Microsoft's new ad claims that MacBooks are "less useful, like a hat for your cat"

[midian182]

Microsoft isn’t slowing down its public attacks on Apple products. Fresh from the “an iPad Pro isn’t a computer” commercials shown earlier this month, the Windows maker's latest ad boasts about the advantages of the Surface Pro 4 compared to a MacBook Air.

Microsoft proudly highlights the Pro 4’s detachable keyboard, stylus, and touchscreen functions, labeling the MacBook as “slower, heavier, and a bit square.” The ad concludes that the Air is “less useful, like a hat for your cat.”

The previous commercial placed both companies' virtual assistants – Cortana and Siri – up against each other. Apple’s AI was insistent that the iPad Pro’s keyboard made it a computer, but Cortana questioned the device’s lack of full desktop software, power, trackpad, and external ports.

Between 2006 and 2009, Apple was ahead in the commercial wars, thanks to its popular “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign starring John Hodgman and Justin Long. Back then, the PC was portrayed as unintuitive and constantly under attack from viruses, whereas as the Mac was shown as easy to use and “cooler.”

Today, things look a bit different. Apple’s laptops haven’t seen any major design changes in years, while Microsoft’s detachable 2-in-1s have got lighter, thinner, and more powerful, to the point where the Surface Book 4 is now many people's preferred choice when it comes to portable productivity.

Don’t be surprised to see more Microsoft ads mocking Apple’s product range over the coming weeks, especially with the holiday season on its way. Hopefully, they won’t contain any more disturbing images of cat-faced men.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/66127-microsoft-new-ad-claims-macbooks-less-useful-like.html

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Me-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow. Puss'n Boots is next.

and I'm sure to take the advice of an upside-down piano player in a silly hat.

 

[yRaz]

I can't wait for the other commercials to surface

 

[trparky]

Touch, touch, touch, touch, touch... I don't want touch! Touch belongs on a smartphone, not a computer! A computer is operated with a keyboard and mouse! Long live the desktop!

Oh, and it's running that piece of ****, unreliable, forever beta, buggy Windows 10. Microsoft can't write good quality code to save their lives! The Anniversary Update has been an #EpicFail!

 

[Neojt]

Touch, touch, touch, touch, touch... I don't want touch! Touch belongs on a smartphone, not a computer! A computer is operated with a keyboard and mouse! Long live the desktop!

Oh, and it's running that piece of ****, unreliable, forever beta, buggy Windows 10. Microsoft can't write good quality code to save their lives! The Anniversary Update has been an #EpicFail!

you could have just shorten that post and said im a apple fan aka iSheep

 

[trparky]

I have a Windows machine and I may even like Windows but I certainly do not like the direction that Microsoft is taking Windows. Windows 10 is heading in the wrong direction, the idea of crowd sourcing your testing of the OS is wrong and the fact that the Anniversary Update shipped with as many bugs as it did is simply beyond any kind of stupidity.

For instance... the Action Center. Buggy, buggy, buggy. There are often times notifications won't show until I open the Start Menu and then all of a sudden I have a deluge of notifications from six hours ago. Bitlocker enabled USB flash drives are often not detected and mounted properly. The Bluetooth stack has major issues, sometimes my Bluetooth headphones won't connect and only a reboot will fix it. And don't get me started on the whole forced updates of Windows 10, good God almighty.

I want a keyboard and mouse, that's what I grew up with, that's what I'm used to, and don't you dare think about taking it away!

 

[cliffordcooley]

Microsoft is becoming less useful. I will always remember Microsoft for what they once were.

 

[Lurker101]

I can't wait for the other commercials to surface

I see what you did there

 

[bmw95]

I have a Windows machine and I may even like Windows but I certainly do not like the direction that Microsoft is taking Windows. Windows 10 is heading in the wrong direction, the idea of crowd sourcing your testing of the OS is wrong and the fact that the Anniversary Update shipped with as many bugs as it did is simply beyond any kind of stupidity.

For instance... the Action Center. Buggy, buggy, buggy. There are often times notifications won't show until I open the Start Menu and then all of a sudden I have a deluge of notifications from six hours ago. Bitlocker enabled USB flash drives are often not detected and mounted properly. The Bluetooth stack has major issues, sometimes my Bluetooth headphones won't connect and only a reboot will fix it. And don't get me started on the whole forced updates of Windows 10, good God almighty.

I want a keyboard and mouse, that's what I grew up with, that's what I'm used to, and don't you dare think about taking it away!

I wonder if management is using that to sort of replace internal tests. I just tried Microsoft Planner in Office 365 a few days ago to see how it fared against Trello and was quite disappointed, especially since the concept of a Todo project board app is quite simple in nature, and they somehow managed to botch that up. The things that were going wrong with the app were fairly simple (but major) issues that could easily have been prevented, which makes me wonder if the test coverage across several of MS products is really low.

 

[stewi0001]

I'm not a fan of bashing ads like this.

 

[seefizzle]

Touch, touch, touch, touch, touch... I don't want touch! Touch belongs on a smartphone, not a computer! A computer is operated with a keyboard and mouse! Long live the desktop!

Oh, and it's running that piece of ****, unreliable, forever beta, buggy Windows 10. Microsoft can't write good quality code to save their lives! The Anniversary Update has been an #EpicFail!

Microsoft makes all kinds of rock solid software. It's silly to argue otherwise.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Touch, touch, touch, touch, touch... I don't want touch! Touch belongs on a smartphone, not a computer! A computer is operated with a keyboard and mouse! Long live the desktop!

Oh, and it's running that piece of ****, unreliable, forever beta, buggy Windows 10. Microsoft can't write good quality code to save their lives! The Anniversary Update has been an #EpicFail!

The ad is about touch on a tablet or laptop, and while you don't want touch, know plenty of users who do. Yes it is almost entirely pointless on a desktop, but on a laptop or tablet the screen is often within reach so touch can offer many benefits. I have both a Surface Pro 3 tablet PC and a MacBook and I DO use the touch on my SP3, it is faster than the mouse for some operations... and sometimes the mouse is faster, it just depends on the scenario. I now find myself trying to touch the screen on my MacBook.

As for Windows 10, I don't particularly care for it. I don't like that the GUI is getting more difficult to use and features are being removed. However I personally haven't too many reliability issues with W10, only a few here and there. It does have more problems than W7 though so I am sticking to that on my gaming rig. I only use 10 on my SP3.

And as for this commercial, meh. People will buy what they like, so I feel these types of ads are largely ineffective. Just show what your product can do and be done with it. Is Windows more flexible than MacOS... yes, for sure. However not everyone needs or wants that flexibility. And there is something to be said for the MacBook hardware, they are just well-built quality machines. In fact, for a laptop (note, NOT a tablet) I prefer a MacBook over other laptops. I like the heavier, aluminum shell and nice screen... which you don't get in a lot of other laptops. And in the end, you can easily put Windows on a MacBook if you want to have both... It's not so easy putting MacOS on a Surface though. So if you like to us both systems and don't need the flexibility of a tablet, the MacBook is the way to go I think.

 

[Kibaruk]

Well like someone here said already, people will buy what they want, but there are people who don't know what they want and if someone biases them towards something because it's not as useful as a hat in a cat, they will buy that idea and say "hey look, this doesn't have touch, it's cool on my phone I want it".

I also agree that the touch function is super situational, but I've been using it more and more specially on note taking meetings, highlight and giving a less of a word and more of an unstructured paper notebook feel.

I can't wait for the other commercials to surface

What? You only got my like? That's not right...

 

[Trillionsin]

I'm all for windows, but what a bunch of buuuuuulllll shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. lmfao no wonder these comments...

 

[Trillionsin]

.... because it's not as useful as a hat in a cat....

I sure do hope there's not a hat in that cat.

 

[tonylukac]

Microsoft can say all it wants but now that I got a new inexpensive android smartphone because the crystal broke on the other one, I can only get the full blown new android studio to program android to work on the mac. One vista windows partition doesn't install java nor studio at all because I didn't keep up with the updates and thus win update doesn't work. Another installs it but requires virtualization, so no simulators only running tests on my "production" phone. Another on a different computer is 1/10th as slow due to it being amd virtualization, not intel; only a 4 year old custom computer. It's amazing that such a competitor like apple has android programming running on it. To program android and iphone a mac is a cure all computer. Microsoft seems to be losing it. Great work going on tim cook, unlike nadella.

 

[Squid Surprise]

What I love is that the Surface Pro and Surface Book are now comparable to the Macbook... whereas the Surface started as a rival to the iPad...

Now, I LOVE my iPad - but if you don't want to own a desktop, laptop AND tablet - getting a Surface Pro or Surface Book is the clear winner...

The iPad Pro is just a joke - those ads saying "does your computer do this" make me laugh... My computer lets me game, run office suites, photshop, etc... WAY better than an iPad Pro!!

 

[Kibaruk]

Microsoft can say all it wants but now that I got a new inexpensive android smartphone because the crystal broke on the other one, I can only get the full blown new android studio to program android to work on the mac. One vista windows partition doesn't install java nor studio at all because I didn't keep up with the updates and thus win update doesn't work. Another installs it but requires virtualization, so no simulators only running tests on my "production" phone. Another on a different computer is 1/10th as slow due to it being amd virtualization, not intel; only a 4 year old custom computer. It's amazing that such a competitor like apple has android programming running on it. To program android and iphone a mac is a cure all computer. Microsoft seems to be losing it. Great work going on tim cook, unlike nadella.

Oh boy, I had to read this at least a couple of times to understand it and even then... half half.

All that rant was because you want to develop for phones? Have you ever heard about IDEs?

And you are complaining about Vista?? You do know that mainstream support for Vista ended 4 years ago right and that there have been 3 releases to windows? It's like... complaining why my prince of persia diskette is not working on my W10 machine...

 

[Uncle Al]

I'm waiting for the commercials that feature a piano player and a pie throwing contest! Might not be as informative, but one heck of a lot of fun to watch!

 

[Adhmuz]

Is it me or was that a terrible bit of advertisement, like wow was that ever bad. And that's supposed to win people over from Apple? Good luck Microsoft, good luck. Apple has nothing to fear from your advertisement division.

 

[tonylukac]

Oh boy, I had to read this at least a couple of times to understand it and even then... half half.

All that rant was because you want to develop for phones? Have you ever heard about IDEs?

And you are complaining about Vista?? You do know that mainstream support for Vista ended 4 years ago right and that there have been 3 releases to windows? It's like... complaining why my prince of persia diskette is not working on my W10 machine...

I'm really not complaining, are you? I'm telling you I got something to work so you might know how to do it yourself. Isn't that great in this day and age? Free scientific knowledge. Especially like in getting the windows 10 anniversary update to work which everyone in previous posts "ranted" about? There are no "IDEs" except android studio and apple's xcode. Now to do something as esoteric as a conversion from eclipse to android studio. I'm sure I'll be able to. This is the way I got my millions.

 

[captaincranky]

I. Now to do something as esoteric as a conversion from eclipse to android studio. I'm sure I'll be able to. This is the way I got my millions.

I thought you got those by pretending to be a Nigerian prince...

 

[commanderasus]

Speaking on behalf of all the cats out there who live on your world, it is very obvious that you humans have been infected by a touch this touch that virus that is very hard to get rid of and so from this moment on us cats will start checking all our hats to make sure they don't have this human spread virus.

 

[captaincranky]

Speaking on behalf of all the cats out there who live on your world, it is very obvious that you humans have been infected by a touch this touch that virus that is very hard to get rid of and so from this moment on us cats will start checking all our hats to make sure they don't have this human spread virus.

That's really what this thread needed, someone to run on with something which they believe is "clever", written from the point of view of a cat.

If you want to be thought of as a cat, I think you should give up trying to write with a keypad, and go tip over a couple of garbage cans for dinner..Or maybe kill a couple of sparrows, catch a couple of mice, spay a couple of car tires, or trash bags. You know, declare them your territory....

 

[Kibaruk]

I'm really not complaining, are you?

When you write something over the internet, no one can hear how you are saying it, also when 5 lines are about how microsoft software doesn't work and 1 is about how much you love mac, no matter how much you say it isn't, it's a complaint.

I'm telling you I got something to work so you might know how to do it yourself. Isn't that great in this day and age? Free scientific knowledge.

Thank you!! This great free scientific knowledge will come extra handy the next time I have a vista pc somewhere alongside a mac, again thank you, don't know what I would do without this post.

Especially like in getting the windows 10 anniversary update to work which everyone in previous posts "ranted" about?

Oh my, was there somewhere in your post? Internet must have skipped it for me after reading vista...

There are no "IDEs" except android studio and apple's xcode. Now to do something as esoteric as a conversion from eclipse to android studio. I'm sure I'll be able to. This is the way I got my millions.

On this "esoterism" there are actually quite a bunch of free scientific knowledge posts over the internet, that are actually helpful.