brave [little] meme

Microsoft’s anti-Mac campaign underhanded, desperate

I’m sure I’m not the only one to notice a growing sense of unease in Microsoft’s latest marketing onslaught on Macs. What stands out for me however is the utter lack of any positive message in the new advertising campaigns, a sign which, at least in politics, often indicates the adoption of last resort tactics.

In the past, even the somewhat transparent and woefully artless “I’m a PC” campaign maintained a primarily positive spin: by concentrating on how the ideal of a PC can be transposed onto everyday people and their lives, Microsoft attempted to evoke a sense of affinity to its platform of choice. Not so, unfortunately, with the latest two marketing salvos.

Take the much talked about “Lauren” advert. In a nutshell, an everyday student is given $1000 to go buy a laptop. After much research she finds Macs too expensive, buys an HP, and keeps the change. Now forget for a second that our student is actually an actor, and that the entire premise of the advert as a real-life experiment is false. The point here is that nowhere in the advert do we get any real information on how good Microsoft’s product is, or what advantages it provides. All we can take home is the message that a non-mac laptop is cheaper.

Of course the advert won’t tell you that the laptop in question is cheap for a reason, but we won’t get into that here. Let’s instead move on to the online banner side of the same advertising campaign, the new “slot machines” ad.

Again, the same message: Macs are expensive. Is that really all Microsoft’s advertising agency can come up with? You would think they might have at least one good thing to say about the product they are supposedly promoting, but no. It seems that, with all the cards on the table, Microsoft has had to resort to misleading price claims (as in claims ignoring total cost of ownership, which is usually lower for Macs) in order to shill its wares.

Here’s hoping that Windows 7 will give Microsoft something real to talk about, because frankly its latest marketing ideas have moved into the realm of true sadness.

Where can the iPhone replace a desktop?

For better or worse, the vast majority of my day is usually spent in front of a Mac. Whether it’s my work laptop or my home iMac, the familiar OSX desktop is pretty much a steady feature of my weekday.

Yet, I have recently noticed that there are a few common tasks for which I instinctively reach for my iPhone, even when I’m right in front of a computer screen. For example:

Google analytics: The excellent Analytics App on the iPhone provides me with a quicker overview of site visits for the current day than Google’s own pages, and does not require me to go through a login. When I need to check out how many hits a particular story has gathered, the iPhone is my first port of call.

Twitter: For some reason I seem to prefer using Tweetie on the iPhone than any of the many desktop Twitter clients available on the mac. The iPhone experience just feels more personal, like sneaking a quick peek at what’s going on in the twittersphere within the privacy of a small screen. Tweetie’s uncluttered interface has a lot to do with it.

The Calculator: Yes, it’s ridiculous, but I find myself reaching for the iPhone’s calculator application rather than firing up the desktop version. 

Movie Times:  The Flixster application is a perfect example of an application upon which I rely on almost exclusively when it comes to checking movie times in my local area. honestly  can’t remember the last time I used the web to find out where a movie was playing.

Last.fm: I find it easier to dedicate my iPhone to the role of Last.fm player than to dedicate a browser window to the desktop equivalent.

Xbox Live: When it comes to checking is any of my friends are online for a game of Gears of War 2, the iNXEs app on the iPhone provides a faster, better alternative to many of the dedicated apps and dashboard widgets I have found to perform the same function. 

If there is one characteristic all these applications share is that they are streamlined to the achievement of one sole purpose, and designed to provide quick access to one specific set of information at the expense of all else. 

In effect, their presence on the iPhone turns the device into an extension to the Dashboard concept, whereby each application (or widget) provides an optimised interface to one specific type of function or information.

As a result, the overall user experience for a given task on a device like the iPhone can, sometimes counter-intuitively, be superior to its desktop counterpart. Add this to the more private, personal experience provided by a handheld device, and you have a powerful combination for repeated use.

Reader Question: Where has your handheld device replaced your desktop?

Safari 4 Beta: First Impressions

I’ve been using Safari’s new beta for three days now, first on a Windows XP machine (Don’t ask, it was under duress) and then on my own iMac under Leopard. Having read conflicting reports about its speed, stability and compatibility, I was a little hesitant about installing it, but I must admit I am very pleasantly surprised. So here is how it stacks up so far:

Installation: I am ashamed to admit it, but it was easier on Windows, where it was a matter of a minute or so. On the Mac, installation required a reboot and the latest security updates in place. Sure, it has to do with Safari’s closer integration with OSX but still, point of pride here.

Speed: It’s blazing fast, compared to both Safari 3 and FireFox 3.1. The speed is very noticeable on most sites, but particularly those which rely heavily on JavaScript. The new Nitro engine must be working.

Reliability: Multiple tabs open, CPU-intensive processes running in the background, and a multitude of sites with quick hopping between pages and reloading. Not a crash yet. This was perhaps the biggest surprise for a beta release.

Interface: I’m still not sold on the concept of tabs-on-top, but it’s growing on me. I certainly don’t mind them enough to put them back the way they were. Top Sites is a cute feature, but only time will tell how much it gets used. CoverFlow in History, I can honestly take it or leave it.

Compatibiility: I don’t use third-party plugins with Safari, so no problems there. If you do, stay clear - they won’t work.

All in all, it seems as though I’m going to stick with this beta until I find a compelling reason not to. Its speed alone is a strong motivator, as going back to FireFox frankly feels like wading in treacle. I would recommend those of you with a taste for the bleeding edge to give Safari 4 a try, but bear in mind that its installation on Macs will effectively replace your existing copy of Safari.

If you’re so inclined, you can download the Safari 4 beta from here.

Apple’s Q2: It’s All in the Headlines.

Oh what a difference a headline makes. Take the story of Munster’s analysis of Apple’s performance in its second fiscal quarter of this year. 

First, the Fortune’s doom-and-gloom angle:

Report: Mac sales off 6% in January; iPod off 14%

And now, MacDailyNews’s upbeat take:

Recession-proof Apple looks solid in current quarter

Same exact story, same exact figures. It’s all about perception.