The Snow Leopard and I part III

My big sister I know perceives me as over-excitable. So when I related my latest computer purchasing fiasco she simply nodded sagely. Furthermore, as an Apple-convert she can never quite fathom out why anyone should want to use Windows, well not unless they have a strong masochistic streak. Having said that she never gets evangelical about what she considers to be perceived wisdom, so instead suggested that once we had taken the children to school we should carry on into town and indulge in some retail therapy.

Having just wasted a not inconsiderable sum of money on a PC, commonsense might have dictated that retail therapy wasn’t the wisest course of action but I concurred and off we went.

We did Starbucks, bought a couple of new dresses apiece and had lunch in a nice Italian restaurant and feeling replete headed back to the car park. On the way we passed the large and very glitzy Apple Store. My sister said she needed to get some information so we slipped in. I was rather surprised when she said you could also drop in for tips, technical advice and support and even lessons – all part of Apple’s aftercare. In my experience only ill-informed cowboys sold computers on the high street.

Inside she got into a protracted conversation with a nice, cheerful, clean cut young man wearing an Apple tea shirt and I wandered off on my own. I was quite surprised to find that at least half of the staff in the shop were women. In my experience computer shop staff were invariably geeky youths with limited English and Olympic manifestations of acne.

A large computer monitor caught my attention. It was much bigger than I was used to and was being used to show photographs. It had a glass-like front rather than the insipid matt appearance of most flat slat screens. This monitor instead of being encased in shiny plastic was beautifully housed in brushed aluminium. What struck me most were the photographs. They looked sharp and clear, and were rendered in beautiful colours, in fact they had a decided sparkle. Arranged in front of it was a small cordless keyboard again in brushed aluminium and what looked like a button-less mouse. There was no sign of the desk top box.

‘Do you like?’ a young woman purred in my ear.

‘I do!’ I replied. I don’t normally display that amount of enthusiasm in front of salespeople. ‘Where’s the box?’ I enquired.

‘That’s the computer!’ explained the young woman pointing to the monitor.

‘Yes but………….’ I responded as my voice tailed away. I looked around the back. The monitor was just slightly bowed and in the side were slots for a DVD player and a card reader.

‘Would you like to see how it works?’ enquired the young lady huskily. It was a non sequitur as far as I was concerned. I was gagging to see how it worked. She asked me what I did for a living and when I said photographer, she smiled knowingly and moved in for the kill.

‘Of course,’ she said ‘with a 27” screen you have plenty of desktop to work with.’ She flicked the mouse and threw an array of large thumbnails on the screen. What struck me was they all appeared to land on the screen instantly. With my new computer they rippled from top to bottom one by one, a process that took about ten to fifteen seconds.

‘Gosh! That’s fast!’ was the best I could manage. ‘What kind of processor is that?’

‘It’s the latest quad processor with 4GB of RAM,’ she explained. Exactly the same spec as my new PC it was hard to explain the difference in speed.

She loaded Apple Aperture and I watched in amazement as she manipulated images.

By now I was conscious that my sister was stood beside me a big grin on her face.

Computers are not the sort of thing that I normally get excited about, but this was different. There was a palpable quickening in my tummy which suggested love at first sight.

There must be some salesperson’s slight of hand here. It had to be a con. ‘Let me have a go!’ I insisted. There wasn’t; it performed for me too, it made my new PC look and feel like a three legged donkey. I tried a few searches. It was lightening fast, it made Windows 7 look ludicrously slow.

‘How much is it?’ I groaned unable to control myself.

The young lady gave me a leaflet. It was two and a half times more than I had just paid for my Windows box. My sister always one step ahead knew exactly where I was going. ‘Yes!’ she whispered. ‘But it works and it keeps working, you won’t be bombarded with viruses and you don’t need a technical support team every time you buy a new printer and you have all these nice people here to help you…………’

I wasn’t listening. I wanted it. I knew having just wasted a pile of money on my PC I couldn’t afford it. Nevertheless my mind was made up I had to have it.

I was in love.

(to be continued)