MacBook Air Stickers | Hacker News Reader

MacBook Air Stickers

apple.com

182 pointsantr159 comments

Your brief: create a video ad that features the company logo in the middle of the screen for the full 30-second advert, without losing people's attention.

Placing your company logo so prominently for so long in a video ad is rare – it's hard to find an excuse to leave it there for the full ad. But it works in Apple's Stickers ad here.

The video ad reads both as an invitation to get creative with the space on the back of your laptop, and as an optimistic style guide handed down from above: “by all means shove stickers over your MacBook, but – hey – if you're going to do that, they may as well interact with our logo in a fun way instead of covering it up!” (Clearly, my own MacBook contravenes the suggested guidelines: http://d.pr/i/iGOa )

yours looks cool! is that all composed of single stickers or a bigger wrap on the bottom ?

I used this “Tree of Life” full-size vinyl for the backdrop and applied stickers on top: http://nuvango.com/charley-harper/tree-of-life--2/15-inch-un...

Plastering stickers over full-size vinyl artwork might seem crazy, but it means that (a) any gaps are filled in by the artwork behind and (b), you can take all of the stickers off in one go and transfer them to a new laptop. (Nuvango use 3M peelable stickers, so it's easy enough to remove and restick them all at once – I've had to do it already for a replacement under warranty.)

neat idea, thanks for the detailed info!

Mc Donald's has ran several ads where the logo was in the center for a full 30 seconds so when you fast forward on a DVR you still see the logo as you fast forward. I imagine this ad will play on tv and again when you fast forward on a DVR you'll still see the apple logo.

To each their own of course, but I find these plastered laptops kind of childish. I can't be the only one right?

I don't really understand why I'd broadcast different brands that might align with what I do professionally everywhere I go. Then again, I am not one to like things on Facebook either, might be a similar tendency.

This seems more of a trend in America than it does here in Europe. Maybe it is similar to the more American custom to communicate 'witty' things on t-shirts?

Problem is there is so little differentiation between models. I had to put a sticker on mine just so it wouldn't get confused with other Airs; may as well use something fun and hard to duplicate.

My first sticker on the air happened when I went to Campus Party Brazil. It hosted 8.000 Campers in a high tech environment. My tablet alone had about 100 people. The amount of Apple machines was too high, so I placed a sticker to know which machine was mine... today it looks like: http://i.imgur.com/i6koYyC.jpg

You have stickers from Brazil to British Columbia

> To each their own of course, but I find these plastered laptops kind of childish

And of course childish is bad because we are serious grown up people doing serious things.

They're not childish--they're a signal of membership in a cult.

I always considered it a mild anti-theft measure. "Hey, that's my ..."

[meaning sticker combos should be pseudo unique]

I am tempted to get one just to cover up the giant glowing Apple logo I am showing off all the time. There are many laptop decals which do not show any 'brand' in particular.

To NOT decorate the things you own seems inhuman.

I think the point I'm trying to make is that, yes, of course self-expression is a necessary part of being human, but a sticker that literally just displays the name of something you like as a type of signaling is the shallowest form of it.

That is what I mean. I understand the practical reasons for distinguishing your laptop from others', but to do it with marketing logos from technologies you use seems childish to me.

I think you're being unfairly downvoted, mostly because I don't think childish quite conveys the thought. There does seem to be some personality type that likes a lot of flair in their life -- jewelry, stickers, tattoos, busy t-shirts -- and it's always felt a little odd to me, too.

At risk of being reductionist, it is kind of hard to understand why anyone would feel compelled to signal their likes and group-identities to strangers in such an overt way. But I'm probably revealing more about my own personality by saying that than I am theirs.

I think "compelled" is the wrong word. People like their own opinions and they like to tell them to other people. Well, you've signaled your likes to this community of strangers.

Your comment is a signaling of your likes and group-identities to strangers in an overt way.

> At risk of being reductionist, it is kind of hard to understand why anyone would feel compelled to signal their likes and group-identities to strangers in such an overt way. But I'm probably revealing more about my own personality by saying that than I am theirs.

I think the second sentence is more true than you might like to admit. People have been decorating things for as long as there have been modern humans. There is some evidence that even Neanderthals modified their environments for aesthetic reasons [1].

The desire to make things beautiful -- including our own bodies -- is as old as history itself, and even older. If you don't partake in this then I, for one, consider that a bit sad. You're missing out on a huge part of life.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/14/neanderthals-...

To be fair (and as a sort of vote for the this-behavior-is-childish camp), I was much more into this sort of thing when I was a younger person.

>To each their own of course, but I find these plastered laptops kind of childish. I can't be the only one right?

Well, a lot of users are kind of children. In their teens, 20s, early 30s. So depends on how old are you. Also, are you tie+shirt serious? If you work at some tie+shirt company's IT, you might be more inclined towards a "serious" looking laptop.

>Maybe it is similar to the more American custom to communicate 'witty' things on t-shirts?

As if we Europeans don't do it?

I am not tie-shirt serious nor is the company I work at. I have gone to work in almost any type of clothing, including football (soccer for Americans) shirt + shorts (for playing after work).

I feel strange about the plaster laptops because it seems that people lend their identity from whatever they stick on their laptop which in turn comes from what technology they happen to use. I like Coffee script, Rails, Backbone, etc. but I don't really identify with it any further than my resume.

My wife and I both have airs. So do a lot of people I work with. The stickers are a very simple way to know whose is whose. It's a practical concern solved in a fun way.

I have a mac book pro 15 retina from work and a personal laptop of the same model. Stickers are a fun/easy way to tell my laptop apart quickly. There are numerous types of stickers also, I have several from different entertainment series that I like, some tech based stickers, and stickers for environmental or political causes I care about. I've had more people than i can count ask me about the environmental ones in particular. For example I'm strongly opposed to the building of the pebble mine in Alaska* so I have an anti pebble mine sticker on my personal laptop. Since I'm commonly working on side projects with friends, often in coffee shops or cafes and I tend to go to a lot programming related meetups I have had numerous people ask me about it and I take it as an opportunity to educate others about the issues involved and why I believe how I do. It's a form of low level/mild political advocacy for me that I've found to be extremely effective. This does not seem childish at all to me.

*For more info see here: http://www.savebristolbay.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_Mine

> by all means shove stickers over your MacBook, but – hey – if you're going to do that, they may as well interact with our logo in a fun way instead of covering it up!

To their credit, this is something that a lot of Macbook owners do already; I've seen more cases of the logo being highlighted by users' adornments than covered up. As an example, here's an ugly website from 2009[1].

Apple here isn't trying to push people towards highlighting the logo, they're showing how people do it already.

[1] http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/11/11/10-cool-apple-ma...

Didn't the Hisenburg sticker cover the logo? Sure it didn't cover it up completely, it used the circular shape of the apple, but still it didn't quite look like an unadulterated logo. I think the message of the commercial is pretty clear, while the macbook airs aren't as "customizable", they're still "yours" & people love them. You'd have to take mine from my cold dead hands (even though it could really use some more ram)

I've been putting stickers on my laptop's for years. I don't see why Apple needed a marketing campaign for this, other than to just run some user-contributed ads.

The advert isn't for stickers.

This seems like a complete paradigm shift from the Jobs-days of so closely holding and protecting their brand. Refusing to dilute it with Home Simpson and poorly drawn Golden Gate bridges...

...Or maybe they could just want to increase accessory sales.

I can't find a link to buy the stickers, can you link me to it please.

You can find many of them on Etsy

I searched Amazon UK for 'MacBook stickers' and there are a lot, including several shown in this ad.

Yes. Compare this, and the iPhone 5C, with "here's to the crazy ones"… it's depressing.

Looking back at that ad, it could be for almost any product.

Under Jobs, the iMac G3 was invigorated with a similar aesthetic flush.

Oh man, remember the Flower Power iMac? Blue Dalmatian? Things got crazy...

I 'll probably get down voted to oblivion, but I loved this ad and strongly disliked the "Here's to the crazy ones" campaign.

To elaborate; The here's to crazy ones feels very hypocritical. Here's to the crazy ones, to Armstrong, Einstein, Monroe... Buy a computer! Oh come on. It makes me cringe - it is everything that is wrong with marketing, and the fact that people tout it as the pinnacle of advertising is everything that is wrong with people that are into marketing!

Whereas this, this is awesome. It's down to earth, personal. Apple's logo and apples product is in the centre of attention without becoming an annoyance. It actually made me want to customise a bit my macbook

"Here's to the crazy ones" is trite marketing BS, like the "motivational" corporate shit some people like to read...

This is a little quirkier and more fun.

Is Apple actually selling these stickers? I saw it more of a "this is what people do with our product because they love it so much" kind of thing, as opposed to Apple directly diluting their brand by selling notebooks with Homer Simpson on them.

Apple does not. Some of us find the stickers out there anyway. I have a "Ice Age" one (not what was shown in the ad) to differentiate my Air from my wife's.

I agree but the Mac has also always been pushed as a platform for 'creative' people. For a lot of them that probably extends to customising their device so Apple taking advantage of that isn't too strange - particularly when most of these stickers are built around the glowing Apple on the MacBook, the hallmark of Apple's brand.

Yes - very hard to imagine Apple doing something like this 5 years ago.

And yet it's still very natural for this to be an Apple ad. It has the hallmarks - product front and center, minimalist, catchy music that isn't as mainstream.

I personally think it's very effective.

I disagree about the diluting aspect. Every single one of those stickers draws attention to, or even worships, the pure Apple logo.

Don't know if it can really be considered "interesting" or not, but at the very end the logo flickers between the new style single shade and the old style rainbow colours. Might we see a return of the old logo?

I'm pretty sure that it was a sticker.

He's talking about the quick transform that happens on the digital logo at the end (white, black, rainbow, and cycles)

You can get transparent rainbow stickers you can put on the apple logo on the back of MacBooks. I agree that that was probably the intended meaning.

Oops, you're right. Don't know how I missed that.

I thought that was very interesting. Apple doesn't reference its history much – nice to see it touching on the old logo.

i've it as a sticker.

Can a cinematographer explain to me why the Apple logo (or even the whole laptop) doesn't stay centered but shifts a few pixels now and then?

Would the clip look too polished (not real) if the logo remained at exactly the same position for the duration of the clip?

There must be a 'movie-technical' reason for this because it deviates from an otherwise pixel-perfect Apple ad.

I've done work in animation and I see this intentional imprecision as referencing back to analog stop motion techniques. Of course today they could manipulate the individual stills to perfectly align with each other and make the whole spot look more slick, but the point of the ad is to emphasize the manual individualization of their products by customers. You can see scratches and wear on a few of the laptops. The subtle shifting increases as the ad comes to its climax adding more motion to an otherwise still plane which, to me, cements the idea that this is intentional.

The technique is called stop frame animation and inherently has a bit of camera/object jitter. Apple could have eliminated this but it is more authentic to keep the retro-styling and hand made vibe together with the theme of the creativity. For a great stop frame animation example check out Gondry's music video for the white stripes made with legohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTH71AAxXmM

They wanted to make it organic and more stop-motion like.

Plus, only people with OCD would both notice AND care about any small pixel jumps.

As a videomaker, I was a little stunned by how 'imperfect' it was, for a few of the shots.

It has to be a conscious artistic decision, because it would be trivial to 'nudge' the frame around in an NLE (we'll assume Final Cut here, right?) to make sure the Apple logo never moved.

There are also some shadow inconsistencies that could've been skipped, there's no need to actually swap out the entire laptop for each shot, could just use the logo/sticker area.

I agree with the other commenters, but sort of wonder if they missed the mark by going "half way" gritty/raw/stop-motion. The Gondry example is a perfect one, because he doesn't make each shot 99% close to the one before it. If you're going to make it imperfect, really make it imperfect. It'll look better if it doesn't look like a mistake.

I think it is a great example of wabi-sabi. [0]

Also, as other commenters have pointed out, it gives the ad an organic, hand-made feel. It is something that you could put together at home with some nice lighting, a camera, and iMovie.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

Stop motion chic perhaps?

A little bit off topic but... can someone please remind me why does Apple continue using this horrible thing called QuickTime Plugin?

Because it is their own product, and it could be seen as a negative move to not use it?

And they can absolutely use it as a fallback for HTML5 video.

Using WMP Plugin, RealPlayer plugin, QuickTime, Flash, etc. is so... 2007.

MS also has(had) Silverlight but at some point they just stopped using it and most of the videos I've seen recently on their site(s) are HTML5 (no plugins required).

But not Apple. Everything (I've seen) on their site is QuickTime.

What browser are you using? Everything shows up as HTML5 video for me.

Chrome. On Ubuntu.

> Everything shows up as HTML5 video for me.

That's weird.

I actually know a couple of PC users who use it as their primary video player. I don't understand that, since I've never successfully played a single video with it. Granted, I gave up trying and switched to VLC about 6 years ago.

What stood out the most to me is that some laptops are actually dirty, you can see the dirt on them. Guess they went with the "Ok, get the as raw as you can, we want machines that have been used". Kinda cool, especially from Apple since they are normally so strict and 'clean'

Jonny Ive is crying right now that his brushed aluminum is being cover up by vinyl.

I've had to cover all exposed metal parts on my MBP in vinyl. It gives me a rash otherwise. I bet he didn't think of that when choosing materials...

I believe people are much more likely to be allergic to vinyl than to aluminum (or Aluminum Oxide)

People are allergic to nickel, which is used in aluminium alloys.

Humm

Maybe it's this one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6061_aluminium_alloy (a guess from here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/8612485)

Anyway, when I'm using a wristwatch I don't have a problem with the case, but the strap is often itchy (not to the point of irritating the skin, though)

It's possible. You can nickel treat alu to give it a consistent durable finish as alu oxide is quite easy to dent and this deposits some on the surface.

Another thing I've seen is that a friend of mine's MBP has started to dissolve. It is pitted and looks burned. Turns out some people's sweat eats them as well.

Probably a bad material choice if you ask me.

Its nickel which is present in the alloys they use. Unfortunately once you're sensitised to it then you're screwed. I am unfortunately screwed.

This is a fairly big issue for a lot of people. Even my doctor asked if I use apple products when I went to him with the rash as he's seen it a lot.

I find it rediculous that they would even consider using nickel based alloys.

It's curious to me that they're not selling these stickers. These are mostly ones I've seen on various third-party sites.

I'm also amazed they managed to get the rights for all those characters (Disney was probably easy, but the Simpsons and Warner Bros.?)

Well, it's exposure for said brands anyway (and being tied to Macs, too), so it's probably a good deal from an advertising standpoint (even more if Apple is paying them for it.)

The Simpsons are always jokingly referring to Apple. They have the apple logo with two bits out of it. I'm sure The Simpsons are happy to tie their name like this.

You probably meant 'the Simpsons' instead of your first Apple?

I don't think the portrayal of Apple in the Simpsons is very positive though, it's often shown as cultish.

Apple and Matt Groening go way, way, way back...

http://comicsalliance.com/matt-groening-apple-macintosh-broc...

There's Chi from Chi's Sweet Home on one of them. I wonder if they actually got the rights for that or just figured the Japanese rightsowners (probably the original manga author) wouldn't care.

It's questionable as to whether copyright law covers the drawing of a cat in a photograph of a laptop with a picture of the cat stuck to it.

If the rightsholders do care, nobody tell them about Pixiv.

I always thought the Iron Man ones were great.

http://www.karenhealey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/colorf...

Wow .. love it.

Is it just me or did that feel like that came from Dre/Beats ad team?

It most probably came from their own in-house ad agency that made all their TVCs in the past 8 months

http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/10/more-on-apples-in-house-ad-eff...

It certainly feels like it came from a company that would buy the Dre/Beats team.

That is: historically Apple has emphasized the emotional pitch to the things that you (can) do with their gear, and the expression of personality through that use.

This commercial is much more an emotional pitch to the gear in-and-of itself, and the expression of personality via (crass/commercial) personalization of the gear.

It's not wholly incompatible with the older Apple approach, but it's much more in-line with Beats' approach.

This also seems to walk directly into the old criticism that Apple is primarily an enabler of corporate consumption as opposed to creation.

It's unclear whether they're ignoring those old knocks with new confidence, or are simply unaware of how this looks (and more importantly: how the shift looks).

That's a pretty interesting move from Apple, I know a few people who are part of the stickers-on-laptop set (myself included) and those that refuse to besmirch the looks with stickers. I'd always assumed that Apple would fall into the second group, but it's nice to see them showing off a small cottage industry.

Love this, reminds me of the silhouette iPod adverts.

It's really interesting that there's dirt on some of these MacBooks. Presumably they must be real machines used by Apple employees or customers, and they intentionally didn't clean them.

Not sure if it means anything, but your comment reminded me of this blog post written after Steve Jobs died: http://daringfireball.net/2011/10/universe_dented_grass_unde...

it's not about the stickers, people

it's the idea that people love their macbooks air so much, they adorn them with flair to personalize them, to incorporate the laptop into their own personality

It has little to do with macbook airs. People will put stickers on anything. Years ago, my college gave out lenovo think pads, and people stickered the crap out of em.

true!

and I'm old enough to remember that in school (pre-laptop) we used to sticker the crap out of our looseleaf binders and lunch pails (I was particularly proud of my collection of Star Wars stickers)

Well it's different with Apple. I guess people who don't own one won't understand. /s

I didn't really like the way the laptop judders slightly (especially in the opening 10 seconds or so) because the images don't quite line up. I'm not sure whether it was a conscious decision to do it that way - obviously taking identical pictures is hard, but not impossible, though doing the whole thing digitally would probably be easier. Odd choice, if you ask me.

This is a keen observation that make a surprising conclusion. I made the same observation but had a completely different reaction.

The stuttering was actually a motif to show this are pictures of different laptops of real people. It also completely tied into the music which was of a stuttery and impactful tone. It was obviously an intentional technique. You will notice that the laptops were also scuffed and looked used.

The whole ad was about how personal a macbook is to its owner. I think apple have been concerned mac's are now so 'mainstream' they want to encourage the view that you are your macbook.

I take your point. I think I would have preferred it had the jumping around been just a tiny bit more pronounced so it was very obviously intentional.

I'll take it over Apple's increasingly mawkish TV spots any day, though.

You wouldn't see it on the Apple web site, but are there any good stickers that take advantage of the fact that an apple (often with a bite taken out of it) is the universal symbol for sex store in many countries? It's a reference to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, of course.

Which countries?

In the UK, Ann Summers has an apple in their logo,and this is the biggest "sex" store I can think of.

Many countries? Name one...

UK, France, Quebec (Canada).

With the exception of (which is ONE specific company) I've never seen the bitten apple used widely as some short of metaphor for "sex shop", including in UK and France.

I'm sure one can find a few examples, as a bitten apple makes sense (like lips do, tits, handcuffs, the letters "XXX" and other such symbols). I doubt one can find many, much less it being the "de facto" sex shop symbol there.

As a big fan of Minions, this is my MacBook Air: http://puu.sh/amhxR/56166054af.JPG

I liked the cute flashing of the old rainbow-colored Apple logo at the end, almost as if they were sort of going back to that kind of colorful style with the stickers.

So I don't get it. Are they for sale? How much?

https://www.etsy.com/search?q=macbook%20decal

Also check out http://www.decalgirl.com/ .

I made this for my mbp: https://twitter.com/hamidp/status/463408033670774785/photo/1

Society6 has a fun collection: http://society6.com/laptop-skins

Tux available here: http://idiffer.de/de/product/Tux

Isn't going through great lengths to cover the logo up only adding to their brand identity? It means you attribute so much value to it that you need to contrast it to one's (or 'your') own identity. I don't have a strong emotional reaction to the Apple brand and just like my macbook to be clean and professional.

I tend to like them clean myself. But in an office with a very large bunch of identical machines, stickers kind of become a standard way of making your own laptop easy to identify.

I love linux but for some reason I would find this really off putting. Like writing down your political beliefs on your bumper .

A significant portion of the population finds it completely acceptable to plaster their political beliefs on their bumper, both via stickers or their license plate itself. You might find it distasteful, but it's hardly rare.

I can hear the screams from Etsy merchants.

Does anyone know what song that is?

Chimes by Hudson Mohawke

TNGHT (Hudson Mohawke + Lunice)

You probably won't ever get that version as rapper Future bought the beat. Last time something similar happened, it was Kanye West buying TNGHT - R U Ready which ended up being the beat for Blood On The Leaves

edit: I actually am completely wrong. Chimes actually from HudMo only and not TNGHT and it can be purchased on iTunes right now. Big surprise, really thought it would never come out (it's been at least two years since it's been played for the first time). https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/chimes-ep/id900521487

Thanks dude! Just bought the song :)

A lot of the designs on that page would look better if they covered the logo.

Somehow for me it feels for me that the choreography from the Apple trailer is "copied" from an Inception trailer.

Compare 0:10 of Apple's ad with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66TuSJo4dZM#t=34

I enjoyed the music. Was that original music made for this film?

Yes, they mixed two songs together, one of which is not out (the beat part), but it is acquired by a rapper and might someday come out as a fully fleshed song.

It's Hudson Mohawke - Chimes. Just bought it on iTunes today after seeing this!

I really want the pixelated rainbow apple... Good memories.

The "og" series of meta property tags are for FaceBook's Open Graph [1]. I believe that FaceBook uses that data to determine what to post if you post that link.

[1] http://ogp.me/

Goes well with the iPhone 5C branding.

I have one "sticker" on my Mac. A piece of gaffer's tape over the glowing logo.

Still waiting for that 11" with Retina display, Tim.

Upvote for serious. The commercial isn't wrong - I love my 11" Air like no laptop I've had before.

But with iPhones, iPads, iPod touches, and 13" MacBook Pros in my office all being much crisper than my beloved Air, it's starting to feel a bit dated.

(Also 4k Cinema Display ok thanks)

Dated and somewhat of a misfit in terms of pricing. I can get an iPad Air for nearly the same price, but I can't run VMs or code front-end stuff on it (I used to hack away on an iPad at libraries and other stuff that had longer iterations, but these days I need a "normal" laptop).

It's not just the low resolution - it's also a TN panel. It's just a terrible display compared to almost anything you can find in an ultrabook in the same price range these days.

Which is a shame because I really love everything else about the MBA.

Won't happen for now. The 13" has retina. The battery is twice as big as the 13" air. Techspecs for the rest are identical. Batterylife is the same.

So unless they can extend batterylife 100%, it will not happen

It's not about the battery, it's about the portability and the display. A 13" laptop is too big to lug around for me, and the retina display would enhance readability for me (I tend to read a _lot_ on screen, but an iPad is simply not an option for the rest of my activities).

Have you looked at the Surface Pro 3? 12", 2160x1440, lots of nice reviews.

Yes, and I'm sorely tempted even though I've only used Macs for five years now. (edited to add:) The keyboard's not very nice, though.

I'm willing to wager less than 1% of people who are full time MacBook Air users will convert their full time laptop use to a Surface Pro 3. And of that 1%, I'm guessing > 50% will be attracted to the Stylus/Sketching capabilities.

You missed his point: retina needs a lot of battery power, so a retina 11" would need a much bigger battery (or a large loss in power time), which goes against what the 11" is about

11" may be tough, but they should have a 13" air with retina display by now. Samsung's ATIV Book 9 Plus has a 3200x1800 touchscreen display, weighs 3.06 pounds, and gets 9 hours of battery life.

"Still waiting on that Broadwell chip, Intel." -Tim

"Film"? I was expecting some kind of documentary about the culture of Mac stickers or something. I got an ad with no commentary.

I'm just a little bit angry, they didn't use any of my http://stickerlicio.us stickers ;)

Perfect fit to the #laptopstickers collection: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/200410252143300149/

Thus apple invented stickers..

The lack of this [1] Legend of Zelda decal hurts me a little...just a little.

[1] http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X%2Bx1P7f3L._SL1500_...

I am amused that they offer sticker of Walther White (Breaking Bad series), character known for his aspiration of becoming a drug lord, producing meth and murdering people. Does not quite align with Apple's family-friendly brand image.

AFAIK they are not offering these stickers for sale. They are presenting examples of stickers that people have made.

eh, people who know who Walter* White is aren't offended by him, and those that don't just think its a late picture of the dad from Malcolm in the Middle.

I got a Macbook Air from work. Stuck Ubuntu on it, and a big kayak sticker over the Apple logo. They aren't getting free adverting from me. (One fanboy looked noticeably upset when he saw it running Ubuntu).

I like how someone who uses the same hardware as you but a different OS is a 'fanboy', but at the same time you are completely exempt of this moniker even though you take part of your identity from the fact that you cover up a logo and run Ubuntu; feeling proud enough to tell us about it here.

Fanboy-ing aside the benefit of OS X over Ubuntu (et al.), to me at least, is that it is more stable, still unix and there is much more software available for it that doesn't require debugging/building/re-building, etc. Ubuntu is fun for playing with, but when I need to get work done it tends get in the way eventually.

Agreed. Ubuntu people are just as crazy as Mac zealots.

It would have been a different version Linux, but Ubuntu is the easiest to install with the bootloader nonsense.

I'd be annoyed too to see someone never take a Porsche past second gear and cover the logo with 'Honda'. None of my business, but still saddening to see someone so miss the point.

If I ever own a Poshche, I shall do this happy in the knowledge I am winding up at least one superficial person.

> With up to 12 hours of battery life, an incredibly thin and light design, and fast all-flash storage, what's not to love?

The price for European pockets.

Steve Jobs: One more thing... we've got a huge user base that love STICKERS!@!@!@! WoOt!!! We got nothing technically new, but you should know that people love us and like to put stickers all over our stuff because, well people have to do that when there's a bunch of the same product in a group... like in schools and stuff.

People put stickers on their things for purposes which generally don't sync up with Apple's brand aesthetic. I'm confused that this happens when Ive has MORE control in this realm.

This, along with the Beats acquisition, seems to point towards a shift from delivering innovation and more towards marketing to kids - which is a valid business proposition. Sticker bombs and colorful headphones are middle school. Apple has to balance it's aspiring Bauhausian creative class against its next generation of buyers.

In a large, case-control study of Apple product owners, it was shown that professional creatives were less likely to put stickers all over their tools of production since they were trying to get things done and carry a message of precisely and cleanly delivered works of inspiration.

If the message is, "I <3 APPLE! like everybody else!" the play is heavily tilted towards emotional ties and peer pressure. These aren't messages of productivity, social connectedness, innovation, etc. They are about your personal connection to a product.

In teaming with IBM, I guess they'll have Big Blue carry their boring productivity message and Apple can focus on OMG FUN! stuff.

Why did this get down voted?

Not only that, but a few are digging into older posts to put those down as well. I just don't know what I'll do with my diminishing pool of anonymous internet cred.

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