Do Bad guys ever use Macs?

[didymus]

Ran across this question on a blog – I assume, as many commenters speculate, that Apple pays product placement fees to have their stuff appear in films & TV shows.

But why wouldn’t Microsoft use the same strategy?

Maybe directors/producers are part of the snooty Apple “in” crowd who would die rather than let their daughter marry a PC user and do the product placement for free?

 

[Spencerian]

Ran across this question on a blog – I assume, as many commenters speculate, that Apple pays product placement fees to have their stuff appear in films & TV shows.

But why wouldn’t Microsoft use the same strategy?

Maybe directors/producers are part of the snooty Apple “in” crowd who would die rather than let their daughter marry a PC user and do the product placement for free?

Hi.

I’m a certified long-time Apple technician and consultant, so I get a laugh when this observation comes up.

Very often, Apple has done nothing in terms of product placement. Since the film industry uses Apple hardware very often in productions small and large for post-editing, it follows that the producers have a natural bias themselves in showing the Apple hardware as the reliable type. It doesn’t hurt that the computers are also readily available and their cosmetics are more attractive than most of their PC counterparts.

Shows and films such as “24”, “Independence Day” (the Mac was the star of the show there) showed Macs as the ‘good guy’ computer.

One other reason may be in the relative ease programmers in Flash and Director have had in creating the simulated desktop interfaces and operating systems needed for a show using a Mac rather than a PC.

Keep in mind, however, that what we see isn’t always what goes on. The Mac seen may actually be off or a dead prop, with effects grafted cinematically in post-production.

Here’s a website that discusses the issue and has a small list of shows and films that are Apple-heavy.

 

[DChacon]

well… i heard apple CEO say the other day that apple products will not allow pornography applications to be made for their hardware so i think evil will continue using PC … besides Bill Gates made his wealth by stealing apple’s operating system wile he worked for apple, so i guess you can say the windows is a product of evil and it infects every system you put it in.

 

[PrayerShark]

I had my university buy me a MacBook Pro when I started my PhD project. Four years later and it still runs as smooth as the day I first booted her up. No crashes, no malware, no slow down. The PC desktop that my parents bought at the same time, has had to be re-formatted 5 times in that same period. I’m not a Mac fanboy, but you can’t beat the beautiful OS X and the UNIX architecture it is built upon. I’m going to be telling the uni tomorrow its about time I upgraded to the new MacBook Pro.

It’s true what they say, “Once you go Mac, you never go back.”

 

[Spencerian]

well… i heard apple CEO say the other day that apple products will not allow pornography applications to be made for their hardware so i think evil will continue using PC … besides Bill Gates made his wealth by stealing apple’s operating system wile he worked for apple, so i guess you can say the windows is a product of evil and it infects every system you put it in.

Okay…there’s quite a few bits of misinformation you’ve got there.

Yes, Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, does not want the App Store (where iPod touch, iPhone and iPad devices can get free and purchased programs, or “apps”) to carry any app that is effectively pornographic. This area gets a bit touchy when they’ve blocked apps that are literary works with illustrations based on it, but so far, Job’s decision has been lauded. The Android stores, in comparison, are loaded with pornographic apps.

Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, did not steal the original Mac OS operating system. The company licensed elements of the Mac’s look-and-feel legally. When the product known as Windows took more liberties with the appearance of successive versions of Windows in comparison to the Mac without crediting Apple, a suit was made. Apple lost this suit by 1998–this was at a time where intellectual property laws in computer tech were still new. Today, Apple guards against such things very fiercely.

Windows is only evil to the programmers who have to support it. It’s a tough business there.

 

[DChacon]

Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, did not steal the original Mac OS operating system. The company licensed elements of the Mac’s look-and-feel legally. When the product known as Windows took more liberties with the appearance of successive versions of Windows in comparison to the Mac without crediting Apple, a suit was made. .

Ah… yeah he did thats why Steve fired him and thats why windows has so many wholes in it cause all he did was try to re-write the MacOS code it and called it windows, kinda like theres the true bible which is the Catholic bible and the re-written bibles which are the evangelical/protestant bibles thats full of holes and there info missing…

 

[curlycool89]

I had my university buy me a MacBook Pro when I started my PhD project. Four years later and it still runs as smooth as the day I first booted her up. No crashes, no malware, no slow down. The PC desktop that my parents bought at the same time, has had to be re-formatted 5 times in that same period. I’m not a Mac fanboy, but you can’t beat the beautiful OS X and the UNIX architecture it is built upon. I’m going to be telling the uni tomorrow its about time I upgraded to the new MacBook Pro.

It’s true what they say, “Once you go Mac, you never go back.”

Our families first computer was the original G3 iMac. Then we had a PC for a while, and found out that all I really wanted was another Mac. A couple laptops later and I’m on a new Macbook Pro now (the old ones still worked, I was just upgrading). Hey, it even came with a free iPod Touch (now I see why people love the iPod Touch/iPhone).

 

[colliric]

Okay…there’s quite a few bits of misinformation you’ve got there.

Yes, Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, does not want the App Store (where iPod touch, iPhone and iPad devices can get free and purchased programs, or “apps”) to carry any app that is effectively pornographic. This area gets a bit touchy when they’ve blocked apps that are literary works with illustrations based on it, but so far, Job’s decision has been lauded. The Android stores, in comparison, are loaded with pornographic apps.

Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, did not steal the original Mac OS operating system. The company licensed elements of the Mac’s look-and-feel legally. When the product known as Windows took more liberties with the appearance of successive versions of Windows in comparison to the Mac without crediting Apple, a suit was made. Apple lost this suit by 1998–this was at a time where intellectual property laws in computer tech were still new. Today, Apple guards against such things very fiercely.

Windows is only evil to the programmers who have to support it. It’s a tough business there.

One reason why the suit directly failed is because the elements in question were also being put in other operating systems by other software companies/programmers, such as linux, commodore’s Amiga os systems, various home computer Os systems. Or had been evidentually earlier considered by microsoft when it had infact helped design the 80s Apple Os software.

 

[colliric]

For example, the recycle bin, overlapping application windows, desktop(and moveable icons), windows with a close button and menus at the top, the Start menu(or menu bar at top of desktop), all were present in Commodore’s Amiga 500 operating system, also known as “Workbench”. So microsoft knew it was on a winner with that case.