Whatever your position on the dandy personal computer vs. Mac question , one affair is beyond disputation : Macs have always had better commercials . ( Actually , has there ever been even one nifty microcomputer telecasting ad campaign ? The original IBM personal computer ads with a Chaplin impersonator , maybe ; the “ Dude , you ’re getting a Dell ” ones were more ineluctable than memorable . )

After a long drought of Mac ads on tv set , they seem to be everywhere at the instant , in the form of the “ Get a Mac ” effort with actors Justin Long as a Mac and John Hodgman as a microcomputer . There are now nine commercial in the serial , all of them entertaining and most of them riffle on three major whimsey :

macintosh are estimable at photos , video , euphony , and other playfulness stuff . Mostly because they all amount bunch up with iLife . ( Some ads utter about iLife explicitly , but even those that do n’t seem to make reference to its spiritualist savvy . )

PCs are dorky . There ’s a grounds why the ad casts a young , tailored , handsome guy as a Mac and a stout , older , ill - dressed geek as a PC . ( John Hodgman turns 35 this month , apropos , but he has the soulfulness of a halfway - aged man ; Justin Long just turn 28 . ) So many blogs have commented on the actors ’ resemblance to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs — who have served as applied science ’s Mr. Nerd and Mr. Cool for more than three decades — that I ’ll just move on here .

microcomputer are good at business tasks . It ’s the one favorable thing about PCs you ’ll hear in these ads — the PC never gets a chance to point out that he runs more software system , is the only feasible selection for serious gamers , is usable in more form factor , and starts at a lower price point . “ stage business ” seems to equal “ boring ” here , so this idea is an extension of the “ personal computer are dorky ” meme . It also inoculates the Mac against accusation that it ’s less utilitarian in an office environment — for all intents and intention , these spots revel in that fact .

Those are the big ideas , but the advertizement make lots of little points about Macs and PCs . What follow is a humble attempt ( and an indifferent one — I utilize both PCs and Macs every day , and like ‘ em both for different cause ) to scrutinise their accuracy , one by one . select the titles to reckon video of the spots at Apple ’s land site ( QuickTime required ) …

Viruses

Stated or implied claims : PC are liable to get viruses and Macs are n’t ; PCs are prone to crashing , at least after they ’ve gotten a computer virus .

True ? Yep , pretty much . Even with security attack on Macs in the news program of late , the Mac is still a immensely safe platform in the real world . As for crashing , XP does it much , much less than earlier versions of Windows , and Mac OS X is by no means uncrashable . But it ’s still fairish to propose that PC , on the whole , are less stable than Macs .

Restarting

Stated or imply title : PCs and Macs both course Microsoft Office and they can share files . PCs are more … hmmm , I ’m not certain whether this ad is say that they are more likely to lock up , ask rebooting , or what exactly . Well , it ’s probably saying they need restarting , contribute the spot ’s name . But I ’m not sure if it ’s referring to reliability problem or the fact that Windows still wants you to reboot after adding sealed software .

honest ? PC and Macs do indeed both run Office , and getting data between them is unremarkably a cakewalk . ( But not always — I’ve grapple somehow to make PowerPoints in Office for the Mac which Office for Windows wo n’t spread out . ) As for the restarting scrap , it ’s still unfeigned that PCs are more likely to need rebooting than Macs … so I ’d say the basic idea here is vague but defendable .

comfortably

tell or implied call : personal computer and Macs both run Microsoft Office . personal computer are great at spreadsheets . mac are better at “ animation hooey ” such as characterisation and moving picture . take a crap a Web site or pic book is promiscuous on the Mac , and hard on a PC .

True ? Yep , Office runs on both platforms . I do n’t acknowledge if personal computer are better at spreadsheets per se , but business software is plenteous for Windows and somewhat sparse for Macs .

As for Macs being better at “ life stuff ? ” They certainly are reliably good at it , thanks to the fact they all come with iLife . With PC , you ’re either at the clemency of the producer and whatever it chose to bundle , or you ’re call for to choose and acquire your own applications . ( In which case you may choose from a bunch of options , a luxury that Mac drug user do n’t have . ) In any event , there are plenty of easy shaft for creating World Wide Web sites and photo books on a personal computer , so the Mac ’s unentitled statement that it ’s grueling is unjust .

iLife

express or implied claims : microcomputer can use iPods and iTunes . iPhoto , iMovie , and iWeb number on every Mac and work like iTunes . Windows issue forth with bundled apps like a calculator and a clock .

True ? PCs can indeed pass iTunes . The melodic theme that if you wish iTunes , you ’ll like the residue of iLife is jolly compelling . But Windows does amount an iTunes competitor — Windows Media Player . Many of the personal computer that Macs vie most like a shot with run Windows Media Center Edition , which summate a bunch of other multimedia system features , including some that Macs do n’t fare with , like the ability to record TV . And near any PC aimed at home user will come with at least a smattering of additional media - related tools .

Side Federal Reserve note : Showing the personal computer using the iPod is a clever ad - within - the - advertizing , particularly since it somehow simultaneously reinforces the notion that the microcomputer is a nerd , with his clumsy grooving and goofy belt clip . Oh , and for the disc , Macs also come bundled with a reckoner and a clock .

web

Stated or implied claims : It ’s well-off to connection PC and Macs . They can share Internet connections . The recent digital cameras from Japan work well with Macs . And maybe they do n’t with PCs .

True ? The poppycock about connection and sharing a nett connection is accurate , and a big reason why it ’s possible for PCs and Macs to happily coexist under one roof . But this may be both the most entertaining and least fair advertizing in the series , since it seems to say that PCs have trouble spill to new cameras . Getting cameras to speak to a PC or a Mac is pretty brain - numb simpleton these twenty-four hours , and there is n’t a television camera on the market — with the elision of Apple ’s iSight Webcam — that works with a Mac but not a microcomputer . An ad which claimed that PCs are more prone to have peripheral connectivity problems than Macs might have a power point , but that does n’t seem to be the claim here .

Side annotation : build - in memory plug-in readers are pretty much a stock feature on consumer PCs , and a boon for digital camera sports fan . mac do n’t have ‘ em , but should .

WSJ

Stated or imply claims : Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal said the iMac was the good desktop on the planet .

reliable ? Walt Mossberg did indeed call the G5 iMac the serious desktop PC in being . He says that the current Intel - found adaptation remains the gold banner in desktop computing , although his review has a few reasonable caution . Meanwhile , the advert suggests that when it comes to favorable reviews , the personal computer has to fall back to making clobber up . There ’s no question that the Mac line is the good - reviewed hookup of computer from one company , but if the PC was , oh , a ThinkPad , I suspect it could also marshal up a glowing review or two .

The above six ads made up the cause ’s first wave . More of late , they ’ve been joined by three more …

Out of the Box

Stated or implied claims : Right out of the box , Macs let you make movies and Web sites , and they have make - in cameras . With a new PC , you ’ll need to install unexampled drivers , erase trial software , and show manuals . PCs number in multiple boxes .

True ? The overarching melodic theme here — that Macs have a great out - of - the - boxful experience , and PCs may not — is fair enough . But it ’s light to pick at the details . For one thing , Macs also ask software program updates from day one . ( essay running the Software Update feature on a brand - new Mac and see what it say you . ) While Macs are pleasingly loose of obnoxious , in - your - brass selling stuff , they do come with preinstalled tryout software package ( namely demo of Microsoft Office and Apple ’s iWork ) .

And I ’m not certain what manuals the PC is contrive to understand — one matter that Macs and most PCs have in vulgar these daytime is that their documentation is somewhat darn skimpy . ( The affiliation of PCs with daunting manuals prompt me of an early Mac commercial , from the day when PCs did come with an avalanche of Dr. . )

Touché

Stated or imply claims : Macs can scat OS X or Windows . You ca n’t run Mac poppycock on a PC .

straight ? Most of this ad is devoted to a gag about the microcomputer not acknowledge the right use of the word “ touché , ” not the particular of running Windows on Intel Macs . The Mac ’s claim that he ’s a PC too is plausible , but if the PC had been on top of his game , he might have said , “ Yeah , but an fallible one . ” Apple ’s Boot Camp is still in genus Beta and has gotchas like the fact that it does n’t back the Webcam that the Mac quotation in another blot . Meanwhile , the other major method acting of running Windows apps on a PC — Parallels ’ virtualization software — allow you ladder many but not all Windows programs , but does n’t really turn a Mac into a PC from a hardware standpoint . ( properly now , for case , it does n’t suffer USB 2.0 . )

But when the Mac says he ’s a PC , is he talking about Boot Camp or Parallels , or both ? Hard to say . This advertizement ’s classy simpleness is infract up by a footer .

In vitrine you ca n’t make the disclaimer out , the top one says a Mac needs XP and Parallels ; the bottom one just advert XP . I ’m not sure what explain the disparity , but the one that only advert XP seems inaccurate by any standard , since Boot Camp is a download , not something that get along with any Mac . And it ’s still a beta with its parcel of glitches , which might be why one of the versions of the ad mentions Parallels , which is a shipping Cartesian product .

As for the call that PC ca n’t run Mac software — very true . And the fact that the Mac can do PC stuff but not vice - versa is a breaker point in the Mac ’s party favour , if a puzzling one in the context of use of this particular PC - bashing advertising hunting expedition .

bring vs. Home

state or implied claims : Macs do music , pic , and podcasting . PCs do timesheets and spreadsheets and Proto-Indo European charts .

That ’s all the ads in the series … and all the rumination I have about them . The commercials may be kind of broad in their claims in many cases , but theGet a Macsection on Apple ’s site supplements them with a lot of information which , while not an even - handed comparison of the two weapons platform , does do a good task of clarifying some of the shadowy statements in the ads ; it ’s a pretty good overview of points in the Mac ’s favor .