So this afternoon, I am filming my video and uploading it for the world to see. Fully admitting that I am a PC.
Since I don't have the video finished, here's the script for everyone's approval.
Fade in on young woman sitting in front of a personal computer, the Vista desktop clearly visible over her shoulder. She turns to speak to the camera.
"I'm a PC. But more importantly I"m a person with things do to, a life to live. I don't have time to sit around and wait for my computer to do what I need done. I don't have time to read complicated manuals and download software to make my cameras, scanners and printers work. So I like that I have a computer that makes installing my devices as easy as pluging them in. I like that I have a computer that is easy to learn. I like that I have a computer that was ready to sort my photos, film and edit videos right out of the box with all the software I needed already installed for me. I like that I have a computer that makes it easy for me to backup my precious moments so should my computer fail, I don't lose weeks of work and years of memories. I like that I have a computer that comes with expert support to teach me how to create and communicate and support when things do go wrong. I like that I have a computer that is fast and efficient so I can do my work and still have time for the important things in my life. That's why I"m a PC."
Pull back slightly to see a tow headed boy of about 2 walk up. Woman stands, picking him up and exits the frame. Camera stays on computer for a moment before fading to black.
----
now my only question is how long it will take for them to notice that the computer has a big frakking apple logo on it. maybe I should toss a little "Made on a Mac" logo on the end slate. just in case
1. Where are these viruses? I think taking the "virus-free" thing off the site was a marketing decision, but I'm still waiting for those viruses.
2. Sure, Macs crash. My log tells me I crashed twice in 2006, once even in 2007. Sometimes I get a Finder crash: you see a blue screen, then everything restarts. I think it's been twice this year. The other crashes are apps. The quit, and then you restart them. Very seldom.
3. Vista more secure? Hah. I guess it has to be, with the billions of malware vectors shredding it every day.
4. Mobile Me's been working for me since about two weeks on. The team was fired, and the guy behind iTunes now runs it. It's been getting slicker and slicker.
5. iPhone signal? You could fool me. Heard of firmware update 2.1? Now, if you want a cumbersome, crash-prone system, get Windows Mobile.
So you've memorized a number of half-truths that aren't true now.
1. True, Mac seems to be virus free... for now; but it seems to be more because of no one creating them on Mac, than because Mac is so safe by default (check 3.). It makes perfect sense for me - people are, in general, not purchasing Mac for programming, and no home-brew programmers mean no home-brew viruses and other crap.
2. What you just explained is how PC works as well. Currently I have 1 Vista desktop, 2 Vista notebooks, 3 XP desktops and 1 XP notebook in my house. All perfectly stable. Sure, odd application will crash now and them (home-brew file converters, DVD-rippers and other freeware) but systems are stable - even my 6 years old Toshiba Satellite 1000. I didn't have hardware failure in 8 years (except for one dead mouse)... We moved our office computers to Vista as it integrates better with Windows 2008 server; non of them too new (mostly P4 platforms) and all of them working sweet as with Vista. Yet I keep hearing here how Windows platforms are stable as drunken monk, and Vista will not work on anything short of SkyNet-grade hardware. C'mon, people - get real.
You can find quite a number of articles like that one. Honestly that makes sense to me - Microsoft has by far biggest experience with viruses and stakes are highest, considering that corporate world exists on Windows platforms... so they have know-how. True for ordinary folks Mac is safest as number of nasties is still almost non-existent, but Mac is safe not because it is safe by design, only because everyone is behaving; what will happen once some kids stop behaving..?
At the end of the day, I like Mac. I almost got previous-gen 13" MacBook for my personal notebook. It was not more expensive than 13" Windows notebooks, had better battery life (than others I was considering) and design was nice. I was not planing to game on notebook, and couple of other things I can't do on Mac I was not planning to do on notebook anyway. I ended up with 15" HP notebook as I finally decided I want even more battery life, but one of the things that helped me to decide was simple fact that I was annoyed with "Get a Mac" adds. True they are mostly funny, but some of them are so smug and some are literally insulting; I still have working digital camera, Canon PowerShot A40, that came with none (or very limited support) for Mac. sure, it's old camera, but not THAT old. On the other side, I've never-ever seen camera with Mac support only. Does Apple ad with new Japanese camera annoys me? You bet. Lies publicly spoken, even if they try to be funny, always annoy me.
This strategy makes no sense to me. If the goal is to convince people in the mall to choose Mac over PC, why would they think people would choose a dank video booth over a big, bright, beautiful Apple Store? And how would sitting down and talking to a video camera change someone's mind about PCs?
And if they're trying to get good material for their ad campaign, isn't this the absolute worst place to find it? Apple Stores are a magnet for a) big Apple fans, and b) former PC users who are fed up with their PCs. It seems that anyone who wants to put in a genuine plug for Windows would have to wait in line behind a bunch of former users eager to spew vitriol.
Really, the only reasoning I can see behind this is to simply make a point of looking hip, alternative and totally in-your-face. While that kind of guerrilla tactic might work if Microsoft were a tiny, nimble company competing with the Apple goliath, Microsoft is, well, Microsoft. They're not really fooling anybody.
I think you are spot-on, it is about presence, being seen; not trying to snatch Mac buyers. I don't think MS is really worried considering total market percentage they own at this point. I think they just got annoyed by Apple's marketing buzz and decided to buzz back - "in your face", as you already mentioned.
1. True, Mac seems to be virus free... for now; but it seems to be more because of no one creating them on Mac, than because Mac is so safe by default (check 3.). It makes perfect sense for me - people are, in general, not purchasing Mac for programming, and no home-brew programmers mean no home-brew viruses and other crap.
2. What you just explained is how PC works as well. Currently I have 1 Vista desktop, 2 Vista notebooks, 3 XP desktops and 1 XP notebook in my house. All perfectly stable. Sure, odd application will crash now and them (home-brew file converters, DVD-rippers and other freeware) but systems are stable - even my 6 years old Toshiba Satellite 1000. I didn't have hardware failure in 8 years (except for one dead mouse)... We moved our office computers to Vista as it integrates better with Windows 2008 server; non of them too new (mostly P4 platforms) and all of them working sweet as with Vista. Yet I keep hearing here how Windows platforms are stable as drunken monk, and Vista will not work on anything short of SkyNet-grade hardware. C'mon, people - get real.
You can find quite a number of articles like that one. Honestly that makes sense to me - Microsoft has by far biggest experience with viruses and stakes are highest, considering that corporate world exists on Windows platforms... so they have know-how. True for ordinary folks Mac is safest as number of nasties is still almost non-existent, but Mac is safe not because it is safe by design, only because everyone is behaving; what will happen once some kids stop behaving..?
At the end of the day, I like Mac. I almost got previous-gen 13" MacBook for my personal notebook. It was not more expensive than 13" Windows notebooks, had better battery life (than others I was considering) and design was nice. I was not planing to game on notebook, and couple of other things I can't do on Mac I was not planning to do on notebook anyway. I ended up with 15" HP notebook as I finally decided I want even more battery life, but one of the things that helped me to decide was simple fact that I was annoyed with "Get a Mac" adds. True they are mostly funny, but some of them are so smug and some are literally insulting; I still have working digital camera, Canon PowerShot A40, that came with none (or very limited support) for Mac. sure, it's old camera, but not THAT old. On the other side, I've never-ever seen camera with Mac support only. Does Apple ad with new Japanese camera annoys me? You bet. Lies publicly spoken, even if they try to be funny, always annoy me.
Do you work for MS's PR department? Well spoken half-truths, fear uncertainty and hope for dissension is all that post was.
OS X has been available for 8 years now, the BSD family it is built on for almost 25 years. And in all that time NOBODY has yet devised a SINGLE virus? With the lions share of the operating systems code freely available in open source projects? That should make it a trivial mark for malware coders, unless the inherent design of the OS doesn't support virii without herculean efforts. Guaranteed, the first real propagating OS X virus will cause a veritable shitstorm of publicity and Black Hat hackers have been trying hard for about 4 years now- zilch -- nothing -- nada. Well a couple app crasher bugs in QT/Webkit, so not quite nada, but damn close.
Nobody coding at home for Mac? I guess you haven't been to a conference where the Open Source community hangs out. You display nothing short of pure ignorance with that comment.
Saying MS has superior experience fixing security holes because they do it a lot and that means Apple 5uXx0rs at it is like saying cows suck because chickens have far more experience laying eggs and they know how to sit on them and cows don't. Absolutely irrelevant to anyone not grasping at nonexistent straws.
As for your very limited support camera, you must be talking about the CD that came with the camera. Yeah, that CD sucks if you are a Mac user. But if you plug the camera in, iPhoto just works with it. The godawful touch-up trial crapware on the CD is far surpassed by the admittedly limited functionality to adjust in iPhoto, the CD loses hard there. Is it so hard to see that just because the Windows Crapware and Driver CD isn't even necessary that the whole argument of support is over before it even began? You are bitching about vendor support and completely ignoring Apple working with the vendors, before you ever bought the thing, and incorporating industry standard driver interfaces in the OS's I/O frameworks. So you don't need to play the effing ridiculous load the driver off the CD first or else problem you end up with on Windows.
And you don't like the commercials. OK, you don't have to like them. Who else cares?
Comments
So this afternoon, I am filming my video and uploading it for the world to see. Fully admitting that I am a PC.
Since I don't have the video finished, here's the script for everyone's approval.
Fade in on young woman sitting in front of a personal computer, the Vista desktop clearly visible over her shoulder. She turns to speak to the camera.
"I'm a PC. But more importantly I"m a person with things do to, a life to live. I don't have time to sit around and wait for my computer to do what I need done. I don't have time to read complicated manuals and download software to make my cameras, scanners and printers work. So I like that I have a computer that makes installing my devices as easy as pluging them in. I like that I have a computer that is easy to learn. I like that I have a computer that was ready to sort my photos, film and edit videos right out of the box with all the software I needed already installed for me. I like that I have a computer that makes it easy for me to backup my precious moments so should my computer fail, I don't lose weeks of work and years of memories. I like that I have a computer that comes with expert support to teach me how to create and communicate and support when things do go wrong. I like that I have a computer that is fast and efficient so I can do my work and still have time for the important things in my life. That's why I"m a PC."
Pull back slightly to see a tow headed boy of about 2 walk up. Woman stands, picking him up and exits the frame. Camera stays on computer for a moment before fading to black.
----
now my only question is how long it will take for them to notice that the computer has a big frakking apple logo on it. maybe I should toss a little "Made on a Mac" logo on the end slate. just in case
But a two-headed tow-headed boy wouldn't be a fair-haired boy. (I.e., he wouldn't be "a favorite, a person who is given special favorable treatment.")
so have you finished the film yet?
Huh?
1. Where are these viruses? I think taking the "virus-free" thing off the site was a marketing decision, but I'm still waiting for those viruses.
2. Sure, Macs crash. My log tells me I crashed twice in 2006, once even in 2007. Sometimes I get a Finder crash: you see a blue screen, then everything restarts. I think it's been twice this year. The other crashes are apps. The quit, and then you restart them. Very seldom.
3. Vista more secure? Hah. I guess it has to be, with the billions of malware vectors shredding it every day.
4. Mobile Me's been working for me since about two weeks on. The team was fired, and the guy behind iTunes now runs it. It's been getting slicker and slicker.
5. iPhone signal? You could fool me. Heard of firmware update 2.1? Now, if you want a cumbersome, crash-prone system, get Windows Mobile.
So you've memorized a number of half-truths that aren't true now.
1. True, Mac seems to be virus free... for now; but it seems to be more because of no one creating them on Mac, than because Mac is so safe by default (check 3.). It makes perfect sense for me - people are, in general, not purchasing Mac for programming, and no home-brew programmers mean no home-brew viruses and other crap.
2. What you just explained is how PC works as well. Currently I have 1 Vista desktop, 2 Vista notebooks, 3 XP desktops and 1 XP notebook in my house. All perfectly stable. Sure, odd application will crash now and them (home-brew file converters, DVD-rippers and other freeware) but systems are stable - even my 6 years old Toshiba Satellite 1000. I didn't have hardware failure in 8 years (except for one dead mouse)... We moved our office computers to Vista as it integrates better with Windows 2008 server; non of them too new (mostly P4 platforms) and all of them working sweet as with Vista. Yet I keep hearing here how Windows platforms are stable as drunken monk, and Vista will not work on anything short of SkyNet-grade hardware. C'mon, people - get real.
3. Google is beautiful thing, isn't it?:
http://www.macworld.com/article/5761...4/daizovi.html
You can find quite a number of articles like that one. Honestly that makes sense to me - Microsoft has by far biggest experience with viruses and stakes are highest, considering that corporate world exists on Windows platforms... so they have know-how. True for ordinary folks Mac is safest as number of nasties is still almost non-existent, but Mac is safe not because it is safe by design, only because everyone is behaving; what will happen once some kids stop behaving..?
At the end of the day, I like Mac. I almost got previous-gen 13" MacBook for my personal notebook. It was not more expensive than 13" Windows notebooks, had better battery life (than others I was considering) and design was nice. I was not planing to game on notebook, and couple of other things I can't do on Mac I was not planning to do on notebook anyway. I ended up with 15" HP notebook as I finally decided I want even more battery life, but one of the things that helped me to decide was simple fact that I was annoyed with "Get a Mac" adds. True they are mostly funny, but some of them are so smug and some are literally insulting; I still have working digital camera, Canon PowerShot A40, that came with none (or very limited support) for Mac. sure, it's old camera, but not THAT old. On the other side, I've never-ever seen camera with Mac support only. Does Apple ad with new Japanese camera annoys me? You bet. Lies publicly spoken, even if they try to be funny, always annoy me.
This strategy makes no sense to me. If the goal is to convince people in the mall to choose Mac over PC, why would they think people would choose a dank video booth over a big, bright, beautiful Apple Store? And how would sitting down and talking to a video camera change someone's mind about PCs?
And if they're trying to get good material for their ad campaign, isn't this the absolute worst place to find it? Apple Stores are a magnet for a) big Apple fans, and b) former PC users who are fed up with their PCs. It seems that anyone who wants to put in a genuine plug for Windows would have to wait in line behind a bunch of former users eager to spew vitriol.
Really, the only reasoning I can see behind this is to simply make a point of looking hip, alternative and totally in-your-face. While that kind of guerrilla tactic might work if Microsoft were a tiny, nimble company competing with the Apple goliath, Microsoft is, well, Microsoft. They're not really fooling anybody.
I think you are spot-on, it is about presence, being seen; not trying to snatch Mac buyers. I don't think MS is really worried considering total market percentage they own at this point. I think they just got annoyed by Apple's marketing buzz and decided to buzz back - "in your face", as you already mentioned.
1. True, Mac seems to be virus free... for now; but it seems to be more because of no one creating them on Mac, than because Mac is so safe by default (check 3.). It makes perfect sense for me - people are, in general, not purchasing Mac for programming, and no home-brew programmers mean no home-brew viruses and other crap.
2. What you just explained is how PC works as well. Currently I have 1 Vista desktop, 2 Vista notebooks, 3 XP desktops and 1 XP notebook in my house. All perfectly stable. Sure, odd application will crash now and them (home-brew file converters, DVD-rippers and other freeware) but systems are stable - even my 6 years old Toshiba Satellite 1000. I didn't have hardware failure in 8 years (except for one dead mouse)... We moved our office computers to Vista as it integrates better with Windows 2008 server; non of them too new (mostly P4 platforms) and all of them working sweet as with Vista. Yet I keep hearing here how Windows platforms are stable as drunken monk, and Vista will not work on anything short of SkyNet-grade hardware. C'mon, people - get real.
3. Google is beautiful thing, isn't it?:
http://www.macworld.com/article/5761...4/daizovi.html
You can find quite a number of articles like that one. Honestly that makes sense to me - Microsoft has by far biggest experience with viruses and stakes are highest, considering that corporate world exists on Windows platforms... so they have know-how. True for ordinary folks Mac is safest as number of nasties is still almost non-existent, but Mac is safe not because it is safe by design, only because everyone is behaving; what will happen once some kids stop behaving..?
At the end of the day, I like Mac. I almost got previous-gen 13" MacBook for my personal notebook. It was not more expensive than 13" Windows notebooks, had better battery life (than others I was considering) and design was nice. I was not planing to game on notebook, and couple of other things I can't do on Mac I was not planning to do on notebook anyway. I ended up with 15" HP notebook as I finally decided I want even more battery life, but one of the things that helped me to decide was simple fact that I was annoyed with "Get a Mac" adds. True they are mostly funny, but some of them are so smug and some are literally insulting; I still have working digital camera, Canon PowerShot A40, that came with none (or very limited support) for Mac. sure, it's old camera, but not THAT old. On the other side, I've never-ever seen camera with Mac support only. Does Apple ad with new Japanese camera annoys me? You bet. Lies publicly spoken, even if they try to be funny, always annoy me.
Do you work for MS's PR department? Well spoken half-truths, fear uncertainty and hope for dissension is all that post was.
OS X has been available for 8 years now, the BSD family it is built on for almost 25 years. And in all that time NOBODY has yet devised a SINGLE virus? With the lions share of the operating systems code freely available in open source projects? That should make it a trivial mark for malware coders, unless the inherent design of the OS doesn't support virii without herculean efforts. Guaranteed, the first real propagating OS X virus will cause a veritable shitstorm of publicity and Black Hat hackers have been trying hard for about 4 years now- zilch -- nothing -- nada. Well a couple app crasher bugs in QT/Webkit, so not quite nada, but damn close.
Nobody coding at home for Mac?
Saying MS has superior experience fixing security holes because they do it a lot and that means Apple 5uXx0rs at it is like saying cows suck because chickens have far more experience laying eggs and they know how to sit on them and cows don't. Absolutely irrelevant to anyone not grasping at nonexistent straws.
As for your very limited support camera, you must be talking about the CD that came with the camera. Yeah, that CD sucks if you are a Mac user. But if you plug the camera in, iPhoto just works with it. The godawful touch-up trial crapware on the CD is far surpassed by the admittedly limited functionality to adjust in iPhoto, the CD loses hard there. Is it so hard to see that just because the Windows Crapware and Driver CD isn't even necessary that the whole argument of support is over before it even began? You are bitching about vendor support and completely ignoring Apple working with the vendors, before you ever bought the thing, and incorporating industry standard driver interfaces in the OS's I/O frameworks. So you don't need to play the effing ridiculous load the driver off the CD first or else problem you end up with on Windows.
And you don't like the commercials. OK, you don't have to like them. Who else cares?