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?
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...
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Some of us learn from other people's mistakes and the rest of us have to be other people. -- Zig Ziglar
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
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?
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.
"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!
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.
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...
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.
"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
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.
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.
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.
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.