Getting paid to suck

September 18, 2008 (Computerworld) The long, oft-baffling "teaser" ads" by Microsoft Corp. featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates that kicked off two weeks ago are abruptly ending, the company said late Wednesday, as Part 2 of its $300 million Windows marketing rehab campaign begins

What a surprise. FIrst, the point of the spots was very out there. "Moist, chewy cake?" What? But, that wasn't the biggest problem. Jerry wasn't funny, and I thought the pace of the ads could have been quicker. But, that wasn't the biggest problem. The problem was Gates. He can't play himself.

So, now they're going to fix it.

Carrying the theme "Windows. Life without walls," the new ads will show Microsoft "audaciously embracing" the phrase "I'm a PC" -- which has been so successfully tarnished by Apple Inc.'s ads during the past two years -- in order to rehabilitate it, reported The New York Times.

One of the new commercials will even show a real Microsoft engineer who is a ringer for John Hodgman, the actor who plays the abused PC character in the Apple ads, introducing himself: "Hello, I'm a PC, and I've been made into a stereotype," according to the Times.

Apple has been "using a lot of their money to de-position our brand and tell people what we stand for," a Microsoft brand marketing manager told the Times. Microsoft wants "to take back that narrative," he continued, and "have a conversation about the real PC."

More than 60 Microsoft employees will appear in the ads, along with their e-mail addresses. Bill Gates, who was in the controversial first two ads, will show up in the subsequent ones, along with celebrities such as actress Eva Longoria, author Deepak Chopra and hip-hop singer Pharrell Williams.

In other words, they're going to copy Apple . . . again. Nice. As I've said, I'd start with making the product not suck. Microsoft has been forever a "lipstick on a pig" type of company. They, like Apple, need to rewrite their OS from the ground up.

The new ad won't help. It will look like another attempt to simply rip off something Apple has already done.

Happy Anniversary, iMac!

10th Anniversary of the iMac

And, thank-you Steve Jobs.

Yeah, but can it encode a movie to mp4

Some serious computing muscle.

And I was all happy about the MacBook I bought.




Mine has a built in iSight. Theirs doesn't!

HA!

POS.

MacWorld 2008

Every year Apple makes a number of announcements at Macworld, an annual convention held in San Francisco. There's usually a good amount of anticipation as, as we've seen, Apple makes some pretty cool products. I'm an Apple fan. A huge fan . . . and user. You couldn't pay me to own a Windows machine. But, this isn't about bashing or praising, it's about the Macworld announcements.

This year the rumor mill was all about a sub-notebook similar to what Sony offers. Well, Apple delivered. Sort of. Rather than making it small, they made it incredibly thin. Less than an inch. It's has a full sized keyboard and a 13" screen. No question it's a marvel. But, yawn. I was really hoping for something smaller than a 12" notebook. But, that's me.

They also announced some extra features for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Cool stuff, really. Go to the Apple website and check it out. Once again, for me . . . yawn. Make the iPod Touch at least 30GB and I'll get excited.

The one thing they did announce that I liked, Time Capsule. Essentially, it a hard drive, wireless router, and back up system all built in to one unit that resembles a Mac Mini. There's a 500GB model that sells for $299 and a 1TB model that sells for $499. Considering what you're getting, that's incredible! It also has a USB port so you can attach a printer and make that wirelessly network-able, too. This I like. I will seriously consider getting one.

As a working pro, however, Macworld is always a bit of a disappointment as there's virtually never announcements made for the pro industry. That's often reserved for NAB in April, an industry convention. On the plus side, there's more to look forward to other than just Macworld.