Microsoft Remains on Offensive with 'Apple Tax' Report and Latest Laptop Ad

[idsoftware]

whatever

Ill do agree. Macs are way better.. but\

yes its a campaing against best apple videos..

I have seen too many PC users that always willing to have a mac computer...

In my case Im a MCSE Engineer, and I usually use Windows.. jaja but
in home I use mac all the times, so I use both worlds,

but In my opinion. it depends on your needs.

pick whatever its good for you. No hassle to MAC O PC .

but If I had to choose 1 I would say MAC.


Thank you.

Laptop, silly....

I think it's a great marketing ploy...

Find customers that ARE NOT Apple customers and give them a free PC to reinforce that fact...

Brilliant!

 

[AidenShaw]

First of all, HP, Gateway, and Toshiba laptops are, in my humble opinion, crap.[/B].

I was commenting on the people who are basing arguments on specific features - such as weight, battery life and size.

Some people (say on-location photographers or musicians) might value power above all else - so a 6 kg quad-core system with 1 hour battery life might be *just* what they want.

I carry my laptop to/from work, on planes and meetings, so about 2 to 2.5 kg is what I look for. I also don't want a big screen.

Choice is good though. I'm glad that laptops that I'd never buy are available.

 

[KnightWRX]

Actually it does. That's the point.

Explain how exploiting a remote root vulnerability will trigger UAC ? The code is already running with administrator privilege, you just overwrite it with your own.

 

[rotta]

Back to the ads, maybe....

I think the new Microsoft ads may hit some points. The message is at least clearly understood.
We may agree or not, probably disagree (at least on this forum), but anyone who is not a diehard Mac addict have noticed the premium prices Apple charges for everything. I like the phrase "Apple tax".

Compared to the "I'm a Mac - I'm a PC" ads, the new Microsoft ads are at least as truthful. If you look at some of the Apple ads, they obviously hit windows in a much more spiteful way than Microsoft do now. But that is only humour, right?

 

[janstett]

I'm happy for Sony that they finally won a format war. There was the Betamax vs. VHS war -- oops, sorry guys. Then there was MiniDisc. For a while there when mp3 had just taken off and stuff like iPod and iRiver players swamped the market, Sony were desperetaly trying to push the MD format by making players with USB connection. They deserved to win this one.

I'm actually not happy that Sony won the format war -- they walked away from the development of HD-DVD so they could force people to license Sony (and Philips) technology. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray were almost identical (same codecs, etc.), only differences were the physical disk and the interactivity layer.

But, having said that, I'm glad the format war is over, and the survivor, Blu-Ray, is a great high-def successor to DVD.

And to sharpen your point, during the MP3 era they were pushing their proprietary codec (ATRAC) which is used in MiniDisc, not just on MD but also on their flash players. As well as the SDDS theatrical sound system.

 

[aafuss1]

In the "Apple tax" report, I noticed the specs listed for the Macs must have been the pre-March ones.

 

[pr5owner]

Yes, Sony never won a format war . Without going into a list, 3.5" floppies were a Sony format, amongst others.

apple lost format wars too

firewire vs usb = fail
firewire for mp3 = fail
firewire = fail (legacy connections kind of like mini discs, still around but rare)
mini dvi = fail (they dropped it for Mini-displayport)
propriatary connector for ipod = fail (they are going to switch to that new microusb format)

 

[janstett]

neither has apple lol

QFT & LOL

 

[BongoBanger]

Explain how exploiting a remote root vulnerability will trigger UAC ? The code is already running with administrator privilege, you just overwrite it with your own.

It helps stop getting it on the PC in the first place.

 

[pr5owner]

USB splitter and a card reader?

You can get both from the poundshop.

or if you prerfer , cut holes for:

1. sd card slot
2. Mini SD - or should we allow some adaptors?
3. micro SD- see above
4. Compact Flash
5. Sony SD
6. XD cards

Fancy six holes in your machine, or disappoint some customers in favour of others.

you realize i have not seen a windows laptop that didnt have a card reader? it has 1 hole that fits almost all the currently used memory cards (except for CF)

also a USB-SD reader takes up both slots on the mac because its too wide and apple decided to put the usb ports too close together.

 

[superfunkomatic]

where's jerry?

the only thing missing from this failed attempts at advertising are jerry seinfeld. i sometimes wonder who's advising MS. there marketing strategies are brutal - it's not hard to see that this isn't real, a testimonial, or even contain any facts to change peoples minds.

i guess when windows 7 comes out this fall they'll have to explain to the computer illiterate again why they need to have another new OS.

 

[pr5owner]

Great! That means that in case Apple drives off a cliff, I still won't have to use Windows.



Really? But can you just point me to where on Adobe's website, they're selling Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat (full) and Adobe Lightroom for Ubuntu?

BTW, please note that I didn't say "Adobe-like", or "Adobe Clone".


-hh

your too one track-minded, to get the same work done you dont HAVE to use adobe products, you can even run GIMP off the live cd (this is a CD 699MB not a DVD mind you)

http://luiscosio.com/how-to-adobe-photoshop-cs2-on-ubuntu-10-steps

same with music, dont expect that sad excuse called itunes, there are hundreds of free mp3 apps for linux, and again, 2 of them are on the live cd ready to run.

osx doesnt even have a live cd and in my mind linux is more advanced with what it can do.

 

[pr5owner]

It depends on whether or not your applications can take advantage of multiple cores. A 2.4 quad is not universally faster than a 2.93 dual.

yes but alot of apps already do, even WINRAR and the xvid encoder can do multithreads, even if your app doesnt, at least it has a deticated CPU

windows does an excelent job in dividing cpu usage amoung cores, if your running 2 programs that need full cpu usage windows will assign them their own cpu and have your other processes spread evenly amoung the remaining 2

in the end your still getting more done by running things simultaniuosly more so than a dual core.

also the price diffrence, its cheaper to get a quad core than an apple dual core

 

[donlphi]

One word: BLUURAAYYYYYYY

Checkmate, MS.

Wow... Checkmate? Because they offer BluRay on a 16" monitor? It's a joke. Blu-Ray is great and necessary if you have an HD TV that is 42" or bigger, and some would argue about that too. 1080p on a 16" monitor - it's laughable. It's like putting a Porche wheels on a Volkswagen bug. Nobody notices unless you tell them.

Blu-Ray will be gone faster than BetaMax. The B word you need to be keeping your eyes open for is "Bandwidth" as in INCREASED BANDWIDTH.

 

[KnightWRX]

apple lost format wars too

firewire vs usb = fail
firewire for mp3 = fail
firewire = fail (legacy connections kind of like mini discs, still around but rare)
mini dvi = fail (they dropped it for Mini-displayport)
propriatary connector for ipod = fail (they are going to switch to that new microusb format)

And you're now telling me this because ? Companies that innovate tend to not always win with their innovations. Ok, you're saying Apple and Sony are innovators ?

And I'd think you'd want to steer clear of the firewire thing, seeing how the last thread about Firewire being fail lasted 3000 comments...

 

[AidenShaw]

The B word you need to be keeping your eyes open for is "Bandwidth" as in INCREASED BANDWIDTH.

No, keep your eye on "BC" as in BANDWIDTH CAPS ...

http://www.bandwidthcaps.com/

 

[KnightWRX]

It helps stop getting it on the PC in the first place.

I think you don't quite understand how buffer overflows, network services and worms operate if you really think UAC has anything to do in stopping Conficker.

Code runs as administrator, hence, it's already by-passed (in this case, because it's a service configured to run as SYSTEM) UAC. Using a buffer overflow vulnerability in that network service, conficker has it (the service already running as administrator) execute the malicious code on the machine (explaining a buffer overflow might be a tedious for this conversation).

What you're thinking is not a worm, it's a trojan (named after the trojan horse, where the greeks used a fake gift of a horse to sneek troops into the city walls and strike). Basically, something that you try to pass off as legitimate and that the user himself installs on the machine. It can take many form in today's computing world, a flash banner ad, an Active X control, simple .exe sent by e-mail, malware attached to legitimate software, etc..

Anuba and Aidenshaw were right here, the proper way to stop Conficker was automatic updates, as the patch that fixed the buffer overflow was released before Conficker was released.

 

[janstett]

Wow... Checkmate? Because they offer BluRay on a 16" monitor? It's a joke. Blu-Ray is great and necessary if you have an HD TV that is 42" or bigger, and some would argue about that too. 1080p on a 16" monitor - it's laughable. It's like putting a Porche wheels on a Volkswagen bug. Nobody notices unless you tell them.

Bzzzt, WRONG. Blu-Ray looks great and is neccessary if you have a high resolution display. I have a 22" 1080p monitor that I use for gaming and movie watching in my den. Blu-Rays look waaaay better than upscaled DVDs. FAIL.

Your whole argument is based on the old "screen size versus viewing distance" argument regarding how many pixels your eye can pick up. I'm not 10 feet from my 22" display. I'm not 10 feet from my notebook.

It even looks way better on sub-1080p monitors, such as the 1680x1050 displays that are popular (well, not on Macbooks, what's up with the lame 1440x900 resolution, but on every other 15"+ notebook that has 1680x1050). I have a 15" 1680x1050 Thinkpad with Blu-Ray; Blu-Rays look way better at 1680x1050 than upscaled DVDs. They look better on sub-1080p. They look better on small 1080p sets. They look better on large 1080p sets.

Of course, how would you know this -- you have a Mac with a low resolution display and incapability of playing Blu-Rays. Sounds like you don't have an HDTV either. Where do you get off saying something looks good or not when you don't have a display capable of it nor a player capable of reading the discs? Gotta love when someone who doesn't have something tells everybody else how lousy and unnecessary it is. Not like you tried Blu-Ray on your 1680x1050 Mac and decided it wasn't any good, is it?

Oh, and if you buy the Blu-Ray for your 70" TV, would you really want to have to buy the DVD too for playback on your notebook, or would you like to be able to play one disc everywhere?

And on the Porsche-VW thing? Be careful with analogies you don't fully understand. Ferdinand Porsche (and Adolf Hitler) designed the VW bug. The first Porsches (356, 911) were based on VW underpinnings. The Porsche 914 and 924 were designed for Audi (nee VW). The 914 was sold as both a Porsche and a VW. Even today Porsche is looking at a new 4 cylinder car based on VW underpinnings, shares the Cayenne with VW (Toureg) and Audi (Q6), and actually owns a majority stake in VW.

You don't know home theater. You don't know cars.

Blu-Ray will be gone faster than BetaMax. The B word you need to be keeping your eyes open for is "Bandwidth" as in INCREASED BANDWIDTH.

Wanna bet? Blu-Ray is already following in DVD's footsteps and is ahead of DVD at the same point in its lifespan. Blu-Ray is well on its way to being a household format.

No increased online bandwidth will ever be able to give me 50 mbps I get from Blu-Ray. ISPs are already capping the bandwidth we have now. You want to stream a live HD movie over the internet? Yeaaaaaaah.

Gone faster than Beta-Max? It's already 2 years old and sold 1 million discs of one movie in a single week.

Gone faster than Beta-Max? How's Apple TV doing?

 

[AidenShaw]

I think you don't quite understand how buffer overflows, network services and worms operate if you really think UAC has anything to do in stopping Conficker.

Conficker also spreads on removeable media, where autorun can load the worm.

UAC would keep the autorun program from executing with privilege (or at least ask).

 

[KnightWRX]

Conficker also spreads on removeable media, where autorun can load the worm.

UAC would keep the autorun program from executing with privilege (or at least ask).

That stops only 1 attack vector though. There's still a very big risk without the 9 months old patch that you will get infected throug the network (doesn't even need to be the Internet, one stray laptop on your unsecured wireless could do it).

Basically, updates/firewall/NATing/anti-virus. A combination of all those will help secure you from worms and viruses, even today. I know you've never claimed otherwise, but the few that do obviously just don't want it to be true because it is a good argument against Windows.

The problem with Windows is that it insists on having doors opened on the network (it's filesharing services, ports 137-139, 435) while Unix in general opens nothing and lets the administrator decide what it needs. By default, a Mac is not listening on any non-local network interface at all :

# netstat -an | grep LISTEN
tcp4 0 0 127.0.0.1.631 *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 ::1.631 *.* LISTEN

Same goes for Ubuntu. You don't need network services that accept remote connections in order to surf the web and these should always come disabled by default.

 

[Ubuntu]

I'm a little confused. In the last two adds, Apples have been praised (sexy, cool). The only point they are driving home is that other brands offer cheaper alternatives, which is something everyone knows already.

Yes, because these adverts really are pointless compared to the shining pinnacles of knowledge that are the mac adverts.

 

[Ubuntu]

"This is Lisa and Jackson." Two seconds in and the voiceover dude can't get his verbs right. He are making Microsoft sound stupid.

I must also again ask what's so special about $1,500. Why not hit $2,000 and actually see if they want the MacBook Pro? Same deal with that first lady. Why not go for $1,000 and see if she'll take the MacBook White? Is Microsoft skeert?

I'm also not too afraid if I work at Apple. Some woman letting her 11-year-old son choose a computer, and one that expensive? This kid gets a gaming laptop at 11 years old?

This is annoyingly hard to fact check. All I know is it's an FW series. Best Buy's Web site doesn't even have this computer, so I can just look at Sony. It "starts at" about $900, and I can't find all the specs. The glaring one is ANOTHER SEVEN POUND COMPUTER. It's also got DDR2 memory instead of DDR3, a stupid move for "gaming." No mention of how loud or hot it gets. This top-end system for some reason wastes space with a dial-up modem AND a VGA output.

The good news is since this is a Sony, at least it has a decent display (1600x900, not that crap display the HP had) and can at least dig Apple for not having Blu-ray when Sony has it in $1,000 computers.

Still, this makes it very simple for us Mac users to easily pick apart the stupid people of the world. None of these three commercials featured people who seemed to ooze intelligence. I guess part of the problem is most smart people do a lot of computer shopping online because you can customize everything so much more. Who spends that much money on what the manufacturer thinks is the best setup? I got lucky since I liked the base MBP, but most people want options. If BD was available, I'd add that instantly.

I don't think its that simple. I don't think mac users are necessarily more intelligent than PC users, especially seeing as Apple products are usually more about style than substance. If anything, its probably the other way around. Spending more money on sometimes-inferior products, because they look nice? Real smart.

 

[BongoBanger]

That stops only 1 attack vector though.

Which means it does help, yes? On the basis that if you're running a patched machine that's pretty much the only way it's going to get on.

There's still a very big risk without the 9 months old patch that you will get infected throug the network (doesn't even need to be the Internet, one stray laptop on your unsecured wireless could do it).

And since WU checks patch history at every connection there shouldn't be an issue here unless it's been disabled or the copy of Windows is invalid which is why, I guess, Conficker has affected about 1% of the PC using population.

 

[bruinsrme]

Blu-Ray will be gone faster than BetaMax. The B word you need to be keeping your eyes open for is "Bandwidth" as in INCREASED BANDWIDTH.

I disagree with the bluray statement especially with ISPs watching the Time Warner monthly cap on bandwidth that has recently been implimented.
ISPs will be more than happy to increase your speed. Then turn right around and charge you for going over your monthly allotment of bandwidth.

2 1080- downloads and you just might consume a families planned allowance.

I think Tw is charging a $1 a gig over your alloment. Suddenly that down loaded movie from itunes is a $30 investment. No thanks when a bluray can be had for under $20

 

[KnightWRX]

I don't think its that simple. I don't think mac users are necessarily more intelligent than PC users, especially seeing as Apple products are usually more about style than substance. If anything, its probably the other way around. Spending more money on sometimes-inferior products, because they look nice? Real smart.

Actually, just taking OS X, i'd say Apple products are about stylish substance. They offer both. OS X has a slick, easy to use GUI and has tons of applications that are needed. But on the other end of the spectrum, under the hood, OS X has all the substance brought on by now 40 years of R&D in the form of Unix. I can run a complicated bash script on OS X, and then I can start up Photoshop.

I'd say OS X managed to do what the Gnome project and KDE project have been trying to do all these years, bring an easy to use GUI to Unix. And then Apple managed to do the unthinkable and sold Unix as a consumer desktop.

Now your grandma can use 40 years of computing history, the same as that old grey beard POSIX programmer.