Microsoft’s New Mac vs. PC Hyperbole
From Rene Ritchie at iMore:
Microsoft has three new Surface Pro 3 ads out today that, as promised, switch from trying to attack the iPad to trying to attack the MacBook Air. Given how heart-breakingly, bank-breakingly unsuccessful Surface has been to date, it’s hard not to sympathize. It’s also hard not to think repeating past strategic failures will only result in more failures. Instead of shifting from iPad to MacBook, maybe Microsoft should shift from attacking Apple to attacking the PC market?
Mac sales were up 18 percent year-over-year last quarter. The Mac has grown 32 out of the last 33 quarters. That’s against Windows PC sales that continue to be on the decline.
It’s incredibly tough to imagine anyone would leave a MacBook Air for a Surface Pro 3. More specifically, that they’d leave the ability to run OS X on hardware of that caliber for Windows 8 on anything. Especially because the MacBook Air can run OS X and Windows 8. Putting Windows on a tablet turned out to be a liability not a feature and it looks like the same is going to hold true for hybrids.
People who use Macs use them intentionally. We love not only the quality of the hardware but the experience and workflow enabled by the software, by OS X and iLife and iWork and all the OS X-exclusive apps by Panic and Flexibits and Tapbots and Aged & Distilled and SuperMegaUltraGroovy and The Iconfactory and, many more. That’s simply not attainable by PC hardware, and certainly not by the widely-maligned Windows 8.
It’s telling that “run Windows instead of OS X” wasn’t even suggested as a benefit in any of these three new ads. When Apple ran their famous “Mac vs. PC” series, OS X being better and preferable to Windows was almost always front-and-center.
Microsoft does mention running Office and Photoshop, but both of those apps are available on the Mac. Office is available for iPad now as well, as are really great detachable keyboards. They also suggest you need a paper note book to use a pen with Apple products, which, given the stylus market for iPad, is either ignorant or deliberately false.
I’m almost tempted to suggest Microsoft would be better off running an ad encouraging OS X customers to buy a Windows license for their Macs, to get the “best of both worlds”, but again, given how poorly Windows 8 has been received, that probably wouldn’t help very much. Maybe focus on Bootcamp and gaming?
I’m even more tempted to suggest Microsoft shouldn’t focus on Apple at all, and go gunning for Dell, HP, Lenovo, and other PC vendors instead. People who buy PC laptops and hybrids are already Windows-only customers. All the things Microsoft is actually showing off in their ads — great specs, capacitive touch, pen input, etc. are probably something Windows-only customers would be really interested in. Hell, for anyone used to the creaky plastic and gaudy stickers of many Windows laptops, Surface could be a welcome upgrade. Even for people with higher end PC ultrabooks, getting something not painfully, slavishly derived from Apple design could be a breath of fresh air.
Given the politics involved in Microsoft’s OEM partnerships, however, I don’t think we’ll ever see that happen.
The Absurdity Runs Deep
“The absurdity runs deep: America is using American military equipment to bomb other pieces of American military equipment halfway around the world. The reason the American military equipment got there in the first place was because, in 2003, the US had to use its military to rebuild the Iraqi army, which it just finished destroying with the American military. The American weapons the US gave the Iraqi army totally failed at making Iraq secure and have become tools of terror used by an offshoot of al-Qaeda to terrorize the Iraqis that the US supposedly liberated a decade ago. And so now the US has to use American weaponry to destroy the American weaponry it gave Iraqis to make Iraqis safer, in order to make Iraqis safer.
It’s not just ironic; it’s a symbol of how disastrous the last 15 years of US Iraq policy have been, how circuitous and self-perpetuating the violence, that we are now bombing our own guns. Welcome to American grand strategy in the Middle East.”
– Vox: The US bombing its own guns perfectly sums up America’s total failure in Iraq
Well, Damn.
Really, CNN? Really?
The other day I was in a McDonalds and imagine my surprise when I looked up and saw on the television that CNN was still running almost exclusive coverage on missing flight 370. My immediate reaction was:
Quote of the Day
Poking creationists with a sharp stick:
“The Crab Nebula is about 6,500 light years from Earth. According to some beliefs, that’s the age of the whole universe, but if the universe were only 6,500 years old, how could we see light from anything more distant than the Crab Nebula? We couldn’t. To believe in a universe as young as 6,000 or 7,000 years old is to extinguish the light from most of the galaxy, not to mention the light from all the other hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.” ~ Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, in last Sunday’s episode of Cosmos, which focused on the speed of light.
Via.
Word.
Is iOS 7.1 Draining Your Battery Life Too Fast? Try This to Resolve It
PUT THE DAMNED PHONE DOWN.
Fundamentalism Summed Up in One Sentence
“My supreme omnipotent being is a hormonal teenager with shitty aim and a murder boner and you all need to watch out or else!”
Oh Sah-NAP!
“Listen, Shapiro, you little prick, gay people have been crushed into the dirt, beaten and murdered, shamed and fired, denied housing and the common good of our own country, used by pro politicians and political HACKS like yourself for way too long now. We’re fighting back and fuck you for your wordy little efforts to stop us.
“It’s YOU and yours who use the worst kind of violence against us. Gays don’t beat up straight people on dark streets in the dead of night. We don’t tie them to fences to freeze to death after beating them unconscious. We don’t go home with straight people and slit their throats after having sex them. We don’t FEAR straight people so we don’t have to do those things. We’re going to take advantage of your fears and use them against you. And we’ll use our own laws against you — and that’s the one thing you hate more than us. LAWS. No more hiding for us. You go live in the shadows now. Our truth will win out.
“What’s your beef with gay people anyway, you and your kind? Why do you revel in putting us down? Is it because your tiny little dick gets all bothered by gay boys? Where does your homo-hate and homo-negativity come from? Is it from the dark and secret closet you live in? Come out and play, sweet boy. I’m sure somewhere there’s a man willing to make use of that big, fucking mouth of yours.” ~ JMG Commenter Blackfork in response to this.
Word.
On the Subject Of Everyone Bitching About Battery Life
It seems that every time Apple updates its iOS, People With Very Important Opinions© start bitching about how iPhone battery life has taken a nosedive. I have to laugh because none of these very important people seem to realize that when a new OS comes out, people initially use their phones more to explore the new OS.
So of course your battery life is going to go down!
Someone Make This Happen!
Karma, She’s a Bitch
Old news, but still delicious:
Five months ago when Bank of America filed foreclosure papers on the home of a couple, who didn’t owe a dime on their home.
The couple said they paid cash for the house.
The case went to court and the homeowners were able to prove they didn’t owe Bank of America anything on the house. In fact, it was proven that the couple never even had a mortgage bill to pay.
A Collier County Judge agreed and after the hearing, Bank of America was ordered, by the court to pay the legal fees of the homeowners’, Maurenn Nyergers and her husband.
The Judge said the bank wrongfully tried to foreclose on the Nyergers’ house.
So, how did it end with bank being foreclosed on? After more than 5 months of the judge’s ruling, the bank still hadn’t paid the legal fees, and the homeowner’s attorney did exactly what the bank tried to do to the homeowners. He seized the bank’s assets.
“They’ve ignored our calls, ignored our letters, legally this is the next step to get my clients compensated, ” attorney Todd Allen told CBS.
Sheriff’s deputies, movers, and the Nyergers’ attorney went to the bank and foreclosed on it. The attorney gave instructions to to remove desks, computers, copiers, filing cabinets and any cash in the teller’s drawers.
After about an hour of being locked out of the bank, the bank manager handed the attorney a check for the legal fees.
“As a foreclosure defense attorney this is sweet justice,” said Allen.
Some People Need to be Reminded
Word.
Go to Mordor!
But They Can’t, Wonka! They Simply Can’t!
Apple is Doomed!
Doomed, I tell you! DOOMED!
Be Advised
It’s the Hypocrisy, Stupid
And the fact that these people don’t even know what’s in their fucking holy “inerrant Word of God.”
Yup.
Be Careful What You Ask
Sunday Sermon
Worth Repeating
A Reason for the Season
And To All a Good Night
(Click to embiggen.)
Quote of the Day
“I have been courted by various people and government officials to do business in Uganda. I was seriously considering it. However, the dreadful witch hunt against the gay community and lifetime sentences means it would be against my conscience to support this country. I would urge other companies worldwide to follow suit. Uganda must reconsider or find it being ostracised by companies and tourists worldwide. Governments must realise that people should be able to love whoever they want. It is not for any government (or anyone else) to ever make any judgements on people’s sexuality. They should instead celebrate when people build loving relationships that strengthen society, no matter who they are.” ~ Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, in a statement published on the front page of the Virgin companies’ website.
It’s a Valid Point
I so want to get this made into a bumper sticker, but I also don’t want my car vandalized.
Compare and Contrast
