Apple's new 'Behind the Mac' ad campaign puts spotlight back on creatives

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 98
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    fastasleep said:
    The Air is a dead man walking, and will be gone as soon as the MacBook can get down to $999.
    I'd like to see it be the first step in getting an ARM variant. I think that the Air moniker would be a terrific in ushering in and helping keep the ARM and Intel-based Mac separate for what I assume will be a very long transition period.

    You know Grimes is wildly popular and successful, right? No?

    And publicly dating Elon Musk as of May of this year.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 42 of 98
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,408member
    Soli said:
    fastasleep said:
    The Air is a dead man walking, and will be gone as soon as the MacBook can get down to $999.
    I'd like to see it be the first step in getting an ARM variant. I think that the Air moniker would be a terrific in ushering in and helping keep the ARM and Intel-based Mac separate for what I assume will be a very long transition period.
    This makes zero sense to me. Why would they not just use them in the MacBook? Using an established (and dated) "Air" moniker to differentiate processors in a brand new product in a newly bifurcated Mac line would be confusing as hell to the average consumer.

    Soli said:
    fastasleep said:

    You know Grimes is wildly popular and successful, right? No?

    And publicly dating Elon Musk as of May of this year.

    Not sure how that's in any way relevant to her professional career.
  • Reply 43 of 98
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    Soli said:
    fastasleep said:
    The Air is a dead man walking, and will be gone as soon as the MacBook can get down to $999.
    I'd like to see it be the first step in getting an ARM variant. I think that the Air moniker would be a terrific in ushering in and helping keep the ARM and Intel-based Mac separate for what I assume will be a very long transition period.
    This makes zero sense to me. Why would they not just use them in the MacBook? Using an established (and dated) "Air" moniker to differentiate processors in a brand new product in a newly bifurcated Mac line would be confusing as hell to the average consumer.
    Soli said:
    fastasleep said:

    You know Grimes is wildly popular and successful, right? No?

    And publicly dating Elon Musk as of May of this year.

    Not sure how that's in any way relevant to her professional career.
    1) You think when they do offer ARM and Intel side-by-side they'll just call them the same thing without any easy way for the customer to know the difference? I don't see how it can be a full conversation like in previous architecture additions, like to Intel or to 64-bit. I expect the ARM-based Macs will serve the low-end of the market while the Intel-based Macs will continue to server the higher-end for many years to come.

    2) Being a celebrity is absolutely relevant to careers in entertainment, but more to my point is to connect those saying "I've never heard of Grimes" to note the Musk affiliation since he's assuredly known to everyone here.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 44 of 98
    k2kwk2kw Posts: 2,075member
    Alex1N said:
    Perhaps these commercials illustrate what has gone wrong with the Mac:   They emphasize the Mac being used by non-mainstream creatives to create non-mainstream products:  In short, it emphasizes how the Mac line is aimed squarely at artists and related creatives like coders...  Specialty products for special people.

    While I don't know if Jobs ever actually said this, this line about the Mac from the Steve Jobs movie fits with his overall direction: 
    "It's for the grandma, the garbage man, the [common man]."  (Too make their lives better)

    I watched these commercials and felt zero connection to them, the people in them or the product they were espousing....

    The Mac line has devolved into a specialty product.  A niche product....


    Yeah I didn’t feel any connection to these commercials either. Also odd time for them to come out when so much Mac hardware is stale. Unless it means we’ll be seeing some updates soon.
    I immediately took the ads to suggest that a refresh is coming (September?). I’m hoping that this is case, but proof of the pudding, etc., etc.
    Yeah these adverts are to get the old cars off the lot before new models come in.
  • Reply 45 of 98
    k2kwk2kw Posts: 2,075member
    jdw said:
    We don't really need an ad campaign to put the spotlight on creatives as much as we need Apple to think creatively again and put an SD card slot back in the MacBook Pro.

    Of course, putting a good feeling keyboard (with real tactile feedback) back, adding a physically larger battery (especially to offset the added power requirements of the TouchBar), adding one legacy USB-A port to eliminate a host of dongles, somehow returning the much beloved MagSafe, and restoring the iconic glowing Apple logo on back would be nice creative touches as well.

    Making the trackpad a really "pro" feature is something Apple should ponder creatively too.  Right now the thing is huge, but it's not as huge and useful as it could be if the spanned the entire width of the palm rest.  If it did span the width of the machine, making the entire palm rest a trackpad, they could probably improve the performance of palm rejection software because your palms would be on it all the time rather than the off-and-on you have with the current trackpad.  Add to that support for Apple Pencil and you've got yourself a great built-in drawing tablet, which would add yet more Pro to the machine which calls itself Pro.

    Look, we're all here because we love Apple and its Macs, but if we're honest we all really want to see a lot more "wow" coming out of Cupertino.  With all the money and engineers that Apple has today, which is more than they ever have had, are expectations are correspondingly higher than they were in the past.  Yet, with its relatively limited staff and funding compared to today, Apple of the past somehow managed to wow us.  True, that was with Steve Jobs present, but I still cannot help but think that if Apple tried a taste of its own THINK DIFFERENT medicine that they could produce something Insanely Great once again.  And I don't mean a wristwatch or another iOS device variant.  This Mac user since 1984 longs for yet another insanely great Mac to be in the spotlight.
    There obviously needs to be a kickstarter campaign for the MacBookProClassic.   Apple will make it if they get 5,000,000 orders for $2,000 and higher models.  Till then be happy with your Marzipan apps.
  • Reply 46 of 98
    jdwjdw Posts: 1,324member
    ...Thunderbolt 3 is the future and no amount of whining is going to bring back USB-A ports or SD/HDMI that most people don't need bespoke ports for. ...
    ...keep whining as if Apple is only capable of doing one thing at a time and making Mac ads somehow has prevented them from updating Macs.
    For someone "fast asleep" you whine as much as the rest of us, about the topic of whining! :-)

    USB-A won't go out of style for at least another decade, I guarantee you that.  Apple came out with the USB-C only MacBook quite some time ago, and we still haven't seen the USB-C revolution become widespread yet.  Widespread means "find it literally everywhere you go, all around the world."  Apple designers responsible for the late 2016 and newer MacBook "Pros" were a band of fools for not instead coming out with a machine that bridged the future with today.  You know, a machine that would offer mostly USB-C ports but also would have at least 1 USB-A port so as to eliminate some dongles.  

    I know full well USB-C is the future, and that's the keyword here -- the FUTURE.  That future isn't here yet even though USB-C Macs have been out a long time.  Yes, a few years is A LONG TIME in computer time frames.  Dongles and that rats nest of wires is stupidity.  It's the polar opposite of the Johnny Ive minimalism aesthetic.  And that proves Mr. Ive has taken his minimalism too far.  His ideology has minimized the ports on a huge 15" MBP (where there's plenty of space for numerous ports) to such an extent that a huge number of external dongles are now required.  Minimalism done well focuses not only on the core machine but how peripherals are attached too.  As such, I think it's high time for Mr. Ive to retire and let Apple hire fresh blood.  

    Even if some of you disagree with me about USB-A, the fact remains there's still no excuses for having removed the SD card slot, especially when people once used it for always-in storage, not just for photos and videos.  Besides, this is a MacBook named "Pro," so it's only fitting that we laugh and mock it for not offering us those features we consider "pro."  And yes, the SD card slot is a pro feature even if some status quo defenders and "Cupertino is infallible" worshippers in this forum personally don't use it.  Why some Mac users in pro-Apple forums feel that something is "not needed" only because YOU and perhaps your friends don't use it is beyond all comprehension to me.  Again, I'm talking about the 15" MBP with plenty of space, not the 13" model here.

    And all the while we argue about this, Apple is truly the one "fast asleep" at the Mac design wheel in Cupertino.  During their slumber though, they happened to kick out a few ADs, hoping we won't notice the lack of WOW and buy existing Macs anyway.  Sorry, Tim Cook, you need to do better than that!
  • Reply 47 of 98
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    Perhaps these commercials illustrate what has gone wrong with the Mac:   They emphasize the Mac being used by non-mainstream creatives to create non-mainstream products:  In short, it emphasizes how the Mac line is aimed squarely at artists and related creatives like coders...  Specialty products for special people.

    While I don't know if Jobs ever actually said this, this line about the Mac from the Steve Jobs movie fits with his overall direction: 
    "It's for the grandma, the garbage man, the [common man]."  (Too make their lives better)

    I watched these commercials and felt zero connection to them, the people in them or the product they were espousing....

    The Mac line has devolved into a specialty product.  A niche product....


    Yeah I didn’t feel any connection to these commercials either. Also odd time for them to come out when so much Mac hardware is stale. Unless it means we’ll be seeing some updates soon.
    Apple's been doing that lately:  Advertising a product before it is upgraded... 
  • Reply 48 of 98
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    A number of people have commented  that this ad campaign is the prelude to an update and I agree.

    I'm thinking the announcement will come in September along with the phones because:  As the smart phone matures, there are fewer and fewer glitzy, glamour, type things to announce each year.   Increasingly, Apple will be mostly just moving the pieces around.   And, the processors are getting so powerful, they're outpacing the demands a phone can reasonably put on them -- so that rules out that path as an upgrade.

    And no, I am NOT suggesting that Apple can't innovate anymore.  I'm saying that their product(s) are maturing.   The two are very different things.
  • Reply 49 of 98
    jdwjdw Posts: 1,324member
    I am NOT suggesting that Apple can't innovate anymore.  I'm saying that their product(s) are maturing.   The two are very different things.
    Apple products were extremely mature in 1996.  Had Steve Jobs not returned though... well...

    Apple of today is of course totally different from the Apple of 1996.  The Apple of 2018 has a cash pile of more than $285 billion, and more than 100,000 employees and 500 retail stores worldwide.  Apple is still abundantly profitable and AAPL stock is still on the rise.  Again, this is totally different from 1996.  But the problem is that if the Apple of today decides the Mac isn't really needed (and if iOS innovation is any indication, Apple sort of thinks the Mac isn't needed), then the Mac won't really "mature" much past what it is now.  Indeed, many people, myself included, who have loved Apple for DECADES are appalled at the infrequent Mac updates and shocked at when Apple removes features important to us.  Tim Cook has often said, "I LOVE the Mac," and puts emphasis on the word LOVE, yet there isn't much physical evidence to show that love is real.

    The real innovation coming from Apple is in iOS devices, and no surprise because that's their cash cow.  Even though the Mac doesn't compare with iOS device sales, we want to think it is still important at Apple.  But until Apple starts WOWing us with Mac tech once again, it's easy to lose hope.  I myself am not inclined to defect to Windows, but many other Mac users are, especially those who were die hard Windows users before converting to the Mac. 

    The ball is in Apple's court.  It's time for them to prove their love for the Mac, or end the Mac.  But to let it merely languish is merciless, cruel, and all around the wrong thing for them to do.  Don't think they do that?  Ponder the Mac Mini and the 2012 Mac Pro.
  • Reply 50 of 98
    CheeseFreezeCheeseFreeze Posts: 1,247member
    Pssst Apple: professionals need faster GPUs.
  • Reply 51 of 98
    CheeseFreezeCheeseFreeze Posts: 1,247member
    GeorgeBMac said: Music, real music, made by real people playing real instruments has been replaced by some girl sitting on the floor in her living manipulating electronic squeaks and thumps augmented by her whining into a microphone -- and calling it music.
    It's not a "replacement". It's an additional way to make music. Electronic music has been around since the Beatles and doesn't seem to have eliminated much of anything. It's just added to what's available. 
    Additional?
    When I listen to any of the "New Music" playlists on Apple music it seems to be pedominatly electronic squeaks and thumps augmented with a whiny voiced singer...
    You should dive deeper than that shit in ‘New Music’. Tons of more experimental and underground electronic music is out there. 
  • Reply 52 of 98
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,309member
    Soli said:
    Soli said:
    fastasleep said:
    The Air is a dead man walking, and will be gone as soon as the MacBook can get down to $999.
    I'd like to see it be the first step in getting an ARM variant. I think that the Air moniker would be a terrific in ushering in and helping keep the ARM and Intel-based Mac separate for what I assume will be a very long transition period.
    This makes zero sense to me. Why would they not just use them in the MacBook? Using an established (and dated) "Air" moniker to differentiate processors in a brand new product in a newly bifurcated Mac line would be confusing as hell to the average consumer.
    Soli said:
    fastasleep said:

    You know Grimes is wildly popular and successful, right? No?

    And publicly dating Elon Musk as of May of this year.

    Not sure how that's in any way relevant to her professional career.
    1) You think when they do offer ARM and Intel side-by-side they'll just call them the same thing without any easy way for the customer to know the difference? I don't see how it can be a full conversation like in previous architecture additions, like to Intel or to 64-bit. I expect the ARM-based Macs will serve the low-end of the market while the Intel-based Macs will continue to server the higher-end for many years to come.

    2) Being a celebrity is absolutely relevant to careers in entertainment, but more to my point is to connect those saying "I've never heard of Grimes" to note the Musk affiliation since he's assuredly known to everyone here.
    I fully agree that Elon should stick to dating celebrities, self promotion, and sci-fi, over managing manufacturing of automobiles or solar panels, recent evidence for the latter indicating that he has no talents.
  • Reply 53 of 98
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,622member
    fred1 said:
    Soli said:
    fred1 said:
    Watching the music commercial illustrated to me what has happened to music over the past decade: 
    Music, real music, made by real people playing real instruments has been replaced by some girl sitting on the floor in her living manipulating electronic squeaks and thumps augmented by her whining into a microphone -- and calling it music.

    It's a cheap way to produce "music".   But very little of it would have been published when music was vetted before it made its way to vinyl, CD or cassette.  It's really just cheap, low quality junk...
    I agree completely. Like the way “photography” has become mediocre photographs manipulated electronically into something nice. What’s next, Siri or Alexi writing speeches (and delivering them) instead of humans? The genuine is leaving the building. 
    The fucking irony of using photography as an example.
    Please explain what the irony is, this time without the immature use of profanity. Thanks. 
    Profanity isn’t immature. Adults often use curse words, it’s how grownups speak. In fact this is why children aren’t allowed into grownup movies.
    Profanity in a written conversation (basically what a forum is) is immature. It serves no purpose other than to degrade the tone and provoke.

    Just as shouting via capital letters in entire paragraphs serves no real purpose and is unnecessary, swearing is also basically unnecessary.


  • Reply 54 of 98
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,309member
    avon b7 said:
    fred1 said:
    Soli said:
    fred1 said:
    Watching the music commercial illustrated to me what has happened to music over the past decade: 
    Music, real music, made by real people playing real instruments has been replaced by some girl sitting on the floor in her living manipulating electronic squeaks and thumps augmented by her whining into a microphone -- and calling it music.

    It's a cheap way to produce "music".   But very little of it would have been published when music was vetted before it made its way to vinyl, CD or cassette.  It's really just cheap, low quality junk...
    I agree completely. Like the way “photography” has become mediocre photographs manipulated electronically into something nice. What’s next, Siri or Alexi writing speeches (and delivering them) instead of humans? The genuine is leaving the building. 
    The fucking irony of using photography as an example.
    Please explain what the irony is, this time without the immature use of profanity. Thanks. 
    Profanity isn’t immature. Adults often use curse words, it’s how grownups speak. In fact this is why children aren’t allowed into grownup movies.
    Profanity in a written conversation (basically what a forum is) is immature. It serves no purpose other than to degrade the tone and provoke.

    Just as shouting via capital letters in entire paragraphs serves no real purpose and is unnecessary, swearing is also basically unnecessary.


    People that frequent forums, including AI, are by nature biased and opinionated, many provide misinformation, some frequently lie, and a few have nefarious intent.

    Against that, fucking profanity is a minor sin, so I'm certainly not going to chastise some asshole who knows how to use profanity in the proper context. YMMV



    Solilamboaudi4fastasleep
  • Reply 55 of 98
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,622member
    tmay said:
    avon b7 said:
    fred1 said:
    Soli said:
    fred1 said:
    Watching the music commercial illustrated to me what has happened to music over the past decade: 
    Music, real music, made by real people playing real instruments has been replaced by some girl sitting on the floor in her living manipulating electronic squeaks and thumps augmented by her whining into a microphone -- and calling it music.

    It's a cheap way to produce "music".   But very little of it would have been published when music was vetted before it made its way to vinyl, CD or cassette.  It's really just cheap, low quality junk...
    I agree completely. Like the way “photography” has become mediocre photographs manipulated electronically into something nice. What’s next, Siri or Alexi writing speeches (and delivering them) instead of humans? The genuine is leaving the building. 
    The fucking irony of using photography as an example.
    Please explain what the irony is, this time without the immature use of profanity. Thanks. 
    Profanity isn’t immature. Adults often use curse words, it’s how grownups speak. In fact this is why children aren’t allowed into grownup movies.
    Profanity in a written conversation (basically what a forum is) is immature. It serves no purpose other than to degrade the tone and provoke.

    Just as shouting via capital letters in entire paragraphs serves no real purpose and is unnecessary, swearing is also basically unnecessary.


    People that frequent forums, including AI, are by nature biased and opinionated, many provide misinformation, some frequently lie, and a few have nefarious intent.

    Against that, fucking profanity is a minor sin, so I'm certainly not going to chastise some asshole who knows how to use profanity in the proper context. YMMV



    I'm not chastising anybody or classifying anything as major or minor, simply giving an opinion.


  • Reply 56 of 98
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Soli said:
    But certain posters here keep telling me Apple has given up on the Mac. 
    How is that supposed to be an argument? How are our fears unfounded?
    steveh said:
    Because it's miles better than the ancient piece you've got now?
    He means in relation to literally every other offering from other companies, as well as what has just been announced by the component manufacturers. The imperative question here regards the amount of hardware worth for which OS X can make up.
    Soli said:
    You were told these words were cursed and that to use them meant you were lesser the man for it, and you fucking believed it.
    Oh, irony. Oh, I am laughing. That doesn’t apply to anything else about reality or history, though, does it?  :D
    I'm thinking the announcement will come in September along with the phones
    When was the last time Apple paired an iPhone launch with anything else? I should hope to hell they don’t wait until September to update things that should have been updated years ago. As mature as the iPhone truly is, it’s still their moneymaker. I wonder if they won’t preempt the overall smartphone decline by releasing the next iPhone as iPhone, simply available in 5.3”, 5.8”, and 6.1” and not only drop the 8 and SE, but also drop the price of the new iPhone (X successor) to fit those old price (and physical size) points.
    As the smart phone matures, there are fewer and fewer glitzy, glamour, type things to announce each year.   Increasingly, Apple will be mostly just moving the pieces around.
    Well, you could have said that about 4 or 5 years ago, even. They kept the 5 case for so long and now the 6 case has only had minor variations applied to its form (glass back and full-face front screen). Until 5G and/or related technologies are matured, there won’t really be any appreciable difference to even how these phones connect. That word just gave me an idea… I actually wonder if Apple won’t deemphasize “being connected” (digitally) going forward, what with Screen Time and all. Imagine a smartphone platform geared toward being less vapid and more on focusing on the real, physical world around you. That can somewhat tie into ARkit, of course.
    edited June 2018
  • Reply 57 of 98
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Watching the music commercial illustrated to me what has happened to music over the past decade: 
    Music, real music, made by real people playing real instruments has been replaced by some girl sitting on the floor in her living manipulating electronic squeaks and thumps augmented by her whining into a microphone -- and calling it music.

    It's a cheap way to produce "music".   But very little of it would have been published when music was vetted before it made its way to vinyl, CD or cassette.  It's really just cheap, low quality junk...
    Have you listened to most of the music that made its way onto vinyl, CD or cassette?  Most of it was cheap, low quality junk.  

    Grimes, on the other hand, is an excellent artist.  I'll listen to her over the majority of groups of "musicians" playing "real instruments" any day.

    And electronica is hardly phenomena of "the last decade".  You're 1966, screaming "Judas" at Dylan for going electric.  Good music doesn't care about ludditism.
    dysamoriafastasleep
  • Reply 58 of 98
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    jdw said:
    I am NOT suggesting that Apple can't innovate anymore.  I'm saying that their product(s) are maturing.   The two are very different things.
    Apple products were extremely mature in 1996. 
    ...

    1996?  Mature?   At the height of the PC/Computing revolution?   Really?

    That's all that I had to read...   Thanks, that made for a good laugh!
  • Reply 59 of 98
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    GeorgeBMac said: Music, real music, made by real people playing real instruments has been replaced by some girl sitting on the floor in her living manipulating electronic squeaks and thumps augmented by her whining into a microphone -- and calling it music.
    It's not a "replacement". It's an additional way to make music. Electronic music has been around since the Beatles and doesn't seem to have eliminated much of anything. It's just added to what's available. 
    Additional?
    When I listen to any of the "New Music" playlists on Apple music it seems to be pedominatly electronic squeaks and thumps augmented with a whiny voiced singer...
    You should dive deeper than that shit in ‘New Music’. Tons of more experimental and underground electronic music is out there. 
    Perhaps, but I use music for pleasure, enjoyment and relaxation.  I have no desire to dig through piles of manure looking for the gem...

    Actually, in the golden age of music -- mostly AM and later, FM radio type stuff through the 20th century music was a business that was carefully curated.  The music producer conglomerates worked hard to generate music that the radio stations would play.   It was a 2 stage approval process that been, as we see in the commercial, with a girl sitting on the floor of her living room generating (mostly) crap that is then propagated out as $0.99 songs....
  • Reply 60 of 98
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    GeorgeBMac said: Music, real music, made by real people playing real instruments has been replaced by some girl sitting on the floor in her living manipulating electronic squeaks and thumps augmented by her whining into a microphone -- and calling it music.
    It's not a "replacement". It's an additional way to make music. Electronic music has been around since the Beatles and doesn't seem to have eliminated much of anything. It's just added to what's available. 
    Additional?
    When I listen to any of the "New Music" playlists on Apple music it seems to be pedominatly electronic squeaks and thumps augmented with a whiny voiced singer...
    You should dive deeper than that shit in ‘New Music’. Tons of more experimental and underground electronic music is out there. 
    Perhaps, but I use music for pleasure, enjoyment and relaxation.  I have no desire to dig through piles of manure looking for the gem...

    Actually, in the golden age of music -- mostly AM and later, FM radio type stuff through the 20th century music was a business that was carefully curated.  The music producer conglomerates worked hard to generate music that the radio stations would play.   It was a 2 stage approval process that been, as we see in the commercial, with a girl sitting on the floor of her living room generating (mostly) crap that is then propagated out as $0.99 songs....
    Grimes can play guitar, drums, keyboard, and violin.  She built her own studio and self-produced four highly acclaimed albums, and created a unique sound.  She knows a lot more about making music than you do.

    You’re right that taste makers may not have given her airplay, so thank heavens that technology means we aren’t all at the whim of stuffy tastemakers.

    There’s s plenty of guitar driven pop-rock out there.


    edited June 2018 dysamoriafastasleep
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