This probably isn’t that funny to anyone else. But this morning I was mucking round with iPhoto’s face recognition function and trying to identify my good lady Sophie in a bunch of photos. As I was paging through them, iPhoto threw up this. It made me do big LOLs.
I honestly don’t know how I’ve accumulated so many. I really don’t.
Peepshow is one of my favourite comedies of the last few years, and Mitchell and Webb are inspired choices to play Mac and PC in the UK version of the Get a Mac ads.
I’d say very lovely.
That picture shows really how these beautiful (free) Mac icons look inside my computer. Imagine how cool I’d look if only I could be bothered to change all my file and folder icons. Damn! My inner cool is beaten by my inner sloth, again.
Great list of the Top 10 Best Presentations Ever, a pretty tough list to compile and they’ve done a nice job. There’s a few in here that I’ve seen before, and a few that I haven’t.
For Apple geeks of particular note is Steve Jobs launch of the first Mac in 1984, funny to see him presenting in a double breasted suit and bow tie.
As an aside I’m stunned almost daily at how much amazing video content is becoming freely available online. Martin Luthor King’s “I have a dream” speech in full is just one of those things. It’s starting to feel like pretty soon we’ll have access to a complete archive of the most interesting moments in film.
technorati tags:presentations, top10, best
Yesterday I posted this: Tony Davidson on Digital Creativity
I got into a bit of a rant about it. You’ll find it’s easy to bait anyone who works in digital in this way. In fact there’s probably a good sport in there somewhere. It’d be interesting to go blog-baiting and see just how much noise and repressed angst you could stir up.
Simon left a comment about how lots of digital agencies will end up as production houses, and you know what, he’s probably right. If you look at the US, you’ll see that there’s plenty of them around. And they do great online advertising. Really great online advertising.
But I’ve slept on it now and I’ve mellowed a bit. I don’t really mind what people think about the role of digital agencies. If we do good stuff and prove ourselves we’ll survive. And if we do really good stuff we’ll carve out our own special niche in the world. A ‘them vs. us’ argument is a silly thing to get bothered about. The debate about how the digital industry is going to pan out is as pointless as the never ending Mac vs. PC debate.
Ultimately it’s up to you, as a client, or as a computer purchaser to make your choice. You’ll end up with a different product or experience depending on your choice. I know it’s not a binary decision, there’s a whole load of ‘grey’ agencies in the middle who are in the middle, but focussing on that will ruin my analogy.
Anyway, whether you’re choosing a new computer or an agency to give you a bit of digital magic, you’ll either make the choice from the heart or from the head. Sometimes your choice will be based on empirical product evidence, othertimes it’ll be based on less tangible factors.
And no! I’m not trying to suggest that digital agencies are like Macs, that would just be spoiling for a fight.
technorati tags:digital, online, advertising, creativity, agencies
One digital life reports on a really neat promotion run by MacZot.
They reduced the price of the Appzapper application by 5 cents for every blog that linked to the site. Mac bloggers went nuts for it and the price went down to completely free. Sensibly it didn’t stay free forever; just for a limited period / number of downloads.
What’s so smart about this?
Smart work.
37 Signals pull out some highlights from the original iPod announcement thread at MacRumors. You can normally judge the reaction of Mac fanatics to Steve’s announcements by dipping your toes into these forums. This snapshot from 2001 show people’s reactions to the iPod.
My favourite:
I still can’t believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It’s so wrong! It’s so stupid!
As 37 Signals so rightly point out, Apple really should just have listened to their consumers. What were they thinking?
A really interesting look at the legenary Mac 1984 launch advert. I knew bits and pieces of the story, but not some of the finer points. And it doesn’t get much finer than (of the boardmembers it says):
“The others just looked at each other, dazed expressions on their faces…Most of them felt it was the worst commercial they had ever seen. Not a single outside board member liked it.”
It’s always good to remember that the opinions of a few are often not representative of the many…