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Apple “Get A Mac” UK Actors, Another Ironic Choice

Charlie Brooker writes about the British versions of Apple’s “Get A Mac” ads (”I’m a Mac”/”I’m a PC”), and how the choice of actors in the ads, which match the American version nearly to the word, is a strange one. Either Apple was trying to be accurate yet self-deprecating, or they just don’t know what the hell they’re doing.

The ads are adapted from a near-identical American campaign - the only difference is the use of Mitchell and Webb. They are a logical choice in one sense (everyone likes them), but a curious choice in another, since they are best known for the television series Peep Show - probably the best sitcom of the past five years - in which Mitchell plays a repressed, neurotic underdog, and Webb plays a selfish, self-regarding poseur. So when you see the ads, you think, “PCs are a bit rubbish yet ultimately lovable, whereas Macs are just smug, preening tossers.” In other words, it is a devastatingly accurate campaign.

It’s funny, but the guy who plays the PC in the US ads, John Hodgman, is an accomplished New York Times magazine editor and writer, NPR reporter, and Daily Show correspondent, while the Mac guy, Justin Long, is a B-list nobody actor whose worked on Herbie: Fully Loaded, Dodgeball, and starred in Accepted.
(via Keith Combs)

UPDATE: Here’s a video of John Hodgman on the Daily Show, when John Stewart tries to get him to say his famous line. Hilarious:

February 13th, 2007 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | General, Humor, Apple | one comment

Office 2007-Style Ribbon For WPF Applications

DevComponents has released a Ribbon control, based on the Office 2007 user interface, for Windows Presentation Foundation applications. For now its in private beta (though you can download a fully functional free trial), but it features:

  • Unlimited color schemes
  • Automatic intelligent Ribbon resizing
  • Application menu support
  • Contextual groups support
  • Office 2007 controls included, like ComboBox, Check-box etc.
  • KeyTips support
  • Predefined color schemes Blue, Silver, Black
  • Office 2007 style Galleries support
  • Ribbon popup menu support
  • Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) with customization
  • Keyboard navigation

It’s fully compliant with the Office 2007 user interface guidelines, so if you are designing a professional WPF application, this looks like it would be an extremely easy way to get some professional UI into your app. Based on their price of $214 for a single developer license for their DotNetBar control (which does the same thing for richer applications), this can be written off in the amount of development/design time it saves, I’m guessing.
(via the Public Sector Developer blog)

February 13th, 2007 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | General, Applications, Office, Developers | no comments