Microsoft's new "I'm a PC" ad

[Small White Car]

You can host with anyone you want, just upload the files like normal. But you can go with Apple, I think it's with the "Mobile Me" thing they're doing. You get the nice integration with that. And it's not free, but it's really hassle free if you sign up for it. I've never looked into it much as it's not something I'd use.

All correct. To elaborate, though:

MobileMe give you 20 GB of web space. You split that between your MobileMe e-mail address, your web sites, and your "iDisk." That's a virtual hard drive that is loaded on your Mac as if it were a flash drive, except it's online. You can access it from any web browser on any computer. I can also look up my home address book and calendar from any web browser that's on the internet. I can also screen-share securely from my laptop to my desktop over the internet using MobileMe.

You can host an iWeb-made site on any server, but doing it on MobileMe's servers has one really cool advantage. Check out this site. Scroll through the photos by clicking on the next one. That animation is being done by Apple's servers. If I put that page on my own server I wouldn't get the animation. It's not flash, either, so it needs no plug-in. That's 1 of the 2 main reason I have MobileMe. That page is created automatically from photos I drop on it. It creates the different sizes and allows my family to see web versions there (and animated) but still download full sized copies (either a single photo or a zip file of the whole album which, again, was created automatically). It's fast, easy, and super useful.

The other main reason I have MobileMe is my iPhone. It's now a must-have for any iPhone user. It syncs all my Address Book, bookmarks, and Calendar info wirelessly between my phone and my 3 Macs. People are used to this with their work phones that use exchange, but it's still pretty rare to have this feature at home. I'm a big fan. Actually, it was darned useful before my iPhone. Having all 3 computers in sync is worth $100 a year. That used to be the only reason I paid for the service. Now there's more, but all the other stuff is just gravy.

 

[MyCylon]

Interesting. I didn't know they bundled it with iLife. One question out of pure curiosity: If you publish your website through iLife, do you get to choose a provider or does Apple host this for you for free?

You can host with anyone you want, just upload the files like normal. But you can go with Apple, I think it's with the "Mobile Me" thing they're doing. You get the nice integration with that. And it's not free, but it's really hassle free if you sign up for it. I've never looked into it much as it's not something I'd use.

Interesting, thanks!

I was just curious because I sometimes find the biggest hassle can be picking a provider and signing up.

It's cool they let you choose but also offer their own service (which I assume is probably quite good).

 

[MyCylon]

MobileMe give you 20 GB of web space. You split that between your MobileMe e-mail address, your web sites, and your "iDisk." That's a virtual hard drive that is loaded on your Mac as if it were a flash drive, except it's online. You can access it from any web browser on any computer. I can also look up my home address book and calendar from any web browser that's on the internet. I can also screen-share securely from my laptop to my desktop over the internet using MobileMe.

You can host an iWeb-made site on any server, but doing it on MobileMe's servers has one really cool advantage. Check out this site. Scroll through the photos by clicking on the next one. That animation is being done by Apple's servers. If I put that page on my own server I wouldn't get the animation. It's not flash, either, so it needs no plug-in. That's 1 of the 2 main reason I have MobileMe. That page is created automatically from photos I drop on it. It creates the different sizes and allows my family to see web versions there (and animated) but still download full sized copies (either a single photo or a zip file of the whole album which, again, was created automatically). It's fast, easy, and super useful.

The other main reason I have MobileMe is my iPhone. It's now a must-have for any iPhone user. It syncs all my Address Book, bookmarks, and Calendar info wirelessly between my phone and my 3 Macs. Actually, it was darned useful before my iPhone. Having all 3 computers in sync is worth $100 a year. All the other stuff is just gravy.

I'd read about Mobile Me a while ago (haven't used it myself though). I agree it's really pretty cool.
Many people are really digging into the whole 'cloud' thing at the moment which extends way beyond just one computer (Google are doing this as well as Microsoft or Cisco).
The really cool thing with Apple, I think, is that a) you get really great integration since they're proving everything (the hardware, OS, software, web services, and storage) and b) it's easy to use (Apple IS great at that, please don't think I don't realize and acknowledge that ).

 

[PsychoPere]

I find digging through all the menus cumbersome and I end up using the "quick launch" for all my applications to try and recreate the dock from my Mac.

Why recreate, when you could simply have one?

 

[MyCylon]

^
There's also Object Dock.

Personally, I tend to use Vista's text field to open programs most of the time.

 

[firehawk12]

These ads are directly targeting the "broader message" of the Mac ads. They already have the "Mojave experiment" campaign to directly promote Vista.

What I find funny is that no one talks about their enterprise advertising anymore. Remember when they had Gates McFadden walk around an office like a manager? There were no products there either, it was just to remind enterprise consumers that MS software drives business.

The other thing is the whole Leo Laporte argument that suggests OSes are now simply commodities and not products. Do you need to have commercials for unrefined petroleum or raw gold? "This petroleum will soon become gas and plastic products!". If you were the oil industry, you wouldn't sell the features of oil, you'd try to combat the lifestyle assumptions about oil. "Global warming isn't real and plastic is recyclable!".

We're at a point where every consumer level computer has Vista on it now and despite the Mac ads, most consumers still choose to buy PCs with a MS OS installed. They don't have to sell you on the features of the OS because Windows - like water, oxygen and sunlight - is just always there. They just have to fight the assertion that Vista is broken, which they ARE doing, and that PCs are just for work, which again, they're doing.

 

[MyCylon]

What I find funny is that no one talks about their enterprise advertising anymore. Remember when they had Gates McFadden walk around an office like a manager? There were no products there either, it was just to remind enterprise consumers that MS software drives business.

Not directly related (except for the Trek link ;-)) but wasn't there an IBM ad with Avery Brooks in it as well?

 

[Small White Car]

These ads are directly targeting the "broader message" of the Mac ads. They already have the "Mojave experiment" campaign to directly promote Vista.

Ah, ok. So promoting the OS is a good thing.

The other thing is the whole Leo Laporte argument that suggests OSes are now simply commodities and not products. Do you need to have commercials for unrefined petroleum or raw gold?

Oh. So we've changed our minds. It's not necessary to promote the OS anymore. Got it.

They don't have to sell you on the features of the OS because Windows - like water, oxygen and sunlight - is just always there.

Right...again...they don't need to advertise the OS! Understood.

They just have to fight the assertion that Vista is broken, which they ARE doing, and that PCs are just for work, which again, they're doing.

Uhm...oh. I feel like we've changed our mind again. Now we "have to" promote Windows? I'm afraid I must have missed the point of your post. It doesn't seem to agree with itself.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Not directly related (except for the Trek link ;-)) but wasn't there an IBM ad with Avery Brooks in it as well?

"I was promised flying cars!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrFgRAcr0jg

(How the hell do you turn the link into whatever text you want these days?)

 

[firehawk12]

These ads are directly targeting the "broader message" of the Mac ads. They already have the "Mojave experiment" campaign to directly promote Vista.

Ah, ok. So promoting the OS is a good thing.

The other thing is the whole Leo Laporte argument that suggests OSes are now simply commodities and not products. Do you need to have commercials for unrefined petroleum or raw gold?

Oh. So we've changed our minds. It's not necessary to promote the OS anymore. Got it.

They don't have to sell you on the features of the OS because Windows - like water, oxygen and sunlight - is just always there.

Right...again...they don't need to advertise the OS! Understood.

They just have to fight the assertion that Vista is broken, which they ARE doing, and that PCs are just for work, which again, they're doing.

Uhm...oh. I feel like we've changed our mind again. Now we "have to" promote Windows? I'm afraid I must have missed the point of your post. It doesn't seem to agree with itself.

Well, maybe it's a Canadian thing, but in Canada there was a case where dozens of people died from tainted meat. So they shot an ad where the CEO of the company apologized to the public. The thing is, yeah, it's "promotion", but it's not of the "buy our products!" kind. It's brand management.

Perhaps I should have been more specific and perhaps you think that brand management is the same as product promotion.

 

[MyCylon]

Not directly related (except for the Trek link ;-)) but wasn't there an IBM ad with Avery Brooks in it as well?

"I was promised flying cars!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrFgRAcr0jg

Thanks for that! I really like that ad (not surprising since I also like Avery Brooks ).

(How the hell do you turn the link into whatever text you want these days?)

It's actually easiest (I find) to just write whatever text you want to write, select the text you want to link, then click on the Hyperlink button, paste the hyperlink, click OK and that's it. It keeps the original text you selected but turns it into a hyperlink.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Alright, I did some experimenting based on what you said, and finally got it--you have to have the text that you're turning into the hyperlink highlighted. That's a lot less intuitive than the old way, when you had a field in the box for what you wanted it to say.

"I was promised flying cars!"

 

[MyCylon]

^
Sorry. I thought I had written that you needed to highlight it. It's really late here, and I obviously need to go to bed . I corrected it in the original post.

Glad you got it working anyway. Interestingly, I prefer it this way because I can just write my text and then simply add links where I need them.

 

[The Old Mixer]

It's fine once you know what you're doing, but you need an instruction manual to figure it out the first time!

Thanks for pointing the way in any case!

 

[Lindley]

Personally I just type in the BBCode directly. I mean, writing [ url=link]text here[/ url] isn't that hard.

 

[Koinek]

Love them! Love them! Love them!

MS finally hits back at Apple's smug elitism. Crispin, Bogusky + Porter are doing a great job with this campaign. Can't wait to see what's next.

To those of you who are wondering where the specs for Vista are in these commercials:
http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/?fbid=BmDwFw

It was the earliest phase of the campaign. I'm sure they will bring it in later. This is the brand expansion phase where they basically want to start a buzz around their product so that people pay attention to deeper commercials.

Also they want you to start researching more about the product yourself.

 

[Small White Car]

http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/?fbid=BmDwFw
...
Also they want you to start researching more about the product yourself.

Which ignores all the people who tried Vista for a month, ran into too many problems, and downgraded back to XP. I know several of them.

A good message from Microsoft: We're sorry, and we've fixed the problems.

What they actually went with: Ha ha! You're just stupid! Did you know that if you use it for an hour, you'll like it? Never mind that you tried it for a month and didn't like it. I'm sure you're just a retard.

Yeah, great message. My PC-using friends just LOVE being told that the problem isn't Microsoft...it's them!

 

[firehawk12]

They're responding to people who, through whatever means, have a misconception of Vista even though they've never used it.

It's like those tests where people think Hybrid or Electric cars are slower or have less power than cars with real motors. Then they put them in a Tesla and go as fast as a Ferrari and you get a shot of them acting all shocked that a "fake" car can be as fast as a real car.

 

[Small White Car]

They're responding to people who, through whatever means, have a misconception of Vista even though they've never used it.

That only works when the misconceptions are baseless. You know, if nobody tried Vista because they "heard bad things."

But the problem is, lots of people HAVE tried Vista and didn't like it too much. These people tend to be the most tech-enabled people, actually. That's certainly the case with the people I know. The more they like computers, the more likely they are to have given up on Vista AFTER trying it for a few weeks.

Ads like that work when there's a misconception that needs correcting. When there's an actual problem (and not just an imaginary problem), this kind of ad is worse than 'useless,' it actually crosses over into 'insulting' territory.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

The one thing that annoys me about these ads are, while Microsoft isn't attacked directly by the Apple ads (not all PC's have Windows), they still felt the need to defend themselves. Granted, I know Microsoft has enough share of the PC market to assume Apple is attacking them, it still strikes me as arrogant and presumptive on their part to assume "I'm a PC" automatically means "I use Windows".