FULLSCREEN
Apple is definitely ready for its closeup.
Toy Story 3
Pixar films are always generous with their Apple product placements. Maybe it's because they're so simple a toy can use them, which is exactly what happens in Toy Story 3 when Woody uses Bonnie's Mac to Google directions back to Andy's house.
You've Got Mail
Meg Ryan's PowerBook was such a crucial plot point in You've Got Mail that it was visible for nearly four minutes of the 119-minute-long romantic comedy. The other 115 minutes might have been filled with a repeating loop of the AOL chime for all we know.
Modern Family
Phil Dunphy’s love of the Apple has been a reoccuring theme on Modern Family, but the best episode of all was when Steve Jobs and Jesus conspired to have the launch of the iPad fall on his birthday.
Independence Day
A Mac saves the world from imminent alien annihilation in Independence Day. His holiness Steve Jobs couldn't have written a better plot to glorify his creation's powers than Jeff Goldblum’s brilliant intergalactic hackery, powered by a PowerBook 5300.
24
In the terrorist-soaked world of Jack Bauer’s 24, the war of Mac versus PC is almost literal. The Washington Post notes that all the good guys on the show use Macs and the baddies are stuck on PCs, but some of the heroes eventually adopted HPs later in the series.
30 Rock
Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy have had an iFest on NBC’s 30 Rock, with one episode's plot using Find My iPhone to locate Liz's lost device, while Alex Baldwin is always showing people pictures on his iPhone.
Friends With Benefits
I imagine Justin Timberlake's charms usually circumvent the necessity to swear an oath of unholy platonic sex with right hand on an iPad Bible app, but in Friends with Benefits, Mila Kunis swings him into it. But it was just a fake bible so it was totally cool to break the promise later.
The Big Bang Theory
The physics geeks of The Big Bang Theory have been spotted using MacBooks from time to time but the love affair started in the first season when roommates Leonard and Sheldon were playing a MMORPG with friends. Though all the computers are covered with stickers, it looks like the only Mac user at the time was university researcher Raj.
House of Cards
What does the most conniving, vengeful man in Washington, D.C., use to run his quest for political domination? Apple, of course. And it's not just Francis Underwood. Reporter Kloe Barnes is also spotted throughout House of Cards getting scoops from her iPhone, even as death comes barreling through the subway.
Sex and the City
Carrie Bradshaw introduced millions of women to the coolness of Macs, thanks to the trusty PowerBook G3 she used to write her weekly column. It was due to the popularity of Sex and the City that el Jobso may have eventually relented on having the logo flipped around so it'd look right-side up when you see someone using it.
Legally Blonde
Before every hipster college student was toting a MacBook into the lecture hall, Reese Witherspoon's fashion-obsessed character in Legally Blonde absolutely had to have Jony Ive's unapologetically sherbet iBook in class to match her threads. Apple has ditched the colorful plastic, but MacBooks have only gotten more popular on campus.
Back To The Future
In the opening minutes of 1989’s Back to the Future II, Marty McFly lands in 2015, where hover-cars loom, Jaws 19 in 3D plays in movie theaters and folks sport layered outfits that only a daltonic could love. In an antiques store, Michael J. Fox does a double take over a “vintage” Mac sitting next to other '80s relics like a Dustbuster and a bottle of Perrier.
Men In Black 2
To retrieve vital info from that could save Earth from an intergalactic disaster, Men in Black II’s Will Smith decides to use an illegal deneuralizer. Of course getting his hands on one requires making a deal with Jeebs, whose rickety setup is cobbled together with a food mixer, a house fan and some stolen A/V gear -- all controlled with an iMac G3.
The Proposal
After her cellphone gets stolen by an eagle in The Proposal, Sandra Bullock's character picks up a replacement at the town general store and then goes to the only Internet cafe around to find all of her 37 urgent messages using an iMac G3 connected to civilization via a coin-operated modem.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks look to solve their cash-flow problems in Zack and Miri Make a Porno by making adult films on their clamshell MacBook. The movie also had a part for Justin Long — “Get a Mac” Apple adman — as a gay porno star, leaving at least one person to suggest the actor is an Apple endorsement, too.
The Office
In The Office, Dunder Mifflin's computer of choice was Apple for years during the early seasons before HP eventually bought up some promotional rights. Wanting to be the world's coolest boss, Michael Scott bought a video iPod for the White Elephant gift exchange in the Christmas episode, while MacBooks lingered around the conference room and other desks later in the series.
Zoolander
The blissful stupidity of Derek Zoolander and Hansel still gets us stoked for Orange Mocha Frappuccinos and gas station fuel-pump fights, but the male model duo took tech problems to all new heights in Zoolander as they struggled to open the iMac G3 carrying the files to stop Mugatu.
Stephen Colbert
The new host of The Late Show is taking his Apple obsession with him. Stephen Colbert's been spotted pimping Apple products across the country, from toting iPads at the Grammys to posting selfies with the great Dave Letterman himself.
Hollywood loves Apple almost as much as it loves itself.
The passionate affair burned for decades before Samsung came snapping celebrity selfies with Ellen at the Oscars and dishing out enough paid endorsements to finance the next Star Wars trilogy.
Apple plans to fight back with its own buzz marketer in New York to keep its products in the hands of the elite and glamorous. But Cupertino has never had a problem getting its products on the big screen and into the coolest TV shows — even though Apple swears it doesn’t pay a dime for product placements. Here are 18 of the most iconic Apple cameos to hit the screen.
