Google Maps website shows Samsung laptop running Apple OS X

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
In what appears to be an advertising gaffe, Google's webpage dedicated to touting Google Maps uses a Samsung laptop running Apple's OS X to show off the mapping service's capabilities.

Samsung OS X
Source: Google


The multitude of images, found by intrepid AppleInsider reader Eric, show a black Samsung laptop running Google's Chrome web browser for OS X, each highlighting a different Google Maps feature like Satellite View, Earth View and Street View.

The images clearly show the tell-tale red, yellow and green control buttons located at the top left corner of all OS X windows, not the icon-based counterparts seen on current Windows 7 machines. Unless the Samsung device is a "hackintosh," or a non-Apple computer that has been modified to run OS X, the images have been altered.

As seen in the image below, the shoddy graphics work extends beyond the obvious operating system slip up, as what appears to be a drop shadow to the left of the laptop is actually the faded-out bezel of a separate machine.

Samsung OS X Device


Although speculation, it is thought that the designers who created the page, possibly Google's own in-house team, simply pasted screenshots from their own Mac workstations onto the Samsung computer.

While most likely an oversight on the part of the website's graphic artists, the retouched photos are an interesting side note to the ongoing power struggle in which Apple and Google are currently embroiled. The fact that the images appear on the Google Maps page make it more ironic given the recent flap regarding Apple's switch to its own proprietary mapping solution in iOS 6, a move that has been widely criticized by pundits and users alike.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    Cue a million jokes about Samsung's stepped up "innovate, don't litigate" campaign of innovating by copying Apple.

    All kidding aside, how the hell does Google and Samsung (Samsung presented evidence in court that was supposed to be months old, but a calendar depicted in the screenshot was of the prior day's date) manage to be this sloppy this consistently?

    Steve Jobs would aptly refer to them as "Bozos"
  • Reply 2 of 18
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member


    Make hay while the sun shines. LOL

  • Reply 3 of 18
    rokradrokrad Posts: 143member
    Its annoying how dumb some graphic designers these days are... Why not just use their own chromebooks as reference or something. But it seems a lot of tech companies don't have the right graphic designers.
  • Reply 4 of 18
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rokrad View Post



    Its annoying how dumb some graphic designers these days are... Why not just use their own chromebooks as reference or something. But it seems a lot of tech companies don't have the right graphic designers.


    Every guy with a hammer is a carpenter.

  • Reply 5 of 18
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Sammy's got copying down to an art. Even Google can't help itself.
  • Reply 6 of 18
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    rokrad wrote: »
    Its annoying how dumb some graphic designers these days are... Why not just use their own chromebooks as reference or something. But it seems a lot of tech companies don't have the right graphic designers.

    Might be the ease at which a screenshot is done. Does ChromeOS even do a screenshot natively?
  • Reply 7 of 18
    tylerk36tylerk36 Posts: 1,037member


    It's either meant to be an insult or a major screw up.  Either way most people wont care or notice.  Most people just look at the add and what it says and not the details beyond it.

  • Reply 8 of 18
    nasseraenasserae Posts: 3,167member
    I am speechless.. without speech!
  • Reply 9 of 18
    muppetrymuppetry Posts: 3,331member


    This seems to be a somewhat common occurrence - I've noticed the same thing in a number of TV commercials. Those colored buttons are really distinctive.

  • Reply 10 of 18
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member


    This shouldn't be a surprise.  Samsung and Google will copy literally anything.

  • Reply 11 of 18
    ifij775ifij775 Posts: 470member
    Samsung notebook? Never heard of it.
  • Reply 12 of 18


    GoogleSammyAppleGate!!

  • Reply 13 of 18


    Off topic, but is anyone else getting the same delicious SNORGtees advertisements that I am getting?

  • Reply 14 of 18
    majjomajjo Posts: 574member
    the screens in ads are almost always simulated, ie. Screenshot pasted on. Considering Google used to use macbooks in most of their ads (and still do in some cases see: ), its not inconceivable for them to have mistakenly taken an older screenshot and use that for this ad.
  • Reply 15 of 18
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    hilarious
  • Reply 16 of 18
    Still disgraceful by any token or viewpoint. Shamelessly sloppy, and indicative of the subconscious undercurrent of vicious perfidy that runs through the corporate veins of these viper-infested aggregations supposed to be world leading centres of excellence...
  • Reply 17 of 18
    bkimgbkimg Posts: 1member


    hmmm, could it be linux? it is too easy in linux to make the windows controls appear on the top left. can do it in windows too.


    without looking at the os itself, it will be hard to tell either way. 

  • Reply 18 of 18
    mikeb85mikeb85 Posts: 506member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by bkimg View Post


    hmmm, could it be linux? it is too easy in linux to make the windows controls appear on the top left. can do it in windows too.


    without looking at the os itself, it will be hard to tell either way. 



    It could be.  You can modify the windows in Linux to look like OSX windows (or for it to look like anything else, it's as versatile as you want as long as you have time to spend modding), and it is the primary OS Google uses for development.  


     


    But in this picture there are no panels (Windows, ChromeOS, Ubuntu or OSX), just the browser screen itself, so odds are the graphic designer was using a Mac, cropped around his open browser window, slapped it onto a Samsung notebook, and called it a day.  


     


    Furthermore, as for this 'disgrace', the ad only shows an open browser.  No details of any actual OS.  Google Chrome works on every platform the same, Google is also far from friendly with MS, I don't think this is nearly as significant as anyone thinks.  

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