5:38 May 12th, 2009 | 0 notes

Finally, another Microsoft ad!

I’m not going to bitch about this one! I like subscription music services. I wish that iTunes had one. For a poor, poor student like me, paying for every song is impractical and costly (which is what the ad says).

What I find funny is Microsoft saying “Filling an iPod costs $30,000”. Well, technically yes. But let’s look at the other blatantly obvious solution to fill an iPod that cost nothing. It’s going to be the first natural reaction of students to start yelling “LIMEWIRE AND TORRENTS!” when they see this ad.

What Microsoft has done by throwing such a large number at the viewer is remind them that there is an even cheaper way to get music, be it illegally. I know when I was watching this ad I was going “Holy crap $30,000?!” and not “Wow! Look at that! Only $15 a month to fill my Zune”. I was totally distracted by the $30,000 that my train of thought didn’t click over to their product, but went from one extreme to the other; bit torrent.

I admire Microsoft for using this method to try and sell music, but it won’t work. Sorry, My generation has been brought up with the idea in our head that music is just a file on our iPods. Microsoft telling us how much it would normally cost to fill them only ingrains our desire to get music the cheapest way possible.

Oh, and I love how the guy in the ad is labeled, “Certified Financial Planner”. Wow! Now I’m totally reassured!

10:36 May 1st, 2009 | 0 notes

New Microsoft Laptop Hunters ad. I just spat all over my screen as I laughed at this ad.

Let’s begin shall we?

So we have Sheila, a film maker, going to buy a computer. She is ‘open to any brand’ but that will not include Apple of course, because it’s a Microsoft ad. When she goes to the Macs, she shoots down the 15” MacBook Pro because it only has 2GB of RAM. Well, the base configuration of the HP she bought, the HP HDX 16t, also only comes with 2GB. And have you heard of upgrading? Honestly, buy some more yourself! It’s not that big of a deal!

Once again, the “I need it to be fast” point is brought up again. Here is where the second problem lies. At the moment, there is no GPU accelerated video editing software available for the PC which is widely known. So the fact that the HP and the MacBook Pro have the same video card is irrelevant. This brings down the decision of power down to the CPU. The base model of the HP HDX 16t only has a 2.0Ghz processor. The MacBook Pro on the other hand has a minimum processor speed available of 2.4Ghz. Just count the numbers! The Pro’s is higher, therefore better!

I also love when she lists all of the features of the HP: Firewire, webcam, USB. Nice work, you just listed the exact same features found on the MacBook Pro. You even managed to mention firewire, the interface actually created by Apple in 1995! Don’t you just sound absolutely silly right now?

In all the only problem with a Mac this ad raises is the low amount of RAM. Oh no! It’s not like you can get more. No wait! Yes you can! Well I’ll be damned! But what about that slow HP processor huh? Now that’s something you can’t fix. You’re stuck with it forever, no way to upgrade.

Oh, did you notice? The ad has another HP in it. That makes three ads where the subject buys an HP now. Beginning to see a trend?

That’s a wrap Microsoft.