Is Microsoft concluding its Laptop Hunters campaign? (Updated)
Microsoft hasn’t posted a Laptop Hunters ad in weeks, unless you count the most recently posted one-minute “Behind the Scenes” flick. In the video, we learn that documentary film maker Henry-Alex Rubin started filming the campaign in Spring 2009. Apparently, Microsoft’s first direct advertising counterattack against Apple was “all in the name of market research.” Our friendly Laptop Hunters narrator takes us through a ton of clips we’ve already seen, and a few that didn’t make the cut. One of the quotes summarizes the whole campaign: “Why are they so much more expensive, just because they’re a Mac?” We’ve embedded the YouTube video below, though you can check out the higher-quality Silverlight version over at Microsoft.com.
Microsoft helps Best Buy employees troll Mac users, too
After our coverage from yesterday regarding Microsoft training material for Best Buy employees that not only makes Linux look bad, but is also full of inaccuracies, one of our faithful readers wrote in and said he could show us that Redmond was doing the same thing for Apple. “My account says I work at Best Buy, but the site is available for any retail employee whose company sells Microsoft products,” he told us. The format is the same: Redmond isn’t just saying that Windows has more software or games available than Mac does, but the software giant is actually going as far as teaching employees that there are certain statements about Macs that need to be labeled as myths.
There was an amusing and ironic twist, though. He was using a Mac, and the Microsoft-created website he was accessing wasn’t playing so nice with Firefox. Nevertheless, despite a lot of random whitespace, the message is quite clear: a Windows 7 PC beats a Mac just as badly as a Windows 7 netbook beats a Linux netbook. Again, we have 11 screenshots to show you, and again you have to wonder how Microsoft can get away with these types of “training materials.”
Is Microsoft concluding its Laptop Hunters campaign?
Microsoft hasn’t posted a Laptop Hunters ad in weeks, unless you count the most recently posted one-minute “Behind the Scenes” flick. In the video, we learn that documentary film maker Henry-Alex Rubin started filming the campaign in Spring 2009. Apparently, Microsoft’s first direct advertising counterattack against Apple was “all in the name of market research.” Our friendly Laptop Hunters narrator takes us through a ton of clips we’ve already seen, and a few that didn’t make the cut. One of the quotes summarizes the whole campaign: “Why are they so much more expensive, just because they’re a Mac?” We’ve embedded the YouTube video below, though you can check out the higher-quality Silverlight version over at Microsoft.com.
Microsoft helps Best Buy employees troll Mac users, too
After our coverage from yesterday regarding Microsoft training material for Best Buy employees that not only makes Linux look bad, but is also full of inaccuracies, one of our faithful readers wrote in and said he could show us that Redmond was doing the same thing for Apple. “My account says I work at Best Buy, but the site is available for any retail employee whose company sells Microsoft products,” he told us. The format is the same: Redmond isn’t just saying that Windows has more software or games available than Mac does, but the software giant is actually going as far as teaching employees that there are certain statements about Macs that need to be labeled as myths.
There was an amusing and ironic twist, though. He was using a Mac, and the Microsoft-created website he was accessing wasn’t playing so nice with Firefox. Nevertheless, despite a lot of random whitespace, the message is quite clear: a Windows 7 PC beats a Mac just as badly as a Windows 7 netbook beats a Linux netbook. Again, we have 11 screenshots to show you, and again you have to wonder how Microsoft can get away with these types of “training materials.”
Is Microsoft concluding its Laptop Hunters campaign?
Microsoft hasn’t posted a Laptop Hunters ad in weeks, unless you count the most recently posted one-minute “Behind the Scenes” flick. In the video, we learn that documentary film maker Henry-Alex Rubin started filming the campaign in Spring 2009. Apparently, Microsoft’s first direct advertising counterattack against Apple was “all in the name of market research.” Our friendly Laptop Hunters narrator takes us through a ton of clips we’ve already seen, and a few that didn’t make the cut. One of the quotes summarizes the whole campaign: “Why are they so much more expensive, just because they’re a Mac?” We’ve embedded the YouTube video below, though you can check out the higher-quality Silverlight version over at Microsoft.com.
Is Microsoft concluding its Laptop Hunters campaign?
Microsoft hasn’t posted a Laptop Hunters ad in weeks, unless you count the most recently posted one-minute “Behind the Scenes” flick. In the video, we learn that documentary film maker Henry-Alex Rubin started filming the campaign in Spring 2009. Apparently, Microsoft’s first direct advertising counterattack against Apple was “all in the name of market research.” Our friendly Laptop Hunters narrator takes us through a ton of clips we’ve already seen, and a few that didn’t make the cut. One of the quotes summarizes the whole campaign: “Why are they so much more expensive, just because they’re a Mac?” We’ve embedded the YouTube video below, though you can check out the higher-quality Silverlight version over at Microsoft.com.
Mac Users Left Out of the Microsoft Office 2010 Launch Party
Sometimes I feel like Microsoft keeps the Mac BU around just so it can mock and ridicule it. The unit never seems to get to join in the fun when it comes time to release a new iteration of Office. Not, at least, until well after its PC counterparts. The official line is that the development cycle for both products is always around two to three years, so the schedule dictates when new releases become available — which explains why we won’t be seeing Office 2010 until 2011. Regardless of cycles, Office for Mac is badly in need of an upgrade — right now.
I have Office 2008, but I can count the number of times I use it in one month on one finger. Whenever possible, I use Google Docs or Bean (an excellent freeware multiformat text editor for Mac) for any Word doc editing I may need to do, which is almost none now that I’ve left school and the corporate world behind. Even though a lot of people still depend on the format, as the number of Mac users grows, I suspect Office will continue to lose ground, especially if Microsoft continues to offer such seriously unpleasant Mac-specific software.
Sometimes I swear Office 2008 was just a ploy to get me to install Windows on a Boot Camp partition and run Office 2007. I find command and menu placement to be completely unintuitive and just plain awkward on the Mac version. Google Docs in an SSB seems like a natively designed OS X app by comparison.
Of course, a big part of the announcement of Office 2010 was the revelation of a suite of online apps, which theoretically should be accessible from any browser on any platform (unless MS pulls a classic IE-only block, which I don’t think it would for fear of inciting riots). So, Mac users will be able to join in on the fun, right? Not quite. The web portion of Office 2010, from what I gather from Microsoft’s press releases about the software, will complement and work together with the old-fashioned installed media portion. I think it’ll end up looking much more like iWork.com and iWork than Zoho Writer or Google Docs.
Microsoft, if you want to be a software company, be one. Clearly you think it makes business sense to develop for Mac, or the Mac BU wouldn’t exist (unless my conspiracy theories above are correct). If that’s the case, treat it as you would any other software, and build excitement by launching cross-platform products of consistent quality, all at once.
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Week in Apple: Steve Jobs is back, Newton bugs, and lawsuits
July is finally here, proving that the world of Apple can in fact keep turning while Steve Jobs is away. This week’s top Apple news examined the adoption rate of iPhone OS 3.0, a Newton bug, fraudulent iTunes gift cards, the disappearance of .Mac HomeSites, and more. Catch up here on the week that was with our news roundup—between throwing brats on the grill and checking out fireworks, of course.
What’s the uptake on iPhone OS 3.0? How quickly are users of Apple’s mobile devices jumping on the 3.0 bandwagon? Conflicting data points from multiple sources give us anything but a clear answer. If you want to participate in our own poll on the matter, though, let us know whether you have upgraded yet and why (or why not).
Impending Newton Y2K10 apocalypse narrowly averted: A dedicated Newton fan and hacker has developed a patch for Apple’s long-since-discontinued PDAs that will keep them humming along just fine after this New Year’s Eve. The patch isn’t for the faint of heart, but then again, neither is using a 20-year-old PDA.
Click here to read the rest of this article
Week in Apple: Steve Jobs is back, Newton bugs, and lawsuits
July is finally here, proving that the world of Apple can in fact keep turning while Steve Jobs is away. This week’s top Apple news examined the adoption rate of iPhone OS 3.0, a Newton bug, fraudulent iTunes gift cards, the disappearance of .Mac HomeSites, and more. Catch up here on the week that was with our news roundup—between throwing brats on the grill and checking out fireworks, of course.
What’s the uptake on iPhone OS 3.0? How quickly are users of Apple’s mobile devices jumping on the 3.0 bandwagon? Conflicting data points from multiple sources give us anything but a clear answer. If you want to participate in our own poll on the matter, though, let us know whether you have upgraded yet and why (or why not).
Impending Newton Y2K10 apocalypse narrowly averted: A dedicated Newton fan and hacker has developed a patch for Apple’s long-since-discontinued PDAs that will keep them humming along just fine after this New Year’s Eve. The patch isn’t for the faint of heart, but then again, neither is using a 20-year-old PDA.
Click here to read the rest of this article
Game Review: Plants vs. Zombies
For the past two weeks, I’ve been completely engrossed in following Plants vs. Zombies. For those who haven’t heard, this isn’t about the Supreme Court case, but about the latest game from PopCap, makers of the infamous Bejeweled and Zuma games.
Planets? And Zombies? Do those even mix?
You may have seen the cute viral video that has been making its way around the net. Plants vs. Zombies is a combination of a tower-style defense game and its own unique take on an action strategy game. As one can surmise, the plot involves zombies taking over your home in a quest to eat your brains. (Sounds like a great movie plot, doesn’t it?)
Similar to tower games, zombies come toward your house in waves, with each zombie having its own strengths and weaknesses. Some wear road cones or metal cans on their heads. Some pole vault over your defenses. Some even do a little moonwalk, while others drive giant “zombinis.” Your defenses are your trusty collection of plants, ranging from those that shoot peas, to mushrooms that explode when zombies get near.
Gameplay
The graphics and gameplay of Plants vs. Zombies are simple and fun, and really help to give the game a high degree of replay value. Unlike most tower defense games, each plant takes on a personality of its own, adding even more fun to this uniquely clever, little game. With 49 plants and upgrades and 26 different types of zombies, the game quickly moves from a simple defense strategy to more complex levels requiring higher degrees of strategy. As you progress through the game, you unlock more defenses and upgrades, including cute plants such as melon-pults and cob-cannons.
The main game is a series of 50 levels played out across five different areas (your yard during the day, your yard at night, your backyard and pool, your backyard and pool at night with fog, and your roof). Mixed in with this are 10 extra survival levels, 18 extra puzzle games, and 20 extra mini-games, based on other popular games, like slot machines, Bejeweled, bowling, and one even inspired by Portal. I was really impressed by the diversity of all the mini-games and puzzles included, as they really kept me in the spirit of the game while not letting me get bored of fighting wave after wave of zombies.
As you progress through the game, unlocking more plants and collecting coins, you can use your winnings to buy items from your neighbor, Crazy Dave, to assist you in the game, or purchase plants and accessories for an included Zen garden. The Zen garden, much like you would imagine, provides a relaxing, safe haven from the zombies where you can grow plants. Watch them grow and dance before your eyes, and before you know it, you can sell them for a profit or just keep a nice Zen garden full of cute plants.
Final Thoughts
Plants vs. Zombies is available on the Mac and PC platforms and sells for $19.95. You can download a free trial version here. At the time of this release, it is not available for the iPhone, but based on PopCap’s commitment to porting its other games to the iPhone, it is likely just a matter of time. This game is great for casual play or long term, if you wish. Your progress is saved between sessions, making it easy to kick some zombies for five minutes and come back and finish them off later. But good luck putting this game down. It’s pretty addicting.
For even more fun, type “mustache” or “future” during gameplay for a good laugh.
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