Hyperthreading effectively adds two 'cores' for free - which is two more than C2D could ever do.
APPLICATIONS, as you capitalised, make darn good use of the two extra threads. Conversly, APPLICATIONS also make good use of the Turbo Boost feature when using a single core. Plus there's the newly added SSE implementations.
Happy trolling, noob.
not all applications make a good use of "virtual cores" (actually only a few does), and with Turbo Boost the i5 is only a little bit faster than an high-end Core 2 Duo (10-20%, it depends on application).
It' s an improvement, not a revolution.
Apple is going to update its line-up, but we can wait some weeks without all this whining ....
BTW, I'm a Mac user with a degree since 1989, who the hell are you to call me noob ???