Unfortunately, I absolutely loathe iTunes (slow and clunky) and am already perfectly happy with foobar2000 as my music player. Thankfully, I’m not the only one with that mindset..

One software which I’ve been using for quite awhile now instead of iTunes is called YamiPod. An acronym for ‘Yet another iPod manager’, it is a freeware application with versions for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It does not require any installation and basically runs straight after extracting it to a location of your choice.

For the first start of YamiPod, you would be prompted to select the type of iPod you have (and/or the generation). This would only have to be done once and it would remember the next time you connect your iPod. Once that’s sorted out, you would be presented with a simple interface which supports drag and drop from Explorer/My Computer (for Windows). Screenshots of it can be found here.

A list of other iPod managers can be found here. I have yet to try any others, so if you have tried another which you think is much better, feel free to let us know. :)

And for those of you who think iTunes is the best music player, do try out foobar2000. It’s highly customisable, extensible and not bloated with crap. You can check out the configuration I’m using here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What do the characters represent?
At the beginning of all the ads, the characters introduce themselves by saying “Hello, I’m a Mac”, and “I’m a PC” respectively. This in itself is already a contradiction.

According to Wikipedia, a Personal Computer (PC) is usually a computer with a microprocessor whose price, size, and capabilities make it suitable for personal usage. The term was popularized by (surprise surprise) Apple Computer with the Apple II in the late-1970s and early-1980s, and afterwards by IBM with the IBM PC.

The term IBM PC is actually closer to what people think of when referring to a PC. The reason for the commonly heard comparitive, “PC vs. Mac”, is because Macs originally used a non-IBM compatible processor. With Apple’s shift of Mac CPU architecture however, those Macs are now IBM Compatible PCs.

So the two characters in the ads are actually the same thing! In fact, in the ad titled WSJ, you hear the Mac being referred to as a PC!

The actual representations.
The ads actually leave the viewers with the impression that the PC character is actually Microsoft’s Windows operating system while the Mac character is Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. This is despite the fact that there are alternative operating systems that can run on a PC, such as a Linux based system.

A little more far-fetched is the observation that the character who plays the PC has a slight facial resemblance to Microsoft’s chairman, Bill Gates.

How is it good, creative, and effective advertising?
There are many different reasons for advertising a product, but the main underlying purpose is to generate, or increase, sales.

These Apple TV ads are capitalizing on the general public’s mis-perception of PCs, Macs, and operating systems to create a “Macs are better than Windows PCs” mindset in consumers. The next time a consumer thinks of buying a computer, they would recall all the portrayed faults of a Windows PC and be more inclined towards buying a Mac.

According to Apple’s 2006 3rd Quarter report, Apple shipped 1,327,000 Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing 12 percent growth over the corresponding period.

There are of course many other factors for increased sales; high iPod sales for one thing could lead to higher Mac computer sales because iPods work most seamlessly on a Mac. But Apple’s more aggressive and focused marketing campaign must also be credited with its increase in sales.

How is it bad, misleading, and pointless advertising?
Not only do the ads deepen the mis-perception that consumers have on PCs, Macs, and operating systems, they also present some inaccurate information!

In one of the Mac ads titled Out of the Box, the PC is portrayed as requiring additional installation/setup work and also having many redundant trial softwares while the Mac is portrayed as being able to immediately work “out of the box”. This is inaccurate and misleading in that it is the manufacturer who installs many of these ‘redundant’ softwares in the OEM version of the Windows operating system as part of their bundling.

In another ad titled Networking, the PC is portrayed as unable to ‘synchronize’ with the ‘digital camera from Japan’ while the Mac has no problems doing so. In reality, most (if not all) electronic manufacturers create products that will work equally easily on both operating systems.

So is this good, or bad advertising?
The answer is both.