That Mitchell & Webb iLook

David

So Apple's negative advertising finally hits the UK via [Mitchell & Webb](http://www.apple.com/uk/getamac/). The problem as always with Apple is its smugness. It seems to me that the success of the iPod only temporarily pulled Apple's head out of its arse before pushing it back in and even further up. The audacity to suggest PC's break a lot after the bug-ridden release of iTunes 7 and obvious lack of robustness in the iBook range is astounding. If ever the old tag of "Looks Good, Doesn't Work" applied, it does to this. People in glass houses...

Pete

I've never had a computer crash on me as much as a Mac did.

All fine and dandy until you want it to do something.

And Andy only likes his mac because it had Office on it

andy

I do like them, but it's really become a case of dislike least. PCs are a bit like flying Ryanair. You do it and it's cheap, but you'd rather fly BA. If money was not a factor, then I'd buy a Mac every time. But the unreliability I've suffered means that I'm really wary of buying another one. *Macs* *Things I like:* - I like the little bits of the OSX interface that don't work as well in PCs(expose, finder, etc) - Simple things work, like finding a wireless network and connecting to it - itunes, iphoto etc. I'm not a massive power user and these things do what i want. - There's an attention to design detail that is satisfying *Things I don't like* - Build quality. When it breaks, it breaks. They are practically disposable. - Customer service. Uniformly unsatisfying and my biggest issue with them. If Dell made Macs I'd be really happy. - Software. It was hard to find a contact manager. Some business stuff isn't good enough. - Office compatability. Whatever people say, this hasn't been seamless in my experience. Fonts and graphs render differently, making presentations look bad. *PCs* *Things I like:* - Everyone's got one. MS office works - They are cheaper than Macs - They do most of the job. *Stuff that annoys me* - It takes ages to start up, sign in, login, initialise crap. Mac is loads better here. - There's something about windows and the way it fights with other applications that rankles. There's a constant battle on our desktop pc between the HP and MS printer software. I just want to print! - Connecting to a wireless network is not simple. What's in charge? Why do I need to know what a bridge to wireless LAN is?

David

This is a good breakdown, but I'd suggest most of your PC annoyances are setup problems which could be fixed. _'Simple things work'_ neatly glosses over 'reading a CD' and 'screen working'. I think the difference is mainly that Mac aficionado's are willing to forgive a Mac and work through fixing the glitches and see them as minor/temporary glitches, whereas they see similar but different issues on a PC as permanently broken almost by design. This is all techy nonsense though, my real beef is with the smugness of Apple. If it was so great and so undeniably superior, why advertising spent dissing the opposition? Just get on with selling your own stuff. Smacks of fading Tory campaigns to me.

andy

they're all as bad as each other.