Apple Unveils New Get a Mac Ads
Apple Unveils New Get a Mac Ads
by , 9:05 AM EDT, April 2nd, 2008
Apple added two new Get a Mac commercials on Wednesday that highlight the shortcomings of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system while offering the Mac as a superior alternative. Like previous Get a Mac commercials, Yoga and Breakthrough feature John Hodgman as PC and Justin Long as Mac. Both are available in QuickTime format at the Apple Web site.
![]() |
|---|
Observer Comments
QuoteTiger wrote:
Where are the MacBook Pros, the MacPros, the MacBooks, the Minis and the iMacs? Hiding in the back room?
It seems that they simply want to advertise 3 basic concepts: iPods, iPhones, and Macs.
The goals is to get you into a store. (Either online or in the mall.) THEN they'll show you what your options are in those 3 categories. The ad convinces you to get one of those 3 products, and the sales people (or website) help you find the right version of that product for you.
It's not a bad concept.
(The Air ads are an anomaly. They exist simply for Apple to brag about their amazing abilities. It's more branding the company as a maker of small things than it is advertising that exact product. Once these ads stop runnig I'll bet money that they won't be making more Air ads. Whereas the iPhone keeps getting new ads each month, that will be the one and only Air ad you see on TV.)
Wed Apr 02, 2008 1:21 pm Subject: Next ad: Glass Houses
Wed Apr 02, 2008 2:34 pm Subject: On the subject of
QuoteBosco wrote:
As often as Mail in Leopard crashes, especially when I try to send a short missive without a subject, Apple ought to be more careful about calling Vista buggy
I have only had a few Mail crashes and they were when I tried read an incoming message sent from a known Windows user. Those crashes were all under Tiger or Panther, nothing yet under Leopard. When I go to send a message without a subject Leopard Mail prompts me and I give it a subject. I hate receiving a message without a subject, often it is spam.
QuoteSir Harry Flashman wrote:
When I go to send a message without a subject Leopard Mail prompts me and I give it a subject. I hate receiving a message without a subject, often it is spam.
Well, when I go to send a message without a subject, it's usually a quick missive (as I noted) to one of my close friends or family... Like "what's the dog up to?" or "dinner later?" or just whatever. I don't like that Leopard made this more difficult than Tiger. I don't like that it crashes at least 3 or 4 times a day, often when I hit "Send Anyway" when it tells me I'm mailing wrong. I have an MBP with 2GB of RAM in it, plenty of hard disk space, and usually only a few apps running. If it weren't for Spaces, I'd have stuck with Tiger, which doesn't try to be my Mom when I send mail and doesn't crash when I deny it the opportunity.
When I send mail to other than best friends and family, I am the paragon of email etiquette.
Wed Apr 02, 2008 3:44 pm Subject: Friends Like You
QuoteBosco wrote:
Well, when I go to send a message without a subject, it's usually a quick missive (as I noted) to one of my close friends or family... Like "what's the dog up to?" or "dinner later?" or just whatever.
I have friends like you too. You all need to be taken outside and spanked.
Yes, it's only a 'dinner later?' note, so what's the big deal? Well, when I go back at the end of the day to see if you said 6:30 or 6:45, I have to look through a dozen blank subject-line messages you sent earlier that day.
Would calling it "dinner?" really take that much time out of your day?
Argh
I also like that you say "It's only friends and family." So you're willing to annoy the people you like, but you're polite to strangers?
[quote="Bosco"]As often as Mail in Leopard crashes, especially when I try to send a short missive without a subject, Apple ought to be more careful about calling Vista buggy. I also wonder what accounting package Mac would use to run a Yoga studio. If you answer QuickBooks, you don't have a brain ;-).[/quote]
MYOB is a wonderful front/back office accounting package for Mac. I used it for 10-15 years before selling my business and retiring last year. I still use it to maintain the accounting of the sale!
QuoteSmall White Car wrote:
(The Air ads are an anomaly. They exist simply for Apple to brag about their amazing abilities. It's more branding the company as a maker of small things than it is advertising that exact product. Once these ads stop runnig I'll bet money that they won't be making more Air ads. Whereas the iPhone keeps getting new ads each month, that will be the one and only Air ad you see on TV.)
Apple has had similar ads for other new Macs, including the new iMac, when they were introduced.
Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:11 pm Subject: Guess who is coming to the subject of dinner
QuoteSmall White Car wrote:
Yes, it's only a 'dinner later?' note, so what's the big deal? Well, when I go back at the end of the day to see if you said 6:30 or 6:45, I have to look through a dozen blank subject-line messages you sent earlier that day.
Well you could use the Mail search feature to look for Bosco and dinner, but I agree every message should have the subject filed in with an appropriate description. While I am on a rant; can everyone please change the subject when doing a "Re: to an email where the topic has changed, also delete the 4 levels of unnecessary quote characters. Back to the Mail search feature, I am using it more and more, it is very handy.
Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:32 pm Subject: Re: Email Pedants
QuoteSmall White Car wrote:
I have friends like you too. You all need to be taken outside and spanked.
Yes, it's only a 'dinner later?' note, so what's the big deal? Well, when I go back at the end of the day to see if you said 6:30 or 6:45, I have to look through a dozen blank subject-line messages you sent earlier that day.
Would calling it "dinner?" really take that much time out of your day?
Look, if you were my friend and it annoyed you that you couldn't at the end of the year tally up how many times I asked you if you wanted to get dinner or walk dogs and go to the gym, then I would go out of my way to put a subject in the email just for you. I might even capitalize words and use correct punctuation. Maybe even spellcheck and indicate all humor with emoticons and fake HTML tags, since if you can't get past an empty subject line, you probably need everything else spelled out for you to avoid misunderstanding. And I'd stick one of those annoying disclaimers about the message only being for the recipient for good measure.
But among my friends, in our little email circle, it's perfectly acceptable to be quick and informal because none of us keep score on these things. If you don't want to get dinner, just reply no or ignore.
I still say this ad hit a nerve with me because Mail in Leopard is a buggy app that frustrates me several times a day. Not enough to jump ship to Windows, but more than enough to be annoyed when Apple throws stones in its own glass house. The rest of you are just sorry apologists. That's not the Macintosh Way.
Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:38 pm Subject: Re: Mac Accounting, MYOB
QuoteGuest wrote:
MYOB is a wonderful front/back office accounting package for Mac. I used it for 10-15 years before selling my business and retiring last year. I still use it to maintain the accounting of the sale!
That's a fine recommendation. We actually used it 12 or 13 years ago when it was much more popular. Our accountants couldn't cope with it and we couldn't find any bookkeepers locally who were comfortable with it. I imagine the situation is worse today with QuickBooks for Windows the de facto standard.
As much as I like Macs, I don't think I'd even consider not having a PC in the corner just for QuickBooks. Accounting is way to important to do differently than everyone else.
QuoteBosco wrote:
I still say this ad hit a nerve with me because Mail in Leopard is a buggy app that frustrates me several times a day.
Whereas for me, Mail was so bad in Tiger it was the main reason I switched to Leopard!
I had many problems with Mail in Tiger, on 2 different computers. It was horrible.
It's been perfect since I upgraded to Leopard.
So maybe this means it's not so much to do with the OS at all, but just that people have problems with Mail at random times and places. I don't think I've seen enough evidence anywhere to prove that it's better or worse in one OS version or the other.
I mean, look at us. We had the exact opposite experience. So what does that prove? Pretty much nothing, really.
QuoteSmall White Car wrote:
I mean, look at us. We had the exact opposite experience. So what does that prove? Pretty much nothing, really.
Actually, if you and I have both sent in the automatic crash reporter bug reports like good users, it does prove something. It proves that Apple lives in a glass house, which is my point. I just find it amazing that the crowd here apologies for Apple's reproducible crashes/bugs and blames the user. Delusion is not a river in Italy!
QuoteBosco wrote:
it does prove something.
Ok, going along with your point, yes, it does prove that.
I should clarify that by "prove something" I was talking about the issue of Leopard being more or less buggy than Tiger. I wasn't really talking about the ad or Windows, which, being the subject at hand, I probably should have been.
Comments are currently closed. Please email the author instead.
Recent Headlines - Updated July 6th
- Mon, 11:17 AM
- Ted Landau's User Friendly View - Apple’s LED Cinema Display: A Too Short Story
- 11:11 AM
- Product News - Photo Recovery for Mac Adds Photoshop Support
- 10:39 AM
- Hot Forum Topic - iPhones in Education
- 8:47 AM
- News - Apple Employee Injured in Store Shooting
- Fri, 10:29 AM
- News - Apple Warns of Learning Interchange Security Breach
- 7:30 AM
- News - Happy Fourth of July!
- Thu, 6:07 PM
- TMO Scoop - Psystar Moves to Drop Bankruptcy Ahead of Apple Legal Battle
- 5:37 PM
- News - Uncomfirmed Reports Say Apple & Nvidia On The Outs
- 4:57 PM
- News - Microsoft Sick Over Barf Ad
- 4:09 PM
- Product News - KRK Ships R6 Passive Studio Monitor for Recording
- 3:45 PM
- John Martellaro's Blog - Particle Debris (week ending 7/2) Juiced, Joost and Goosed
- 3:12 PM
- Product News - ExactScan 2 Pro Released
The Mac Observer Reader Specials
- Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com
OWC: Big Drives, High Performance - Not High Prices! SATA 3.5" up to 1.5TB. Notebook up to 500GB. FW up to 6.0TB. 1.0TB Drive Models from as low as $97.99 www.MacSales.com
If you're using a Mac, then you've gotta check out Full Tilt Poker for Mac. This Full Tilt Poker bonus code does the unthinkable, it actually rewards!
RamJet Memory: MacBook and MacBook Pro 4GB kits for $57.99! Mac Pro 4GB Kits $99.99! iMac and Mac mini 4GB Kits for $57.99! 1TB SATA Hard Drives for $109.99! Click hereFor the latest Apple products use Ciao, a price comparison website, to find laptops like MacBook Air. Then find the best prices on MP3 players and use our comparison tool to evaluate mobile phones like the Apple iPhone.
Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.



