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Archive for the ‘Cult of Mac’ Category

Surveillance: New Online Get A Mac Ad

Written on November 18, 2009 by Josh Pigford and 4 people have commented

Today, on CNN.com I noticed a new online Get A Mac ad that I’ve lovingly named “Surveillance.”
Apple has done these sort of multi-banner ads on large news sites like CNN and NY Times before where the two ads cleverly interact with one another.
In this ad, Mac and PC are talking about Windows 7 and above [...]

Steve Jobs Gets Crowned “CEO of the Decade”

Written on November 05, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 6 people have commented

Fortune magazine just published an article in which it names Steve Jobs, Apple CEO and co-founder, CEO of the decade. How does one merit such a grandiose title? Well, by doing the seemingly impossible, that’s how. Fortune recounts the Coles Notes version of Jobs’ life and times, and it sounds too fantastic to be true. [...]

4 Unusual Halloween Costumes for Apple Fans

Written on October 30, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 1 person has commented

We’ve all seen the Steve Jobs, the iPhone, the iPod, and the Mac costumes, but what do you do if you want to stand out from the crowd? The motto of our beloved company has long been “Think Different,” and it’s about time we bring that to the Halloween arena, too.
The day itself is tomorrow, [...]

The Greening of Apple: Is It Important To You?

Written on October 28, 2009 by Charles Moore and 26 people have commented

Apple is putting a lot of emphasis on its “green” initiatives lately. But is it the real deal?
For example, Apple’s new energy efficiency page says that because 53 percent of Apple’s greenhouse gas emissions are a result of the power its products consume, it’s designing these products to be as energy efficient as possible employing [...]

New “Get a Mac” Ads Target Windows 7

Written on October 23, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 74 people have commented

Microsoft may have only just launched Windows 7, but Apple isn’t sitting back and letting Redmond enjoy its time in the spotlight. Instead, last night it revealed three new ads in the popular “Get a Mac” series featuring John Hodgman and Justin Long, all of which go after Windows 7 by name.
The three ads, “Broken [...]

85% of Mac Owners Also Have a PC: Report

Written on October 07, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 22 people have commented

Mac users may be getting soft on Windows machines as time moves on, according to a recent report by consumer research firm NPD Group. It found that of those polled, a whopping 85 percent admitted to owning both Mac and Windows PC computers.
That’s a far cry from the polarized days of yore, when even joking [...]

iPhone Maps Icon: Close to Apple’s Heart

Written on September 24, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 22 people have commented

Apparently, as far as the folks at Apple are concerned, all roads lead to Cupertino.
Toying with your latest Apple purchase, it’s not unusual to marvel at the visual joys of the Cupertino company’s product design — gorgeous electronic objects one and all, whether it be the pristine sheen of a brand new Unibody Mac Book [...]

Milestone: 20th Anniversary of Portable Mac Era

Written on September 20, 2009 by Charles Moore and 4 people have commented

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the original release of the Macintosh Portable — the first truly untethered Mac, thanks to its internal battery.
There’s a quote attributed to Steve Jobs: “Do not trust a computer that you cannot lift.” The original compact desktop Macs were offered with an optional carrying case, and some pioneer Mac-users [...]

Apple’s Untapped Marketing Tool: Price

Written on September 18, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 16 people have commented

Apple’s advertising is clever, visually attractive, hip, and funny. It does a great job of showing off what its products can do, and how your life could change as a result. What Apple ads don’t talk about is money. As someone who’s already more than willing to part with my little disposable income in order [...]

Name That Cat: What Breed Should OS 10.7 Be?

Written on September 16, 2009 by Charles Moore and 95 people have commented

Now that Snow Leopard is on the prowl, thoughts turn to what Mac OS 10.7 might be called.
When it was announced that Mac OS 10.6 would be christened “Snow Leopard,” there was some speculation that Apple was running out of big cat names for its OS X versions. OS X 10.1 was Puma, 10.2 Jaguar, [...]

Nano Ad Screen Goofs?

Written on September 15, 2009 by Chris Ryan and 32 people have commented

With the new iPod nano featuring a built in video camera, Apple’s latest commercial really highlights how easy it is to use. Entitled “Nano Shoots Video,” the spot makes it look super easy and trendy to shoot video, but does the commercial really tell the truth?
Looking at the structure of the iPod nano, the camera [...]

New Mac Ad, Just in Time for Football Season

Written on September 11, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 9 people have commented

I was watching the NFL season opener yesterday between Pittsburgh and Tennessee when I got a nice surprise. A new “Get a Mac” ad aired during a commercial break, along with the existing Patrick Warburton “Top of the Line” spot.
The new commercial, called “PC Innovation Lab,” once again brings John Hodgman and Justin Long back [...]

Apple Retail Deconstructed: Reports & Figures

Written on August 21, 2009 by Chris Ryan and 5 people have commented

It seems like Apple’s retail initiatives are always shrouded in a dark veil of secrecy. Though we often hear how well they’re doing financially, what do those numbers look like on the inside? What figures does a typical Apple store track? Straight from the horse’s mouth, here’s a breakdown of a typical financial report that [...]

MacBook Pro: The Perfect Computer?

Written on August 20, 2009 by Charles Moore and 42 people have commented

My friend and Low End Mac’s publisher, Dan Knight, posted a nearly 3000-word essay recently positing a “what’s the perfect Mac” conundrum: MacBook Pro or iMac. I share Dan’s enthusiasm for examining and debating such hypothetical questions, and I thoroughly enjoyed the piece, but for me, the matter is much more open-and-shut.
I’ve been advocating for [...]

Why Small Business Owners Need a Mac

Written on August 19, 2009 by Matthew Bookspan and 24 people have commented

Small business owners have it hard, especially in the current world economic climate. They have lots to do, not enough resources, staff, and time to get it done. For many small business owners, computers are only one more thing to worry about. It doesn’t have to be that way.
For the past few months, I’ve been [...]

Rumor Has It: Apple Event Sept. 9; Music to Take Center Stage

Written on August 18, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 12 people have commented

Details regarding the fast-approaching Apple iPod event in September are beginning to firm up, as is the norm when we draw closer to the anticipated date of these kinds of Cupertino media circuses. By firm up, of course, I mean that various online sources appear to agree, but that’s often as close as we get [...]

London Times Profiles Jobs; Apple Tries To Squelch It

Written on August 18, 2009 by Mark Crump and 4 people have commented

The London Times has a rather interesting profile of Steve Jobs on its site. According to MacNN, Apple tried to kill the article. That’s not surprising. Apple always strives to stay “on message” and nothing is more “off message” than any discussion of Jobs’ health. Well, with the possible exception of the oft-rumored iTablet. I [...]

Five More Apple Retail Flops

Written on August 13, 2009 by Chris Ryan and 10 people have commented

As we discussed yesterday, there have been quite a few instances where Apple’s retail plans have been re-evaluated or changed to meet the needs of the business or traffic in the store. Without further ado, here’s the final installment of my Top 10 Apple Retail Flops. If you missed the first half, you can read [...]

Five Apple Retail Flops

Written on August 12, 2009 by Chris Ryan and 30 people have commented

As Microsoft proudly ventures into the retail world that has already seen quick entrances and exits by other vendors like Gateway and Dell, many Apple fans are looking towards the new Microsoft stores with mixed feelings.
Some of the more dedicated fanboys are quick to call Microsoft a copycat (and perhaps rightly so), but one thing [...]

Book Reveals Rare Apple Prototype Designs

Written on July 31, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 7 people have commented

Jonathan Ive wasn’t always the Grand Overlord designer and demi-God at Apple. Before Ive re-imagined the Macintosh, other talented souls attempted to shape the next generation of Apple products with the clean industrial design for which the company is famous.
In the 1980s, Frog Design was charged with producing design prototypes for Apple — specifically the [...]