Is Oprah Cheating On Her Microsoft Love?

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Is Oprah Cheating On Her Microsoft Love?

Posted by Unknown on Monday November 19, 2012 @11:07PM from the can't-even-fake-it dept.

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!"

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Surface iOS Bridge by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 23:12 · Score: 5, Funny

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.
Browser by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 23:13 · Score: 5, Funny

I wonder if she used Opera?
zaPP? by mwvdlee · 2012-11-19 23:14 · Score: 3, Funny

zaGG.
I know P and G are nearly identical, but this is still has to be one of the most stuggid, poddamn tygos ever.

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Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
EPIC by xming · 2012-11-19 23:14 · Score: 2, Insightful

Fail.
1. Re:EPIC by arth1 · 2012-11-20 00:44 · Score: 2
  
  EPIC Fail.
  It may be a failure, but what makes it epic? Where's the epos? Are there tales of how Oprah has travelled around the world conquering microhaters, only to fall on her sword this way during the home run?
2. Re:EPIC by gmuslera · 2012-11-20 01:26 · Score: 2
  
  This is not in the range of epic fails for MS PR standards, just a minor scratch. It can't be compared to Bill Gates getting a BSOD showing Windows 98 or, more recently the Surface version with Steven Sinofsky. And there were a lot of intermediate fails in the last 15 years.
3. Re:EPIC by sumdumass · 2012-11-20 02:40 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The epic part would be where it appears Oprah's open and honest endorsement of a product appears to simply be a shill for something she couldn't even be bothered to use while shilling for it.
  Oprah seems to have this cult following (less now that she isn't on regular TV) that trusts her words in ways that would make Paul Harvey appear like a used car salesman and they seem to do whatever she tells them. That is why Oprah's endorsement in and of itself is newsworthy- let alone why this seeming deceit is.
Let me be the first to say... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 23:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

Who gives a fuck??
1. Re:Let me be the first to say... by TapeCutter · 2012-11-20 00:23 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Nobody, but me and little woman think it's amusing.
  
  --
  And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
2. Re:Let me be the first to say... by SternisheFan · 2012-11-20 00:55 · Score: 3
  
  Newsflash!!! Oprah Winfrey's a paid shill for Microsoft, but really uses Apple products!! Melissa Gates uses an iPod and not a Zune to listen to her music!! I, for one, am shocked! Shocked, I tells ya'! (ran out of exclamation points on this post)
3. Re:Let me be the first to say... by thoth · 2012-11-20 06:48 · Score: 2
  
  It's Melinda Gates, BTW.
  Besides, she's so rich she doesn't need a Zune or iPod, she just hires the band to come play their music live in her in-house concert hall. ;)
4. Re:Let me be the first to say... by Mike+Buddha · 2012-11-20 07:18 · Score: 2
  
  She's a bold face liar for liking more than one tablet? Wow, the criteria for denigrating someone has degraded considerably.
  
  --
  by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
People care about Oprah? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 23:18 · Score: 3, Interesting

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...
1. Re:People care about Oprah? by geminidomino · 2012-11-20 00:54 · Score: 2
  
  Almost jumped onto the Nexus 10 myself, until
  
  Google has explained that Nexus devices only offer fixed storage as the company wants to avoid "techy nonsense left over from the paleolithic era of computing".
  Source
  
  Since I'm personally trying to "avoid marketing nonsense heralding the gilded age of walled gardens," I'm giving the Nexus a pass, and still on the lookout.
2. Re:People care about Oprah? by ByOhTek · 2012-11-20 01:34 · Score: 2
  
  She's nothing more than a cheap shill, whoring her opinion out to the lowest bidder.
  Yes. I said lowest.
  
  --
  Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
Intresting by nssy · 2012-11-19 23:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

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
1. Re:Intresting by 1s44c · 2012-11-20 01:53 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters
  The news is the Microsoft astroturfing trolls that have so flooded slashdot are not just on slashdot, they are everywhere. They include TV personalities that the unwashed masses idealize.
  Anyone that watches Oprah will believe anything, even that Microsoft products are worth buying.
2. Re:Intresting by westlake · 2012-11-20 05:10 · Score: 2
  
  The news is the Microsoft astroturfing trolls that have so flooded slashdot are not just on slashdot, they are everywhere.
  Anyone that watches Oprah will believe anything, even that Microsoft products are worth buying.
  Microsoft tends to spend its time and money in places where the grown-ups hang out.
  
  The shortest answer is ''It's a digital notebook,'' but that just leads to the question, ''And why would I want a digital notebook?'' The better answer is that it's a powerful, versatile tool for organizing just about anything. It's the application you turn to for jotting down to-do lists, capturing notes during a presentation, or recording the random ideas that run through your head so you can refer to them later after your brain has erased all traces of the original thought. You can store, organize, and search text, audio, video, photos, and handwriting.
  OneNote has been one of my favorite applications since Microsoft began bundling it with Microsoft Office. I like that it syncs my data through SkyDrive so my notes and information are available from just about anywhere. Microsoft has also developed native apps for the iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone, and Android devices--making OneNote one of the most accessible, cross-platform tools Microsoft has.
  My single favorite feature of the new OneNote, though, is unique to OneNote MX--the Metro-ized app version of OneNote designed for Windows 8. Tapping the radial menu button opens a circle containing different formatting options. On some options an arrow is available that lets you dive deeper and access more options. At any point, you can click the back arrow in the center of the radial menu to go back to the previous menu.
  The radial menu is brilliant. It is an innovative approach to working with information on a touchscreen mobile device, and I hope the radial menu is also a staple of the Office apps that come with Windows 8 RT, and/or that Microsoft extends the radial menu concept to the rest of the Office suite soon.
  Microsoft OneNote MX Has a Secret Weapon
  Are Radial Menus The Future Of Office?
Who gives a fuck? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 23:28 · Score: 2, Insightful

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
1. Re:Who gives a fuck? by somersault · 2012-11-19 23:33 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  It's just a funny story. Chill. It's hilarious that even people being paid by MS to promote their products don't use them.
  
  --
  which is totally what she said
2. Re:Who gives a fuck? by mwvdlee · 2012-11-19 23:40 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  It's imporant news to the multitude of paid MS shills operating on Slashdot.
  Since they make up a significant portion of first-posters, Slashdot should cater to their needs too.
  
  --
  Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
3. Re:Who gives a fuck? by Seumas · 2012-11-20 00:21 · Score: 2
  
  Has Oprah seriously influenced your life? Other than this story, I can't think of the last time Oprah even came up in my life. She was totally a thing back in like the mid 90s, though.
  And I honestly don't give a shit what anyone endorses. What, without the demonstrated contradiction of loving the Surface via an iPad, I'm supposed to think "gosh, this Oprah chick is really sincere about her endorsement!". C'mon.
4. Re:Who gives a fuck? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 00:30 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Has Oprah seriously influenced your life?
  It's not my life that I was talking about, it's the legion of over 35 housewives that hang off her every word. When Oprah speaks, her followers listen. With one offhand comment, she can shoot a book up on the bestseller list. All I'm saying is if you bear that kind of social responsibility then at least keep it real. Surely if the woman is going to shill for the Surface, she can at least bother to use the one Microsoft assuredly furnished her for the task. The shit is free. Pick the damn thing up and tweet on it. Hell, get a lackey to do it. Don't be a fucking hypocritical liar heaping praise on a gadget when the very lying words you are writing are being composed on the competitor's product. When people get busted lying like that they need to at least be clued in that somebody noticed. Maybe one day, a modicum of shame or, God forbid, decency might enter the public discourse.
  So, does Oprah "influence" me? Hell no. That doesn't mean she should be given carte blanche to tell bold faced lies to the people here words do effect.
5. Re:Who gives a fuck? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 00:40 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  MS earned $69+ billion last year. Hardly sounds like a company that's flopping, or selling flops.
  I didn't say MS was flopping so you can sit on that strawman and spin. Had you the capability of actually comprehending what you read, you'd see that I mentioned 2 products that are definite flops, namely the Zune and Windows Phone, then I threw in a couple of other products that aren't off to a great start possibly fortelling a future flop, namely Windows 8 and the Surface. That 69 billion dollar figure doesn't mean shit anyway, since what they actually made was 27 billion. That money was made primarily in two places, Office and Windows licensing with some rounding errors accounting for the XBox and a few other things.
  A ton of shit MS comes out with flops hard and just throwing up an income figure like some fucking fanboy moron isn't going to change that.
6. Re:Who gives a fuck? by 91degrees · 2012-11-20 00:53 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I'm a paid Microsoft Shill. Honestly, it's excellent money. We just spend all day posting to Slashdot. Clearly this is well worth it to Microsoft, because just a few well worded comments will make the notoriously Microsoft-hostile Slashdot readers suddenly change their minds, and immediately decide that they're going to use an inferior product.
7. Re:Who gives a fuck? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 01:18 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  If this is indeed true, then in my opinion it only reflects the desperate situation Microsoft is in..
  Desperate ain't even the word for it. Fucking scared shitless is more like it. Here, let me paint this iPad shaped picture for you. The WinRT Surface is the epitome of pointless me-too shite. For all the supposed "innovation" in the UI, all one has to do is take two steps back and really look at the situation for what it is. The Surface and the entire Windows on ARM initiative is a desperate attempt to copy the iPad and in true cargo cult fashion, MS thinks if they lock the app store down just so, and get just this many content partners then they can through sheer will somehow ape the iPad formula and *hand wave* beat Apple at their own game. Ha! What they're forgetting is the iPad is not just another competitive device from any old company. The iPad, when you look at it from the typical consumer perspective, is fucking fantastic. It has hundreds of thousands of apps, it's relatively cheap, it has a jaw dropping high-res screen (you know, that thing you'll be looking at when you use it), it has an interface that, again assuming the consumer role, is sublime in its simplicity.
  Basically, the iPad is ridiculously better than the Surface in practically every way that matters to the market. The entry level price is cheaper, it has tons more apps, it has an interface that is not nearly as confusing, and on and on. Basically, the iPad is what people expect a tablet to be. Android through sheer virtue of looking and acting so much like iOS is acceptable to many people as well. Trying to pawn off WinRT as a legitimate alternative to the general consumer is laughable in its current state. And the back and forth desktop/metro mode is pure comedy. The thing is a joke. And an expensive one at that. The days of divine providence where if you were using a consumer device that could be confused with a computer, Windows as OS was a given, are quite simply over. MS know Windows and by extension Office are the keys to the kingdom and tablet by tablet and smartphone by smartphone, that providence is being revoked. Yeah, they scared.
8. Re:Who gives a fuck? by 1s44c · 2012-11-20 02:00 · Score: 2
  
  ..and only one person over 35.
  Hey! I know plenty of people over 35 who read slashdot and have productive careers in IT.
  Troll Oprah not us 35+ year olds you whipper-snapper and get the hell off my lawn.
9. Re:Who gives a fuck? by 1s44c · 2012-11-20 02:10 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  If anyone praises Linux, it's because of liberty and choice. If anyone praises Windows, it's because they're a paid Microsoft shill. Is that right?
  If someone praises a product that has been hammered by review after review it's likely a paid marketing attempt.
  If someone praises a product within seconds of a new story being posted they are either the world's fastest typist or they are copy and pasting something.
  The Microsoft astroturfers are all over slashdot and we all know it, but as you point out not everything pro Microsoft is a paid astroturfer.
10. Re:Who gives a fuck? by westlake · 2012-11-20 09:10 · Score: 2
  
  If someone praises a product within seconds of a new story being posted they are either the world's fastest typist or they are copy and pasting something.
  or they might be a paid subscriber
  or they might have taken a drink from the Firehouse.
Re:Fake news? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 23:52 · Score: 3, Informative

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.
Paid off or what? by pointyhat · 2012-11-19 23:56 · Score: 4, Interesting

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.
1. Re:Paid off or what? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 00:20 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  In the UK at least, they've been paying for various celebrity trolls to say "OMG WINPHONE8 IS TEH WIN" all over advertising. [...] A more realistic assessment is walking into my local Currys/PC World shop [...] Windows 8 love? Absolutely sod all. No one gives a flying fuck.
  Much the same over here in the US. Just like with the Zune, MS are shoveling piles of marketing dollars pimping a product that quite simply due to vastly superior choices already on the market, nobody wants. Nobody gave a shit about windows phone 7 when they could just get an iPhone or Android and it's probably pretty safe to say the same fate awaits windows phone 8. Metro is a disaster, that while blog pundits wax ecstatic over it, the man on the street just isn't impressed. I have an HD7 windows phone and I just don't like the damned thing. Something about it. Maybe the tiles are too "flippy" or it's too restricted but I vastly prefer my Nexus S over it and that's where my sim card stays. Windows 8 sucks ass too. It's only saving grace is what appears to be slightly better performance than 7, but you know what? I don't give a fuck. My computer is badass and a few percent here and there doesn't mean shit when I have to put up with the hideous Metro screen and ridiculous gestures everywhere. I think many people will agree.
  Basically, MS has finally found itself in a highly competitive market and, guess what, the ersatz bully is floundering. Badly. Imagine that.
2. Re:Paid off or what? by Inda · 2012-11-20 01:28 · Score: 2
  
  If James Kimberley Corden dances to dubstep with his W8 phone, I want one.
  
  Wait, no, that's not right. I want to get pissed on Christmas day and ruin it for everyone.
  
  Easy mistake to make, ay?
  
  --
  This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Re:Irony or Dispair by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 00:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.
"Have bought 12 already for Christmas gifts." by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2012-11-20 00:17 · Score: 4, Funny

"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!
Got any more mangled similes? by wonkey_monkey · 2012-11-20 00:22 · Score: 2

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.
1. Re:Got any more mangled similes? by wonkey_monkey · 2012-11-20 00:24 · Score: 2
  
  I'm being unfair. All of the above is forgiven since the submitter actually wrote their own submission (or at least went to the effort of not copy-pasting from either of the linked articles).
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Easy to verify.. by Spottywot · 2012-11-20 00:32 · Score: 5, Funny

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...
Re:Surface iOS Bridge by alexgieg · 2012-11-20 01:02 · Score: 2

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.
Re:Surface iOS Bridge by Forty+Two+Tenfold · 2012-11-20 01:03 · Score: 4, Funny

"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.
Re:Irony or Dispair by clarkn0va · 2012-11-20 01:08 · Score: 3, Funny

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
Astroturfing at its finest! by 1s44c · 2012-11-20 01:14 · Score: 2

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.
No surprise at all by wjwlsn · 2012-11-20 01:44 · Score: 3, Interesting

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.
Re:That's Racist! by jareth-0205 · 2012-11-20 03:26 · Score: 2

Yet *you're* the first one to mention race...
Re:Surface iOS Bridge by MouseTheLuckyDog · 2012-11-20 05:15 · Score: 2

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.