Apple has recently started airing a new “Get a Mac” ad on U.S. TV and on Web sites. The ad highlights Windows Vista driver issues (ie, the lack thereof).
“PC” is desperately trying to get out of the ad, so he can go search for new drivers while Mac tries to calm “PC” down.
In the end, as is usually the case, the “PC” ends up doing something weird, unexpected, and utterly useless. Just when is this “Wow” supposed to start anyway?
The ad is not yet available on Apple’s website, but is available via YouTube:
Heh, didn’t expect that
Temporary distraction, this video. Only delaying the inevitable realization— don’t you know that the iPhone is pwned?! A very insightful poster on a previous thread has let us all in on this startling fact. This is a time of mourning, people. You just don’t seem to get it.
Sad, really.
Microsoft perfected the transporter. Wow! Caveat, no flies, please.
That very insightful poster is cashing Microsoft paychecks.
what is pwnned?
@ R
Thanks for the morning laugh…
Oh. By the way, R, you have been pwned!
nice humor for finals week
bleh, finals – don’t remind me. but yeah, cool ad. interestingly, all of my hardware worked okay from the beginning when i installed vista onto my old athlon xp rig. doesn’t run terribly either. this of course does not excuse it from… well, you know, from being windows. =)
pwned. overtaken. controlled. pronounce: poned, some other ways too.
wikipedia.
pwned comes from owned, but since the p key is next to the o key, owned is most often mis-spelled pwned. It originated in online chat rooms and games where people type fast.
it must be early in the morning, but i just don’t get this particular ad. then again, i don’t get windows (anymore) per se, perhaps it’s my happiness that keeps me doing things on my computer that i want, not things i have to do to keep it safe, running, virus-free, crash-safe… where’s my coffee?
Off-topic, but could someone recommend a good project management software for the Mac?
I found a lot (Merlin, FastTrack, Project X, etc.) but I have no clue which one to choose.
Thanks!
Clever ad, but I doubt the average windoze user will ‘get it’.
MW: truth. Go figure.
R,
You are going to have to do better than make an oblique reference to some previous post. You’re attempt at casting aspersions while actually failing to communicate is what’s sad…. really.
@new to mac: I like OmniPlan a lot. I think Merlin is really great too. I would summarize my opinion as: If user interface and usability is most important, get OmniPlan. If features and functionality are most important, get Merlin.
PC: “So Mac, I hear your OS is not so secure as your cult leader claims it is”
Mac: “Fsck you PC”
PC: “Yea, my Windows is more secure than your OS now, in fact the exploits on your OS greatly out number mine.” “What’s the latest count Mac? 25 plus 45 equals what 70 exploits? plus that doozy of a Quicktime/Java exploit”
Mac: “Well, I don’t have nearly as many viruses as you PC”
PC: “Well that might be so, but you don’t nearly have the 95% market share that I do neither, now do you”
Mac: “touché”
PC: “Yea, I thought so.”
I would love to see a clown on a unicycle come in one this ads and say “I’m Linux”!
@newtomac:
Try Omniplan. MS Project compatible and a great piece of software. (Just my opinion) omnigroup.com
I got an iMac about 3 months ago and for the most part it’s been great. However, I have had 4 crashes whereby the entire computer freezes up and the only option has been to reboot. I was under the impression that apps could not bring down the OS. In one instance it was caused by parallels. Then recently, firefox and/or safari caused another crash. This is rather disturbing also because there is no event log like windows has to find the culprit. Or if there is, I don’t know where to find it. In any case, it’s a bit disappointing because the stability issue of OS X seems to be exaggerated.
Speaking of ads….
MDN if you are listening, some of your ads are getting perilously close to being NSFW. I’m sure a lot of people visit the site from work during the day, like I do, but you need to be careful about the imagery thats appearing in your banner ads, if you wish to keep getting regular page hits.
NSFW ads? I might just turn my adblocker off for that.
@ anthony007
This is rather disturbing also because there is no event log like windows has to find the culprit.
guess what? usually there are only happy events on a mac… but in case we should have a rare crash, we can look in the crash log to see what happened…
how odd!
Slartibartfast, I like your name 😀
Just like everything one can change without openening the mac is under System preferences while the rest is found via System Profiler (and software, too, again).
My PC-fanboy brother-in-law just called to say he has had more freezes and BSOD in two weeks of Vista than he had in over two years of XP. He is furious because he runs his own consultancy and lost heaps of time trying to fix it and getting his documents off. His is going back to XP asap. I told him of Parallels running XP on a Mac and for the first time we had a decent Mac conversation. Often is takes an experience like this to shake these Windows fanboys.
I had an oblique reference once.
There is a pattern. A new “Get A Mac” ad, then 1 to 2 weeks later, a new product is released…
Keep your eyes open!!
Can you still walk into a computer store and get a fresh new copy of Windows XP?
“Can you still walk into a computer store and get a fresh new copy of Windows XP?”
Yes. I saw several dozen on display stands in various places at Circuit City.
I felt like I had wandered onto a bad remake of The Birds.
(yet another) Vista horror story:
I set out to check whether Vista tries to trick users into burning media in a format that is incompatible with non-Windows machines. Judging from the various dialogs, I’d say that this could indeed be the case, but in all honesty, I simply failed to burn even one disk, readable or not, and I couldn’t get Vista to reliably do the same thing twice.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070422083715451
Try:
Applications>>Utilities>>Console
The console will provide some error reports, though I am not certain whether that is the only place or the best place to look. In general, you should not have issues like you describe. I have had plugins to Safari cause erratic behaviour and I have had a battery malfunction that caused similarly erratic behaviour prior to being replaced.
The support forums at Apple.com will be a much better place to get advice. You are likely to just attract abuse here.
“You are likely to just attract abuse here.”
But I came here for an argument. No you didn’t. Yes I did. No I didn’t. This is pointless. No it isn’t. . .
<i>I would love to see a clown on a unicycle come in one this ads and say “I’m Linux”!<>
No clown on a unicycle, but these are close:
http://tv.truenuff.com/mac/
Enjoy!
Andy C. and All The Rest,
According to Wikipedia, pwned originated with a misspelling in World of Warcraft. A message would pop up at one point during the game that said “you have been pwned”. It was supposed to say, “you have been owned”. In other words, beaten badly.
Kind of a surreal PC/Mac ad.
Rather odd when one considers that many of the ads start with PC and Mac entering from stage left and right, or walking off stage. Now it appears they are trapped in some Twilight Zone version of a PC/Mac ad.
@anthony
If you’re having that many crashes then you may have a hardware issue. If you still have free tech support call up Apple to talk about it or take it into the Store to be checked out.
Could be bad memory also, especially if you put cheap ram in there.
Just noticed three new PC/Mac ads have been released and this is not among them. Has this ever happened with a PC/Mac ad before? Appearing on You Tube before being released, I mean.
I have a suspicion that someone closely connected with it’s production leaked it because the ad was killed. Probably by Jobs, who after viewing it, turned to the producers and reiterated Mac’s closing comment, “What just happened?” Other than being Twilight Zonishly weird, this ad doesn’t appear to make a point like the other ads.
Should have said, “… and reiterated Mac’s closing comment, “Weird.”
Gotta be careful with the cut and paste editing.
@makemineamac and
@DistantThunder
Thank you very much! I’ll check them out!