There's been a great deal of talk about Apple's transition to the Intel processor, and a lot of conflicting information to make sense of. It's hard to know who to believe, and when you should make the switch.

The fact is, if you're in the market for a new "portable" the MacBook and MacBook Pro are both powered by the new Intel chip, so there's not much of a decision to make. For most applications you're going to be pleasantly surprised by a significant increase in speed, and the addition of standard features like a built-in iSight camera, remote control, digital video output, a low-glare high-gloss screen, and a host of other treats - all starting at $1099.

Other applications, at this point, are more problematic. Because many design applications like Quark, and Adobe's Creative Suite are not yet written to run on the Intel processor, they must run through "Rosetta", an emulation mode that will not run as fast as an Intel-native application will run. By increasing RAM and upgrading to the fastest hard drive, much of this lag can be diminished.

As far as the desktop products go, you still have a good selection to choose from. The flagship PowerMac G5 is still available for running the non-Intel applications at the highest possible speeds, as well as the new Mac Mini and the iMac line, which both run the Intel chip and will afford you the same speed and efficiency as the Intel laptops.

Under normal circumstances there are a lot of things for you to consider before purchasing a new computer and with the added complexity of the Intel transition this is only amplified. At Tech Superpowers we have both the top of the line PowerMac G5 and Intel machines loaded with software ready for you to try out. Just email us to set up a guided tour of these new machines, and as always, you can rely on us to help you sort out the issues in making the decision.