A few days ago Neil Santos at City Paper shocked us with startling news that Obama uses a Zune! This new info suddenly cast a doubt in the minds of many a Mac user as to whether they made the right choice. Zune users on the other hand were ecstatic, parading this newfound info as if it were the gospel. Well you can relax now.

“In a stunning reaction that suggests the President-elect’s ability to quickly turn around difficult public relations problems, an advisor has officially rejected the earlier suggestion that he used a Zune as his primary music player. Instead, he clarified Obama’s position as an Apple fan and an owner of an iPod, which he most often uses when working out.” reports Jose Fermoso, for Wired Gadget Lab. 

Of course the first story itself was suspicious by itself, as Obama is a proven Mac user, and as we all know, Zunes aren’t compatible with Macs. But then again, who knew whether Obama has a frankenstein PC in his secret dungeon. Well we’re glad that this is cleared. We don’t expect the new presidency to lie even before taking office do we?

To all you Zune users, please don’t hurt. This is not the end of the world. After all, the Zune did win CNET’s prizefight for the large capacity portable player. Did you know that? I know Apple isn’t even competing in that race, but still, the Zune did win. I hope that makes you better. Oh, and another thing. “Boooo!”

[via Wired]

Before I say anything, know that these are the words that came out of this same guy’s mouth, “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.” Moving on…

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Balmer dismisses the Android platform as financially unsound and doomed to be a failure for Google, reports Suzanne Tindal for Cnet News. 

Speaking at Telstra’s annual investment day, Ballmer said designing Android wasn’t easy for Google. “They can hire smart guys, hire a lot of people, blah dee blah dee blah, but you know they start out way behind, in a certain sense,” says Balmer. 

He questioned Google’s ability to make money with Android. “I don’t really understand their strategy. Maybe somebody else does. If I went to my shareholder meeting, my analyst meeting, and said, ‘hey, we’ve just launched a new product that has no revenue model!’…I’m not sure that my investors would take that very well. But that’s kind of what Google’s telling their investors about Android,” he said.

Personally, I don’t think the Android platform is going to take off in the way the iPhone has, but if Balmer thinks it sucks, then I must reconsider my views.

And just so that you wake up to an awesome friday morning, here’s an awesome video of Balmer doing the monkey dance! Continue Reading »

A lot has been said about Microsoft and their efforts to counterattack Apple’s brilliant ‘Get a Mac’ ads by launching their own ‘I’m a PC’ ads, which is a part of their $300 million campaign. After scrapping the Gates-Seinfeld ads, the ads now feature a John Hodgman lookalike who claims, “I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.” The ad is followed by many other humans who claim that they’re PCs. Apparently, as it was with WALL·E, there are a few Apple Connections with these ads too.

1. ’I’m a PC’ campaign created with Macs

Can you believe that! Flickr user LuisDS has found out, through the metadata of the official creative copy of the “stereotyped PC user” and other photos appearing on Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” website, that the images were created on a Macintosh. And it doesn’t end there. Microsoft, instead of using their own Expression Studio software, which they claim “takes your creative possibilities to a new level”, were found using Adobe Photoshop CS3 (on a Mac, no less) from Adobe’s popular Creative Suite. Expectedly, Microsoft folks have now covered up their mistake by removing all the data from the images. Not just that, this article on RoughlyDrafted goes on to claim that the ads were audio-mixed on Macs too. I guess it’s true, creative minds always choose a Mac.

[Milind: As a sidenote, the Windows logo, packaging, the blueprints of Bill Gates’s house, a lot of previous Microsoft ads, and most PC magazines were also created on a Mac.]

2. Pharrell Williams uses a Mac too

Pharrell Williams, or simply ‘Pharrell’, the American music producer, songwriter, and rapper, features in the Micrsoft ads along with other celebrities such as Eva Longoria and Deepak Chopra, claiming “I’m a PC”. Well, okay; but as it turns out, Pharrell is also an ardent Apple lover. According to MediaBistro, Pharrell owns an iPhone and has gone on record singing praises for his iPod in interviews. Not just that, he also apparently uses a Mac.

It seems you can make anyone talk what you want them to as long as money is involved. [Ed note: You know what they say, “you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink”.]

3. John Hodgman, Mr. PC himself, uses an iPhone 

OK, so this isn’t exactly related directly to Microsoft and its campaign, but it’s about the PC guys adoring Apple and is quite interesting. John Hodgman, Mr. PC from Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ ads, was recently seen using an iPhone. I wonder how he finds time off his busy schedule of stopping users from ‘Switching to a Mac”. Although it is not too clear whether he bought it himself or Steve just gifted him one, seeing the popularity of the ‘Get a Mac’ ads, but the fact remains that he’s still drooling over the ‘Gadget of the Year’.

I think I get it now: it doesn’t matter what type of PC user you are (since PC is more of a generalised term; you may be a PC user using Windows, Linux distros, or BSD), there’s nothing that can stop you from adoring an Apple product.

I’ve grown up gazing at Amul Ads on hoardings on the way to my school. There’s this one place in Chennai in Anna Salai which had a new one every month which would make heads turn as we passed through that busy junction.

This month’s ad features a brilliant rendition of the iPhone. Note the use of various Amul products as iPhone icons and the tagline: “Lots on the menu”. Amul ads, as many of you may know, are a crossover of current issues at hand and Amul products (generally butter). Some good examples: “Amul - A Hard Hobbit to Break!”, “Bips Smacking!”, “Butter-Touille”, “Voluntary Delicious Intake Scheme”, etc.

If you thought Apple or Vodaphone did amazing ad campaigns, think again. The folks at Amul have been doing some wonderful campaigns since 1976, and without any flashing electronic/vinyl hoardings—just plain old paintings. You can see Amul’s Ads through the years on their website.

Comedy Central has been broadcasting a lot of iPhone related stuff lately. The latest to come out of their funny factory (yes, it’s an actual factory that mass manufactures funny—sort of like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, only not for chocolate) is a discussion on why the iPhone is pure evil. They have even compiled a list of four reasons and all, so it must be true.

It’s all light hearted fun, of course, and none of them actually hate the iPhone. It’s a satire, in fact, on the people who claim to hate the iPhone and give some really lame reasons for doing so. Check it out in the embedded video below. If it doesn’t play, you’ll have to visit the Comedy Central website to spend three-and-a-half minutes of your time watching a useless video—totally worth it, I say.

There’s a little bit of foul language (nothing graphic though), so you might want to send the kids away before you hit the Play button. And don’t let them read this disclaimer. Oops, too late!

I didn’t know Steve Jobs personally but anyone who infused life into an almost dead company and went on to become one of the most influential people in the world earns respect in my book. He was a divine man and had a heart of gold. His contributions to mankind will forever be etched… wait, what? Oh, he’s not dead? But wasn’t that his obituary I read on Bloomberg yesterday?

Yes, it was, and yes, he’s not dead. Take a deep breath. You OK there? Yeah, yeah, I promise—he’s alive and well and still making incredibly sexy and expensive products in Cupertino for you to throw wads of cash on. Promise!

It turns out that someone at Bloomberg was updating El Jobso’s obituary and accidentally hit the publish button which, surprisingly enough, does not mean “go back to the drafts section and stay there till 2455” (if you don’t think Jobs will live for at least five hundred years, you’re delusional).

Of course, they unpublished the thing in a hurry and issued a retraction stating that “An incomplete story referencing Apple Inc. was inadvertently published by Bloomberg News at 4:27 p.m. New York time today. The item was never meant for publication and has been retracted.” Apparently, several thousand Apple fanboys had already committed suicide by then¹—but hey, at least Jobs lives on.

So, anyway, just to make it crystal clear, beyond a shadow of doubt, Steve Jobs is not dead. No, this is not like the time when he died on a cross and came back to life—that was, like, a totally different scenario.

[Via MacUser]

Steve Jobs recently confirmed that there exists a “kill switch” mechanism that can remotely strip already installed apps off iPhones all across the globe if Apple ever feels the need to go to this extreme. Presumably, this has been put in place as a last resort to protect users from malicious applications in case any of them slip through the App Store vetting process.

But Stephen Colbert, the host of The Colbert Show on Comedy Central, has an entirely different interpretation of the kill switch. Apparently, Steve Jobs is misleading the legions of iPhone users out there and the “kill switch” actually does what it says. Your iPhone can kill you!

“Steve Jobs claims the kill switch is just programming code that lets Apple remotely remove undesirable software,” Colbert said, “but he doesn’t call it a Remote Undesirable Software Removal Switch. Why? ’Cause that’s not what it does; it kills you!” There’s also some light hearted Zune bashing thrown in for good measure. Check out the embedded video below. In case it doesn’t work, you can watch the clip on Comedy Central’s official website.

[Via The iPod Observer]

On the event of the iMac’s tenth anniversary, Scott McNulty, over at MacUser, posted ten of his most favourite iMac commercials since its inception. From the original bondi blue iMac to the latest aluminium and glass machine, he’s covered it all.

One of the videos he posted, though not really an advertisement, literally made me laugh. It’s quite old but still clearly relevant and true. Check out the three-and-a-half minute video below and marvel at the simplicity that’s associated with every Mac and is ingrained in Apple’s DNA even today.

[Full disclosure: The author of this post is also a freelance blogger for MacUser.]

As you may already know, Apple doesn’t advertise at all in India. In my entire nineteen (and a half) years of existence, I’ve never seen a single Mac commercial on television. However, it’s exactly the opposite in the United States, where the iPod silhouettes reign over every form of media and the Get a Mac ad campaign has been running for well over two years now, slowly converting a steady stream of PC users to Mac fanboys.

The latest in this series are three new commercials titled Pizza Box, Throne, and Calming Teas. Pizza Box has PC pretending to be “delicious free pizza” to lure people into buying it. It’s not exactly like being distributed for free with packets of Lays but sneaky nevertheless.

Throne has the PC banishing Mac from his kingdom because he’s stealing all of Vista’s thunder and Calming Teas features the PC introducing a new line of teas that are meant to complement Vista and “soothe the nerves” of frustrated users. I’m surprised they made an advertisement about Microsoft drawing attention away from Vista’s flaws without so much as even mentioning The Mojave Experiment!

Go check ’em out on Apple’s website. If you haven’t watched any Get a Mac commercial before, now would be a good time to start. Might I suggest starting with Computer Cart and Security? They’re my all-time favourites.

Vista’s sales, as you’re all well aware, are going to the pits. The only copies Microsoft is selling are disguised as ones of XP and being given away with packets of Lays. Therefore, to prevent people from switching over to Macs, Microsoft has decided to promote XP instead, and in a big way. And what bigger event to kick this off than at the Beijing Olympic Games!

Companies have paid huge amounts of money to get small ad spaces at the opening ceremony but the Redmond giant crushed all others by promoting their most ubiquitous brand identity on the biggest screen in the stadium.

Just as all eyes were intently staring at the Olympic torch runner, suspended in the air, the whole world saw the familiar blue screen in all its ugly, DOS-like glory. They even managed to fit in the Olympic anthem into their cryptic message. Linus Torvalds, the founder of Linux, was sitting there on the stands and was furious. He had planned on making penguins do the Olympic drill but green peace wouldn’t allow them to in such hot and humid weather conditions. Apple’s public relations are mum about this but rumours have it that there is going to be a ‘special event’ at the beach volleyball tournament. Stay tuned for more tasty Apple news!

[Ed note: Most of whatever has been written in this post, apart from the appearance of the BSoD at the Olympic games, is intended to be humourous and isn’t actually true. Views expressed by Milind aren’t necessarily those shared by the rest of the team. We know you are wise enough not to need this disclaimer but, you know, just in case.]