I’m not loving new “Get a Mac” and “Laptop Hunters” commercials that debuted this week. After four homers, Microsoft fouls out with “Lauren and Sue.” Apple simply strikes out with “Elimination,” which is sorry response to Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters series.
Officethemovie: The Confessional
Yesterday, a seemingly official Microsoft Twitter accounted fooled popular blogs and mainstream news sites to write that Microsoft would introduce a new Zune platform in June. But the account wasn’t from Microsoft.
Allegedly, David Z from Haklab set up the account. I e-mailed Haklab today asking:
I love guerrilla marketing, and know how to recognize it, which is why I didn’t get sucked into the vortex like other bloggers and journalists. But it’s confession time. Who are you really, and what are your objectives? Not that I’m sure I will believe you. But try me. I want to blog on the problem of Twitter and shoddy journalism. You’re the case study.
This afternoon, I got a response. David claims to have exploited a Microsoft mistake—that the Twitter feed from Microsoft’s Office 2010: The Movie Website went to an unclaimed account. So he registered the Twitter account, @officethemovie. My suspicion: There was a typo on the page, and the account should have read: @office2010movie, as it does now.
The Problem With Real-Time Journalism
Yesterday’s “@officethemovie” pwning is about the worst example yet of new news media gone wrong. In the quest for clicks—and the feeble ad rates they pay—bloggers and old-time journalists rushed to write about a new Zune platform coming in June. Apple is rumored to be unveiling the new iPhone the same month. Additionally, the E3 gaming expo starts June 2. I guess it all was just too tantalizing for people to check their facts. The source wasn’t Microsoft. But most blogs and news sites reported that it was.
Mac Price Cuts Are Inevitable, Says Analyst
If the economy doesn’t force Apple to lower Mac prices, ultra-low voltage processors will. So claims Stephen Baker, NPD’s vice president of industry analysis. Stephen foresees a dramatic sea change coming in late 2009, as ultra-low voltage processors move more into the mainstream laptop market.
I was Wrong About Laptop Hunter Sheila
She is an artist, and, on second consideration, Sheila certainly does look like a filmmaker.
Sheila Dvorak is star of Microsoft’s newest “Laptop Hunters” commercial, which is currently airing during U.S. prime time. I saw the ad last night, I believe during Fox’s “Fringe,” which I had previously recorded.
‘I’m a PC,’ Says My Daughter
Today is moving day for my teenage daughter. She will be switching from a Mac to a PC running Windows 7 Release Candidate. My PC buying experience for her could have been a Microsoft “Laptop Hunters” commercial.
My daughter, who online goes by “Morripopp,” had been using the higher-end aluminum MacBook. I knew she would be giving it up. On Wednesday, April 29, I told Apple that Thursday would be my last day as Microsoft Watch editor; I was joining the ranks of unemployed journalists. On Friday, I got the expected but dreaded e-mail: Apple wanted the MacBook loaner back by May 6.
Did Laptop Hunter Sheila Find Treasure?
Microsoft’s newest “Laptop Hunters” commercial, embedded below, is the most ambitious yet and perhaps most misleading. The buyer’s budget is bigger and her laptop criteria slaps Apple where it hurts: Among core constituency of artists, designers and filmmakers.
Thank You and Goodbye
The recession has caused many casualties. Good companies are gone, and talented people are jobless. I’ve written about many of these casualties. There is just one more story to tell.
Today is my last day as an eWEEK editor. In a few hours I will join the swelling ranks of journalists smitten by the economic crisis and by changes the Internet is forcing on my profession.
There’s something fitting about the timing. My ending comes on a day of new beginning for Microsoft. Windows 7 promises to be a big release for Microsoft. Today’s Windows 7 Release Candidate is start of something really new.
The China Question
Is the American era over? I begin to wonder if the answer is yes. History is the reason. In 1914, the British Empire spanned the globe, and London was the financial capitol (eh, capital would work, too) of the world. Four years later, England’s fortunes had changed. The country had shifted much of its manufacturing production to the war and spent quite a bit of its capital supporting European allies. Meanwhile, the United States picked up manufacturing slack and monetary might. Could America’s fortunes change so quickly?
Subway Art Gallery
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NU5K3k8Xo] What better disruptive improvisation than an art gallery on a subway platform?
'Simply Bigoted'
Children like to think they are less bigoted than their parents, for example. In fact, they are simply bigoted about different things: fatties, smokers and people who drive Humvees, rather than blacks or homosexuals. Lexington
'If Hints Were Sledgehammers'
It’s not a great depression, neither is it a great recession we’re going through now. At the Brite conference this week, Umair Haque called it a great ‘compression,’ as an economy built on perceived value […]