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Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying People: Business Insider (businessinsider.com)
Can an iPad replace your computer? It has been the topic of debate for years, with plenty of people advising against it. Apple sure begs to differ. It has been running a commercial in which it predicts a world where a computer is extinct and a child with an iPad doesn't even know what the word "computer" means. Business Insider reports that plenty of people are finding that commercial annoying. From the report: "Does this commercial tick anybody else off?" writes one commenter on a snippet of the commercial that was posted to Facebook. "I want to smack this kid. What's a computer? You know what a computer is you disrespectful smarta--!!" Plenty of other social media posts, some with thousands of retweets, have made the same observation.
_ALL_ads are annoying!
It is so smug and self aggrandizing. The very essence of Apple. Exponential smugness.
It's because the kid acts like an arrogant rich twit who can't look away from his screen for three seconds to have a decent conversation with someone. He looks like a poster-boy for smartphone (or tablet in this case) addiction.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
All those non tech geeks writing swift code on their ipads because hey, what's a computer?
There's annoying, and then there's what they apparently did here, which is 'say something stupid'. It's closer to trolling than anything else.
It's stupid because:
1. A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. Just because it doesn't come with a keyboard and mouse doesn't mean it's not a computer -- and you can connect a keyboard and mouse to it if you want regardless.
2. There will always be many, many applications where the power and flexibility of a full-size desktop computer are necessary or desirable. Now, someone will come along and say "Tablets will become more powerful to the point where desktops and laptop/notebook computers are irrelevant", but that's just plain wrong, too, because more traditional form-factor computing devices will also get more powerful simultaneously.
Really, the basic, incorrect assumption here is that a 'tablet computer' is some totally different device compared to any other computer; it's not, it's just a different form-factor that doesn't include a keyboard and a pointing device (not counting the touchscreen interface) by default -- and you can add them easily.
That pisses off a lot of Mac users. See the MacRumors forums if you don't believe me. Mac mini was last updated in 2012. It was downgraded in 2014. Apple is on the verge of killing the MacBook Air even if their new butterfly keyboards are crap, they're so obsessed with USB-C that they're dropping USB-A even though a lot of people still ASK for them. Don't like the overpriced MacBook? Buy an overpriced MacBook Pro instead! It's like they think everyone is as rich as americans. Mac Pro? They released a freakin' no-future-upgrade-path of a cylinder tower instead. Would have been cool for a Mac mini, pointless for pros.
Tim Cook really does seem to think iPads can replace computers, including Macs.
But most people with a Mac need to have it, just as PC users need their PC. Whatever your choice of OS, computers are tools to work with, not toys to consume data.
If a stupid tablet was enough, we'd buy tablets!
#DeleteFacebook
It's stupid because:
Your points are mostly true, but they are not why the ad is stupid, and insulting, too.
1. The "smart kid" who is using the Apple device knows what a computer is, she'd just playing stupid for pretend. You can't be older than 5 and not know what a computer is, and many sub-5s probably know, too.
2. She just plain rude. Her next door neighbor is attempting to have a conversation with her, she knows that the question means ("what are you working on?"), but she flippantly dismisses her and continues tapping away on her computer after hardly acknowledging the existence of the other person. A more polite response would be to show her neighbor the cute bug document project she's working on and act like a real human with the person who lives next door.
Congratulations, advertising team, for an ad that teaches me that Apple users are rude morons.
I'm thinking that YOU missed the point here. If your thermostat has an OS and separate processor and memory... it's a computer.