OMG - The UK has its own Mac Ads!

Let me sit down.... Apple have launched a whole series of Mac Ads on the UK website. The UK ads are similar to the US based ads but they've only gone and hired "Mitchell and Webb", one of the latest hot properties on the UK comedy scene - "That Mitchell and Webb Look" We've seen the occasional iPod and iTunes ads over here in the UK but a real Mac ad - well I can't remember ever seeing one! OMG - does this mean they'll actually start transmitting them on TV in the UK! Surely they must intend to after hiring such a high profile pair? Some of the UK ads are exact copies of the US versions and to be honest, these are the ones that seem to work the best for me. It will be interesting to see how these new ads go down with the UK public of whom I would guess that 99.9% have never seen the US ads (or possibly don't even know Apple does something else other than the iPod). Now I know the Apple marketing machine is full of really creative and talented people and this has probably been discussed to the nth degree but I'm not convinced using such a well known pair is such a good move? But hey, credit were credit is due and anything that raises the profile of the Mac in the UK has gotta be a good thing! They even mention "Mac OSX" in one of the Ads. It's OK, I'll be all right in a minute once I've stopped feeling giddy!

Technorati Tags: Apple, osx

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Single Line RSS Feed ....Grrrrr

I'm with Ethan on this one

I’d like to start a movement: Everyone should unsubscribe to any blog or RSS feed source which does not provide a full-text feed for free. I’m sick and tired of being counted as a subscriber when the feed is next to useless.

BlackRimGlasses

Its one of my pet peeves too!

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Apple TV Made A Slow Start But is Gaining Momentum

The Apple TV is a time-shifting media viewer that allows me to buy only the media content I want to watch, when I want to watch it, with pause/rewind/fast forward, at a reasonable price, with no monthly subscription fee, small hardware footprint, works with Macs and PCs, automatically downloads my season passes when available, doesn't require any BS to move it to my iPod or another computer, could very well stream "live" television like news and sports (as it does movie previews), supports HD, I only pay for content not service, doesn't force me to watch commercials, and gives me back 18 minutes of my life for every hour I spend watching broadcast shows.And why would I want Cable/Tivo?So Apple…I am opening the door to my living room. Come on in.

» Is Apple Out to Kill Tivo? | Web 2.0 Explorer | ZDNet.com

Read the article on the link above, it makes for fascinating reading! Especially the breakdown of the costs comparison between Tivo/Cable and shows delivered via iTunes.

A few of things have really brought home to me just how effective the Apple TV may be:

• I really don't watch that much cable TV anymore. I've got a HD capable PVR which is full of stuff I don't really want to watch. I never watch terrestrial TV.

• Even though I get a weekly listings magazine, I rarely spend time to review it and sit down and program the PVR. There is too much cr*p to wade through and the overall experience of programming the damm thing is just too painful.

• Adverts - now the programs I do watch have got adverts but because I tend to onlt watch stuff that has been recorded, I'm pretty adept at Ad skipping. One thing that the article in the link eluded to has hit home though and thats the amount of adverts that are embedded in US TV shows. When in San Franciso early this month, the TV in my hotel room was barely watchable. Oh yeah, I watched some shows on my MacBook via iTunes!

• A previous post mentioned my current viewing habits i.e I've been watching two or three episodes of US serials but it's been a very manual process to obtain them and the quality is just OK.

• I'd gladly pay for a prepacked good quality format TV show minus adverts that would be downloaded automatically to the Apple TV. No programming, no having to review listings.  Just easy and seamless.
  

I also read that Apple have been suprised at the initial take up of the Apple TV and have allocated the original 100,000 units. New orders have been placed for 200,000 units with the manufacturer.

So, I'm glad mine is arriving in March and I'll be looking forward to see if the rest of the Family take to it.

Mind you, if we don't get some video content via iTunes here in Europe soon, it might not get that much usage!

Technorati Tags: Apple, Apple TV

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The hidden technologies of Leopard....

Check out this illuminating post from Blackfriars Link Ah good, it's not just me then who is expecting some pretty "off the wall" stuff from Apple in the next few months!

Technorati Tags: Apple, Leopard

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Apple TV - Resolutions

Been spending some time worrying about the dearth of HD content via the Apple TV for us folks here in the UK. Over the weekend I watched about 8 episodes of a certain US based TV series all about humans with special powers. Excellent series by the way. The thing that struck me was just how good the shows looked on my 50" HDTV. The shows were encoded at a resolution of just 624 x 352 and the file size averaged at around 350MB per episode. They looked fine, nowhere near HD quality but the content drew me in. Perhaps I shouldn't worry too much about HD content and it will be a bonus when it finally does arrive either via iTunes or other avenues!

Technorati Tags: Apple, Apple TV

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