Microsoft intros Windows 7 beta, Songsmith app at CES - Page 3

That was just wrong from Microsoft....

CRINGE! That video gave me the goosebumps and shivers - and not in a good way. I had a hard time keeping my protein shake down.

Steve Ballmer probably made that video himself.

I think my dain got bramaged.
I watched ti twicet.

After reading the posts on Songsmith, I had to watch that ad...like watching a train wreck.

That is the worse POS software ever. Microsoft wasted money developing that. WOW.

Complete fail, EPIC fail.

Good old fashion Windows bashing, I love it. That said, while some of this sounds pretty strange (Songsmith? What the?), Microsoft isn't always off the ball. I for one prefer Word over Pages.

That said, I've seen Windows 7. I've used Windows 7. Builds newer than you'd see in the wild. Granted at some point today that will change, I'm sure the public beta build released this afternoon will be newer than what I've played with.

Windows 7 is good, as Windows goes. More feature packed than Vista, efficient, more stable than XP and almost as friendly as Leopard. Think of all the faults of Vista, imagine the vast majority gone.

It's something else. Not that I intend to be switching, after all I said almost as, not as friendly as Leopard, but I think Microsoft has done something right for once, besides Word.

Of course, knowing Microsoft, by now they may have messed it up again for all I know, but we've all got Boot Camp, so I'd suggest to the more adventurous among us, that you give it a go this afternoon: http://www.microsoft.com/windows7

* I naturally disclaim any responsibility for file loss, exploding computers and pregnant girlfriends. You should all know better than to use Windows.
** I haven't gotten a chance to play with Snow Leopard yet.

Well, just like gaming sites try to fuel the Xbox 360 vs. PS3 fanboy fanboy flame wars, it seems AppleInsider feels they must do the same with the Apple vs. Microsoft fanboy flame wars to get cheap site hits instead of posting real content. They even take an innocuous quote from a Microsoft exec and try top spin it like it's an attack on Apple (Gee, a high level exec praises his company's own products...an an Apple exec would never do something so evil).

But I guess it worked. Here you have a bunch of Apple fanbots attacking Windows 7 and Songsmith without ever having used it. AppleInsider, you must be so proud!

I think GarageBand's horizontal timeline is more logical than blocks that are added left to right, top to bottom....

SongSmith wasn't even pretty....

As many of you know, I tell it like it is and have let my thoughts be known, especially with Apple pricing, non apple parts and their marketing model, however, having been a PC beta developer for dozens of PC apps, this has got to be the worst thing I have ever seen.

I thought surely this is a joke right, but was horrified to see that this was real. I thought perhaps maybe something like Acid from Sonic Foundry (rather Sony) but wow, that was hideous- ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ALL THE MONEY THEY HAVE AND THE BEST THEY CAN DO IS CRAPPY SOUNDING LOOPS THAT SOUND LIKE GENERAL MIDI WINDOWS SOUND FONTS? IS GATES AN IMBECILE? SOMEONE AT MSFT NEEDS TO BE FIRED.

THAT IS HIDEOUS!!!

Microsoft has zero taste in music.That song made my ears bleed, and I send a friend the link to the page

It blows,
what blows?
Winblows.

Just thought... the ad reminds me of those cringeworthy "Duck and Cover" ads you had in the US in the 1950s.

Songsmith could be a fun thing for kids to play with but certainly no one could use it to make a professional piece of work. It sounds tinny and awful.

I'm pretty sure the ad was not meant to be taken at face value, but was trying for a certain effect, but has not quite hit the right note, and just ended up kinda awful. Which is analogous to the kind of music produced by the program actually -- maybe those ad makers are smarter than us all.

SONGSMITH IS HORRIBLE!! I couldn't believe that ad was real. HAHAHA! Being a musician, this is just hilarious. Someone before said it sounds like a Casio and they are absolutely right! My musician friends are going to LOVE seeing this ad. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Thanks Microshaft.

Too bad he didn't say Galaxy. That would have more apt as I think the largest items at the center of most galaxies is now believed to be Black Holes.

It is certainly faster at certain tasks than XP at this point, but more stable it is not. It is still a Beta, afterall. They certainly have learned from Vista's relative failure, but so has Appld from the MM launch failure. They are now adopting the OS X-like buttons, but the Start Menu needs to go. As long as that is there I can't but dislike Windows' setup.

Nope. It's not an experiment apparently. They're actually going to sell this.

For $30 a pop!



I guess this is what happens when you give geeks free reign with a marketing budget ....

Hey, General MIDI is the ro0xx0rs okay... Back in 1990

Garageband just took a big dump all over this Songsmith stuff.

Unless they bundle a FiftyCent Masterclass with Songsmith (GET RICH MAKING HITS WITH SONGSMITH OR DIE TRYING YO!!!)

Yup, AppleInsider automagically brings out all the Apple SlamBoys too.

If you tell me Windows 7 will let me play Crysis on my GMA950 MacBook I'll install it right away!

I can't find the link to download it? Does Microsoft want us to try it or not?

Yes, it STINKS STINKS STINKS and sounds like the PC application BAND IN A BOX midi files - so I looked further and sure enough, same company. That said, they are offering Garratian sound libraries and I can tell you this, if you create a song with band in a box, it sounds like playback from a CASIO keyboard, however, if you are a good musician, I am, you can load up TRILOGY, BFD drums (or any great drums), add EWQLSO $1400, and get some really good songs. Now, that said, if this program can write to you voice and then you can exporth the midi and import high end samples, then this could be revolutionary.

The only thing that scares me will be all the songs we will hear on the web, sort of like people who put music to youtube and suddenly think they are an editor.

Won't know until I look into further, but really people, someone like me or someone hip needs to take over the direction of MSFT and Apple marketing for that matter, past title was National Marketing and Promotional Director, as well as Director of Artist Relations, A&R. LOL

Oh dear, all the fanboys are out tonight are they not?

Do you all not feel really, really stupid for taking such an obvious piece of fluff so seriously?

Anyone here seen a Pixar film? You know, the ones that appeal to kids on a such a basic level and yet appeal to adults on a level akin to parody? Anyone who worked on this commercial is probably reading this forum now and laughing at you guys for these comments. Does that not make you feel dumb? It should do.

And yes of course it was a Mac Book Pro, why wouldn't it be? Microsoft don't make PC's in case you never knew that. They are gonna use someone's hardware, If they are up for rattling some fanboy cages then why not use a MBP and go for gold?

Looks good does Windows 7, I hope it is. After all it is the OS that most of the world will be using for the foreseeable future. I will stick it on my MBP tomorrow and give it a go. I doubt it will replace OSX in my house but I am prepared to have a look. I have an open mind after all.

I don't care how you take it, seriously, a spoof, whatever - its truly obnoxious.
Thanks for comparing it to a Pixar movie though, that made me see it in a different light altogether

Well I am not a fan and for sure am not of the mind set like some loons that Steve can do no wrong - just look at lack of firewire (my tests showed firewire 4x faster) and they did this as the GPU was great on the MB and they knew FIREWIRE = pro apps on that machine, meaning SHAKE, MOTION and apple can stand the thought of the people who got them where they are, and less than 1% of market, using a cheap solution.

However, having developed Giga Studio, Acid, and working on something for Ultimate Soundbanks, plus being a producer, sound designer, FF/TV executive, that had to be the worst piece of marketing I have ever seen - even if it were on Disney, it lacks a hip factor, very lame. You would think with their $$$ they could hire the right crew, casting, storyboard and make it work a lot better, especially since the program offers HIGHER END samples from other companies, not to mention you can use your own $$$$$ high end samples, instead, it looks like they used MIDI sound fonts and got some people from the back yard to play the parts -even the story was very week.

MSFT if you ever want a charismatic sales, marketing, promotional, merchandising guru with years of experience in Post Production, please, for the sake of hipness, hire me:
I will turn you around. composer88@gmail.com LOL Really, as a switcher, yet worked with macs in the studio all my life, and I.T., I would do it just to not cringe at ad's such as this.

Be safe all.

Will Apple have a booth at next year's CES?
Will Ballmer take on Steve Jobs in a battle of the keynotes?

You're right. I've come to my senses and now feel bad.

How can anyone hate something that's songtastic?

I think I hate the fanboy accusers more than microsoft.
I dislike microsoft not because I'm a 'fan' of apple. No, I dislike microsoft because since time began they have produced soulless shit that somehow makes my life harder rather than easier.

Of the 10 or so computer platforms I have used, I hold fond memories for every one, except microsoft.

software written by idiots for idiots.

However they have proven themselves to be geniuses of comedy, I'l grant them that.

That reminds me of Microsoft's other Promo video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmEvPZUdAVI

Windows is finally adding features that macs have had
can you say copy cat much? at least for the features that were highlighted in this article.

OMG! Does Microsoft actually employ an ad agency?

One word describes Songsmith AND the promo...

FAIL!

But wait! There's more!

These Cups of Coffee

Science is Cool

No, I still think Songsmith is some cruel joke.

I'd love to see the Mac ad with PC singing some lovely tune (could use one from the Songsmith ad) and then have Mac say he's been working on learning some music too.

Now Sting walks in, hands Mac an extra guitar, maybe asks if he practiced the chords, and then Mac and Sting both play guitar and Sting sings 'Don't stand so close to me' looking over at poor PC.

The timing of Songsmith is just hilarious when at the same Apple rolls out professional music lessons. (I'm of course assuming the lessons will be at least reasonable, but I'm sure they can't be worse than Songsmith was in that ad.)

"don't stand in my path"

Yes, I'm sure that 12 year olds(guessing their age) came up with that.

If you click on the video and go to the Youtube Page
watch it in High DEF at :22 you will clearly see the leaf on top of the apple logo and the left edge
of the apple under the middle sticker. Also the 17 inch laptop appears to have a Clear Case Cover on it which looks just like the Speck MB17-CLR-SEE See Thru 17-Inch MacBook Pro Hard Case
Very sad to see Microsoft using Apples yet again for a PC ad

I really underestimated the creepiness factor of that Songsmith video. *shudder*

Songsmith looks as lame as Wii Music. Maybe they're onto something though - Wii Music has been widly popular.

Have YOU ever seen a Pixar film? If so, I'm sorry that you were to uneducated to see why they really appeal to adults as well.

Comparing Pixar film to this dreck? You is craaaaazy....

Apple has always had the better ideas in software, they've just always tied them to their own biases. That is the M.O. of Microsoft, take Apple's (or someone else's) ideas, sell them without the hardware strings attached, and make money that could be in Apple's pockets.

I actually think you are right with that! YOu can almost see the top of the apple on the front right behind the sticker. HA. Now that is funny.

Right- Apple has never taken another idea and sold it. Not even Soundjam - which was turned it into iTunes which made a ton of money for them.