Apple's 'I'm a Mac' guy returns to promote Windows on Arm PCs | Hacker News Reader

Apple's 'I'm a Mac' guy returns to promote Windows on Arm PCs

theverge.com

26 pointspjmlp41 comments

Going after macOS for throwing up too many notifications? Talk about living in the most brittle of glass houses. Also, I'm no advertising expert, but when one already has a solid market majority, the wisdom of running an ad campaign that can't stop talking about one's competitor...

I'm not sure I've ever seen a non-microsoft app send a proper system notification on Windows. They've made such a hash of native development it might be too confusing for developers to use. On the other hand, MS themselves do like to find new ways to put MSN tabloid feed notifications in front of me.

My favorite bit of the notifications absurdity is that Windows 11 has recently started interrupting me with notifications to let me know I've been ignoring notifications from an app, and offering to disable notifications for that app. But these "notification suggestions" notifications cannot themselves be disabled, short of disabling the notification system for the whole OS.

So they're close to being able to take a hint, but still manage to maximize the annoyances even when trying to be helpful.

It's like Windows just needs constant care and attention. I find if I haven't booted the system in months, it goes berzerk on me with notifications. Everything crawls to a stop while everything updates at once if I'm lucky; if not, random services just don't want to start until another reboot once the system starts responding. All OS's have psychological problems, and Windows seems to have attachment disorder.

The "Get a Mac" campaign is old enough to vote at this point. The ads poked fun at Windows Vista. Interesting that it still lives rent free in the minds of Apple's competitors.

It isn't rent free anymore. I was a 100% Windows person and when it came time to get new laptop there weren't any Windows PCs that even came close to the Mac for me. Getting used to the window management on MacOS is the only issue I have.

If you haven’t already, download Rectangle for Mac. It makes window management sane.

I’ve used Rectangle (Pro) for years. Found it shortly after moving from Windows to Mac some 10 years ago. Occasionally I’ll be pairing with someone and they’ll be astounded by how quickly I can snap windows around with it. It’s one of the first programs I install on any new Mac.

Magnet app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/magnet/id441258766?mt=12

Will back this up. If you don't mind tossing a coin to the developer. I use magnet and enjoy it. I've also heard good things about Rectangle which is suggested by another commenter. I'd probably try Rectangle, but I already bought Magnet a long time ago.

It's come full circle. To me the old ads were 'PCs are for old boring guys, Macs are for young hip guys.'

Now Justin Long is shown aged and boring, now looking for a PC. Perhaps reinforcing the original ad?

Even then, those ads were weird because Justin Long came off as smug, while John Hodgeman was more sympathetic.

The "caution battery low" notification is hilarious — the battery life on Apple silicon is so good I've literally never gotten one of these on my M2 MBA (which isn't even the current generation). They're obviously grasping at straws if they're pretending that this is some sort of common annoying notification.

Not to mention, that seems like the kind of system notification that users don't mind being shown when appropriate.

Notifications prompting the user to switch to Microsoft Edge or sign up for an Office 365 trial or enable OneDrive, on the other hand...

Absolutely. The notification is neither common nor an annoyance. It is just the kind of notification you would want to get. Probably going into DND mode wouldn't prevent it from popping up, since it is so important.

Obviously what a Real OS should do is not notify about low battery at all and just suddenly shut down instead. Whereas it's absolutely essential that users get notifications every day to switch browsers or subscribe to Microsoft 365.

Wonder how this will go for them.

Im sure one’s personal mileage will vary, but this is my experience.

I use windows for work Mac personal, and by far windows is more annoying with pop ups. Both do have a fair number of pop ups, it’s true. But overall the message feels either like gas lighting or wishful thinking, does not resonate at all.

>and by far windows is more annoying with pop ups.

I get no pop ups apart from required system messages (confirming deletes, admin account req'd - which is the most stupidest Windows thing ever...I am the administrator).

Do you mean in your browser?

Dr. Lexus: "Don't wanna sound like a dick or nothin', but it says on your chart that your mac is f'd up. What I'd do, is just like... ha ha... like... aha... you know, like, you know what I mean, like... haha..."

First the Verizon guy, now "I'm a Mac." I'm generally against non-competes, but when you sign up to be a mascot, I feel like it might be a reasonable clause in the contract.

This isn't Justin Long's first PC ad though?

Intel literally paid the same actor to do Mac and PC comparison ads in 2021. Whichever marketing agency Qualcomm hired simply decided to bring back the same guy again, and run the same news cycle about him being "I'm a Mac" from 2007.

I’m willing to give Dell a pass for hiring back on the Dell Dude internally, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oakxiwGObOw

Verizon was strange. Their mascot guy went to a competitor, but then they hired a mew mascot guy who isn't any younger than the old mascot guy, and whose most famous (perhaps only famous) acting role is for playing Buster Bluth, one of the dumbest characters in all of fiction.

I imagine there was a time-based lockup, and perhaps he was paid the entire time to be on retainer or some such thing. But at this point, it's been so long it would be surprising if there were any sort of active relationship.

Not touching windows “the start menu has ads” with a 10 foot pole.

Well it's nice easy money for him all i can say

Intel and Qualcomm (seriously? one and then the other, while taking potshots at Apple silicon?) working with Justin Long suggests that they believe he was the active ingredient of the old Mac ads. That he was some major reason why they worked.

John Hodgman's the only essential part of that ad campaign.

Long's only role was to look a little more put together, and to be good-spirited. Now he's neither.

An ad for Windows on Arm taking shots at Macs for app compatibility warnings? Really?

Weird. If I were to personify Windows, it’d be a creepy guy who touches me without consent. Since, you know, Microsoft loves to force updates on you at the most inconvenient times.

The guy at the bus stop who keeps pacing and screaming about nothing while he picks your pocket.

We had macOS trigger a update without prompting on some build machines.

Fun times when xcode of course fucking breaks. Apple recently removed "m4" from the cli tools and its only part of the GUI xcode that requires the store sign-in.

> Since, you know, Microsoft loves to force updates on you at the most inconvenient times.

I was going to counter that actually my car's infotainment system actually has MS beat in this department, since it tries to update (and gets caught infinite loops) while I'm driving. But then I realized my car's infotainment system is powered by Microsoft Sync. I guess you're right!

To think an automotive company would allow updates when it's not in park is crazy

Oh don't worry, it doesn't actually complete the update. It goes 95%, hangs, and then tries again. In the meantime, you have no backup camera, bluetooth audio, etc. Fortunately this is an old enough car that it still has hard buttons for HVAC.

Neither a Mac fanboy nor a Windows hater, but this looks horribly out of touch. Those ads were like 20 years ago and getting notifications is the least annoying thing about using a Mac.

Especially considering how well MacOS handles focus mode / do not disturb. I don’t get notifications unless I want to (or they are truly urgent)

Telling average users that aren’t HN readers, or particularly comp savvy for other reasons, that they now need to work out whether they want M chips, intel chips or arm chips is just going to confuse them.

I’m pretty sure most consumers will just be confused by arm windows vs intel windows.

This ad also implies pop-ups served by the OS and related apps have something to do with your CPU, which isn't the case at all. So even if you decide Windows is for you, your pop-up experience will have nothing to do with which CPU you choose.

I am quite sure, Microsoft would rather have everyone migrating to ARM, but Intel / AMD are surely not going to play ball, nor most of the developer community.

PCs stopped being a vertical integrated product, the day IBM lost control over it.

"Nah the build quality is great but I just can't handle a functioning notification system that doesn't come with spam"

Honestly with how bug ridden and shitty Apple's OS releases are these days* I've looked at switching back.

* OH BUT THANK THE HEAVENS THERES "AI INTEGRATION" AND FRICKEN "IOS" FEATURES ON DESKTOP! THAT TOTALLY MAKES UP FOR BROKEN CRAP!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com