If you asked Apple’s legion armchair CEOs the one number one thing they’d do if they ran the company, the top priority is always the same: develop a series of adverts that spell out the Mac’s best features compared to PCs.

Well, Apple’s real CEO has finally done just that. After a decade of wishy-washy lifestyle ads like the “Think Different” campaign, Steve Jobs is finally taking the competition head on with a new set of TV spots trumpeting the benefits of the Mac over the PC.

Apple’s new Get a Mac campaign centers around six TV spots touting the Mac’s security, stability and ease of use.

Featuring the author John Hodgman as a nerdy PC and another younger, sexier actor as the Mac, the ads make gentle fun of PCs focusing on viruses, unexpected freezes and the iLife software package.

There’s also a spot about compatibility, the Mac’s lifestyle focus and finally, one that quotes from the Wall Street Journal’s review of the iMac naming it the best desktop computer on the market.

There’s no info about who made the ads, but they look like the work of documentary maker Errol Morris, who shot Apple’s previous Switch campaign. The new ads use a similar setup — the characters address the camera head on against a white backdrop.

The Switch spots were generally judged annoying and ineffective (except for the Ellen Feiss ad), and I can’t say I like the new ads much better.

They’re somewhat insipid and maybe a little smug. I like Hodgman, but I’d prefer something more visceral, like footage of that cubicle guy going apeshit on his malfunctioning PC. I say get some real human emotion in the ads — that’d get the Mac message across.

New York’s popular Mac repair shop, Tekserve, has created a video advert for its services featuring dozens of iPods falling like dominos.

The ad is bound to spread virally — after all, you’re reading about it here and I saw it on Gizmodo, which got it from The Consumerist.

The company claims more than $60,000 worth of iPods were used in the filming, which I doubt, because it looks like the same dozen iPods were shot from different angles and edited together.

The question is, where did they gat all the iPods? Perhaps they were dropped off at the shop for servicing?

As a Brit, tea is mother’s milk to me. I drink it all day, every day. No morning is so bleak as a morning without a wake-up cuppa.

So you’d think Cuppa, a mini software app for timing the perfect cup of tea, would be just my, well, cup of tea.

But I already know how to make the perfect cup of tea. I can do it in my sleep, and often do — well, half asleep.

This software is for clueless Americans, who can’t brew tea to save their lives. Americans never heat the water hot enough to properly steep the brew. (Quick tip: if you want a decent cup of tea in America, head for the nearest Chinese bakery. It’s the only place that actually boils the water).

The nominees for the first iPod Emmy have been announced.

And the nominees are (with iPod-friendly movie links):

24: Conspiracy QT/iPod.

It’s Jerrytime! QT/iPod.

Live 8 on AOL QT/iPod.

mtvU Stand In QT/iPod.

Sophie Chase QT/iPod.

Stranger Adventures “Helen Beaumont” QT/iPod.

An International Herald Tribune op-ed piece weighs in on France’s legislative attempts to protect music consumers from Apple’s iPod/iTMS tie in:

“If Apple succeeds in hooking millions of consumers to the iPod and retains them, then it can be the gatekeeper of global culture.

That’s what irks the French. Apple could take the wind out of the French sails and permit others to encode music with their digital rights management. That may become inevitable, but Apple would like to delay it.”

Bumbling around the Web, I just stumbled on Smay’s blog, where he’s written a good description of his “Mac Lust.”

“I want one of the new MacBook Pros. I have a couple of computers at work; a year-old Dell here at home; a perfectly good ThinkPad. I do not need another computer. But I want one. I have never used a Mac. Don’t look forward to having to learn a new operating system or move back and forth between Mac and PC.

I want a Mac because they are cool. And all the cool kids have them. They are sexy. There is no logic or reason at work here. This is happening in the lizard part of my brain. I’ve thought about sneaking over to St. Louis to the Apple store and putting my hands on one of the new MacBooks. But that’s like saying I’ll just lie down on the bed next to the super-model, but we won’t “do anything.” If I walk in that store, I’ll walk out $2,500 poorer. So I’m holding on. Like a junkie trying to survive the shakes and chills and maybe in the morning I won’t want that fix.”

iAlertU is a super clever anti-theft software package that sounds the alarm in the event of an attempted laptop theft.

The software uses the hard drive motion sensors built into late model PowerBooks and MacBooks. The sensors park the hard drive heads in the event of a fall, but in iAlertU, they sound a screeching alarm if the laptop is picked up. Click the video to see it in action.

I love the witty use of the remote, which arms the laptop just like a car alarm. The screen even flashes like a vehicle’s marker lights.

The software is still being developed. There’s no word if suffers from an obvious fatal flaw: the mute button.

Spymac has brief but insightful interview with writer Tony Bove, author of Just Say No to Microsoft:

“The Mac over the last 20 years has been an innovation in what some people today call “personal media aggregation” or “digital lifestyle aggregation”. Slowly but surely, the Mac became the control center for my life — all aspects of my life, including work, hobbies, socializing, family activities, travel… There is no part of my life that is not in some way coordinated by email, posted on a calendar, described in documents, shown in photos, visualized in graphics, demonstrated by video, and accompanied by sound… on my Mac. This evolution of personal computing is still led by Apple as the company introduces media players and home systems.”

On the DealCatcher forums, Dan Baxter writes: “So I decided to install the new Apple Boot Camp Beta to dual boot Windows XP on my Mac. Everything went great then I got this after using it for about an 30 mins.”

And here’s another one:

There was some debate a few weeks ago whether Intel Macs would boot Microsoft’s upcoming operating system, Vista, because of conflicting boot-up systems. While the Intel Macs use EFI, a new boot system from Intel, initial versions of Windows Vista will use the old BIOS system.

Well, in the comments to the blog post below, reader RLPM posted a link to a Flickr photoset showing his MacBook Pro booting off a Vista disk image, thanks to Apple’s new Boot Camp software.

RLPM says he didn’t try a full install because he hasn’t backed up his MacBook, and presumably doesn’t want a disk error to wipe everything out.

He writes: “After installing the firmware update and boot camp (didn’t run boot camp assistant), it booted off the most recent Vista. I haven’t had time to backup my system, so I didn’t install vista, but it boots from the latest image!”

So I guess Apple’s Boot Camp software makes the whole BIOS/EFI firmware issue moot?

What a shame Apple didn’t release Boot Camp — it’s new software for installing Windows on an Intel Mac — on April 1. What a surprise that would have been.

When I saw the news this morning — via email from an acquaintence — I thought it was a tardy April Fool’s joke.

One curious thing about Appe’s Boot Camp page: it’s entirely in black and white, except for the Mac OS smiley face logo in a screenshot towards the bottom of the page. The Windows logo is conspicuously monochrome.

A BusinessWeek poll about the Microsoft Vista delay yielded an interesting result.

BusinessWeek asked: “Will Microsoft’s decision to delay the next version of the Windows operating system change your PC purchase plans?”

The biggest response by a huge margin — more than 65 perccent — said, “I do intend to buy a new computer — an Apple.”

The results aren’t at all scientific, but it is interesting. Polls always skew toward the negative, but the Apple shift is huge. I’m guessing the poll must have been noted on a pro-Apple site somewhere and Apple fans responded en masse.

(Thanks Robin!)

I guess Steve Jobs is chuckling to himself having fooled everyone today.

At Macworld in January, Jobs suggested Apple might do something special on April 1 – its 30th birthday.

Knowing that announcements of announcements stoke the fires of speculation, Jobs got everyone expecting something special from Apple — but the April Fool’s joke is to do nothing at all.

I know I’ve just spent the last three hours surfing the web for a special surpise announcement, like a new $666 Apple Uno (a kit-built computer), or a lightning “everything must got for one dollar” sale at the local Apple store.

“Ha, ha– fooled you!” Jobs is saying to himself.

Bastard.

There’s actually a much better Apple advert to be found in Google Maps than the iPod that made the rounds last week.

Take this iPod silhouette dancer. Note the hip haircut and how the road makes a perfect earbud cord — remarkable!

Click the thumbnail for the full-size image.

(Via Digg)

Someone called Pink Vixen sent me these pictures of some iPod earbud covers supposedly made of white gold and diamonds. I asked for more details but all I got was a price: $400-$500. I’ve no idea who makes them or where you can get them.

Pink Vixen wrote:

“I have discovered the ultimate Ipod accessory, 18k white gold w/ diamonds earpiece covers! Ttalk about bringin\’ the bling-bling to your ears in a totally different way. I know this is a gitly thing, but we girls jsut love our ipods, and this sista, just loves the bling, so combine the two, and what do you have!!! Photo is available…

Here is a photo, they slip on over the top of the head phone. And are available in hearts, stars, moons, and for guys black colored gold, with black diamonds with lightinghbolts! The price varies between $400-$550 a pair, I am in discussions with the manufacture, I just love these things. Yours PV.”

The iGoatse iPod case:

“The new iGoatse is the definitive skin for your iPod.
There are no words to describe it.
And you know why.”

(Via Gizmodo)

Vance Carruth , a third grade teacher from Huntington Beach, California, is retiring — and his clutch of twenty Apple IIe systems will be going with him, the Mac Mothership website reports.

Even though the technology is almost thirty (30) years old, Vance’s third graders fight over the chance to get use of one of these puppies.
… the school system purchased Apple IIe’s for each classroom back in the 80’s. In the early 90’s they were replaced by IBM compatibles and most recently by Dell’s. Each of the teachers were told they could take their Apple IIe home or move them to a designated storage room. Most elected to not take them home. The storage room later became Mr. Vance’s classroom and he inherited the equipment. Mr. Vance decided to setup and network the desktops and has been supporting this effort with other machines that he has salvaged parts from for the last fifteen (15) years.

Now the real bad news. Mr. Carruth, (AKA Mr. Vance – Student’s nickname for him) will be retiring this coming June. This comes only after 39 years of service at the same school. Once Mr. Vance has gone, there will be no other teacher to take on this support effort and the Apple IIe legacy along with Mr. Vance will vanish from Smith School.

The old missus and I went to see Elvis Costello at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall a couple of nights ago. It was an odd performance.

In the first half, the Symphony performed Costello’s first full-length orchestral work, Il Sogno, while Costello sat listening in the audience.

In the second half, Costello took the stage to sing a selection of downbeat, brainy tunes, mixing classical with jazz and not much pop. Backed by the San Francisco symphony, Costello’s loungey songs were dour, yet he was very droll between. He’s obviously a musical genius, but it’s like reading late Anthony Burgess — a lot of work and not much fun.

I’ve never been a Costello fan, and towards the end I was willing it to be over, but his last piece came so close to being one of the greatest concert moments I’ve ever experienced, it nearly salvaged what came before. But the audience ruined it.

For the last song, Costello dispensed with his microphone, and the effect of his unamplified voice in that large auditorium was astonishing and magical. Everyone craned forward to hear, and the hushed atmosphere raised the hairs on my neck. As the song reached its climax, Costello tried to get the audience to join him singing the last bars, a “hum, de hum” refrain repeated three or four times.

The first time the audience hesitated, and the second time it almost caught. It was a fantastic moment — hundreds of people so nearly raising the roof with a lovely vocal. But unfortunately it faltered, and after a third failed attempt Costello gave up, turning instead to the orchestra to raise a rumpus.

It was a great shame, and a little depressing. He came so close, but the stuffy old octogenarians wrecked it. I wonder if he had better luck at other venues?

Costello’s orchestral tour continues. See his website for details:

Honolulu, Hawaii, March 31 and April 01; Austin, Texas, April 11; Houston, Texas, April 13; Chicago, April 18; North Bethesda, April 20; Baltimore, April 21 and 22; Boston, May 10; Brooklyn, May 12; Atlanta, May 13; Tokyo, June 02; Manchester, TN, June 16; Los Angeles, June 18, 2006.

There’s no explanation what this Apple tree is about, except it’s described as “bad art,” and I must say I agree.

Oddly, there’s some pretty good hardware hanging from the branches. Must be a college or something… The old multicolored iMacs sure are fruity.

(Via My Apple Menu)

Joy of Tech has another great cartoon about Mac fans and Apple’s upcoming 30th anniversary on April 1. This one made me laugh out loud. Click the pic for the punchline:

Gratis Internet, the company behind FreeiPods.com that’s being sued by the NY attorney general for what’s been described as the biggest internet privacy abuse ever, denies the charges.

In a statement published on Friday, Gratis says:

At all times, Gratis has maintained control and ownership of its user information and never, not once, profited from any sale of data…

Gratis at no time in its history ever sold its list to anyone or allowed a company to purchase consumer data, nor has it ever considered doing so, nor will it ever in the future. Email marketing represented a small fraction (less than 1.5%) of its 2004 and 2005 revenues, and the company earned less than $32,000 from users in the state of New York from its practice of sending promotional emails.

Establishing and maintaining a bond of trust between Gratis and consumers is a cornerstone of its business. Gratis believes that its impressive growth in recent years is a direct reflection of the fact
that, in all its dealings with consumers, the company has behaved in a trustworthy and responsible manner at all times and in all ways.

Yesterday BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow rightly called out Apple’s hypocritical “state-sponsored piracy” response to France’s new law against vendor lock-in.

One of the big reasons the iPod took off is because of Napster and other file-sharing services. People suddenly had huge collections of digital music on their computers, but no easy way to take it with them when they left the house.

Now it appears Steve Jobs himself once agreed with the thinking behind the French law, which is to protecting consumers’ right to move content they buy from one device to another.

In a 2002 interview with the Wall Street Journal, reprinted in part at Macworld, Jobs said:

“If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own.”

Compare that to what French lawmakers had to say this week:

“The consumer must be able to listen to the music they have bought on no matter what platform,” Martin Rogard, an adviser at the French Culture Ministry, told the Financial Times.

Image courtesy of wpc-fr.net.

(Via SiliconBeat)

Talking of Apple billboards, MacBillboard.com is a site devoted to — Mac billboards.

The site, based in Holland, has six pages of billboard photos submitted by snappers from all over the world, like the one above of a billboard in Los Angeles by Mark Adamson.

Better, the site also has a series of ebOY-style pixelart desktop pictures, showing incredibly detailed Amsterdam street scenes full of iPod billboards and office workers sitting at Macs. Here’s the index page with each image at several different resolutions.

There’s an Apple garage sale, an iPod factory, and an Apple retail store with a line of little pixely Macheads waiting to get in. Here’s a detail:

You can also get an Apple mini store desktop — modelled after Apple’s container-sized mini shops — which has lots of space around the edges designed to be populated with the site’s custom icons, like these I-heart-iPod icons.

It’s all free, so have at it.

It’s hard to believe, but there’s a graffiti artist in San Francisco who objects to the iPod.

This giant billboard on the southbound 101 freeway was recently scrawled with the message: “Unplug!”

It didn’t last long. Apple had the billboard replaced within a couple of days. It’s now been swapped for an entirely new iPod ad. (The picture is a couple of months old. I’ve been meaning to post it for a while.)