Microsoft airbrushes anti-Apple ad

Soviet photo is not airbrushed, it had been restaged

Yeah, so Microsoft changed their ad. But did anybody bother to look at the photo that US News has in their article? It isn't airbrushed, it's two different photographs! If Trotsky had been removed via darkroom technique, then everything else in the photograph would have been the same. No, the scene had been restaged. Lenin is different, the banners in the background is different, and the crowd is different. Sure, it's the same camera angle. But that's all that is the same.

Too bad US News didn't use a photographed that had actually been altered.

I prefer ...

I prefer this ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbJSuduTrPs

You PC users, you all suck.

s'true.

Hmmm

The only thing Apple could learn is to get some similarly hot marmalade into their ads.

Why not?

What I don't understand about this marketing campaign is... if Microsoft is footing the bill, why not get the more expensive computer? It's not your money!

Early Learning Centre called

They want their Fisher Price operating system back (OS X)

Allow me to retort....

* A light, solid case that doesn't bend and cause damage to your components, nor crack after being 'lived with' for some time.

***** My friend has a Mac Book pro and the case has already cracked at the front and the DVD was faulty out of the box

* Well designed and implemented cooling, so your fan doesn't come on so often, at such a high speed, or sound so annoying.

***** laughable. He cannot rest his mac book pro on his lap when using it because it gets so hot. having a battery that is completely internal and dispersing all heat through it's aluminium shell means that it's heating solution is anywhere but efficient.

* A keyboard that's a joy to use. Unless you're on a MacBook, 'business' HP or ThinkPad, you're probably getting a pretty nasty keyboard, with spongy keys, lots of flex, and poor reliability.

****** the mac book laptop keys are shocking bad and the mac's keyboard doesn't have any tactile feedback at all. Not to mention that you can buy one of many wonderfully designed keyboards to replace it. The difference is the replacement keyboard for the mac probably costs as much as the specialised das keyboard for the PC.

* An incredible touchpad. Touchpads are rubbish in general. I have to use an external mouse to be at all productive - except on ThinkPads (trackpoint) or MacBooks.

**** so you pay extra for a mouse pad where you have to learn a whole bunch of gestures that don't always respond correctly when you could just as so easily right click? you're getting desperate now.

* A very nice LED backlit display. Beats most laptop displays I've seen.

***** you have this one. Colours and brightness of the mac book pro are amazing

* Very good battery life.

**** already mentioned in the previous comment

* Magsafe power connector. Yes there are stories of people breaking these, but they seem to be idiots who yank the thing around by its cord. IME it's brilliant.

***** I don't understand the big bag about this thing? Were people always prone walking off without unplugging their laptops first or were Mac Book owners too busy enjoying the smell of their own farts that they used to intentionally leaving their power leads as trip hazards for everyone else, thus necessitating the need for this gimmick?

* Last but definitely not least: A copy of, and a guarantee of compatibility with, OS X. If you don't like it or need it, fair enough, but lots of people swear by it.

**** As much as I dislike them, M$ have done an amazing job making windows work with even 50% of the almost infinite combination of hardware that you can buy in a PC. Plus, and I can't help but take issue with this, I keep hearing mac tards going on about how great it is they bundle so much software with their OS. Isn't this what microsoft got done for on their anti-competitive suit?

Of course, how much you care about your OS depends on what you do with it, but some things are likely common to Windows and OS X users. Here are a few of the obvious differences, off the top of my head:

* When you resume Windows by opening the laptop lid, it takes ages for it to be usable again. This is getting better, but it's still not like in OS X where the thing is ready instantly.

* When you resume WIndows, it takes ages for the thing to be connected to a wireless network again. In OS X, it's ready to use by the time you try to use it.

**** qualitative not quantitative evidence, not even anecdotal.

* You don't need 'malware' protection. This may change in the future, but for now, it's nice to not have to bother with such crap.

***** security through obscurity. any malware that is for a mac is infinitely more damaging because it gains root acess.

* Built in search works, is incredibly fast, and you don't notice it slowing your machine down, unlike Windows Search.

***** the last time I made a search on my vista ultimate machine, it "just worked" TM

Not against you, just thought I'd add that in case some fan bois read on and needed correcting.

OSX secure? Are you on drugs?

"that is stable, secure, and works much better"

"You don't need 'malware' protection"

OMG, I see the Apple fanbois are STILL claiming OSX is more secure....

Have you lot been living under a rock for the past year?

My MBP is sitting on my desk right next to the monitor for my PC. I like it a lot, but Apple needs to go a long way before I'll regard it as secure as my fully locked-down PC.

Windows fanboys are a pathetic lot of whining douchebags

People like to complain about Jobs' "reality distortion field", yet these bozos with their Bill Gates fetish love nothing more than poorly built plastic pieces of crap prone to viruses, loaded with useless bloatware, and hideous to boot, just so they can console themselves that they haven't bought an Apple. Meanwhile, those of us who had the wisdom and foresight to abandon Microsoft and their shitty products will continue to use our superior products, and enjoy a much less painful computing experience.

Coherence

"It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I've ever taken in business"

Perhaps MS would have more PR success if they employed people who could articulate a meaningful sentence. If these are the guys with communication skill, you have to wonder about the rest...

BFD

The message is still the same, people understand spending less, and the whole Apple bitching thing just gave Microsoft greater attention. And greater attention in these cases always translate to greater market share. After all, MS IS in it to make a profit.

Let the fanboys rant. All their squaking just serves Microsoft's interests.

@geejayoh

"My friend has a Mac Book pro and the case has already cracked at the front and the DVD was faulty out of the box"

- That's *extremely* rare. I bet someone dropped the machine from a height before packing it. Unibodies are incredibly strong compared to typical PC laptops.

"the mac book laptop keys are shocking bad and the mac's keyboard doesn't have any tactile feedback at all"

- Absolute bollocks. I've never found any laptop keyboard as good as the Apple ones.

"so you pay extra for a mouse pad where you have to learn a whole bunch of gestures that don't always respond correctly when you could just as so easily right click"

- gestures? You call tapping with two fingers (which is a right click FYI) a "gesture that doesn't always respond correctly"? Total rubbish!

Funny how someone "who has a mate who owns a macbook" thinks he knows so much about what it's like to own one.

Whoppers!

@ Charles King - Ah yes the old 'I'll pretend I have one to try to give more weight to my argument' pile of paid Micro$oft horse shit.

FACT - OS X is more secure than Windows - no fucking argument.

Viruses written for Windows - well over 100,000, viruses written for OS X - just over 200. The bullshit that you Micro$oft promoters peddle is that if Apples market share was as bigger then there would be just as many viruses. Apple market share around 15% and 15% of 100,000 = 15,000 viruses. What a bunch of consistently misinforming, useless, parasitic twats you are!

@AC 19:23 - FACT - I'd rather have a MacBook than a fucking ACER because ACER's are shit, Windows Vista is shit and everyone knows it. Acer also have one of the poorest customer care records of any IT equipment producer in the whole world. Honesty is the best policy or we'll just make you look like first class wankers every time.

Correction on comment

Think you did not read the spec of the machines correctly!!!!!!!

The Apple Macbook pro ships with spec:

15" LED Backlight screen 1440 by 900 Max Resolution

Core 2 Duo 2.53Ghz with 1066Mhz FSB

4 GB RAM DDR 3 1066 Mhz RAM Max RAM in unit 8GB support,

250 GB HD

nVidia Geforce 9400M GPU w/256MB shared memory.

In a Glass and Aluminum enclosure

only 1 inch thick

7 Hours Battery but does 8 Hours easily with support for 1000 charging cycles until battery needs replacing

weighing 5.5lb

========================================================

The Acer spec is:

16" screen Non LED Maximum Resolution: 1366 x 768

Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz with FSB 800MHZ

4 GB RAM DDR 2 533 Mhz Max RAM in unit 4GB support

250 GB HD & nVidia GeForce 9600M GS GPU w/ 512MB dedicated video memory.

In a plastic enclose 2 inches thick

weighing 7.5lb

4 Hours Battery with support for 300 charging cycles until battery needs replacing

Anonymous Coward Comments

Oh by the way although Apple and PC's share the same components they are not exactly the same!!!

As when components are manufactured they are Graded according to Spec and Quality, the top spec components are the ones within spec and of a higher quality meaning more expensive companies like Apple, Sony, Fujitsu, Asus, Toshiba's etc will buy these

The other lower grade components which are out of spec and do not pass the strict quality control but are working are bought buy Acer, dell, etc for their cheaper lover price units.

re Whoppers!

"FACT" = Opinion

apple computers are made by foxconn and other Chinese manufacturers. the exact same factories who make asus, acer, hp, and almost every other PC laptop. they use all the same parts except the code in the DRM chip allows 1999 operating system "OSX" to run.

"Fact" apple uses nvidia chipsets because they are cheap.

"fact" if you are stupid enough to get viruses on windows. get a mac. its like a bike with training wheels, but you cant take them off.

Tell you what though

She is pretty hot

Here we go again...

You lot keep falling for the old Mac vs. PC vs. Linux trap. The slighest inkling and you are off. "My computer's better than yours!" Fer christake, it's a tool. It's what you do with it that counts! If you want to pay the price of a Parker pen instead of a cheap Bic, that's fine. Most of the best books in the English language were written without a computer. GROW UP!

Booooring

It's so boring to hear Apple fanbois and Windows Sheeple arguing yet again. Ya gotta go with what you are happy using day in and day out, it's virtually a religious question (and therefore not subject to things like intelligent debate or facts!)

I hate Windows/Microsoft because so far the OS is retarded/user-hostile. Windows 7 is the only Windows version I am truly thinking of purchasing, as it's the only Windoze version that actually seems to work without getting in your way.

I hate Apple because they sometimes treat people like children: my iphone is locked-down, and their Itunes app store policies are all over the place.

Having said that, I'm willing to pay a little extra to get a computer that won't f*ck with me at home when all I want to do is play/work on it (I do tech support at work, I don't f*cking want to do tech support after work too!)

That's the reason why despite the Apple Fanbois I like their OS and phone (once on Firmware 3.x!!): it's intuitive... for example to unlock the screen I don't have to stick two fingers up my ass and stand on my head as I had to do on my Motorola phone (piece of shit it was!)

I just wished Apple was big enough that they could charge less on their hardware: i.e., the MacBook Air, so much £££ for so little computer, just taking the piss!

Coffee break...

"We always go up to town for our coffee beans. We get them from a specialist shop in Piccadilly. We enjoy good coffee and serve only the best to our guests."

"You must be mad. I can get Nescafe at Sainsbury's for a quarter of the price. It's the top selling brand you know. All those people can't be wrong."

"Meh! I can get perfectly good coffee at SupaSava's - their own brand is only a quarter of the price of Nescafe. If I got anything better, the kids and their friends would just drink it."

"I grow my own dandelion coffee down the allotment for next to nothing. Admittedly, it wouldn't be to everybody's taste but at least I can recycle it on the compost heap for next year."

@ DeFex

"fact" if you are stupid enough to get viruses on windows. get a mac. its like a bike with training wheels, but you cant take them off.

Really, actually the analogy is more like:

I have an Apple car with doors to stop my children falling out because it's a fucking safety requirement that has been worked out due to the known dangers of traveling at high speed.

You can choose not to have the doors on your Micro$oft car. However because the way your car is constructed you really need that security. Hang on you now have to pay extra for the doors because it's not been added as standard but I'm afraid you'll have to get someone else to provide you with those doors because Micro$oft don't actually make them.

Makes perfect sense to me..... they give you the illusion of choice where no choice is required and then allow someone to make even more money out of you.

Malware? What malware?

Hang on....will people PLEASE stop talking about frkcing malware on windows.

I have been running windows VISTA on two machines for 3 years now (yes, one of the machines was using a beta build before), and in conjunction with Kaspersky Internet Security (which was very kindly paid for by my bank, Barclays, but which is still less than half the price of Norton or McAffee)

I have not seen, been affected by, or downloaded ANY malware in this time. Not. One. Single. Piece.

The only people I know who HAVE been affected by malware are those that either a) spend a lot of time on websites most people would consider 'unsuitable', b) who do not take any interest in protecting themselves online, or c) who use either norton, mcaffee, or a 'free' antivirus (has anybody actually considered that there might be a reason why it's worth nothing?)

Yes, the battery life on macbooks is very appealing to me, and if i could afford one i would consider it, but I still just can't justify the cost

I'm EXTREMELY happy with my BLU-RAY equipped Acer Aspire 6920G and will continue to be. I would much rather spend £100 on a new battery after 18 months than spend £700 extra (it was at the time, can't argue with that) on a laptop that won't need a replacement battery.

Oh, and a new power supply for my acer is £50....bet you won't find that price on ANYTHING in an apple store...

And I'm getting just a little bit fed up with "MAC OS Rules" - I've used it, and yes, it's good, but I just plain don't like it - I like the way Windows does things, and I can't stand some of the ways OS X does things - I'm allowed to think that aren't I? After all, I've never had any problems with windows that I haven't been able to fix very easily, so the number of things convincing me to use OS X is very small

Even if I did have a mac, I'd still put windows on it. But I just don't want a mac. Sorry.

oh, and how long did it take apple to recognise that the majority of cameras use sd cards?

The one thing I will praise apple for is the INTERFACE (and ONLY the interface) of the iphone, as well as FINALLY putting A2DP stereo bluetooth into an ipod - A2DP is a fantastic standard, and really deserves a hell of a lot more support than it gets.

Linux Laptops are even cheaper

And why buy a laptop made out of aluminium with one of the better Core2Duo CPUs and fast DDR3 RAM when you can have a flimsy plastic one wiht a single core Celeron with DDR2 RAM for less than 300 Euro?

Two years ago my white Macbook was some 200 Euro cheaper than a comparable Sony or ASUS with 13.3" screen and the C2D with full cache but some 500 Euro more expensive than a 15.4" Acer with lesser CPU.

At the moment a Macbook Pro 13.3" is slightly more expensive than a comparable Dell XPS 13.3".

MacBook trackpad and other stories

This is the best trackpad I've ever used. Two-finger tap to right-click, two-finger movement to scroll. I love it.

The feature isn't to everybody's taste and I still prefer a mouse but if I need to use a trackpad, this is how I like it.

MHO. YMMV.

As for the ad:

I think it's silly of Microsoft to be comparing themselves to Apple. When you're number 2, you try to show how much better your product is than number 1. That's natural and quite right. But when you're number 1 you shouldn't be comparing yourself to number 2. Why should you? You're already the top dog! Making direct comparisons does two things: one, it calls attention to your competitor. Two, it gets some people wondering what you're so afraid of?

As for all the hate:

Who cares? Each of us has his own priorities and will buy what he (or she) needs or wants based on those priorities. Period. Why do people hate other people based on the fact that they made different choices? Are they afraid that invalidates their own choices? What are you afraid of? If somebody sneers at your choice just laugh at their ignorance and say it fills your needs. If you feel tempted to sneer at their choice just remember they didn't have the same needs to fill.

There are things I don't like about my MacBook, but overall I like it. Best laptop I've ever owned. Two-and-a-half years old and going strong. Both magsafe adapters still in good condition. (I bought a spare once when I was traveling. Yes, I only bought it because I left the other one home, but I'm glad I have it, very handy.)

This post

Typed on a new Dell Latitude E6400.

Solid metal case. 1400X900 led screen, 4 gb RAM, core duo 2.66.

Cost a lot less than a Mac Book, and did not have the crap MAC OSX.

Cost less than any available MAc Laptop.

Get that up ya pathetic fanbois.

This is fun!

Use both an NUX too

OS X - Finder WTF was apple thinking? Nuff Said

XP - Nothing overly wrong with it. Kinda slow compared to OS X and Network performance is abysmal.

Vista - Explorer now is almost as bad as Finder. MS what the Fuck were you thinking? Performance BAD! Bloat and a completely broken security model that someone should be shot for. Now now now, just wait... let me explain! First off, if your Vista machine is part of a domain then all is good as it was in previous versions. Now for the majority of Vista systems not on a domain you have the UAC which bugs the crap out of you. One of the first things people do is figure out how to get rid of those annoying things and thus disable it. Guess what folks? If your account was the first one on the system you now run as administrator great fucking security eh?

Security from both companies has been less than stellar. Someone mentioned security by obscurity and he is correct. Apple is becoming a bigger target and MS will always because of it's market share and the most obvious bad design. Now now now don't jump up and down little MS people, bad design from a security perspective or lack there of. MS, gets creds because it tries to appease with backwards compatibility and has unfortunately for them paid the price (Security). Apple on the other hand, doesn't have big business clients to contend with. It would be interesting to see what their position would be on backwards compatibility would be. STOP Mac morons! Stop right now! Big businesses have spend big bucks on their custom applications and upgrades cost even bigger bucks! Again, i'm not talking about some pissant universal binary you paid $200 for. Try $20,000,000 FFS! Enjoy this too while you are at it; JAVA 1 year wait for security fix from Apple. Why don't they let SUN manage it? Can someone explain that to me? SUN? I mean Oracle LOL

My point? Both have their pros and cons. Both have a place and both companies are guilty of the same thing.......GREED!

Truth be told i have a MBP and for the most part love it when it doesn't lock up like a Windows XP laptop i use at work. As for the HW, I will never buy an HP/DELL/ACER/ETC again. Regardless of the OS the design of the MBP is far better than anything the other WinTel world creates in general. That's just my opinion and mine alone, don't care what one side or the other says. You each can find salient points to your argument.

Now if you want to really start a religious war lets argue Cisco verses Procurve or how about Cisco verses Juniper? How about Checkpoint verses Juniper verses Cisco? Cue the Zealots.

LOL

Same old worthless shite

El Reg, can we have this page laminated and available as a PDF to be attached with all Apple/Microsoft articles. It is totally [un]believable the drivel that comes forth at every single article. Its as if the 'tards on both camps wait with trouser-wetting glee to offer us their embedded prejudices. As if anyone really gives a flying fuck what they think.

"Microsoft airbrushes anti-Apple ad" degenerated into "My cock is bigger than yours" within only a few posts, completely missing/ignoring the salient point of the article in the first place.

Fsckwits. Fail, the lot of you.

fun!

Consumer choice. I have the freedom to choose whatever I want to use as a computer (in my case a self-built PC running Vista), and you have the choice to use whatever else you see fit to get the job done. Simples. Computers are personal, and if you've managed to find the setup that works best for YOU then well done. If however you think that there's a single "correct" option, which is better than the rest and makes you better than everyone else for having chosen it, then you sir are a twat.

@My New Handle

New flippin keyboard and screen please, don't mind what brand you buy just need new ones ;)

Value and Cost

I think the Microsoft spokesdroid is confusing value and cost. Macs cost more, but (in my experience, YMMV) tend to offer greater value over their lifetime (in terms of build, support, need to upgrade/repair components etc.).

If you're only after a cheap PC though, then a Mac isn't for you. After all, the world would be a pretty boring place if everyone drove Audis, Beemers and Mercs. There's room for Kias, Vauxhalls, and Chevrolets too. Alright, maybe not Chevys, but you get the idea,

Unbelievable

Oh for the love of God!

I wouldn't want to work in your office. "The Xerox X250 GTi is clearly a better photocopier than that shitty Ricoh..."

Nobody. Fucking. Cares. What. You. Or. I. Think.

Get. The. Fuck. Over. It.

So, the MS ad was accurate when made,

Apple responded and tried to spin it as MS behind the times. MS wins this one on points, even if it was a bad strategy for the near-monopoly shareholder.

But what they hey, anything to chum the waters for the inevitable fanboise comment wars.

Grenade, because there's nothing quite like tossing one into the crowd the way this article does.