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Microsoft Targets MacBook Air's Need for Dongles, Lack of Touchscreen in New Ad

dannyyankou said:
Most people buying a MacBook Air likely aren’t plugging in anything that needs a dongle.

MacBook Pro on the other hand would be a better target for lack of ports, although Apple is going to improve that soon.
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Really? There are an awful lot of people out there who do just that... ie. plug in something that uses USB1/2/3 into a USB-C Mac. I bought a load of USB-3 to USB-C dongles for less than $5 each.
Let me give you two examples.
1) How do I get the updated maps for my car onto a 64Gb USB-3 stick?
2) How do I get a route onto the microSD card for my TomTom Sat Nav (for my Motorcycle)

Ok, so my use case is different from yours but there is no reason to state that 'Most people buying a Macbook Air...' I know two colleagues who have new M1 MBA's who use dongles all the time. I'll be upgrading my 16in MBP to an M1(or M2 or whatever CPU it uses) when it is released. If I need to use a dongle or two then fine.
At least it is a lot better than the bad old days of SCSI. Now which terminator do I need today?
 
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levitynyc said:
I've owned a Surface Pro 6 for 2.5 years now. It's a fantastic laptop and an average Tablet.

It has completely satisfied my need for a Macbook and an iPad.

Love mine. Cost like $900 with the keyboard and pen included.
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What do you do with it? Edit text? Surf the web 🏄‍♀️
 
levitynyc said:
I've owned a Surface Pro 6 for 2.5 years now. It's a fantastic laptop and an average Tablet.

It has completely satisfied my need for a Macbook and an iPad.

Love mine. Cost like $900 with the keyboard and pen included.
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What do you use it as a tablet for? Do you read books on it? I ask because Microsoft never seems to show the Surface Pro without the keyboard attached or in portrait mode. They’re definitely presenting it as a laptop not a tablet.
 
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Pointless and ignored touchscreens and pointless dongles always come up in these things now. I guess the selling point of a Windows computer is that you can show off to your spouse once that you touched Edge to open it instead of using the naff trackpad and that your USB pen drive from 2001 you found in the drawer can still plug in.
 
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Microsoft plays both sides, it’s pretty smart. On one hand they do this, on the other hand they create software that runs better on macOS than on Windows.
 
Microsoft, just STOP! It's getting embarrassing for you. It's over. Let it go. Keep making your Intel-based crap and get off these disparaging ads. For a company that has the dominating marketshare in the desktop OS they sure are insecure.
 
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MacRumors said:
but rather than primarily focusing on the features of the machine, Microsoft has chosen to pit it against Apple's MacBook Air.
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Are Dell, Lenovo, etc. machines so much better than Surface that they can’t be in the comparison? ORRR, do they not advertise against their OEM’s? I guarantee that Microsoft is telling FAR more people (that didn’t know about the MacBook Air) about the MacBook Air than Apple is. Are there even any MacBook Air commercials? :)
 
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ProVideo said:
These misleading ads are tacky and make Microsoft look desperate.
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You could have said the same thing about Apple ten or twelve years ago.

However, we _can_ say what we said about Apple ten or twelve years ago: Apple was the underdog back then. So now Microsoft has put itself in the role of the underdog.
 
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Xak444 said:
Where is this kids parents?!
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What do you think how old she is? I'd say one is early twenties, the other mid twenties. No need for parents. And to them, it's not about Mac or Windows, it's about appearing on TV in an advert and getting paid for this. If my grandkids had a chance to appear in these adverts and make money and get their faces seen on TV, I'd encourage them. As long as they don't buy any of those surface laptops, just fine.
 
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MrGimper said:
In my job I have many laptops supplied by clients to access their environments securely. About 80% of these have touch screens. I have used the touch screen exactly 1 time, in an "is this a touch screen" moment. I have no desire to touch my laptop screen.
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And if anyone else touches my laptop screen they risk losing a finger or two.
danr_97070 said:
"Love" and "Microsoft" are two words that I have never uttered in the same sentence.
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It may be snarky, but you just did.
 
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alexandr said:
i'm curious what percentage of people would even use a card reader...
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Actually, I use one on my works MacBook. It has a 256 GB SD card permanently inside to do a Time Machine backup. (There's another backup on an external drive; that one is my livelihood and I don't want to take any risk). On the other hand, it is permanently on my desk, so if it didn't have that port, I'd have bought a USB hub that has an SD card reader and it would be no problem at all.
 
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When Apple was using Intel neither Microsoft nor Intel was worried. Now that they moved to Apple silicon both are extremely worried. They’re not making these stupid advertisements all the sudden for no reason 😂
 
I'll bet anything that after that irritating kid finishes his Microsoft ad shoot that he happily goes home to a MacBook and doesn't even open up the box to the free Surface that Microsoft gave him no doubt.
 
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Spanky Deluxe said:
I really love the Surface Book and we use them extensively at work. Literally everyone in the office has one apart from me. However, no one uses the touch screen functionality. We just wanted Windows computers from a reputable brand with good screens and the Surface Book hit the nail on the head. If it didn't have a touch screen, that would be fine. The fact the keyboard comes off is irrelevant. Honestly, we could just use Surface Laptops instead now but at this stage it's more a matter of whoever got a Surface Laptop would be the odd one out and the price difference is relatively negligible.

At the end of the day, Windows is just a terrible touch OS and OS X is in all likelihood a terrible touch OS too. To be honest, in my own personal experience, there have been many more times that I've wanted the ability to run an OSX app on my iPad Pro than I've wanted to be able to touch the screen of my MacBook Pro or my desktop macs.
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MacOS X ended years ago.
 
gnasher729 said:
Actually, I use one on my works MacBook. It has a 256 GB SD card permanently inside to do a Time Machine backup. (There's another backup on an external drive; that one is my livelihood and I don't want to take any risk). On the other hand, it is permanently on my desk, so if it didn't have that port, I'd have bought a USB hub that has an SD card reader and it would be no problem at all.
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hm, yea it can work for that i suppose. i've had the worst luck using time machine — it corrupted several drives that i had(not permanently — i wiped them clean). i guess using a dedicated sd card is a good method. of course if you lose your macbook — you lose the sd as well.
 
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