If Microsoft Had Designed The iPod

Rebate!

Posted by: Zachary at 03/07/06 12:07 PM | Reply
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Wait a tic... was that the theme from Pee Wee's Big Adventure, if Microsoft used that with their pitch I'd be closer to being a sold man.

Posted by: Jake at 03/07/06 12:16 PM | Reply
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I think the story is that this was made by one of Microsoft's contracted marketing firms as a firm 'stop it!' message. I wonder how Balmer took it.

Posted by: al o'neill at 03/07/06 12:38 PM | Reply
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I think Balmer threw a chair and said I'm going to f***'n kill that video. Then he yelled developers, developers, developers over and over, jumped out of a birthday cake and got surgery on his lungs.

Posted by: Taylor at 03/07/06 12:54 PM | Reply
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Makin the rounds indeed. Welcome to last week.

Posted by: LL Cool F at 03/07/06 1:28 PM | Reply
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Jesus Christ, like I already haven't seen this enough. Every 10th link submitted on digg is about this.

Posted by: Burton at 03/07/06 1:29 PM | Reply
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robert scoble linked that a couple days ago, but it was a wmv, and i work on a mac, so i hadn't seen it yet.

honestly, though, microsoft products do more, and work with more stuff, so it makes sense that their packaging is more complex.

if apple had that much information on an ipod, it would say:

-doesn't play FLAC, OGG, WMA, MPEG, DivX, RM, RA, AVI of any sort, mp3 support deprecated

-doesn't work with windows media player, realplayer, winamp, mplayer, foobar2000, songbird

-linux is for running webservers, isn't it? why would you want to use an ipod with a webserver?

-all that music you get from yahoo!, napster, rhapsody, wal-mart, can go suck an elf

-all your music are belong to steve jobs

Posted by: adam at 03/07/06 1:40 PM | Reply
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the only reason to watch this crappy video is for the music. the video was boring, unfunny and useless..

the music from PeeWee's big adventure will always be on of my favorite musical scores...

Posted by: cesar at 03/07/06 1:59 PM | Reply
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Welcome to last week...zzzzzz

Posted by: Your Co-Worker at 03/07/06 2:28 PM | Reply
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Tough crowd, Scott. Listen people, this freaking blog brings you cool stuff every freaking day! If they happen to post something you've already seen, just move on. . .

Posted by: David at 03/07/06 2:37 PM | Reply
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I'd never seen it before, likely because I'm not on tech/dork linxdumps all day long. I thought it was great from a graphics standpoint; I'd never contemplated the terrible clutter on most boxes until now.

Let's be honest: you don't NEED sysreqs or disclaimers. Are they nice? Yah, maybe, but put them on a fold-out or interior flap. No need to kill the pretiness.

Posted by: gorjus at 03/07/06 2:40 PM | Reply
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I hadn't seen it. But geez, if I had, I wouldn't get my panties in a bunch about it.

Posted by: Laura at 03/07/06 3:03 PM | Reply
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i believe we've just discovered that tech geeks are the one group pissier and more pretentious than indie geeks. but by now i'm sure this discovery is already so last week.

Posted by: cody at 03/07/06 3:11 PM | Reply
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I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody. Every great song by the Beach Boys. All the underground hits. All the Modern Lovers tracks. All as OGG Vorbis!

Posted by: mike at 03/07/06 4:30 PM | Reply
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am i the only one who is tired of apple? yeah the ipod is great. yeah your stuff looks awesome. but i don't care. this attacks microsoft for the way it markets itself, whereas the best thing apple can come up with is freaking u2, who appear on every damn apple ad. i'm not a big microsoft defender, but it's just getting old.

people who buy apple products are generally very well informed, compared to windows shoppers who cant use a mouse. microsoft needs to dumb down their packaging to sell to those people. meanwhile the apple shoppers buy with the well-researched confidence that only comes with knowing you're spending three times more than a windows user. but it looks cool so you're better.

Posted by: matt bates at 03/07/06 5:20 PM | Reply
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I'm a pretty unbiased user of both apple and windows products, both have their benefits. Apple has really come out of the terrible rainbow imacs and nailed the aesthetics for technology in the 00's, something that was vastly needed as our generations houses became marred with the unsightly tech-household. Microsoft really has the most pathetic graphics team, and outside companies making hardware for them- all of their stuff is an eyesore. I really wish a company could step up and make a visually appealing OS and computer other than APPLE, because while Apple continuously releases modern works of art concealing their computers, windows and its related computers/mp3 players could not be more ugly.

and is it really that hard to realize that nuetral colors are a LOT more pleasing to stare at for a few hours than gen-y hot colors, orange blue and green...

(tries to resist argument about who these focus groups are that say they want something blue green and orange, while they shave, compute, and put on deoderent. )

Posted by: Devin at 03/07/06 5:48 PM | Reply
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the other thing is, aside from keyboards and mice, microsoft doesn't even make hardware, so how are we even comparing microsoft and apple, related to the ipod? is microsoft's mp3 player not as chic? and their keyboards and mice don't look too bad. they're certainly more functional than apple's, with the single button mouse and whatnot.

Posted by: matt bates at 03/07/06 6:35 PM | Reply
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man, posting comments on a blog is,like, so last week.

wise up suckers, all the cool kids have 2 paper cups, string and shit.

i'm only here to try and give you geeks a leg-up.

Posted by: the idiot at 03/07/06 8:26 PM | Reply
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adam wrote:
"...honestly, though, microsoft products do more, and work with more stuff, so it makes sense that their packaging is more complex..."

That is one of the most astounding misstatements on computer technology I've read in quite some time. Microsoft products do more? If you mean spreading malware, you are indeed correct.

Posted by: GoCatGo at 03/07/06 8:47 PM | Reply
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This proves that Mac users just want a pretty shiny box to use in Starbucks, the other stuff is just nerdy details

Posted by: nofrontin at 03/07/06 10:01 PM | Reply
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I've always been an Apple fanatic. Not because Macs are better, easier to use, or because I love the design. I'm a fan of Apple because they have always been ahead of the curve. Wow, what a revolutionary concept, simple is better!

Face it, Jobs and his team are pure genius.People thought Apple was doomed when they introduced a Mac with no floppy drive. Was Apple the first? Maybe not, but it was a genius concept to have an entire company reject the traditional and go with the practical. Practical does not mean reading a book to figure out how to use an Ipod.

Posted by: Eddie G at 03/07/06 10:39 PM | Reply
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I sent this to Microsoft, addressed "To Bill", and this is what he wrote back exactly:

"Which one of us is a multi-billionaire again?"

Posted by: himmler at 03/08/06 2:26 AM | Reply
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to all you mac nazis, apple comes out with a new ipod every six months. so you can't really talk.

Posted by: EasyP at 03/08/06 9:43 AM | Reply
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You know, why the negativity?

Geez...for those of you who yawned b/c of the "timeliness" of this post...some of us have two jobs or more, families, kids, armadillos, whatevs, etc., and aren't on the Internets 24/7/365.5 v.3. Okay?

I had not seen this, and this is THE FIRST place and time I saw it, and it's AWESOME. Thank you Scott Stereogum for POSTING it.

Posted by: melina at 03/08/06 1:19 PM | Reply
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hadnt seen it, thought it was funny. as for the haters, have fun at home tonight checking work e-mail afterhours on your blackberries. Ill be out listening to music, and then probably having some sex

Posted by: ogre at 03/08/06 5:00 PM | Reply
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uh...by the way, Steve Jobs is also a multi-billionaire and Bill is on the decline. Send that same email to Bill in a few months when his new OS comes out because it's an exact replica of Apple's Mac OSX.

Posted by: Roger at 03/08/06 5:56 PM | Reply
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Great video. I live in Japan and this a daily sorry sight. Too much information everywhere. The end result is less design, and absolutely no readers. Just check out Sony's site...it's indecent.
http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/

Posted by: Furanku at 03/10/06 12:49 AM | Reply
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this is so accurate it makes one want to cry, especially from deep within the problem.

Posted by: nz at 03/11/06 1:05 AM | Reply
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developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers...

Posted by: matias at 03/14/06 11:18 PM | Reply
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"Which one of us is a multi-billionaire again?"

Is it worth pointing out that Steve pays himself $1 per year and he's only been employed by Apple since 1997 (plus the years before he was shit canned)? The rest of his money is in stocks and stuff (he owns more of Disney than anyone else... good company to be a part of if you ask me). If Apple had of kept in on for the full 30 years they'd be in a much better position right now.

"to all you mac nazis, apple comes out with a new ipod every six months. so you can't really talk."

Wow, that's both irrelevant and false. Well done! The iPod was introduced in 2001, and now it's 2006 and guess what, the current iPod is the 5th Generation. They refine the model options regularly, and have introduced new products to the line up, but that just keeps them 1 step ahead of their competitors. Would you rather every technology company be limited to one product release every 5 years or something stupid? What help is that to anybody? Offering new technologies sooner than other people is a bad thing?

Posted by: Levi at 09/16/06 3:58 PM | Reply
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I think its interesting to note that while Microsoft clearly had a stranglehold on PC Market, Apple through the Ipod and other devices, has been able to regain itself, and ultmately pick up marketshare. While the appearance in most cases will be the selling point for most ("I like the Shiny one"). Its not to say that people are not informed, but social norms will be followed. I am a PC user, and happy, I own 2 ipods, which I also find useful, although incredibly limitating. In all Apple is doing well. Microsoft has had to change its initiatives, introducing the Zune will not take a significant share away from the Ipod. It would be best for Microsoft to accept this failure and focus on the next project...

Posted by: Dirk the Squirt at 09/23/06 5:53 PM | Reply
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