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New "Get a Mac" TV ads
Klaidas writes "Apple has introduced 3 new "Get a Mac" TV ads: "Accident", "Angle/Devil" and "Trust Mac" " Normally, posting ads would be make me cry, but these are genuinely funny and well done.
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They're kinda funny, but really mean-spirited. They're "Haha...you suck!!"-ads that don't appeal to me.
Far nicer than the political ads that are swamping televisions this election year.
It makes the PC look productive and serious, instead of the slacker Mac OS X.
Actually, it points out what people already know: Corporations and businesses use Windows PCs. Windows for many is Word and Excel. And almost everyone who has used a Windows PC at work has hated it at some point. Showing you a desktop after logging in but not being able to do anything for an additional 30-120 seconds. Programs with odd names performing illegal operations and offering them the change to debug, only to do nothing useful. And so on.
The Mac is being shown in the light of being a computer for your home life, far away from spreadsheets and Active Directory, where your photos, home movies, and music play a much stronger role, and showing ease-of-use for doing nice things with that media.
Windows runs fine out of the box, there's virtually no advanced configuration after you've installed it.
Remember that the majority of new Windows PC owners buy an OEM machine and can barely plug in all the color-coded cables. They turn it on and the Windows setup wizard starts as you said. Fine. Now your OEM machine is detecting the 3-in-one inkjet-scanner-fax printer that came bundled free with the computer. Windows is now pompting them to install three items it has detected. Each one throwing up the New hardware wizard. Not to mention the computer's system image was from 4 months ago, so they need to download 55MB of patches on their dial-up connection in order to be "safe".
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
Windows may run fine out of the box - assuming you're satisfied with the rather basic set of software Windows includes (although I guess to be fair that could lead into an interesting discussion on the legal actions MS gets into when it bundles things, anyway I digress...).
Point is, your average Windows-based system does not install simply. There's usually all sorts of bundled stuff on the desktop - when my friend got a Sony for his girlfriend, he swore never to buy a PC from them again, there was so much add-on shit. And once you get into peripherals, there's a usually a whole pile of software to install.
The whole "Windows runs fine out of the box" should come with a whole pile of caveats with respect to your technical skills, that you have either set up your own system or bought from a supplier that you knew does a good job, or even that you simply got lucky in configuring a good system.
You might want to try VideoLAN - VLC media player. I thought QuickTime was pretty good until I tried the VLC player.
Seriously. They aren't funny. They aren't accurate. They aren't even good marketing. I don't know a single person swayed by those ads, and that includes a customer base of some fairly technology-challenged people. Hey Apple...how about the truth some time, not a bunch of commercials that leave us PC users asking "who has a computer like that?"
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
True, the Mac is now an Intel PC wrapped in a nice design. However, these commercials rarely speak of the hardware. Apple never says our Intel box is better than yours. They say our design, our interface, our security, our innovative ideas - our end product is better than yours.
The Mac is the iPod. The difference is, the iPod was introduced before the personal music player boom and the iPod has yet to isolate itself like the original Apple Computers. Most people will agree that the iPod is popular and superior for a few reasons: 1) The physical design, 2) The almost perfect integration with iTunes and 3) The iTunes Music Store. The Mac is out of favor with the public due to it's roots. However, the same principles still apply to it's superiority: 1) The physical design, 2) The software and hardware are built and tested to near perfection and 3) OS X.
Looking at each in more depth.
1) The physical design is highly praised and often imitated. This is rarely argued.
2) Unlike Microsoft's Windows, the hardware and software can be tailored specifically for each other. At times Apple has released an OS update because a new Mac model needed a small software revision. Microsoft could never make software changes to support all PC hardware configurations. For this reason, you will never see OS X on other Intel hardware.
3) OS X defines the Mac. It is the way that Intel chip interfaces with the user. It is unique to the Mac like iTunes to the iPod. OS X is another highly praised and often imitated aspect of the Mac. This also is rarely argued.
Since the average consumer does not order a PC with *nix, the real question that remains is what makes every non-Apple Intel box different? The price, plain and simple. As many car manufacturers like to say, this leaves the Mac in a class of it's own.
Honestly I am not sure why all the keyboards and mice are USB now, the plug is no smaller, and you also give up at least one USB port to something that every non-server computer has.
USB can be plugged in and unplugged while the machine is running. PS/2 cannot. USB can be chained. PS/2 cannot. USB can be used for higher speed connections to cameras, and the like. PS/2 cannot. As for every non-server having a P/2 port, they take up space that could be used for other ports and they take up more space than USB ports which can provide greater functionality.
My Mac Mini at home only has 2 USB ports, and because I didn't want to drop $120 on a keyboard & mouse for a $450 computer, I have no free USB ports by default.
As I mentioned, USB is chainable. If you buy a keyboard from a reputable company, they will spend the extra $2 it costs to put at least one more USB port on the keyboard. The same goes for most other devices you might want plugged in permanently. In this way, adding peripherals takes up no additional ports. If you go to froogle.com and enter "usb keyboard" the resulting keyboards start at $3.99. The first one with extra ports on it was $9.99. Do you think you can afford that?
And can we get a Mac with a USB port on the front of the box? I know that it's supposed to look like a simple design, but when I have to drag the expensive and fragile screen of the iMac I have at work around to get at the back of it so I can plug in the cable/thumb drive, so I can turn the screen around again so I can see it, so I can copy a file off of it, then turn it around and unplug it again, before turning it straight again so I can go back to work, it suddenly stops seeming like such a simple design.
So plug it into the empty port on your keyboard. Or, buy one of the macs that comes with ports on the front. Or, buy a hub.
Whatever happened to form following function? Macs are all about being pretty, and somehow most people accept this as actually meaning "more user friendly."
Most people find macs easier to use for a lot of reasons. Some people who pick a machine aimed at one demographic and then use it in ways unusual for that demographic have problems. You're probably one of them.
My Mac Mini at home only has 2 USB ports, and because I didn't want to drop $120 on a keyboard & mouse for a $450 computer, I have no free USB ports by default. Instead, I have an extra device sitting with my mini (USB hub) complete with associated wires.
Pardon me, but something is fishy about this part of your story - why are you not plugging the mouse into the keyboard USB extender? At most the keyboard and mouse together should take up one USB plug, which is why all macs come with at least two.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
My Mac Mini at home only has 2 USB ports, and because I didn't want to drop $120 on a keyboard & mouse for a $450 computer, I have no free USB ports by default. [...]
I know that it's supposed to look like a simple design, but when I have to drag the expensive and fragile screen of the iMac I have at work around to get at the back of it so I can plug in the cable/thumb drive, so I can turn the screen around again so I can see it, so I can copy a file off of it, then turn it around and unplug it again, before turning it straight again so I can go back to work, it suddenly stops seeming like such a simple design.
It's been a few years since I bought a Mac with USB keyboard/mouse, but don't the keyboards have a USB port on either side of them?
From Apple's iMac specs page:
Total of five USB ports: three USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps) on computer, two USB 1.1 ports on keyboard
So perhaps your problem is you need to use the 2.0 ports at work? Still, it seems like they recognized the mini problem, as it now comes with 4 USB ports.
Caleb
[waaah waaah waaah] Home & End [waaah waaah waaah]
Because Home and End are supposed to go to the "home" or the "end" position of the file. If you want to go to the beginning or end of the current line, use apple-left-arrow or apple-right-arrow. It's much easier on a laptop keyboard. Home is fn-left-arrow and End is fn-right-arrow, making it a matter of holding a different meta key depending on what you want it to do.
The stuff the OEM vendor bundles on the desktop is really not a problem with Windows, it's a problem with OEMs who don't actually have the best interests of their consumers in mind.
Truer words were never spoken. Every OEM machine I've ever worked with, I have to spend a few days tweaking it (while working) to get the setup I want. Inevitably, I put a folder called "crap" on my desktop. Into this folder I throw all the shortcuts to the bundled crapware that came with the machine. I don't uninstall it, just in case of the very, very, remote chance that somebody else with the same box might have a solution that involves "use the preinstalled...". In all my years, nobody has ever had such a solution. Then I usually weed through and make sure that unnecessary apps aren't being started. That takes some digging in the registry. Then I have to kill lame keyboard and mouse setups. That can be the hardest thing, especially for laptops. With the Lenovo I got, somebody seemed to assume that by default users would want every obscure mouse gesture and click combo enabled. I couldn't surf the web or do anything without having windows close, move, or resize for no apparent reason. The settings for these things were scattered a bit, and divided between Windows and IBM's proprietary setups.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?