Slashdot Mirror
Is Oprah Cheating On Her Microsoft Love?
theodp writes "In what would be akin to General Petraeus pledging fidelity to his wife from the Gmail account he shared with his lover, Oprah has professed her endless love for the Microsoft Surface from an iPad. Microsoft's Surface tablet is one of Oprah's 'Favorite Things' of 2012, but an eagle-eyed observer at ZAPP noticed that a tweet from Oprah last night ('Gotta say love that SURFACE! Have bought 12 already for Christmas gifts.') apparently originated from Twitter for iPad. Betcha Steve Ballmer has a shiny new Surface for the Oprah staffer or intern who fesses up to Tweeting on her boss's behalf!"
This should really come as no surprise to anyone, as there are basically no apps available for WM8. At least M$ had the foresight to deploy their compatibility layer iOS Bridge Application (tm) allowing users to seamlessly use well-written apps from the Apple App Store on their shiny new non-Apple devices.
I wonder if she used Opera?
zaGG.
I know P and G are nearly identical, but this is still has to be one of the most stuggid, poddamn tygos ever.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Fail.
Who gives a fuck??
I think it's time to forget about her and her radical opinions about things. If endorsing surface wasn't enough, wait until you hear what other things she's endorsed...
Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters
Some of us learn from other people's mistakes and the rest of us have to be other people. -- Zig Ziglar
James Frey.
Why is this even here? Is this Gawker? People Magazine? I don't give a flying fuck what Oprah is doing and this doesn't even remotely have anything to do with technology or nerds. You might as well be posting articles about what kind of phone Justin Bieber was spotted using last night. Nobody gives a fuck.
http://gawker.com/178280/the-mystery-of-non+blogger-theodp
Or she will unleash the bees.
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/7044/oprahbees.gif
3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
Twitter web interface doesn't, Twitter API does:
source String Utility used to post the Tweet, as an HTML-formatted string. Tweets from the Twitter website have a source value of web.
In the UK at least, they've been paying for various celebrity trolls to say "OMG WINPHONE8 IS TEH WIN" all over advertising. I assume this is the same forces at work trying to undermine the intelligence of the masses.
A more realistic assessment is walking into my local Currys/PC World shop (like a UK version of Best Buy which is less interesting) and watching the various people milling around. One guy was buying a Samsung Smart TV, another guy a dryer, some woman was buying a USB internet dongle and asking if it worked on her MacBook and another guy was buying a Galaxy Tab and some overpriced HDMI cables.
Windows 8 love? Absolutely sod all. No one gives a flying fuck.
Now I could be considered to be a Microsoft shill. I work for a well known Gold Partner in the UK, are a certified Microsoft software dev, have used every MS OS from DOS5 and know their shit inside out, but fuck me no one cares about them any more, me included. I'm even jumping ship with my vested and historically expensive interest in them and leveraging the 15 years of Linux experience I've picked up on the side.
I notice the Nexus 7 is optimistic about selling 5 Million tablets by new year [For reference Apple sold 14million tablets last quarter]
As with the smartphone market where up until the Galaxy S3, no Android phone outsold the iPhone yet Google is mopping up the market share, so will the tablet market go. No time soon will any single Android tablet outsell the mighty iPad but believe that very soon Android will ship on more tablets than iOS does and when the tipping point is reached, the iPad will find its rightful place in the inevitable high margin//small share niche Apple seems to love so much on the desktop.
I was reading about Adidas and Puma http://www.neatorama.com/2012/11/19/Family-Feud-Adidas-vs-Puma/#more just today, and how part of their success was getting Jesse Owens to wear their shoes.
>
That doesn't bother me so much. I hope Owens loves his leather and rubber Adidas/Puma amalgamation since at least he actually wears what he is endorsing. If he thought the shoe would slow him down, no amount of money would put a pair on his feet. Compare that to what Oprah (a highly influential personality) is doing. The woman is basically lying her ass off pretending to be a Surface user when the reality is she wields an iPad. It's sad that the generation of cynics will just think business as usual. The woman is a hypocrite and a fucking liar. Simple as that.
Cheating on Surface!
"Oprah, this sucks."
"Jay Leno's relatives all are getting new cars for Christmas!"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Maybe Surface doesn't have a decent Twitter app yet.
In what would be akin to General Petraeus pledging fidelity to his wife from the Gmail account he shared with his lover
Yeesh.
Betcha
is not a word.
...who fesses up to Tweeting on her boss's behalf!
"His" is the gender non-specific pronoun.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
If she really did buy 13 Surface tablets, all we need to do is check for a spike in the sales figures.
In a cybernetic fit of rage she pissed off to another age...
the staffer that sent it hasn't got their christmas present yet.......
This should really come as no surprise to anyone, as there are basically no apps available for WM8. At least M$ had the foresight to deploy their compatibility layer iOS Bridge Application (tm) allowing users to seamlessly use well-written apps from the Apple App Store on their shiny new non-Apple devices.
It'd be nice if they actually tried sending the tweet from Surface but couldn't figure out how after Twitter blocked Tweetro.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
Does anyone remember when Drew Barrymore went on David Letterman's show to say how she "Rocks the Kraft grilled cheese!". Same shit here. The whole point of advertising is to get us to buy shit we don't really need.
"get a real fucking tablet, it's called the iPad"
Really! From day one I deemed iPads to be some kind of sanitary napkin.
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
I personally believe the hipster fashion is simply a way of liking thinks and pretending they are irony [although to be fair I'm the only one that thinks so].
So let it be noted that you though so before it was cool to think so.
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
These are the people who go public proclaiming love for MS products, people who are paid to, people who don't use the stuff themselves.
Oh, yeah, thanks for reminding me! That was some funny, albeit pathetic, shit when the haters all had themselves convinced the iPad's name would somehow blunt its landing in the market and the MS hegemony on personal computers would continue unabated.
Oops.
I actually saw much of Oprah's 2012 "Favorite Things" show, including the ridiculous hour long leadup showing how Oprah picks the stuff to give away. Watching this wasn't entirely by choice, as I happened to be sitting on the sofa working on my laptop while my wife and daughter were watching. (I must say though, the actual giveaways are priceless... from the over-the-top OMG OMG OMG craziness when it's something good, to the valiantly concealed "Meh!" when it sucks.)
Anyway, Oprah didn't actually choose the Surface. It was selected by one of her producers (probably after prodding by Microsoft) and shown to Oprah for a grand total of about 2 minutes. Why did she then choose it? Probably because of the kickstand and the magnetic keyboard attachment.
Getting tired of Slashdot... moving to Usenet comp.misc for a while.
Is who are these morons who suddenly find a product desirable just because a daytime TV host has been paid very large sums of money to say they are.
At this rate, it's only a matter of time until Microsoft does a liquidation sale on this product to get rid of excess inventory.
Has anyone been able to hack this tablet and get Android on it yet? If so, I might pick one up when a liquidator like Woot starts selling excess Microsoft Surface inventory as "refurbished" for around $189,
On /.
How the hell is anything about Oprah news for nerds? And no, "news" about what tablet she may, or may not, use is not "stuff that matters". Millions of people use various different tablets. Which one Oprah uses means dick.
Jesus wept.
Yes, in an effort to try and make this seem relevant or interesting to slashdotters. Let's talk about user agent strings and other things. If twitter identifies the posting client based on what the software reports only, then it's sort of meaningless isn't it? After all, Firefox has addons that allow you to alter your user agent string to several pre-configured standards including different brower and OS identities, Konqueror does this natively. In fact most every modern browser can self identify as a toaster running on Irix if it wants to. But hey I didn't expect Oprah was the sort of tech savy individual who's blunders were worth snickering at...
OWN is doing bad so she needs the funds from M$ to say Microsoft is a GOOD BUY.
who is responsible for the deaths a disease of many children.
You read that right: Children are dead becasue of her.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
That doesn't bother me so much. I hope Owens loves his leather and rubber Adidas/Puma amalgamation since at least he actually wears what he is endorsing.
Loves? Wears? More like past tense... this is the Jesse Owens from the 1936 Berlin Olympics, not a current athlete.
But yeah, getting caught shilling for a product you don't even use. That's kinda like that old ad campaign from Microsoft about how great WinXP Pro (I think?) was, written on a Mac.
Cut Oprah some slack, maybe she tried tweeting from her Surface but found out there weren't any twitter clients for Windows RT. ;)
When you pay people off for promotional material, create a manual of operation that includes a self-destructing secrecy clause and a 30-day refund policy if the operational guidelines aren't met.
LOL!
MS hegemony on personal computers would continue unabated.
It pretty much has. Microsoft still has a considerable margin of the market share in the personal computer arena. Tablets are not personal computers, they are tablets, and if you really want to compare mobile devices, well I have bad news for you there too.
I got here through a series of tubes
Fasle dichotomy.
It's the same one that Apple fanboys use with the Mac.
Completely forgetting that one is a diverse eco system, and the other is completely vertical
You should compare all current version android tables of the current version to iPads
Otherwise it's like when people would say 'Mac is doing better becasue there are less HP computers being sold.
". The only thing that has changes is the world is giving more power to celebrity endorsements as people
nope. Celebrity endorsement have always held sway.
Whether it's a popular person selling shoes, or tablets, or a popular person selling a new philosophy at the step of the Parthenon.
That is one of the most important reason to teach people critical thinking.
IT's also why I believe that a parent should deconstruct commercials for children. SO the children learn there are insinuation, and presentation. Not substance.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
" I hope Owens loves his leather and rubber Adidas/Puma amalgamation since at least he actually wears what he is endorsing."
That's not the point.
The point being other non-superstars will by them simple becasue Owens uses them. I'm going out on a limb here, but I am going to say the vast majority of Adidas wearers are not Owens level of performance. So why buy them?
As it turns out, good shoes are very important to a happy retirement. So, buy good shoes. Just don't base your decision on what some whose parameters for buying are different then yours.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Yet *you're* the first one to mention race...
What a silly choice.
The Win 8 will be easier to hack and put a different image on.
Duh.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
IMHO, you just defined the usecases for *all* tablets regardless of manufactorer.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
So what your'e saying is Oprah was paid off my MS to endorse their product, even though she doesn't prefer it? I'm shocked! Shocked! Well, not that shocked.
Her iOS loving assistant tweeted for her? Or she uses multiple devices? Or one of a number of explanations that don't involve her being a shill? Or maybe she is? No one here has enough data to say, not that that is anything new on /., but at least theoretically this is a group of people who should know better...
What do you know I wrote a novel
Fasle dichotomy.
I'm not confident in what you are referring to. You seem a little confused. https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23772412 I am comparing like with like from your example"current version android tables of the current version to iPads", What may be wrong is comparing a 7" tablet with a 10" tablet or not including 5" and above phones as tablets, but nobody every argues those points, because Apple would look even worse.
Sure, browsers have the ability to change their user-agent. But really, what's the percentage of users who does that? It's probably statistically insignificant.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
I'd get the one matching my desktop OS
bickerdyke
Hello everyone! The new Microsoft Surface is wonderful! It's one of My Favorite Things(tm)! Everyone should buy one!
Your friend;
Oprah
-Sent from my iPad
Definition of SECRETARY
1
: one employed to handle correspondence and manage routine and detail work for a superior
secretary
Definition of SLASHDOT
1
Fox News For Nerds
My guess is that she picked up an iPad, she liked it, but thought it was a Surface (a staffer is laughing on the floor in a closet right now), and tweeted that crap (directly, or via intern/secretary), and she'll go like "WTF is this shit?" when she receives her real Surface order later on. Don't attribute to malice (or shilling) what can be explained by stupidity or somesuch, right? It could have been more than speculation if she specified that she tweeted from her Surface, so I wouldn't have to write this at all.
Question for religious people: where do unrepentant masochists go when they die?
What?
Microsoft is doing everything it can to prevent users from replacing the Win 8 on their devices.
Oh wait. I see your logic...
yeah of course it will be easier to hack.
Nice. I have a nice article with pretty pictures, too.
The CB App. What's your 20?
the iPad will find its rightful place in the inevitable high margin//small share niche Apple seems to love so much on the desktop.
This would be fine. So long as there are multiple players in the mobile OS space, everyone benefits. Should any one player, even Android, hold over 90% then innovation will stagnate. It's great that both iOS and Android are doing well. Having Windows 8 enter the market is also great as it gives developers another reason to think about cross platform compatibility when writing their applications. With developers creating inherently cross platform apps, there is always the possibility of new mobile OSes entering the market. This was not possible on the desktop as everyone was tied to Microsoft and Intel. What we are seeing now is a market develop without those ties - and that's great for everyone.
i would but there aren't that many gnu/linux/x11 tablets on the market with descent specs
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Android has a *nix base..... and the rest is OS independant "in" "the" "cloud".
bickerdyke
Anything with Ultrabook (maybe even Netbook) hardware is capable of being more than a tablet.
That means Windows (not RT), or maybe a suitable Linux distro in more limited cases.
... she had to because Twitter are becoming complete assholes and the only decent Metro Twitter app no longer works because it hit its limit.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Android has a GNU/Linux base. Linux is not UNIX. UNIX is a specification that you can't just arbitrarly apply to your clone to make you feel better about yourself. Your clone doesn't meet the UNIX specification, intentionally according to Linus.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Apple sells overpriced shiny garbage manufactured by slave labor so of course they have a higher profit margin, but that has nothing to do with market share. So while you may have pretty pictures, you obviously are lacking a coherent argument. Good day sir.
I got here through a series of tubes
A personal computer may be a desktop computer or a laptop, tablet, or a handheld PC.
Then the numbers are still in my favor.
Skate to where the puck will be not where it is.
No one was arguing about the future numbers, we're talking about the present and with roughly 41% of all computational devices running a windows base OS, then obviously the claim of apple dominance of the market patently false. If you're only defense is to resort to personal attack and hurt feelings then I'm obviously not the one with a problem here.
I got here through a series of tubes
I'd get the one matching my desktop OS
Windows 8 != Windows RT. Windows 8 can run windows apps whereas Windows RT can only run third party WinNT apps. MS Office is the exception but that is a Microsoft product.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
That's not the point.
Common data formats and apis are important.
I'd bet that whatever App WinRT and Windows8 use for e.g. calendar, the event form will have matching fields.
bickerdyke
But commonly *nix refers to a wide range of OSes.
bickerdyke
That doesn't mean she should be given carte blanche to tell bold faced lies to the people her words do effect.
I think you misunderstand modern marketing techniques, of which she is a famously notable expert.
It is our duty as technical experts to counterract that, to not tell lies. Which leads to awkward situations where a client's social learning is confronted with fact-based expertise. Requiring tact, patience, and some teaching skills if you want a better informed client. Same as when you go to a patent attorney, doctor, mechanic, accountant, or other expert after reading Slashdot discussions about their field.
I don't know why the staffers didn't tweet from the Surface itself. I guess they weren't in on the giveaway.
"If Android held 100 percent share, innovation would be alive and well. Every OEM's take on the OS is a bit different. Even devil's advocate arguing of the compatibility requirements being some impediment to innovation, an OEM would still be free emulate Amazon's strategy with the Kindle Fire completely eschewing Google's governance altogether."
Would it? Or would more people do as you suggest and emulate Amazon, forking off their own systems in order to differentiate themselves from one another and -- in the process -- leaving Google high and dry.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
I think Amazon can pull it off on the strength of their own ecosystem. Very few players that are both in the phone/tablet business can boast such. As soon as the HTC's and the LG's of the world broke bad they and their customers would get cut out of Google Play pretty much dooming their devices to rot on store shelves. Of course you can keep going with it and consider the small players cutting content deals with Amazon or even Microsoft but it gets so speculative that it's completely outside of the context of this thread.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/windows-8.html
The ZaReason ZaTab will sooner or later.
Sam Flint flintfam.org/~swflint
The point of the GP's post was that MS's hegemony would continue unabated. Considering the point of a public company is to generate profits, well, the charts provided by him/her only present a part of the picture. I remember when HP's tablet had a fire sale, going for a loss at $99, and people said even then that this was a signal of the coming end of the iPad, because so many people were willing to buy a failed product once the price was low enough.
I'm all for raw numbers, but context does help.
The CB App. What's your 20?
Part of a "market" in the context of capitalism is the money that flows from that market. So profit shares are indeed an important factor. This is all I'm saying. I'm not saying that MS won't continue to succeed, I'm not saying that Android is doomed. I'm not saying that Apple couldn't eventually fall to some yet-unknown black swan. However, the race to the bottom in terms of margins didn't play out well for several PC makers in the long run, so to suggest that entering a nascent market with razor thing margins in order to push units is a winning plan is, well, ignoring history.
And as to you other "points":
- Slave labor: Agreed, although it's not any different from that of their competitors, so to argue that this is a factor in their success is silly.
- Shiny: Sure. And many of their competitors sell shiny products as well. For the record, though, the newest iPhone has a matte finish for most of its surface.
- Overpriced: If it were overpriced, by definition, it wouldn't sell. Sure I'd like to have everything for free, but in a capitalist system, manufacturers get to charge what the market will bear.
- Garbage: You have every right to believe that hundreds of millions of users of iOS devices and Macs are stupid or delusional, but you just might want to consider the possibility that you're wrong. Apple's products may not fit your needs, or you may not like them for various objective and subjective reasons, but if they were truly garbage, the products would not continue to sell. Remember the Microsoft Kin Phone? That had some potential, and the idea was cool. But they were crap, and poorly timed at that, so the line failed and was cancelled within weeks of its debut. You just can't fool this many people for this many years. But I'm sure you know that.
The CB App. What's your 20?