W elcome back to another edition of Mac Sightings. In this installment, weill take a look at the inside workings of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and a new ad campaign from Verizon DSL.
Observer Duncan Holley writes us to tell us of an online article about Tampa Bay Buccaneeris coach Jon Gruden. It seems that the May 29th article details the first 100 days of Grudenis coaching tenure with the Bucs. There is a photo of Jon Gruden in his office with the caption: "Jon Gruden, with coffee in hand, begins his work day at 3:57 a.m. on Tuesday. He usually is at One Buc Place by 4 a.m.." Easily seen on Grudenis desk is a Cinema Display, Harmon Kardon Pro Speakers, and part of a Pro Keyboard. Hard to tell which Mac model heis using, but with that Cinema Display, we hope he went all out and got a fast unit.
Our second sighting comes from Observer Rich Hudgins, to tell us about a recent television ad for Verizon DSL services.
I couldnit find any mention of this sighting anywhere so I thought Iid drop a line. Last night I saw a Verizon DSL TV ad which had a Mac "system." I say system because I did not spot what actual machine was running. What I did see was a 15 inch Flat Panel Studio Display, pro keyboard and mouse. I didnit get a good look at the screen to see what OS was running.
The story line was a kid surfing the Web with music blasting and his buddies drive up outside and start throwing rocks up at his window to get him to come out. He doesnit hear anything so he keeps on surfing. The tag-line is something like "With Verizon DSL you will know where your kids are at night." In the end a lame ad since the kid didnit even know his friends were out there because of the music not because he was devoted to surfing the Web. Would have been better if he had seen them and then waved them on.
Also according to Verizonis web site the only support up to OS 9.1 but they do support WinXP.
We agree that the ad has kind of a mixed message, but itis nice to see that Verizon is apparently using the "cool factor" of Macs to emphasize the rock music mentality of their service. Do we all get a 15-inch Flat Panel display with our DSL service?
If you have a Mac sighting, and youid like to share it with us and the rest of the TMO community, drop a note to [email protected]. Whether itis a television commercial or an iPod attached to a celebrity, we want to hear about it.