Filed under: Hardware, Humor, OS
Microsoft: The WOW starts... with a MacBook?
Microsoft's "The WOW Starts Now!" Vista promotion campaign has taken just about every computer and technology venue by storm. Everyone from the likes of Best Buy to Bob's Computers has at least some kind of hanging banner, floor signage or postcard handouts featuring the mind-numbing array of Vista flavors, but we're curious as to who actually designed all this promo material. Filippo Corti at the Mac Blog (crummy Google translation to English here) snapped this pic which features what must be a MacBook alongside four of the major versions of Vista. Considering that Vista's EULA forbids virtualizing any versions besides Business and Ultimate, this either amounts to a grossly mis-leading advertisement or a
[Update: Right on cue, some debate as to whether this is actually a MacBook or even a piece of Apple hardware at all has ensued. Some eagle-eyed readers have pointed out that the side ports actually say iBook, and we tend to agree. Still, this looks like a piece of iconic Apple hardware, and Microsoft could have made a more distinctive choice.]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Darrell said 11:38AM on 3-05-2007
It's not a MacBook. It seems too thick, and the ports don't match. iBook maybe...?
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nick.bonanno said 11:38AM on 3-05-2007
Well just to point out thats a iBook. It only has a headphone jack and unlike the macbook that has a headphone jack and microphone input.
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papichulo said 11:48AM on 3-05-2007
Wow! It crashed on install!
Wow! Aero sucks!
Wow! My hardware was ruined by six different viruses BEFORE i even started the machine!
Wow! I shoulda' bought a Mac!
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George said 12:06PM on 3-05-2007
Just to point out, that's not an iBook either. It is not a MacBook because the ports obviously don't match, and it's not an iBook either because one, the ports still don't match, two, there's no grill, and three the iBook is actually two-toned and there's no light grey band in this photograph.
You can see for yourself that this isn't an iBook by looking at a photograph on Apple's website here: http://www.apple.com/r/store/gallery/ibookg4/side.html
That photo is actually 1400x900 px if you care to download the photo, open it alone in a new tab, or drag it to your desktop and then to Preview.
So while it's cute to think that Microsoft uses Apple computers in their advertisements, that is not an Apple computer in this photo.
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Casey said 12:04PM on 3-05-2007
It looks like an ibook (no mic jack, thick), but where's the side vent? It also looks like it's all the same shade of white, instead of darker on top and around the ports, like my ibook is.
PS: One MUNI station in SF always has all it's ads bought by one company. It was all ipod ads the last time I was there, but now it's all Vista ads. I saw a vista ad there that said "Don't search. Find.", which sounds an awful lot like the Apple website's "Stop looking. Start Finding". There were two ads across from each other that both featured a picture of the same pocketwatch. One said something that actually had to do with time, and the other said "Age appropriate Wow". What do parental controls have to do with a pocketwatch? Why couldn't they use a different picture?
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Donald said 12:38PM on 3-05-2007
lol, that is a microcenter store, I noticed this the other day when i was in the one here in chicago. I used to work there and they never seem to really check those things before the mass produce them, or at least the never showed them to any of us in the Mac department so we could tell them to fix it.
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Jon said 12:13PM on 3-05-2007
Once again, Microsoft's marketing is completely off. I don't see anything that would "wow" the average user, apart from gimmicks.
My grandfather is the type of person easily taken in by advertising. He purchased Vista immediately and was on the phone to technical support within an hour.
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pragmatic67 said 3:05PM on 3-05-2007
This IS G4 iBook but with the side grill/vents photoshopped out.
IMHO.
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Brad said 12:15PM on 3-05-2007
It is an iBook. So what if you can't see the grille in a low-quality photo. You can see it when you actually look at the bannner. The ports match up correctly and take a quick glance at the keys...iBook.
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Buck Jones III said 12:20PM on 3-05-2007
It looks like a Sony viao white laptop. There is some white laptops other than Apple...
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Jason said 12:21PM on 3-05-2007
It's nice to point out that it's not a macbook or even an ibook in the pic, how many average consumers do you think can make that distinction? Apple has worked hard to create a brand identity with their white computers.
That said, it's either a stupid move on Microsoft's part to sanction such an ad by assuming people wouldn't automatically think of Apple or it's a clever way to further confuse unaware consumers who might otherwise look at a real macbook and the real OSX. ;)
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Donald said 12:49PM on 3-05-2007
also here is the actual image from the source, as you can see in this unedited image there is a color difference on the ports.
http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/classes/FrameSet.aspx?&UQR=qpkrps&pk=4&source=front&lightboxView=1&txtSearch=099ASPea3164452&selImageType=7&chkLicensed=on&chkRoyaltyFree=on&chkNLM=on
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Stephen said 12:53PM on 3-05-2007
That looks like my old 12" powerbook, but like the color was just changed to white.
the ports to me look like power, modem, firewire, 2x USB, and headphone. The where the vents are the color looks a little different.
I'm not familer with the ibooks during that period. But it sure looks like mine.
And to those saying its a sony, it also looks like a single trackpad button. Would a PC do that?
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Mike said 12:37PM on 3-05-2007
I don't really know (or to be honest care) what computer it is that's shown. Just wanted to note that the EULA doesn't prohibit anyone running any version of Vista on an Intel Mac in Boot Camp.
To this end, the advert isn't misleading at all.
There's many things Microsoft deserve criticism for. This isn't one of them.
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Brian said 12:41PM on 3-05-2007
It's not very surprising, I've seen Best Buy ads advertising Windows on Mac machines a few times in the past. Even if that's not an iBook/MacBook, it wasn't a great idea to use a stark white mobile computer in the ad since people are totally going to associate it with Mac.
Think different = Think subversive? Maybe so.
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Jared Harley said 12:49PM on 3-05-2007
The full-sized picture of the ad - I can see a darker area where the fan grille should be.
http://www.filippocorti.com/file/blog/2007/febbraio/vistamaciy8.jpg
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Jeffrey Bergier said 12:50PM on 3-05-2007
On a side note. Running Vista on a Mac is not virtualization. Virtualization is running Vista inside of OSX or inside Vista or Inside another OS. Boot Camp is not virtualization. Also, because the Macbook and the MacMini both have integrated graphics there is no point in buying a version of windows higher than home basic because they will not run Aero. Vista is already a skin over XP, but without Aero it is almost no upgrade at all. I will say it over and over again. The best thing about Vista is you can turn EVERYTHING off.
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George said 1:07PM on 3-05-2007
Donald, your link points only to an error and I can't parse anything out of the url that actually leads to an image on Getty.
There might be a color difference on the ports, but look at an iBook--the color difference signficantly more substantial than the ports. (http://www.apple.com/r/store/gallery/ibookg4/side.html)
As for Brad, the grille matters because it's prominent and should be evident even in a low-quality photograph. You claim you can see the keys with high enough resolution, at an acute angle in a lo-res photograph, to see they're Apple specific, but it's still too lo-res to see the grille. Right...
At the end of the day, I'm not saying this can not be an iBook, but I am saying that it doesn't look like one and that if it is one then there has been significant post-processing.
For example, it could be an Acer TravelMate 3020. Maybe it's a Vaio C Series. Maybe it's an Averatec.
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George said 1:33PM on 3-05-2007
And now, after all that kvetching, I'm inclined to agree it is in fact an iBook (which funnily can't even run Vista no way, no how--could even be sarcasm on the designers part). Looking at the full res image (http://www.filippocorti.com/file/blog/2007/febbraio/vistamaciy8.jpg) and fiddling with levels, it is apparent that the grills were actually blurred out and then lightened, but not erased nor patched so they're still evident. As for the inappropriate coloring on the laptop, that's probably not too difficult to fix for a Photoshop guru (on the other hand it shouldn't be too difficult for a photoshop guru to patch out the grills either, without leaving a trace).
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flaco said 1:35PM on 3-05-2007
This, in fact, is an ibook.. take a look at this link ://www.filippocorti.com/file/blog/2007/febbraio/vistamaciy8.jpg that jared harley provided, enlarge the image and you will be able to see (rougly) the side vent, and the ports match... And AFAIK, there is no way to run vista in an ibook without emulating it via some software like vpc... In the last 4 years, apple portables have become the icon of notebooks (they are everywhere, movies, posters, etc)
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