Apple has remembered – drumroll, please – something called “the Mac” or something to that effect. We’re not sure.
“Mac.” It sounds vaguely familiar, but we just can’t place it.
Huh.
Anyway, Apple’s made four videos and, weirdly, none of them involve smearing greasy fingers around on pristine displays, Animoji, or playing Pokémon.
The whole thing is perplexing.
It’s almost like these videos are about (drops voice to a whisper) doing real work.
Apple’s new “Behind the Mac’ videos:
• Behind the Mac — Grimes: Using a Mac as a portable recording studio allows Grimes to make music on her own terms. Learn more about making music on Mac at https://apple.co/2JCd4eH
• Behind the Mac — Peter Kariuki: Entrepreneur and app developer Peter Karikui coded SafeMotos on his Mac. The app connects passengers with safe motorcycle taxi drivers across Rwanda. Learn more at https://apple.co/2HKEvwV
• Mac — Behind the Mac — Apple: Behind the Mac people are making wonderful things and so could you. Learn more at https://apple.co/2HQZYog
• Behind the Mac — Bruce Hall: As a photographer who is legally blind, Bruce Hall edits and retouches photos behind his Mac. With the help of accessibility features, Bruce can see the world around him. Learn more at https://apple.co/2t6hP4Z
MacDailyNews Take: What’s a computer?
Hey, welcome back to the land of the living, Phil. That was a looong nap!
Just remember, legally blind doesn’t mean non-sighted, usually means the person can see pretty darn good. Of course, they didn’t show a Voiceover user coding on the Mac, because Xcode and VOICEOVER are terrible together.
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“Pretty darn good”? That depends… My oldest sister was on thegood end of legally blind, so she did pretty well with very thick corrective lenses. The fellow in this video, Bruce Hall, appears to have good vision at very close ranges, which enables him to edit photos on his MacBook. But his vision at moderate to longe range is severely compromised, which would make it difficult to arrange shots. Fortunately, with digital photography, you can take a thousand shots, if necessary, to get one great one. In any event, I applaud his skill and passion.
“Gasp” is correct. Still, a long awaited move in the right direction …
Yes Apple should never accept as a fait accompli the passing of the Mac (distinctly unimaginative corporate think) but instead make reasons for people to want to buy them. What a concept! And they need to work a lot harder on that simply because they are the only Mac manufacturer. Well and I don’t need to tell you they’re a bit tardy on many things Mac. To put some perspective on it some kid went through junior high and high school before Apple will upgrade the Mac Pro. You remember how long that was?
Much to long, Peter …
Old but no less relevant.
https://www.cio.com/article/3162999/consumer-electronics/mac-lack-of-hardware-updates-costing-apple-customers.html
I’m stunned. They actually remembered they make Macs. Unfortunately they are more of the same old Macs are for misfit artists types of ads, but at least they made them. Just once I’d like to see…
“I’m an engineer with the Army Corp of Engineer tasked with rebuilding America’s infrastructure…” or…
“I’m an attorney…” or…
“I’m a genetic scientist…” or
“I’m the CEO of…” or
“I develop in-house applications at Amazon, Facebook yada yada…” or
“I design cloud based services…”
Cause I make pictures and music, in the dark, by myself, has become the most tired of clichés with regard to Macs.
I just spent the better part of the last 72 hours dividing up a network into zones and connecting one of the MacBook Pros I carry up to capture packets, while using it’s twin to analyze the last batch, looking for an elusive security breach that periodically sends out bursts of SPAM on a client network. Man BBEDIT can cut through gigabytes of text really fast, and I mean fast. I didn’t write one note of music. No charming pianos, no ballet shoes, no beautiful portraits, no beautiful people, no aesthetic setting, just normal shit going to hell in a hand basket in a downtown high rise and lots of pissed folks wanting to know how it happened.
It was a remote Windows machine, just fyi.
yup, I use my iMac to GET THINGS DONE.
I’m about as far away from a “rebel” and a “beautiful person” as a human being can get and still be a human being. 🙂
My iMac is from December 2012 and it still runs just fine, but as a front line business tool it is getting to the end of its life. I’ll buy another one, but I need some reassurance Apple will even be in the Mac business in 2020. I want a new Truck. I don’t want a car and I don’t do my work on the floor or in Starbucks.
An IT friend once opined to me about the reason more businesses don’t use Macs. He reckons it’s because they simply can’t plan ahead as they need to with a company that doesn’t announce it’s roadmap and can make drastic changes at the drop of a hat.
That’s, IMHO, old IT thinking. It’s not hard to visualize the roadmap of Apple or others these days, especially when the lifespan of a computer is going on 7 years in many businesses. You can look at Apple and know there aren’t going to be many amazing changes to Mac hardware over the next 7 years.
The whole roadmap thing used to be relevant when changes were far more rapid. If I buy a MacBook Pro today, I know that the one that comes out next, whenever that may be will pretty much be the same, except faster. No dramatic changes to worry about.
Apple could update the screen, update the processor, bump it up to 32GB of RAM, put in a larger SSD and unless they drop the price by half or something, most people will get along just fine with the model they have today.
Amen Thelonius. BBEdit can tackle monumental files for search or search and replace and almost no Mac users are aware of it.
If anyone copies text from a web page or email and has short lines with returns, BBEdit’s fix is a mere second or two.
The savings of time over a year for even a normal Mac user can be hours. You can’t “buy” more hours in a lifetime.
Apple is very intentional in how it operates. Despite the fact that Mac sales are still cranking, these videos are designed to inspire people to use a Mac to create things – especially things that can be consumed on other Apple devices.
However, it may also be setting the stage for the next Mac Pro as the ultimate creator’s dream.
The problem is they confine the Mac to a niche. Lots of people “create things,” just not the tiny segment of the population these ads focus on. People create medical treatment plans, people create pleadings for court cases, people create trial presentations, people create software to leverage GPU processing power for scientific applications.
The Mac reaches far more places that are well beyond the tiny world of artistic creation. It’s a beautiful world, but Apple next to inspire people to adopt the platform, not just make pretty pictures.
Thing is, I don’t think they realize the breadth of the Macintosh world now.
Both your posts about exclusively appealing to the small creative liberal community of artists is both SPOT ON and extremely SHORT SIGHTED on Apple’s part.
I would add to your list to appeal to red states, rural communities, fishermen, farmers, ranchers, doctors, law enforcement, veterans, small business owners and many other demographics including “gasp” average folks …
I kind of agree, but if it’s “setting the stage for the next Mac Pro”, that stage may end up lacking.
Because, as I watched the videos, I saw three users that Apple considers “professionals” utilizing sealed machines that can’t be expanded. Apple intentionally did not include a Mac Pro or even an iMac Pro. Is this the start of a series that WILL include the Mac Pro or iMac Pro? Time will tell. But Apple is FAR beyond the point where anyone should give them the benefit of the doubt.
Good points. Defensive Mac ads, possibly? But the lack of pro Macs and users is certainly visibly absent …
Update the Macs on a regular basis and, more importantly, SAY that you WILL update the Macs on a regular basis.
Every bone in my body believes that Apple could EASILY sell TWICE as many Macs as they do. That’s like 25 billion of revenue and about 5 billion in profit. EVERY OTHER COMPANY ON THE PLANET WOULD DIE TO HAVE THOSE NUMBERS. Even Wallmart and Exxon. Please, Please, Please.
Call me cynical, but they’re still not desktop Macs. These videos *could* be interpreted as Apple saying “Look! You can do ANYthing on the currently available Macs.”
I won’t be excited until a new and better Mac Pro, as well as a new UPgraded (unlike the 2014 downgrade) Mac mini are announced. By Apple, that is, not some rumour site.
Apple have made FAR too many *WTF*??!! decisions in the last few years for me to trust ’em yet.
Was watching the WWDC keynote yesterday with my girlfriend (we just returned from vacation). She’s not a developer, so her enthusiasm for announcements about iOS and watchOS somewhat justify Apple’s focus on consumer features.
On the other hand, as we watched the Mac segment, and I told her a brief history of why external GPUs are supported and in fact needed now, she asked how the hell Apple could be so stupid as to ignore the Mac Pro and high-end power users for so long. I was actually surprised just how strong her reaction was.
Totally totally totally the correct title.
Glad they haven’t abandoned the Mac, too bad the commercials are force-fed PC propaganda. As if they consciously want the massive white male customer base (perhaps their largest demo) to go screw themselves. Based on Apple’s commercials one would assume their customer base is 90% black, women and other minority, BS.
The Libtard way …
Let’s see them buy some ad time and show the world for a change.
Dont hold your breath. Pipeline does not care that much about the Mac to spend money on it.
In Behind The Mac – Apple did anyone notice the subtle hint that Macs last a long time? When the singer sings “About an artist getting old” on the word old they show a white plastic Mac that still works.
Although it will go unnoticed by many people I think it’s a very clever subliminal message.
I’ll be bumping the RAM up to 16GB and putting an SSD in one of those this afternoon. The owner will continue to use it until it just dies.
I have already done that, the biggest issue is browser updates. Both Safari and Chrome on that computer are out of date, can’t be updated (because the makes won’t update not because they can’t), I am donating it to some one who just likes to do iPhoto slide shows.
These ads don’t advertise the Mac.
They advertise computers. Technology. Problem solving. Nowhere in the ad does it point out why, if you identify with these issues, WHY you should choose a Mac.
The customer will say, yep, I identify with that. I’m off to buy a computer, now how much cash do I have?
Apple shouldn’t be selling computers, they should be selling people a commitment that they will continue to service them with hardware that solves their needs and continues to do so in the future with a commitment to regular updates.
The people solve their problem with a Mac, but what about solving a companies problem. How do Macs fit into a larger company.
What happens when those people need to employ others.
Add another Mac user.
Then another.
Soon you need a server.
Oops we don’t sell those. Time to move to Windows if you want that.
But if you are a single user then we have a solution.
Apple used to be great at this.
Now they just want to sell to individuals, preferably in a trendy moodily lit warehouse, doing cool stuff.
Oh, I had hoped that the ads would have been about MacPro.
I just bought a mint refurbed maxed out 2015 15″ MBP. Hoping to get at least 2-3 years out of it while having access to all the “legacy” ports and a damn good keyboard.
guess it’s easier to do some ads than build a computer
gg Tim!
Yippeeee. Apple Production Studios is practicing to make hip vague trite videos, which will soon be offered as vapid series for mass consumption. Yawn.
WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A MAC THAT YOU CANNOT DO WITH WINDOWS OR ANY OTHER OS?
There used to be tons of things. Long & Hodgman nailed it every week. Now even Apple can’t point out the few remaining advantages to Mac ownership.
It’s not that the Mac has much left that it can do that you can’t do on a Windows computer, it’s that you can still do it better.
Even Microsoft products like Remote Desktop and Office work better for the most part on a Mac.
What do you consider the advantages? Some of those Mac/PC ads don’t even apply anymore.
guess I can’t copy and paste my “where the Mac ads?” text which I’ve re re-used for the last SIX YEARS.
why Apple didn’t put more effort selling Macs, their second largest hardware money maker after iPhone, had baffled me…
hope they will continue though and not lose interest again…
(More Ads = more sales = more developers and more incentive for Apple to keep making Macs)
These ads show people hunched over their laptops squinting at small screens and not a mouse in sight. Most folks would be more productive with an iMac with a display large enough to show multiple windows, a range of ports for backup drives and other peripherals, a full size keyboard and mouse, etc. I’d like to see Apple promote the iMacs their utility, versatility and power. They beat most of the cheaply made Windoz boxes on the market.