Suzanne Vranica and Brian Steinberg take a look “Best (and worst) ads of ’06” for The Wall Street Journal.
Among the year’s best is the campaign Vranica and Steinberg call “Apple’s Bite” from Omnicom Group’s TBWA1/4Chiat1/4Day – the “Get a Mac” campaign for Apple Computer, Inc.
Vranica and Steinberg write, “A series of ads that played out on TV and the Web show the Apple Mac, represented by a hip-looking young man, debating its features with the PC, represented by a paunchy, nerdy-looking fellow. The Mac-man — played by actor Justin Long, star of the film “Accepted,” is clever, fun and handy — he can communicate with all sorts of different people, and knows how to come up with pictures and music. The PC, played by another actor known to the youth crowd, “Daily Show” commentator John Hodgman, is decidedly less hip, and is always amazed, humbled or befuddled by Mac’s never-ending range of abilities.”
Vranica and Steinberg, “Pepsi pokes fun at Coke, and Miller Brewing has smacked Anheuser-Busch, but this is razzing of a more sophisticated, and sustained, kind. Apple’s knife cuts deep, but by the time rivals feel it, they have already started to bleed.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Adam W.” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Justin Long and John Hodgman win best actor awards for Apple ‘Get a Mac’ ad characters – December 19, 2006
“Pepsi pokes fun at Coke, and Miller Brewing has smacked Anheuser-Busch, but this is razzing of a more sophisticated, and sustained, kind. Apple’s knife cuts deep, but by the time rivals feel it, they have already started to bleed.”
well stated.
Yes, with all the great ads over the years, Apple is poised to make the giant leap from 4% market share to 4.5. We beleagured Mac users have seen these great ad campaigns really do little to convince a PC world to make the switch.
Oh well (sigh). Maybe in 2007 we’ll make the leap to 5%.
I have two four year old Macs. My wife has a four year old PC.
The Get-A-Mac ads won’t even play on my Macs. I have to use the old-lady’s PC if I want to watch them, which means .. I haven’t seen most of the ads. But it’s nice to know they are well received and functional out there in PC land.
That said .. it’s my opinion that Apple might want to be thinking about how it’s ultimately going to address any legacy circumstances which are likely to be developing from this latest wave of popularity that it’s computers seem to be enjoying. I got on board when the G3 iMac was being widely touted as ‘a real good computer from a cutting edge company”. But that was bull. The G3 iMac was outrageously slow and under-capable from the get-go .. although it was indeed innovative. And Apple no sooner pumped a kazillion G3s into the marketplace when they suddenly up and abandoned the processor.
There’s a price to pay when you play short-term marketing games like that with high priced, big ticket items. Namely .. there are going to be some folks around who, while still faithful to the brand, are going to be going public with the story.
Just saying. And yeah, I’ll be buying another Mac next year, anyway. But that’s only because I have to if I want OS X. Believe me .. if I could get OS X on a more affordable PC, I would do so.
The problem with your G3 iMac, ‘get another mac?’, is that it was PPC. That problem has been taken care of.
The Mac will age just as, if not more, gracefully than PCs because they use all of the same hardware.
My G4 dual processor 450 PowerMac (born in 2000) has no difficulty playing the Mac ads. There’s no reason that “get another Mac” should not be able to play them on his 2-year-old Macs. Does he have the latest version of QuickTime?
You have a four year old mac that doesn’t play the Apple ads? Rubbish. I have a 6 year old Pismo that happily churns through those clips.
I bet you’re one of those guys who never upgraded the RAM on his Macs and then expected to run OS 10.4 without a hiccup. Get a clue – Tiger needs at least 512Mb. It may run in 128Mb, but it won’t be fast!
Or, better yet, get yourself a PC. You’ll be so much “happier” for it! We certainly don’t need you flaunting your ineptitude on MDN.
And if you don’t know what a Pismo is then you’ve made my point for me.
In case you haven’t been paying attention, Macs and PCs run on the same processors now, so the old PPC issues are thankfully long in the past.
Besides, Apple introduced their last G3 iMac model in July 2001, so if you bought one in 2002 or 2003, you knew then you were buying 1-2 year old technology and you can’t blame Apple for that.
You’re really using a 5 1/2 year old Mac, and 5 1/2 year old PCs don’t do a hell of a lot either. Just try running Vista on one…Oh yeah, you can’t.
TO “GET ANOTHER MAC?”
What have you done to your mac to break it? A 4 year old mac should be able to play quicktime just fine. I have an old G3 Mac that can play the commercials just fine – I believe it’s about 6 years old (bought it on ebay this year).
I just fired up my 4 year old iBook with the G3 processor to see if it would play the Apple ads. It does – without missing a frame. Note that it has been upgraded to 640Mb RAM and 10.4.8. But Professor Genius up there has to go use his “old-lady’s” PC just to get the ads to run.
I’m sure your Old Lady is pleased to be referred as such.
Hey “Get another Mac?”
Stop being such a cheapskate, try spending 600 bucks, get a Mac Mini!
Works out to a big 125 a year for those four years.
Welcome to the 21st Century already, geez.
heh. Boy do I ever love to get you guys all in a lather. ahaha.
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Well listen, dudes. I told you the truth. You can continue to make up all the untrue circumstances you want to support your rebuttals, but I’m just going to label you as being deceitful.
Anyways, quit with the lying bullshit, already. I said I was buying another Mac. I’ll be posting the truth about that one too. Hopefully it will be a happier truth, eh?
In regard to that Mac mini?
I asked once before in here how I could utilize the monitors from my old iMacs with the Mac mini. Nobody responded. Anybody got an answer yet?
Lastly ..
At the time of purchase, I didn’t know jack about computers. A goodly number of the retorts in here seem to assume a default long term computer-user perspective at time of purchase, as well perhaps as a circumstance of having accessability to some sort of workplace related IT advice. I had neither. I purchased those iMacs soley because the reviews in non-tech periodicals were favorable. And I might add .. I never switched to a PC, regardless of the dis-satisfaction with the Macs. I stuck it out.
Now then .. which of us big mouths in here, besides myself, never ever uses a PC? Just curious.
gwn, aka “Get Another Mac?”,
You still haven’t provided enough information for anyone to make a strong statement about your experience, including yoursef.
– how much RAM do you have installed?
– what version of OS X are you running?
There’s plenty of factors other than the main processor that would affect the ability for any computer to be able to perform.
gwm,
iMacs are an all-in-one system. The monitor isn’t separate, so no, you can’t use it with your new mini. Sounds like you still don’t know jack about computers. Thanks for being honest.
Get another Mac?
You cannot be serious. I just fired up my OLD G3 iBook and it runs the ads perfectly. It is also running Tiger perfectly!
“get another Mac” check out these following sites then post why you still can’t use QuickTime. For one, I’m curious what limitations exist that are preventing you from using QuickTime.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/player/specs.html
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/player/faq.html
In regard to that Mac mini?
I asked once before in here how I could utilize the monitors from my old iMacs with the Mac mini. Nobody responded. Anybody got an answer yet?
Go on craigslist.com and find a good used 20″ CTR Flat panel monitor in your area for $50 or less.
I do conform to those minimum specs, Zealot. But the ads all stall out badly anyway.
I don’t know what more to say except that I think Apple is BS-ing a bit on the minimums stated in those support docs that you referenced. One thing is for sure; Apple does not publish those same minimums for video in iTunes. In iTunes, a G4 is described as the minimum requirement for video.
gwm –
It’s likely that something is wrong with your mac – either a hardware issue or more likely a software one. There is no reason why your iMac shouldn’t be able to run quicktime movies.
The site is not a good place for advice. Better go to the forums on MacNN where you can discuss issues in more detail. People will want to know things like your machine specs and what OS you are running.
Bookmarked the addy, Artist. This does indeed look like a probable remedy.
Thank you.
http://montreal.craigslist.org/search/sys?query=monitor
They don’t stall over wireless on my 400mhz iMac G3 DV.
Well, I don’t believe any of you. I think you’re all just lying to prove your points.
Can I use the screen of an eMac with the Mac mini?
I think Apple is purposely posting misleading information on its websites. At least my old lady’s Dell PC comes with an 800 number for support when I need it.
I believe the ads are encoded with h.264, and if I’m not mistaken Apple only came out with h.264 support in Quicktime about 2 years ago. His wife probably downloaded Quicktime (iTunes) for her PC within the past 2 years, so she would have h.264 support. The only reason I can see for his old Mac not playing the ads is that he hasn’t done a software update in a long long time.
Is this true gwm?
gwm = troll
He complains about performace but doesn’t give any system specifics ie. Ram – OS etc.
Enjoy’s getting us lathered up? Very telling.
Want’s to hook up his old iMac “monitor”? Why on earth would you want to do that, when you can a new or slightly used one for near to nothing.
I think he simply want’s to try to point out that an all in one system doesn’t allow for an upgrade to the computer without having to buy a new monitor.
gwm – please go find another place to spin your BS.
Well guys, looks like gwm has us all figured out. We’re just a bunch of Kool-aid drinking Apple Cultists who will go to great lengths to fabricate and lie about the abilities of the Macintosh. Not only that, but we know that we’re lying and being completely dishonest because we are blind to the reality that gwm has, in his unshakeable integrity, tried to describe to us fanatical zealots.
The fact that we want nothing better than to grind down gwm’s will and force submission upon his is true simply because he says it is so. I, for one, will now scurry away frightened by the blinding light of gwm’s enlightenment.
GWM,
It’s easy. You sell the iMacs, you said you had 4 right? Then you use the funds to buy an external monitor. Don’t worry about thinking Different. Worry about thinking at all.
Happy Holidays!
Magic Word: anyone as in Anyone else could have figured that out!
Well, that’s the only explanation I can come up with. I bought 25 G3 iMacs for a student lab in 1999 – they worked fantastically until there were replaced last spring. That was very heavy usage for 7 years. Running MS Office (not my idea) and several other resource-hog packages. I rarely get more than 3 years out of a standard Dell before it’s either worn out by the students or won’t run current software.
Troll on somewhere else, “Get a Mac”…
I’d think a Cat-5 ethernet cable would connect a Mac mini to any iMac. How you use the networked computers is up to you. One way would allow you ‘virtual’ access of the monitor capabilities in the iMac via a networked mini.
happy holidays (preciousss..)
gwm,
I can’t seem to get the monitor on my Mac SE to hook up with my iMac. What gives? And Apple says ‘it just works!’
You know, for the past year I’ve been closely following about forty Mac fansites on RSS with a refresh rate that’s far too frequent to post without embarrassment. This is the very first time I’ve ever been directed to that craigslist place to seek out a reasonably priced monitor to accompany a Mac mini.
Greatly appreciated. Joyeux Noël, my friend.
I have a 500Mhz imac next to me with panther loaded and the ads play fine…..gwm is a troll and not willing to update his macs…..I also have a 333Mhz imac and a 400Mhz imac with tiger loaded on them….they are not on the internet but itunes 7 and iphoto 4 work on both as well as appleworks. Not speed demons but work fine….I have a 300Mhz MT with panther as well and the ads play…..Amazing how some of the latest OS’s work on such old hardware…Just my 2 cents…Pete
If I’m not mistaken doesn’t the old G3 all in ones and the minimacs both have firewire ports. Could’nt the terminal utility in OSX be used to hook up to a minimac or even the tcpip port and network the damn things together. You can probably also run a minimac from a Imac G3 in target disk mode. Have you checked apples support site? Are you aware of the configuraton of your machine or do you not know…is that why you’re not telling us. It sounds like you’re still running Mac OS8.? MY exgirlfriend bought a mac back in 99-00 it was a Imac DV which first came with MacOS 8.6 she stayed with the MacOS8 series while I made the jump to OSX10.1.4 she allowed her mac to atrophy to the equivalent of an email teletype. She complained that she could no longer exchange word files with her PC at work. So when I made the jump to OSX 10.3 I got together all the software and got he DV to run OSX 10.2.8. I gave her a copy of MS office and she was once again back in the modern world. Now she only has 384 Megs of RAM but she had no trouble running this stuff. Her internet was still dial up but she has sattelite and doesn’t want the give the cable company out here any money for which I dont blame her. When I mad ethe jump to Tiger OSX 10.4…I gave her Panther OSX 10.3 and brought her up to OSX10.3.9 which is still running fine on her 384Meg RAM 400Mhz G3. She recently got DSL and her 7 year old machine is still running like a champ so. It seem to me you bought a legacy machine you’re probably running pre OSX stuff which plain will no longer work on the new Macs. So here are your choices. You can still find support for OS9 in Panther NewerTech makes G4 processor upgrade kits for your old G3 max out you memory and come into the world of OSX start with Lepoard 10.2 and graduate with Panther 10.3 or just scrap the whole thing and buy a cheap flat screen $150 for 15″ buy a keyboard and mouse $20 buy a MiniMac Intel single core $499 with 256meg of RAM,and trash all you old software. Save you data letters and prints and such that you created. Buy a copy of I work 06 and you can probably still use you old data. Otherwise seek professional help for trying to run modern software on an ancient machine that has not been upgraded to the proper specs. Good luck to you GWM.
Hardware Overview:
Machine Model: iMac
CPU Type: PowerPC 750 (22.15)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 600 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 256 MB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.1.7f4
Serial Number: RN142120LFC
System Software Overview:
System Version: Mac OS X 10.3.9 (7W98)
Kernel Version: Darwin 7.9.0
Boot Volume: Macintosh HD
That said .. I stand by my reportage. And yes, with Artist’s help, it looks like I’m finally going to be getting out of this embarrassing G3 hell hole. Thank god. I thought it was never going to end.
I shit my brains out every morning after my morning coffee. Do you think that could affect my computer skills?
Hey Folks,
I have a similar problem on my iMac at home. I can’t play many of the latest QT videos. It’s not a hardware issue for me though. It’s the OS version. I’m on 10.2.8. With 10.2.8 the latest QT won’t install. For this reason, I can’t see the ads or most anything made with the latest QT. I wish Apple wouldn’t restrict the latest QT from my OS version. I don’t want to buy Tiger because I’m saving for a new mac.
Am I missing something? Anyone have any suggestions for my current problem?
@bobc
Magic word : Paragraphs
noplay:
Read the specs! If you won’t spend the cash for upgrading your Mac, don’t complain about not beng able to use free software like QuickTime. Looks like you should have purchased 10.3 when it was available over 3 years ago.
Mac’s have no backward compatibility like Windows. Heck, even Vista is susceptible to malware like ealier versions. Can Apple beat that?
“I have a similar problem on my iMac at home. I can’t play many of the latest QT videos. It’s not a hardware issue for me though. It’s the OS version. I’m on 10.2.8. “
I’ve got to agree with maczealot, you really are a doofus to expect latest Mac software to work on a 3 year old version of Mac OS X.
Greg:
“Yes, with all the great ads over the years, Apple is poised to make the giant leap from 4% market share to 4.5. We beleagured Mac users have seen these great ad campaigns really do little to convince a PC world to make the switch.
Oh well (sigh). Maybe in 2007 we’ll make the leap to 5%.”
This is a US ad campeign, the world Mac share (of all PC sales) maybe be under 5% (it’s under 4%), but the US share of all PC sales is over 5%, this happened only recently since the Intel Switch and this new ad campaign.
Apple is shoring up its base of US sales with the retail stores, this ad campaign and other projects including iPod and the upcoming iTV.
I fully expect by the end of 2007 for Apple to hover between 6 and 7% of all PC sales in the US, headed up by their highly profitable (and extremely popular) laptops. The US share of laptops will be much higher than this, and higher still among college age and home buyers.
It will take Apple awhile to penetrate heavily into business, but the more gains Apple makes in the home share the stronger position it will be in to make a move into that area as well.
Apple has a plan, knows what its doing, is focused and highly effective with a great product that attracts a high level of loyalty. Microsoft is drifting along (basically coasting) on an entrenched monopoly, without a focused vision or plan, without the means to implement one, lumbering along slowly hampered by layers of ineffectual beaurocricy and no vision or leadership. Microsoft attracts most of its loyalty under duress.
There is a tremendous window of opportunity for Apple here.
“I shit my brains out every morning after my morning coffee. Do you think that could affect my computer skills?”
No but it clearly makes you dumb enough to think that you buy a Mac and it just works. Don’t you realize that all Windows usability problems are Microsoft’s fault, but that All Mac usability problems are the USER’S fault. And that user is you, Dumb-ass.
Go buy a Windows PC, at least then it won’t be your fault when it doesn’t work.
For those people who cannot or will not upgrade their Macs, check out the following site,
http://lowendmac.com/
Be sure of one thing, time marches on with or without you. The same goes for technology.
is decidedly less hip, and is always amazed, humbled or befuddled by Mac’s never-ending range of abilities.
Perfect description of Microsoft, no?
Personally I don’t think the “Get a Mac” ads are that hot. The message is great but the ads just don’t grab your attention, they’re too long and wordy. When was the last time anyone saw an Apple ad stop & draw a crowd in a public place?
Then again, in a world of mediocre TV talent you don’t need to be great, you just need to suck less than everyone else. Maybe that’s where the ads succeed…
still not impressed,
If you are influenced only by a limited number of simple one minute ads and have no capacity for objectively and thoughtfully comparing and contrasting avialable consumer products, why make such a big deal? You must only have the attention span of a brain-damaged chimp.
Okay,
gwm should have no problem with quicktime 7 on his iMac, the only thing i can think of is that he has a slow internet connection which isnt allowing him to download the clips or stream them, But if he wants (or if you are reading this) you would like some help with this problem, or a newer machine try to go to lowend mac and buy a 1GHZ iMac G4 which will run tiger and leopard when it comes out.
that 600 MHZ G3 WILL run tiger with enough RAM installed. On the PPC 750 i would go with at least 512, the 128 that is built into that machine (i believe) go get a PC-133 stick which i think that takes in 512 MB and give yourself 640MB RAM then you should be good. Otherwise understand that the machine you are using is NOT 4 years old it is at LEAST mid 2001 or earlier.
but in all honesty i think he is a complete jokester who is just trying to get us riled up, and doing a good job. Stop being a jackass.
backdoor:
Apple is not responsible for bad internet service, inclement weather, moldy bread, or peoples’ parsimonious behavior. Really!
gwm,
I tried loading Tiger on my SE, but the dang install disc wouldn’t fit into the slot. Well, I trimming the disc down to where it would fit…and…surprise–it won’t load. When is Apple going to make things backwards compatible?!!
Yeah. I’m still reading. Persistant, aren’t you guys? ok …
I’ve got Videotron’s highest speed consumer cable service (a gift, btw) and 256 MB of RAM. How many times do you think I’m going to feed RAM to that thing?
The reason you guys are flipping out is because at least a few of you understand that, like it or not, I’m telling the truth .. and that the grim reality is that Apple sold a shitpile of barely-capable computers in the early 2000s with a default circumstance that the consumer would have to keep spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on memory over the years .. without which basic Apple software like QuickTime wouldn’t continue to work properly.
Now, I’ve stopped short of calling it a scam. My guess is that Apple didn’t know in 1998-99 that the goddamn G3 iMac was going to be a monster sales success. I would like to think that Apple would never have used that processor in those first wildly sucessful iMacs if they had known how many they were going to have to account for later on. Regardless, I nonetheless do see that Apple is still offering most of it’s computers in a basic default configuration with barely enough memory to satisfy the needs of OS X. That’s a mistake, I’m sorry to say.
gwm:
No doubt, yer a moron or a liar. If you had these problems earlier, as you claim, you would have been bitching years ago.
gwm,
Have you priced RAM lately? You can get the RAM you need to run your iMac properly for chump change.
Your BS is getting tiresome. How much does Microsoft pay you to troll this site? Do you get extra on Christmas Eve?
“I nonetheless do see that Apple is still offering most of it’s computers in a basic default configuration with barely enough memory to satisfy the needs of OS X. That’s a mistake, I’m sorry to say.”
That’s nothing but a blatant lie, Apple would never do such a thing. Apple computers are the Best Computers Ever. They are much better than the Dell and Windows machines you seem to like so much. You’re just way to stupid to use a Mac properly.
heh. Cute assessment, Huh. Wrong conclusion, however.
I make this reportage in one place or another once a year or so. And the response is always the same as it is now, until … a little time passes. Then slowly but surely everybody fesses up and concedes that they are indeed getting by the humps and obstacles with occassional to frequent usage of a competing brand. The only reason that the problems that I mention are so annoying for me personally, is that I don’t slither out and use the competition when the going gets tough. As I said, I’ve stuck it out. And I mostly do so without constant complaining .. but I nonetheless do post my actual sentiments about the experience on occassion. I think that people, and especially entry-level customers, deserve to be informed of these circumstances. You apparently would rather that they didn’t know. That’s unfortunate, imho.
If gwm can’t afford a couple hundred dollars for RAM I doubt gwm could pay for a Mac.
What’s unfortunate, gwm, is that your parents gave birth to you. I’m sure that they regret that event.
“I make this reportage in one place or another once a year or so. And the response is always the same as it is now…”
Slow learner, eh, gwm? What a dumbass, you even admit that you’re a clueless moron!
Don’t expect any sympathy here, you blithering idiot.
gwm.
the funny thing is those ‘shitty’ G3s will run TIger, whereas millions upon millions of Windows users will not be able to run Vista..
And.. of course, Vista is a couple versions behind TIger…
Do the math.
“I think that people, and especially entry-level customers, deserve to be informed of these circumstances. You apparently would rather that they didn’t know. That’s unfortunate, imho.”
Have no fear, my humble imbecile. The vast majority of the world’s technologically savvy population is more intelligent and more informed than you. Don’t imagine that others are as simple-minded as you, my little drooling dimwit.
k. It’s just midnight at my house. Christmas Day.
I’ll stand pat on my assertions and on my verbiage, typos included. The new Mac will probably arriving at our house a few months after OS X 10.5 is released next year.
You guys can name-call all you want. It won’t make any difference. I’ve told the truth and I’m also I’m not going anywhere else. Regardless of my revelations, I’m just as addicted to the brand as you are.
“millions upon millions of Windows users will not be able to run Vista..”
Probably millions upon millions of Windows users don’t have the 800MHz processor or 512MB or Ram required, since those processors we only launched 6 years ago, but hundreds of millions do. Some of them will even need to spend $40 on a new graphics card to run Aero. Some might even just spring for the $300 for a new PC with vista pre-loaded rather then try to upgrade an old machine.
Do the math indeed.
I got a mac that won’t be out till 2019 and it plays the movie quite well.
I used to be gwm once.
gwm:
Be careful, it’s moron hunting season, and I haven’t bagged my limit of imbeciles, yet. A word of advice, “serpentine”.
Hey, gwm, which month do you expect Apple to release 10.5 and which month do you expect your new Mac to arrive? How much money did you pay or do you expect to pay for your new Mac? And why are you buying a Mac anyhow? With your track record and litany of unmet expectations it seems odd that you would give any money to Apple.
“Be careful, it’s moron hunting season, and I haven’t bagged my limit of imbeciles, yet.”
Why did all the ones you hunted outsmart you?
hahaha,
It’s important to keep a few imbeciles alive to perpetuate the herd. Don’t you know anything about managing morons, dimwit?
“It’s important to keep a few imbeciles alive to perpetuate the herd. Don’t you know anything about managing morons, dimwit?”
Well at least now we have an explanation for your continued survival.
hahaha:
Good try. Being at the top of the food chain; however, your assesment is completely wrong. Predator kils prey, not the other way around. Besides, I can’t bag my limit in just one day.
wow, all the assholes are sure out tonight. merry christmas! some guy had a bad experience playing h264 videos on his g3 imac! LET’S FLAME HIS ASS AND ACT LIKE A BUNCH OF STUPID HIGH SCHOOL KIDS! let’s not be constructive and KINDLY suggest that a memory upgrade might help or that he might need to repair permissions or any of the standard mac maintenance stuff – NOO, we’re gonna call him a troll and make fun of him! you f*cking retards need to stfu and find something better to do than belittle someone just because he made a comment about slow video on his G3.
now that i’ve got THAT out of the way, i’m going to add something USEFUL to the conversation.
gwm: your slow video MIGHT be caused by lack of memory. 256 will run mac os x, but it prefers 512 or better. another thing i’ve found (even with my powerbook g4 867 with 768mb memory, you flaming f*cktards) that some streaming videos won’t play at full framerate until they’ve completely finished caching onto your hard disk, even if your internet connection can keep up.
that said, h264 takes a lot of CPU power, and the G3 probably just isn’t up to the task – but neither would a comparably fast PC (in this case, a coppermine pentium iii running at around 600mhz). i think i have to agree with you that whoever said their pismo can handle h264 is probably lying. DIVX and MPEG4 maybe, but not h264 unless it’s in a terrible resolution/bitrate. add that to the fact that you’re working with a non-quartz extreme video chip (a rage128 of some sort) and it becomes clear that your imac, while not bad for a general-purpose machine, just isn’t up to playing h264 at acceptable resolutions.
i’ve been looking around on ebay out of curiosity, and emacs start at around $200 on average. snatch one of those things up. you’ll be stunned at what a difference just upgrading to a g4 and QE capable graphics adapter will make. it sounds like you don’t really need an intel mac, you just need something better than your g3. at any rate, i hope you sort it out and enjoy your next mac. merry christmas to you gwm!
ooh, ooh, and how about an ON TOPIC comment! the “get a mac” ads are superb and many people i know who don’t know anything about macs think they’re awesome.
my MW: normal. is it normal for people to be such elitist assholes even at christmas? i love my mac as much as the next guy but some of you seriously need to lay off the crack.
Crawl back into whatever cesspool you live in. You’re making MDN smell.
get another Mac?, gwm, and other names in this thread,
Your math is all wrong. My iMac is 4 years old, as of October 12, 2002… and I know that from memory, not from the receipt. I am running Tiger 10.4.8 on a 17′ flat-panel PPC G4 800 MHz iMac and 1 GB of RAM. I know that from memory, too, not by looking it up on the System Profile.
My iMac came pre-loaded with Jaguar. The first thing I did was max out the RAM because (rule of thumb) you can never have enough RAM. I upgraded to Panther the day it was released, I bought Tiger the day it was released, but installed a couple of months later when I bought an external hard drive for backup. Each time I upgraded my OS, my iMac got faster.
I, too, knew absolutely nothing about the guts of computers when I bought my iMac, but I learned fast, because I hate being ignorant about anything I “get into”.
Four years is an eternity in computer years. A few months after I bought my 800MHz machine, Apple came out with the 1GHz iMac. Then the 24″ iMac soon after at 1.25 GHz. Get used to that.
To summarize: If you have 2 four year old G3 iMacs which you truly bought in 2002, then you bought them on clearance. There’s no way they were current models at the time.
PS. I’m looking forward to upgrading to Leopard.
MDN MW: lack
’nuff said
erratum:
MDN, when are you going to install an edit button…
I bought my iMac October 12, 2002, so it’s 4 years old as of this past October 12, 2006.
Oh, yeah. And people have told me they think the Get a Mac ads are hilarious. They are comedically prying open mind share big time.
Why, thank you, Matt.
But where were you 4 years ago when I needed your brilliant advice? Do you know how much pain and suffering I had to endure these past 6 years? You’re too late now, Matt. I’ve already placed my order for a MacPro with dual 3-GHz Xenon processors and 16 MB of RAM so’s I can run those QuickTime movies really quick. And to think that I thought my 10 year old G3 with 258 MG and 10.2 would keep pace with all those new fangled Apple Intel machines. Thanks again, Matt, I don’t know what I would do with you. I wish I had heard from you sooner. Don’t be hurt, you’re still my hero.
“Being at the top of the food chain; however, your assesment is completely wrong. “
I’m glad you recognise that I’m top of the food chain, but my assessment of you is right, you’re clearly barely smart enough to hunt and eat fleas among your family’s ample body hair, letalone anything with a brain larger then a pea.
The Get-A-Mac ads won’t even play on my Macs. I have to use the old-lady’s PC if I want to watch them, which means .. I haven’t seen most of the ads. But it’s nice to know they are well received and functional out there in PC land.
I got on board when the G3 iMac was being widely touted as ‘a real good computer from a cutting edge company”. But that was bull. The G3 iMac was outrageously slow and under-capable from the get-go .. although it was indeed innovative.
“get a Mac?”, my G3 iMac DV Graphite running on OSX 10.4.9 plays all the latest Apple commercial without a hitch. I suggest you stop being a “Grinch” and upgrade it with some with some memory. You’re probably still running it with the basic memory set up.
Also I think your wife is the one that wears the pants in your household and is the closer because you still have her one a PC.
I sold my wife on the Mac the day I met her and she trashed her Dell immediately. We have three a G3 iMac DV Graphite (for my 2 year old), a G4 15″ Powerbook, and a G5 iMac all connected wirelessly with a Snow Apple Basestation. Everything works effortlessly, even with our wireless TiVo set up.
So come on kick down some duckets and Get a Mac and stop whining!
Happy Holidays Mac Faithful!
gwm ain’t interested in getting help, nor is he telling the truth. He’s here just to waste our time and show Monkey Boy he is earning his paycheck.
100% correct and for sure.
And she’s also the one who has finally agreed to be buying that new Mac for our home, regardless that she sits right next to me on her fully functional but Windows plagued PC and witnesses everything that I have reported here.
She hasn’t agreed to more memory and installation charges on the existing box, however. And I’m not messing with that bottom/buried memory slot that they have on those early iMacs. I tried that on the first one and it didn’t go well at all, sadly.
Lastly,
If Apple happens to create a Core2Duo mini in reasonable proximity to the Leopard release, it’s been decided that we’ll get two of them and replace everything we’ve got. I’m hoping that Intel’s upcoming January quad-core release might ultimately cause some circumstance like that to occur.
Somebody in here asked when we expected OS X 10.5 to be out and how much we expected to be paying for the new Mac. uhhhh .. Leopard no later than June 20, I guess .. which means new Mac(s?) for us no later than the end of August. Price? We’re hoping for a refurb deal at under a thousand for a core2duo iMac, and perhaps even somewhat less if we can get the mini(s).
In closing: we’re pretty much skipping Christmas in order to enable this, fellas. A dozen new water glasses is what we bought ourselves as gifts this year .. so save your breath on the insults, eh?
gwm, in all seriousness, reading your posts is like watching a Christopher Guest movie. Your milk toast sincerity makes me laugh. If this is your intention, you’re genius. If it isn’t, you should be studied. Have a great day.
hahaha, gwm, whatever:
For years, as you have so meticulously described, people have instructed you to buy more RAM, upgrade your OS, and/or get a faster CPU so you would quick crying about your incapacity to run the latest version of QuickTime. To date you have not listened to voices of reason, but still whine and whimper like a bratty little girl because you can’t now watch a couple of “Get a Mac” ads.
By the way, numb nuts, the “Get a Mac” ads have only been viewable for a since May 2006 and QuickTime 7.1 has been available for free since May 2006, too. Either you’re a liar about the “years” of repeated “reportage” of your failures, you can’t tell time, or you’re a slower learner than is humanly possible.
Anyway, you have had ample time and opportunity to rescue yourself from the island of idiots and halfwits, but you did nothing. That certainly qualifies you as a board certified cretin, and even more stupid than the rest of your homozygous recessive clan that populate La Isla de Dumbasses.
I hope that you’re infertile and your sister/wife is also incapable of bearing children. The thought of more of your kind infesting the planet makes me feel sorry for the normal people who live nearby.
I’m curious, is your occupation “ward of the state”?
Studied? Yeah, well .. that’s out. Too pricey.
Good day to you too.
gwm, hahaha, whatever:
“Who faced down the Nazis in here, eh”
What a dauntless and persistent little moron you are. Too bad the MDN blitzkrieg demolished your pansy ass. Unlike the Greeks at Thermopylae, you lost without achieving anything except confirming to all witnesses what a liar and a cretin you are.
I don’t think it’s polite of us to poke fun at morons who haven’t figured out that if the don’t update their OS, then most of their updated software won’t work either. It’s Christmas for goodness sake. Give this moron and his horror of a wife a break. I mean fuck, obviously she has been letting Mike Dell fuck her in the ass and then sucking him off. So this guy is trying to be nice hoping he will stop.
late
MDN word, comes, I shit you not.
Isn’t it amazing that MacDude/Peterson/GWM all post from the eastern time zone, consistently have problems with easily fixable issues with the mac platform, usually double space their comments, claim to have been posting on this forum for a long time (using different handles of course), and can’t for the life of them get a clue and realize that they can change their handle but they will always get smoked out for what they are… a troll.
Seriously, this is the longest running troll I’ve ever seen on any forum.
R
gwm doesn’t need to be studied. He needs to be neutered, gagged, tagged, and finally banished from civilized humanity.
When I read plaintive pleas for indulging trolls at MDN, I have to respond by quoting Arnold’s, I mean, Conan’s purpose of life and means to utter happiness,
“Crush your enemies, drive them before you, and hear the lamentation of their women.”
You gotta love a barbarian’s sense of simplicity and engagingly candid opinion.
Come back any time, gwm, so we can repeatedly kick your sorry ass.
Two weeks to go, MacWorld is going to be huge. I know this because hotel prices in Vegas for CES are cheaper than I would have thought. Seems that Microsoft is splitting the bill so more sheep can attend CES instead of MacWorld. And to boot each person staying in a Vegas hotel in 2007 receives a new brown Zune. To receive your Zune just walk into your Hotel, head straight into the facilities and lift the lid. Caution some Zune’s may be larger than other Zune’s. And certian numbers of Zune’s may have a softer outer shell.
Also this just in. The Tiawaneeeeeeeseeee news agency is reporting that the first 30,000 iPhones have been shipped without screens. Looks like that Delay is real.
MDN work, major….. as in major pain in my ass to have to wait any longer for a product that we still don’t know exists. I love being so caught up in the Apple machine. It’s like be caught up with a girl, you know the products kick ass, but sometimes you have to wait for their full features.
There are lots of Pentium I’s and II’s (and sometimes even the occasional 3/486 available at Salvation Armys/Goodwills that can’t run the newest QuickTime videos (assuming they still run at all).
Use old computers appropriately, whether they are PC’s or Macs or whatever. Unless you are going to upgrade/replace them, you cannot expect them to keep up with all modern software forever.
If you cannot afford to do so, or are too cheap to do so, fine. But don’t blame it on the machine, other users, the company, or planned obsolesence.
If all new software was made to run on any old computer, there would be no progress. We’d all still be running MacPaint and MacDraw.
I mean — come on. Use some common sense, please.
The ads run just fine on the wife’s PC. Same age PC, same memory, way cheaper to begin with. The G3 was a turd.
That is strange, I run just fine on your wife too.
Sheesh. What a bunch of nasty bastards.
Merry Fucking Christmas to you, too!
But, as a Pagan, it’s Happy Solstice!
So, whoever it is that can’t get QuickTime movies to run….
How much RAM? 1GB+ is best.
Which version of Quicktime? Try upping to 7.1.3.
Mac OS X? 10.4.8 would be best, although Jaguar and Panther should work fine as long as QuickTime is up to date.
Only Matt’s comments made any sense in this entire thread.
New Get A Mac adds use H.264 video codec.
H.264 requires QuickTime 7.
QuickTime 7 requires 10.3.9, or higher.
QuickTime, by design, drops frames to insure playback without stalling or stuttering.
G3 processors (I have an iMac 400 DV SE) will play H.264 video if all of the other above is met.
I can’t watch H.264 (too painful) on my 1999 iMac (384 RAM).
The video does play but so many frames are dropped it looks like bad ’30’s movies.
Apple’s QuickTime download page suggests a G3 400 as minimum but it should include an asterisk * Except H.264 encoded video.
Mr. Reee:
“Nasty bastards”? For a self-described pundit of interpersonal relationships you are one pretentiously santimonious illgetimate product of incestuous sex yourself. We have a job to crush trolls with logic and a little sharp humor, so just play with your kiddy toys that Santa brung ya.
QuickTimeKirk:
So, all the other threads are too difficult for you to understand or would you please explain your reasoning for the rest of us? Cuz I can’t figure out how someone who apparently can read simple instructions and post threads cannot comprehend eighth grade English.
If you are influenced only by a limited number of simple one minute ads and have no capacity for objectively and thoughtfully comparing and contrasting avialable consumer products, why make such a big deal? You must only have the attention span of a brain-damaged chimp.
“Huh”, tell me, seriously:
Do you carefully evaluate every piece of advertising thrown your way, “objectively and thoughtfully comparing and contrasting avialable (sic) consumer products”? Do you walk store aisles, scanning each and every product top to bottom?
When was the last time you were at a bar (or out to any social place for that matter), heard someone yell “OMG! It’s an Apple ad!”, and saw the entire room crowd around the TV?
You seem to have difficulty with the fact advertising is the art of drawing people’s attention from all the other screaming voices. The “Get a Mac” ads are rather timid, and if someone isn’t actively watching for the ads, they aren’t going to notice.
Apple’s ads are just more preaching to the choir. It’s about time Apple STANDS OUT and really gets Mac noticed again.
still not impressed:
Oh my gawd, another member of gwm’s family of heterozygous recessive mutants has arrived! You have less comprehension than a brain-damaged chimp, too, I see.
Firstly, I never said, much less suggested, that anyone could assess the worth of a product from an simple advertisement.
Secondly, there are far more objective, useful, and complete sources of evaluating products including, but not limited to, magazines, podcasts, newspapers, etc. This should be intutively obvious to the perspicacious and savvy consumer. Based on your comments I have to assume that you are not an intelligent consumer.
Thirdly, if one is not inclined to search for objective, useful, and complete sources of information and analyze said information then one is likely to make poor spending decisions.
Fourthly, you should be thankful your threads are anonymous.
@gwm
It seems there is software that will allow your ancient iMac act as a monitor for your forthcoming Mini. Try VNCThing.
@Huh?
A heterozygous recessive mutant would still have a wild type phenotype, so your “insult” to “still not impressed” is actually just a statement of your own ignorance.
I found the ads to be funny.
“We have a job to crush trolls with logic and a little sharp humor”
So I guess you’ll get started on that mission shortly. Can’t wait for some of the logic and the humor.
Thanks!
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To: get another Mac?
Max the RAM and if that doesn’t help, you need a newer iMac.
What G3 model is it?
hey! we’re on a roll here! ahaha
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Chicken of the VNC: http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/
‘… Chicken of the VNC is a VNC client for Mac OS X. A VNC client allows one to display and interact with a remote computer screen. In other words, you can use Chicken of the VNC to interact with a remote computer as though it’s right next to you …’
VNCDimension: http://www.mdimension.com/page/VNCDimension
‘… VNCDimension is a Mac OS X application that lets you remote control other computers running a VNC server. This application supports multiple simultaneous sessions. You can find VNC servers for a variety of platforms, including X Window, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and Mac OS X …’
Thanks for the heads up.
Hahaha:
Sorry, I can’t post threads in monosyllables so you can understand them.
Paul:
You have meager comprehension ability and totaly misinterpreted my thread. If I’m wrong in yer head, so what? I’m not responsible for your lmitations.
“We beleagured Mac users have seen these great ad campaigns really do little to convince a PC world to make the switch.”
Spoken like a true PC apologist.
/mac user since 1988
//never felt beleagured
i hate math. school sucks.
“Sorry, I can’t post threads in monosyllables so you can understand them.”
I’m understanding your responses, I’m just waiting for the humorous and logical ones. Still Waiting.
hahaha:
I feel just terrible knowing that you can’t fathom simple English. I’ll do my part to help you, if you’ll just take the time to explain what you don’t understand. I’ll review your list and make an honest effort to help you if you make an honest effort to explain what you just can’t quite grasp. Sounds fair to me, you?
As for the humor, I can’t help you there. Like other things, perhaps the humor is beyond you, above you, and/or far from you. If you don’t find my threads humorous, well, I find that funny. Thanks for brightening my day.
Still Waiting.
Which of the below do you consider to be your funniest line? Which of the below is the most logical?
With so much material to choose from, it’s hard for me to pick out your best work.
1) “No doubt, yer a moron or a liar”
2) “What’s unfortunate, gwm, is that your parents gave birth to you.”
3) “The vast majority of the world’s technologically savvy population is more intelligent and more informed than you.”
4) “I haven’t bagged my limit of imbeciles”
5) “What a dauntless and persistent little moron you are.”
6) “I hope that you’re infertile and your sister/wife is also incapable of bearing children.”
7) “are one pretentiously santimonious illgetimate product of incestuous sex yourself.”
8) “You must only have the attention span of a brain-damaged chimp.”
9) “Sorry, I can’t post threads in monosyllables so you can understand them.”
hahaha:
So, what don’t you understand? I really can’t help you if you won’t explain what is is that puzzles you.
Still Waiting.
hahaha:
Still waiting…for your explanation. I can’t help you, unless and until you provide the details of your confusion.
hahaha, er, blahblahblah:
Still waiting…for a cogent response. I can’t provide much help for you if you don’t provide me with a question. You know, a sentence formed as an inquiry that ends with “?”.
Still Waiting
blah,blah,blah:
Keep waiting, asshole.
My call? A day and a half more. Tops. Maybe less.
Waiting.
A free VNC OS X server. Just updated today, to boot.
Vine Server (OSXvnc): http://www.redstonesoftware.com/products/vine/server/vineosx/