CNBC: Making Stuff Up as We Go Along

Apparently CNBC knows as much about computing technology as they know about finance. Now keep in mind, I don't really give a crap about one massive conglomerate fighting another conglomerate for our dollars as long as they provide products that generally work for the money I pay. However, do we really need these talking heads, who think iLife is magic performed by the space gods, telling us what they think about computers?



Just to compare, my current gaming laptop, Gateway FX P-7805u from Best Buy, has similar specs to Apple's MacBook Pro 17-inch laptop. The MacBook comes with iLife which is pretty great for basic multimedia editing needs, and the PC Laptop plays high-end games, so different strokes, etc. Now, if you add the mysterious $600 Jim Goldman talks about in applications to my Gateway, it still only comes to about $1,750 retail (keep in mind, I have a good chunk of the kinds of software he talks about in the video clip, and seriously? Geek Squad? If I call them I lose my Nerd membership card). The MacBook Pro? It's a robust $2,799! About a grand more so I can organize pictures of my boring, unimportant life? Um, yeah...I should pick up AIG stock while I'm at it. Also, 4x the battery life for a Mac? If I were to run a video drain test it would last 12 hours, 4x the life of my laptop? All day??? It must be a nuclear freakin' reactor! Praise be! Apple has solved our energy problems! Suck it, OPEC!

Again, I don't dislike Macs. They're good machines (that break down more often than they lead you to believe...I did have an iMac once) If I had the dough, I'd own both a Mac and a PC. But, if I have to have one, well I like to play video games, I like to be a bit more frugal in these tough economic times and I like to tinker with my hardware and upgrade it to extend the life of my machine (a hidden cost of the 2 to 5 year life cycle got Macs that Goldman never figures into his presentation...my desktop PC that I built in 2003 is pretty robust, stable and still sees use for a variety of things six years later). I suppose if I wanted to look like some hipster from Williamsburg with a white, beveled-edge fetish, I'd buy a MacBook.

To put a fine point on the ridiculousness of this back and forth argument, here's the MST3K crew from way back in 1988.