The Viiv label makes PC shopping easier, because you know what you’re getting. The [Dell] XPS 200 is nice, but a bit more cash will get you a Viiv with iMac-caliber performance… Apple’s iMac includes the superb iLife, which also incorporates music-composing and Web-authoring apps. Our Dell loaner, though, only included Adobe’s Photoshop Elements photo-editing program. If it’s absolute peace of mind you crave, the virus-and-spyware-prone Windows isn’t the way to go. Get a Mac,” Ojeda-Zapata writes.
Full article here.
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