September 8, 2010

A trip to Austin and Advanced Micro Devices… the Hoo-dee goes all techie.

A few weeks ago I traveled to Texas with a posse of mom bloggers to visit AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), and learn about their new technology that aims to make buying a computer a whole lot easier.

Before we entered into the land of high tech however, we were treated to the breathtaking loveliness of the Barton Creek Resort and Spa. No Hotel 6 for us!

This beautiful hotel and spa is located just outside of Austin, and it’s fabulous. After a few sensational spa treatments, it was off to Lambert’s restaurant in downtown Austin for authentic Texas barbeque. Lambert’s is a must do if ever in Austin…even for a vegetarian like me. Delish.

The next day we traveled to the amazing campus of AMD, a gorgeous batch of eco-friendly, modern buildings nestled beautifully into Texas cowboy country.
It’s computer geek nirvana.

Each of us was presented with a beautiful red Toshiba Satellite laptop to use throughout our time at AMD, and then take on home with us.

Now, I must be straight up and say that PCs have always frightened me.
I’m a MAC girl….always have been and probably always will be. I grew up with Apple. They’re what I know. They’re where I’m comfortable.

But as we were led through the new technology AMD has produced to make PC buying and navigating easier and less intimidating, I started to let my MAC bias back down a bit. I get why people go with PCs. They are significantly cheaper, they are the work horses of the computer world, and I’ve heard time and again that the gaming capabilities are a bit more advanced. But I definitely needed some convincing that buying a PC could be any easier than walking into an APPLE store and chatting with their geniuses.

Leslie Sobon, VP of World Wide Product Marketing for AMD made it all very clear.
AMD has created a new program called VISION, that you’ll soon see in all those PC buying places like Best Buy and Walmart. And VISION is meant to help all you PC loving people find exactly what you’re looking for.

You see, the PC powers that be finally realize that most of ya’ll don’t care how many bites and rams and mega bites a computer has . You just want to know if you can watch your DVDs, produce a few cool videos, do some photo editing, or see things in HD. Thus the creation of the new VISION tags.

The new tags will help to insure that the next time you walk into a big box store longing to know in plain language what you’re going to get when you fire up your new computer, you’ll get it. And you can leave the cryptic techie language to the geek squad. Simply look for these VISION tags wherever you buy your PC, and it’ll all be a little less intimidating.

HERE is a sneek peek at what these cool new tags will look like.

I flew away from Texas slightly less snobby about my love affair with Apple and a whole lot more impressed with what goes on behind the scenes in the land of high tech. It’s definitely still a man’s world in that business, but let me tell you…there are some super smart kick-arse woman shaking things up.