Top stories

Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

Three New “Get a Mac” Ads Mock Vista Downgrades

Podium

Apple just refreshed its third concurrent ad campaign today with three new “Get a Mac” ads, a few of which aired during NFL action on Sunday. Two of the ads, “Podium” (seen above) and “PR Lady” make a particular point of ripping on the fact that many people have downgraded their computers from Vista to XP because they’re so frustrated with it. I enjoy “Podium” a lot, but my favorite is still “PR Lady,” which features a PR liaison who steps in to make PC’s self-defeating comments sound positive:

PC: I hired a PR person, you know, to smooth things over that whole Vista problem.
PR Lady: By “problem,” he means, “Some early adopters have faced some MINOR challenges.”

It’s really cute.

About the author

Petemortensen

Pete Mortensen is the communications lead for growth strategy firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

Email the author | Read more posts by Pete Mortensen.

3 comments

    I like the Mac versus PC ads, but I found these to be rather tasteless. The first couple of ads making fun of Vista were cute, these are just mean spirited. They also don’t actually tell us anything about the Mac or why the Mac is better than Vista. Despite the mess that is Vista, Apple would do much better to draw attention on how it is different. It has been a long time since I have seen a “Get a Mac” ad which has successfully done this.

    I don’t know, I actually really like the new ones – and actually, exactly the opposite of what you’re saying, these ones are much less mean spirited than the old ones. I mean come on, with statements like “this isn’t a competition,” and “some people want a computer that works the way they do,” its a direct jab to the Mac v. PC fanboy flame war that’s been raging since the beginning of time.

    That and I thought the PR lady one was hilarious. That’s totally how PR folks drone on. Spin, spin, spin. :D

Buy Inside Steve's Brain Buy from Amazon.com Buy from Barnes & Noble