"The Brain Transplant was a Success"
Category: Apple/Mac OS...
Posted Wednesday, January 18, 2006 at 08:33 AM [GMT-6]

The Wall Street Journal's technology editor, Walter Mossberg, has spent the past week testing Apple's new Intel-based iMac and reports that "the best consumer desktop PC on the market" has just gotten better.

Mossberg has become an enthusiastic Mac evangelist over the past few years, but that doesn't mean that he's not objective or well-informed. His product testing tends to mimic the way you and I might use a computer in our day-to-day routines, rather than setting up elaborate and esoteric benchmarking schemes that favor a preconceived outcome.

Thus, when he says that Rosetta, Apple's translator software that allows PowerPC software to run on the Intel CPU, works well and with no apparent performance hit, that's significant feedback that might even be the tipping point for someone on the bubble about buying a new Mac. (Actually, his exact quote is this: ...and any slowdowns it [Rosetta] imposed were so slight as to be indiscernible.

Mossberg says that the 2-4 times speed advantage over the previously Macs touted by Apple CEO and Chief Reality Distorter Steve Jobs was not seen in his "real world" tests, something that will surprise absolutely no one. However, he did observe some signficant improved performance in those applications which have been optimized for the Intel chip:

Mossberg's review of the new iMac is the clearest signal to-date that Apple has indeed taken a significant step to ensure the competitiveness of its computers for years to come.

Technorati tags: Rosetta | Walter Mossberg | Apple