Microsoft ups cash limit, takes aim at MacBook Pros in new ad - Page 13

That is what happens when you have nothing to say for yourself: you just bash your competitor.

It is the same "strategy" the GOP uses.

Simple choice. Something from Thinkpad W series.

I'm torn between disgust and amusement on these ads.
Can there possibly be more dishonest and ridiculous series of commercials than the ones MS is putting out?
Nope.
These things went from amusing to just plain annoying.
But, for all those users that still think they need the cheaper PC, I say go for it.
It's only helping me in this bad economy.
I charge $75 per hour to fix PC's. Virus's, adware, malware, re-installs, memory upgrades.
You name it, I can do it. And my side business is booming thanks to MS.
My mother used to be my biggest customer (no charge of course!). Two to three times a week I'd have to stop by my folks house to fix another MS problem.
Then I talked her into a mac mini.
I've had to stop by for one problem in the last year. And it turned out to be a bad wireless router.
For the rest of you PC 'users' out there, open your wallets. More people like me are getting in the mix every day because of this economy. We're cheaper than the BB's and other electronics/pc service departments, but we'll cash in on the "Cheap PC" rush.
Or you can buy a Mac and never see me and my minion ever again.
Your choice...

kaostheory7, thank you for your reply.

You called me an idiot, moron and few other things in a single post, with handful of exclamation marks, so I preferred to presume you were upset - otherwise I'd just have to presume you are rude and without manners, and I hate to make such conclusions about people I haven't met in real life.

By the way, sorry for "breed" thing - English is not my native, and there is only that much FireFox spell check can fix. And thank you for wishing me not to breed - I'd never wish you not to have kids, but hey - I'm just unintelligent Windows user; maybe such thoughts come with that Mac coolness.

I also didn't involve your parents in this discussion. I did that once, in one of treads here on AI, and apologised after that. But you are free to do so, hey, this is your forum, and those are your manners.

That being said, my mum did supply me with apples when I was a kid - very long time ago - and I enjoyed them, as I do now. I also enjoy apple juice, even Appletiser. Thanks for asking.

I'm sorry that you see me lacking intelligence, but at the end of a day you have all rights to build your opinion on me as you see fit. Hey, you might even be completely right about that.

I don't actually like to stir things up, but I also don't like to be fed with same bullshit about system that I arguably know better than majority of Mac users here. It just happens that I do work in IT consultancy firm and am dealing with different flavours of Windows 8 hours a day minimum. You have been dealing with some Windows systems, but they are my bread and apple juice on daily basis. It also just happens that I do have 4 different Vista systems and 4 different XP systems at home and biggest problem with them is explaining my wife why we actually need all of them; it is obviously much easier to explain why 20+ pairs of shoes are necessary... so anyway; if I stir sometimes, it is due to being provoked.

I'd be much happier if people around here would choose to talk more about Macs than about Windows - it is Apple forum after all - but sadly that is not so. It is still enjoyable to cross swords and words with some people around here, though.

I'm not saying that Vista is better than OSX, or that 7 will be better than OSX. I don't know enough about OSX to have an opinion on that. I would like to know more about OSX but as it is, I still don't see enough true reasons to justify price premium that comes with Macs - and I don't see all the utter bullcraping on Windows as a true reason because, based on my personal opinion, majority of that is simply not true.

But I will still be considering Mac for my next notebook - not because I take it for granted it is better machine, but because I am interested to give it a go. (and it is easier to justify something completely different when discussing budget with wife)

I'm glad we had a chance to exchange some bit more reasonable thoughts. Have a nice day.

Well... what do you expect? With 10 - 15 times more PC than Mac users out there, of course you'll always have more job out of Windows users

And your side business is not blooming strictly thanks to MS; it is blooming thanks to popularity MS products have, and hackers' attention that follows such popularity.

End of day, no one is arguing there are incomparable more viruses on Windows platform and it requires more effort to keep it safe; what some of us do argue is, putting all plus and minus sides of both platforms, we don't see justification for price premium.

It's from 2006 so it's obviously not from this thread. It's from an EdgadgetHD thread, but there is no way to tell if that is you or just someone with the same name, though it does sound like you. Regadless, I read through his HD optical disc posting and you can see that Engadget Tauron didn't have correct information from the start about Blu-ray v. HD-DVD, which clearly led to his bias against Blu-ray. There is also a 6 month drop in posting after the death of HD-DVD was announced in January 2008.

•

http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/12/28...until-january/

My wife bought me a macbook pro because i do 3d work for an architectural firm and because she thought it looked trendy. But she uses it now because my older hp pavillion is still faster at rendering then the mac. Besides autodesk doesnt support macs yet. so untill then..... and the guys using bootcamp are not without there share of hiccups btw

Well I guess it's easier to change your computer than your wife.

(alternative)


Clever girl!

I'm surprised at the original article and how they pointed out slower ram. Hello. MacBooks had slower ram for ions. They still have the slowest CPU compared to many pcs and the you is very slow. With the iMacs, don't get me started. With the pro, it's a scam to get you to pay for ECCmemory and server CPU when it could have been built otherwise for much less.

LOL!!!

I never ordered an HD-DVD. Obviously it is not me. Bluray will lose the war versus encoded movie, period.

Yep, you said it brother. The last DVD I bought was Kill Bill 2. Almost all my media is now served cold from my Mac Mini with a Lacie 5 TB HD. I hate, I despise plastic crap laying around. I just finished ripping the last of my CD's and DVD's and will never look back. If it ain't converted it's outdated.

Are you insane?

It's one thing to be a fanboy (not saying you are) and stand by what you believe it's another to blindy spew out falsehoods. Google blueray vs he and you will see numerous threads and sales figures that state "game over" as blueray has won. It looks better and even in these tough economic times, Poole are buying be in droves. People love it so am not sure where you are pulling those state from. Makes no sense.

Some have disected apples Apple TV and found that it's far from HD.
Also with regard to flash and iPhone, I don't understand why it doesn't have it. Flash is used for online streaming almost eveywhere. All major film companies and movie sites, Hulu, MLB TV online, ESPN, Fox news and sports, even stories on new msft commercials are flash and most if the time, the story hasti be uploaded to YouTube in order for us to see it.

Having YouTube as the main source of video no longer cuts it for the iPhone. Everyone uses flash except apples iPhone. Hope it comes soon. Google iPhone no flash and rare that most experts believe the real reason iPhone has no flash is due to Apple fearing adobes apps once flash was installed. Has nothing to do with battery life I'd adobe not cooperating.

Peace.

By encoded movie I'm sure he is referring to digital downloads, not HD-DVD, if that is waht you are thinking.

If it wasn't , Blu-ray hasn't won the game against digital downloads which is still growing. The much more instant nature of the download match with our growing home intranets and media centers makes it a worthy competitor to physical formats. The quality is unquestionable superior in Blu-ray in both video and audio, and to a large degree, but just like the iTunes Store 128Kbps audio against the DRM-free CD convenience has shown to be a major reason for people's choices. BLu-ray will continue to grow, but so will digital media, both at the expense of DVDs.

This is a statement I'll agree with.

In fact, for fun I d/l a xvid 700MB movie from p2p. It was fine and looked great in my 24" HD 1920x1200 monitor. Sure blueray and he graphics look better from he tv but the movie was 100% watchable. My fear or thoughts are as we move from 1-3MB per sec to 10-50MB per sec, will illegal movies take over? As it is, one simply has to look at new releases on websites and then search in limewire. Wondering if blue ray will save some of these as they are to large to d/l right now?

You can get Blu-ray quality movies on torrents now. Usually they are the H.264 or x264 codec in a MKV container. I'm told it's full quality from the disc, but I don't think so unless they are only using a small portion of the disc since many seem to be just over 8GB, which I think is done so it will burn onto a DL-DVD that can be played in a Blu-ray drive.

It is true that HD ATV movie has a slight but noticeable inferior quality vs. bluray. It has been compared to death and that is the final conclusion. But you don't need to buy HD from itunes. I have downloaded HD movies directly and those have 1080p minus some losses in the compression which are very very slight.

In the end any minor loss in quality is overwhelmingly offset but the HUGE gains in practicality and cost. The real-life cost breakdown is as follows:

1. With bluray you spend $400 on a bluray player plus $15+ for each media. There is no way around this.

2. With ATV you spend $0 on the player plus $0 for each movie. The reason I factor ATV as zero is because ATV is a movie, picture, youtube, podcast, music player, so you cannot compare it to a movie-only player, especially since it is much more practical than the process of looking for the movie you want, opening the box, risking scratching the media, opening the tray, etc, etc. And because you can download practically any movie these days for free the price per movie is zero.

To summarize:
bluray:
highest quality
$400 player
$15+ per movie
medium practicality

ATV:
slightly inferior to bluray (most won't notice)
$0 player
$0 per movie
maximum practicality

I need to get off my arse and do that. Don't have the time right now though.

I think your comparison is disingenuous. First of all, the costs are off. BR players can be had for under $200 and the AppleTV does cost money. While it does have other features it's still has a cost we can't just ignore the cost. Secondly, you can BR from Netflix at a flat monthly rate which can easily get you more HD titles for less money than iTS offers HD titles. Finally, the AppleTV outputs a max of 720p and the bitrate isn't very high. The picture looks pretty good, but it is no way the same league as Blu-ray at a high bitrate with 1080p. AppleTv wins hands down for convenience and digital downloads will over take Blu-ray movie sales and rentals but the quality in video and audio is quite apparent, though Apple's HD service is "good enough" for most.

ATV tech spec says 720p but that is because of bandwidth limitations when downloading or streaming. If you have the 1080p movie it will play it. Also, depending on the quality of encoding, the 1080p movie may be indistinguishable from bluray.

If you want to pay for rent it will cost the same because those costs are determined by licensing to movie distributors. But if you want to freeload then you will have a much easier time with ATV because you don't have to buy blank media and burn (add the cost of burner too).

If you want to compare costs then do this math: ATV = movie, music, photos, youtube and podcasts. So for movies $300/5 = $60 value. Any decent bluray goes for $400.

I am assuming these commercials are the work of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, M$ new agency of past 2 years.

If you recall, Exec. Creative Director/Guru, Alex Bogusky was on the cover of Fast Inc. (I think) magazine a year ago talking about how w was going to brand Windows after they won account ($300MM+).

Alex mentioned in that article that no other company would e caught dead "NOT responding" to the "attack" ads from Apple's Mac vs PC commercials. So I imagine these are CP+Bs ads tho I do not work there now...but could ask some friends who still do. The interviewer mentioned in the start of the article how Alex had a newly released Macbook Air on his desk and an iphone and maybe even another APple devise (ipod?) and asked about that irony.

My point: I worked at CP+B in Miami. There were about 500 employees at that time in the office in Coconut Grove. Ask me how many Macs were there...go on....OK, guessing about 450+. Only the Travel Dept and Accounting used PCs. EVERYTHING else was Apple and employees were given either Apple iBooks or MacPros depending on their position. This included Content Mgrs. (aka Account Mgrs.), Production. Quality Control (QC aka Preflight), Broadcast, Cognitive something (Cogs/Human behavioral shit) etc.

WORD!
I ove an agency branding winodws that soley reles on Apple! Take the $$ and run Mr. Bogusky!!!!

...and he walked into the sunset, mumbling quietly "Dreams are my reality" by Richard Sanderson

That is because for most people computer is a tool, not a religion... and MS selected ad agency based on their portfolio, not on their tools.

When you think of it, it is very simple.

NO.... Advertising is about Truth. Computers are our new Religion. Steve Jobs is GOD. Microsoft is the Devil.

When you think of it, it *is* very simple.

Actually, Gates should be the Devil, and Microsoft is the 9th circle of Hell. Or should that be Redmond..?

http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=97895