Apple Begins Running iPad Mini 'Piano' TV Ad

Small White Car said:

That's clearly a lady who DOES know what an iPad is. (But not an iMac.)

Way to disprove your own point by showing that even the world's most ignorant woman still knows what an iPad is.

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The last time I watched a Coke ad they showed people drinking it in a park.

I got really confused. Can I drink Coke in a restaurant? Can I drink it with tacos? Or what about hamburgers?

The confusion I suffered from that has caused me to swear off all sodas. Because, really, who can tell how to use them with such un-specific ads!

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HA! Well said!

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carmenodie said:

I saw the mini today at my local Apple store.
OMFG! The build quality is A+!!!!!
It is an awesome device. Don't worry about the screen resolution. It doesn't take away one bit from the experience.
And when that bad boy goes retina with an A6 chip all hell will break loose next year.

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Same here, build quality is incredible! Now lets see what Sir Jonathan Ive comes up with for software. It's not that it's terrible now, but something tells me it will be better?

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gotluck said:

Really?, I was under the impression the iPhone 5 was at the top of the benchmarks.

The iPad has been benchmarking very strong as well.

I believe iOS hardware used to be below the pack hardware wise (still competitive though), but are now, at least recently, often at the top of the pack.

It's the walled garden that rubs 'geeks' the wrong way more than anything else in my experience. Apple won't let you tinker and waiting for a jailbreak sucks.

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Now I'm sure there are many benchmark test out there, but according to Geekbench, saying there are "plenty of Android phones out there that blow the iPhone out of the water" in regards to power.....well, maybe a tad bid exaggerated?

http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-5-a6-processor-benchmark-2012-9

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anthonyp01 said:

Reminds of the movie Big with tom hanks.

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Big - Awesome movie as well!

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j.applewood said:

Mini owners - is it tough to type on? I'm thinking of buying one for xmas and don't have the tiniest fingers. Just curious.

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If you have ever tried to type on an iPod touch or iPhone, and did alright trying, then you'll find it even easier on the Mini. Plus....I am surprised, honestly didn't think I'd like it as much as I do......guess I fell under the mistake of thinking it was just a miniaturized iPad 2! Build is awesome!

The great thing about Apple commercials is that they actually use the real screen image and you can actually do what they are doing in the commercial.

Whereas EVERY OTHER phone and tablet are using simulated screens and doing crap you can't actually do.

sick of seeing iPiano

I watched some football this weekend, which I don't usually do. I got very sick of seeing this iPad mini commercial. It gets tiresome quickly and Apple is buying WAY too much airtime to show this same commercial over and over again. Hey Apple, at least show a different app each time throughout the same football game! Seeing the same one over and over again just annoys people. I got so sick I had to change the channel.

MagicWok said:

Not sure if it's already been posted - but I like this fake touch enabled iMac based on the ad a lot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EaW6IiWKHAk

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This fake commercial is hilarious. It shows how stupid it is to try to play the piano on something that is too small.

My favorite Apple commercials were the "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" ones. I miss the days when Apple was about computers.

(full disclosure: I own a real grand piano and don't understand how someone could be satisfied with what's shown in the commercial)

wmikulic said:

(full disclosure: I own a real grand piano and don't understand how someone could be satisfied with what's shown in the commercial)

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Because that's exactly what the iPad Mini is supposed to be, a replacement for a grand piano.....

marksman said:

Or maybe only musicians who know how to use garage band should comment? It has already been explained how it was done just using the iPad but your a musician so I am sure you can figure it out.

Don't you hate when you try to come off smart and end of looking foolish or is it commonplace?

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Well... consider me shut down then. Must have struck a nerve there huh? I'll just reassure my clients when they show up for their next recording session (live drums, guitars, keys, vocals etc.) that I've dumped it all for an iPad mini.

Client: Where's Logic and the rest of your gear?

Me: Hey guys don't worry, I figured it all out and the Gargeband app can play chords now. Go plug in now. Time's money and your paying a lot to use the mini.

RedRaven571 said:

Because that's exactly what the iPad Mini is supposed to be, a replacement for a grand piano.....

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Of course! It should sound as good as a grand piano. Infact, I was hoping the iPad Mini could be my next saxophone and ocarina...

Good point - iPad is not a good piano.

MagicWok said:

Of course! It should sound as good as a grand piano. Infact, I was hoping the iPad Mini could be my next saxophone and ocarina...

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If it isn't great at being a grand piano, why doesn't Apple show us what it IS great at, then? Commercials should showcase what the product is great at, not what it is poor at.

I saw a much more impressive commercial this weekend. It was a little girl in front of what looked like a touch-sensitive computer, I think it was HP but I'm not sure, and she painted a big smile onto the screen with what looked like a paintbrush. This was a FAR more compelling commercial than what Apple is currently showing us.

(more disclosure - programmed the original Macintosh, owned every Powerbook and MacBook pro since the 165c and Titanium, and currently have iPhone in pocket.)

Blackberryroid said:

Then why advertise? If someone knows what an iPad is, I'm pretty sure that someone is familiar with apps. And apps means a lot of things. Including digital piano.

That means that this video is targeted to people who doesn't know what an iPad is. And with the video, I'd think that it's a digital piano.

Good work advertising, Apple. Instead of showing the key features of the iPad, making it look like a digital piano is more important. The digital piano isn't even a built in app.

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Microsoft's advertising depart called, they would like you to submit an application.

The following video was made for you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUXnJraKM3k

If you don't think its a great commercial, please help yourself and do not buy it!

Blackberryroid said:

If I was someone who didn't know what an iPad does, this video makes me think that the iPad is a $329 digital piano.

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Apple represents the triumph of Art, Humanities (which includes the concept 'beauty' and simplicity as a sign of Genius) over the mere 'technicalities'/geek world.

As a fan and user of all Apple products (since the Apple IIe) and Android phones and tablets, if your mind is so much on the technical side that you don't get it, I highly suggest NOT buying it. Here is why:

In the case of the iPad and iPhone, while perfect for the everyday user, this wonderful perfect world comes at a very steep price (but only for geeks): Geek Freedom

While most people will happily accept iOS and might never ever suffer from it, the more technically savvy people probably would never forgive lightly the fact that neither the iOS has a removable media (which in reality in most cases it would be just something of knowing one is free and unlimited, while at the end one might just put a 64GB SD and never remove in the first place), nor there is one centralized internal storage where one can store all its files in just one place to be accessed by all applications (instead of the current iOS 'island' approach in which most like to keep copies of everything for themselves, among other geeky stuff.

Yes, perfection of security in iOS has its flaws: the island approach.

Yet mostly everything else is mostly perfect, more Apps, more of most everything else but a certain sort of freedom some geek people would rather not lose. Which is not a big deal if you consider that 97% of iPad owners are happy with their iPad, twice the percentage if not more than the Android people.

But for the 'rest of us' (as in non-geeky people which probably wouldn't understand what I am talking about), Apple is definitely the best possible alternative! And for THEM (myself included I think this is on of the BEST ever Ads!!!

And not only Beautiful, but EXTREMELY simple and Cheap to make!!! Yet brilliant!! It moves in the non-technical world Apple lives in! If you do not get it, it is probably because you live in the other, more technical one

wovel said:

Samsung's "Smartphone Sales Dominance" ... comes from ... never, ever releasing sales figures.

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You can't possibly be serious.

wmikulic said:

If it isn't great at being a grand piano, why doesn't Apple show us what it IS great at, then? Commercials should showcase what the product is great at, not what it is poor at.

I saw a much more impressive commercial this weekend. It was a little girl in front of what looked like a touch-sensitive computer, I think it was HP but I'm not sure, and she painted a big smile onto the screen with what looked like a paintbrush. This was a FAR more compelling commercial than what Apple is currently showing us.

(more disclosure - programmed the original Macintosh, owned every Powerbook and MacBook pro since the 165c and Titanium, and currently have iPhone in pocket.)

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I'm sorry, why is a little girl painting a smile on a pc screen more compelling than playing a virtual piano on an iPad?

RedRaven571 said:

I'm sorry, why is a little girl painting a smile on a pc screen more compelling than playing a virtual piano on an iPad?

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I guess, because, as a parent of a little girl, I can envision her having fun painting on an HP touchsmart, but I can't imagine why anyone would want to play the piano on an iPad. And I own both an iPad and a piano. And as for why the Apple commercial is annoying -- I dare you to go into any piano store and ask the owner if he/she minds if you play a little "Fur Elise" to try out his pianos. He may vomit before you get the third measure out.

Why does HP touchsmart have a feature that the iMac does not have? Especially since Mac touts itself as being the alternative for creative types?

The little girl painting on an HP touchsmart was much more compelling (and a better commercial) because I honestly believed the little girl was having fun.

wmikulic said:

I guess, because, as a parent of a little girl, I can envision her having fun painting on an HP touchsmart, but I can't imagine why anyone would want to play the piano on an iPad. And I own both an iPad and a piano. And as for why the Apple commercial is annoying -- I dare you to go into any piano store and ask the owner if he/she minds if you play a little "Fur Elise" to try out his pianos. He may vomit before you get the third measure out.

Why does HP touchsmart have a feature that the iMac does not have? Especially since Mac touts itself as being the alternative for creative types?

The little girl painting on an HP touchsmart was much more compelling (and a better commercial) because I honestly believed the little girl was having fun.

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10 best iPad art apps for painting and sketching

Although, perhaps, an artist might have difficulty understanding why anyone would want to 'paint' on a computer/iPad.

Anyway, personally, I thought the commercial was cute and contrasted the size difference between the full size iPad and the Mini while demonstrating that the same app will run equally well on both.

grayter1 said:

Well... consider me shut down then. Must have struck a nerve there huh? I'll just reassure my clients when they show up for their next recording session (live drums, guitars, keys, vocals etc.) that I've dumped it all for an iPad mini.

Client: Where's Logic and the rest of your gear?

Me: Hey guys don't worry, I figured it all out and the Gargeband app can play chords now. Go plug in now. Time's money and your paying a lot to use the mini.

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I remember when the original Teac Portastudio 144 hit the streets. I made a few bucks adding direct channel out jacks, so the tracks laid down in some Upper West Side Manhattan living room (as bad as they were, considering it was an analog cassette recorder) could be copied over to 24-track for additional overdubbing. The Prophet V and Linn Drum Machine hit the professional studio around the same time. The songwriters, arrangers, and session musicians found these tools, and made music with them. Lots and lots of music. It was up to the studio staff to lay down the tracks.

Garageband is not a replacement for a studio full of equipment and instruments. Clients book your studio or your music production services for the facilities you have, and/or what you already do well. If those are not around when they show up for the session, yeah, they'll be more than perplexed. But if you think you're going to refuse to transfer tracks they produced on Garageband to your studio's "professional" recording equipment, or that they'll reject "something cool" you produced on your iPad... yeah, right.

When someone has an idea, they'll scribble on a napkin if needs be. And if they happen to have an iPad and Garageband? That's a darn sight better than a soggy paper napkin. The history of human accomplishment proves that amazing things can be done with incredibly "primitive" tools, if that's all the artist has at his/her disposal. And one can hardly call an iPad with Garageband primitive.

Does it matter whether Garageband lets you play a chord "live?" Hardly. If you have to build a chord up track by track by track in overdubs, that's what you'll do. It's nothing new. It's what we did with the old, monophonic, analog Arp and Moog synths, 40 years ago. Look up "Switched-On Bach" (if you're not already familiar with it).

As to the TV spot? Note that both hands are right hands - this is not one person playing two keyboards at the same time. Yes, the arrangement becomes more complex as the track progresses. I'm fairly certain that the melody line has been doubled by the time 30 seconds is up. So, guess what? The whole thing is "lip-synced." Horrors! But, if one needed to, one could reproduce what we see on screen - two musicians overdubbing a set of tracks. Granted, normally the "live" tracks would go down first, and the chords and doubling would be overdubbed afterwards, but it can be done the other way around as long as you have a click track and a written-out score.

Actually very clever, but mainly in how misleading it is:

• The fingers playing the Mini in the ad are actually narrower lol. Measure them in Photoshop if you don't believe me.
  
• Notice how they show a fat thumb on the Mini first, to mislead you.
  
• Then they zoom in on the narrower fingers, so you don't notice the difference too much.

The message is, it does everything the full-size iPad does. But only if you have interchangeable hands.

kkent25 said:

Anyone else notice that it has become "cool" to hate on Apple? To all the haters that say Apple gear is too expensive I say--why are you here? Apple gear has always been more expensive then their competition, and now all of a sudden the towns folk are gathering with pitchforks and bats demanding blood. What gives? Don't like it don't buy it.

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No, I haven't noticed it has become "cool" to hate on Apple. People thinking themselves above the "fruity computers" have been at it for, oh 30, years. Trust me, no difference then or now. Ignore them.

slffl said:

The great thing about Apple commercials is that they actually use the real screen image and you can actually do what they are doing in the commercial.

Whereas EVERY OTHER phone and tablet are using simulated screens and doing crap you can't actually do.

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Are you kidding? This was completely simulated. You can see how the fingers don't match the keystrokes so obviously - on both iPads.

Most commercials that show screens do this anyway because it's extremely hard to show a great screen with the amount of light you need for a commercial.

iGrip said:

You can't possibly be serious.

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100%.. Dominance was an absurd word anyway and when you look at how they redefined the market when discussing their "sales" figures you might understand. It is not a secret or something hard to discover on your own.

Apple sold 26.8 million iPhones in a quarter that only included 1 week of the iPhone 5. Samsung sold 30 million SIIIs in the past 5 months (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57525052-94/samsung-galaxy-s3-sales-hot-despite-iphone-5/). Seems the market dominating SIII was being severely trounced by a year old iPhone. Saying the SIII is dominating the smartphone market is just a lie, plain and simple.

Since according to Samsung's own public statements they sold about 10 million of those in a previous quarter, and some (unknown) number in the month of October, it is safe to assume the SIII sales in the comparable quarter were under 20 million. Note sales seem to run 2 million a month or so (on the note 2, it was less on the one, but we will give Samsung the benefit of the doubt). That gives us about 25 million smartphones. So what models make up the other 29 million+ (more than the SIII and Note combined) smartphones Samsung claims to have sold in the previous quarter?

I would love to see the data you must have. Samsung's public statements don't add up. The 10+ pages of Samsung's web page where they list all of their smart phone products is pretty interesting.

Edit: For clarity, I realize not all of the devices are not listed as smartphones, but about 90% are. My question was how much of the missing 29 million are devices like the replenish that will only ever run Gingerbread.

wovel said:

100%.. Dominance was an absurd word anyway and when you look at how they redefined the market when discussing their "sales" figures you might understand. It is not a secret or something hard to discover on your own.

Apple sold 26.8 million iPhones in a quarter that only included 1 week of the iPhone 5. Samsung sold 30 million SIIIs in the past 5 months (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57525052-94/samsung-galaxy-s3-sales-hot-despite-iphone-5/). Seems the market dominating SIII was being severely trounced by a year old iPhone. Saying the SIII is dominating the smartphone market is just a lie, plain and simple.

Since according to Samsung's own public statements they sold about 10 million of those in a previous quarter, and some (unknown) number in the month of October, it is safe to assume the SIII sales in the comparable quarter were under 20 million. Note sales seem to run 2 million a month or so (on the note 2, it was less on the one, but we will give Samsung the benefit of the doubt). That gives us about 25 million smartphones. So what models make up the other 29 million+ (more than the SIII and Note combined) smartphones Samsung claims to have sold in the previous quarter?

I would love to see the data you must have. Samsung's public statements don't add up. The 10+ pages of Samsung's web page where they list all of their smart phone products is pretty interesting.

Edit: For clarity, I realize not all of the devices are not listed as smartphones, but about 90% are. My question was how much of the missing 29 million are devices like the replenish that will only ever run Gingerbread.

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Facts can be your friend.

Samsung Shipped Twice As Many Smartphones As Apple Last Quarter

Samsung's global domination of the smartphone market continues.

Last quarter it shipped 56.3 million smartphones. In a very distant second place is Apple, with 26.9 million, according to IDC.

Here's a table breaking it all down:



http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-smartphone-sales-2012-10



Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone sales pass 30 million

Samsung said Monday that it has sold more than 30 million flagship Galaxy S III smartphones in about five months, making it one of the fastest selling smartphones in the world.

Samsung, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, launched the smartphone at the end of May, months before competitors began shipping the latest versions of their top phones.

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/t...ii-smartphone-sales-pass-30-million-1C6856036


Then again, facts can set off cognitive dissonance and lead to trauma and denial.

wovel said:

The Ad is targeted at 35+ actually. Targeting techies is why Motorola is hemorrhaging cash. Techies are a pretty small market.

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I think you are right. Come to think of it I like life style ads. But motorolas droid ads seem to just be for the Stat Wars crowd. And let's not get started on the surface

kahkityoong said:

So seriously you need this ad explained to you? That unless everything is spelt out and spoon fed you don't understand the point of this ad?
That's what the product manual and specification page of the apple website is for.

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So, tell me, what is the point of this ad? Can't you just Google "does Garageband work on the iPad mini"?

Saw that ad during Monday Night Football tonight. It aired during the second quarter.

Samsung v Apple

All these stats about Samsung v Apple data......Do stats actually matter? I mean Samsung ship(BTW incl's what they give away) more phones than Apple, but Apple make a bucket load more money, ie they are THE richest publicly listed company on earth. Samsung & Apple are COMPANIES....The entire idea, not one of, BUT the entire idea of a COMPANY is to make money. On top of that over 90% of all internet traffic on tablets are on iPad's, yet apparently Samsung tablets are more powerful, cheaper, higher res screen etc etc - APPARENTLY this along with many other stats don't seem to matter to people using these devices.
Apple would be screwed with out Samsung and vice versa. Consumers would be majorly screwed with out both. Live and let live

Love said:

Aside from the fact that Heart and Soul makes me want to jump out the window of my 15th storey flat, I loved this ad. Adorable.

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Haha, brings me memories of my music class back in elementary school.

Is it just me or is the big iPad fake playing and the iPad mini is actually playing? I noticed that the garage band app on the big iPad has its play button lit blue, playing a recording. Oh well, it is still a nice and simple commercial.

Saw this ad during the New York Jets-St. Louis Rams game on CBS today. It was shown during the first quarter.