We recently saw a new “Get a Mac” TV commercial that made Jenny and I look at each other and say, huh? It was their “Misprint” ad where ‘PC’ is calling PC World magazine to correct the fact that in a recent article they said that the MacBook Pro was the fastest laptop that they have tested running Microsoft Vista. Yes, that is correct, you can run Vista (or XP) on Mac hardware using Bootcamp.

We weren’t sure we even heard the commercial correctly so I did some research. First the hardware. PC World said that the laptop configuration they tested cost $2949, but if you go to the online Apple store and configure the same thing it costs $3499. Turns out RAM is VERY expensive from Apple and the upgrade to 4 GB costs $700! Come on Apple, $700 for 4 GB of RAM, get real. I’ll cut PC World a break and assume they bought their RAM from someone else for $150 to get to their price. But they are still forgetting to add $220, which is the retail cost of Windows Vista that you have to pay to run it on your Mac. That makes the cost $3169. WOW, that’s one heck of a laptop and if I’m paying that much it better be fast no matter what OS I’m running.

But what is Apple trying to say? That isn’t a rhetorical question; I’m really not sure. Are they saying that Apple makes better hardware than Microsoft? That’s easy since Microsoft doesn’t sell hardware. Are they saying that Mac OS X is better, faster, easier then Vista? Well, then why would you make claims about how fast Vista is on your hardware? Are they trying to convince you to buy their hardware and run Windows on it? That doesn’t sound so bad for Microsoft since they don’t sell hardware and that would be a full retail version of Windows. I’m pretty sure their margins are pretty good on manufacturing those DVDs. I give up, I just don’t get this commercial.

I’m not done yet though. While on Apple’s website I found their list of “Thinking about upgrading to Vista? Even more reasons to get a Mac.”

1. No upgrade nightmares. Basically they say that Mac OS X runs on seven year old Mac hardware so you won’t need to upgrade your hardware. But this is supposed to be people thinking about upgrading to Vista, who I would assume would be PC users, and you can’t run Mac OS X on a PC. So that guy probably doesn’t have a seven year old Mac laying around that isn’t made into a MacQuarium. (Lisa, please can we make yours into a Macquarium for the kids.)
2. You can even run Windows. That is #2? You can buy both? So basically they are saying that it’s hard to survive in the world dominated by Windows. That doesn’t make me want to switch to Mac too badly if I still have to deal with Windows.
3. It’s simpler. No complaints here. This is actually a valid reason.
4. You don’t have to buy new stuff. They say that all your hardware (printer, camera, cellphone) will work with a Mac. True that most stuff does work these days, but this a deficiency that they have improved recently. Microsoft is still the dominant platform and has a high compatiblity rate. For example, my logitech webcam isn’t supported on Mac.
5. Know iTunes? You know Mac. Maybe if I used it I’d be more impressed.
6. Macs run Microsoft Office. A second item on the list that would generate revenue for Microsoft. And it’s Office 2004 by the way which is soon to be 4 years old. How about a nod to something like OpenOffice that is free? That’s what I recommend on Windows systems.
7. You can take it with you. I’m fuzzy on this one too since it sounds like they are saying they can do what everyone else can do, not how they are better. They talk about how Apple has adopted computing standards for things like files and they give the example of Microsoft Office files working on the Mac. Really, I didn’t know that the Office format was a standard other than being the de facto.

I’m not trying to debate which OS is technically superior here, just taking a look at the marketing campaign. So come on Apple. You’ve got so many loyal fans whom you’ve inspired (and who are probably ready to let me have it in the comments), but this is what you try to convince me with?

I know some of you out there have been waiting for the full story on Black Friday this year since I had mentioned before that I was planning to camp out at Best Buy. This year I was shopping for a desktop for Jenny’s Grandma, a desktop for my parents, and a laptop for Jenny’s brother Zach who is graduating from high school this year. Since I had so many ‘orders’, I wanted to make sure that I was in the front of the line to guarantee that I would get what I wanted. So Thursday morning, yes that was Thanksgiving day, before the girls woke up I rolled out to stake out my spot at Best Buy. I swung by the one in the Arboretum first and there were already about 5 people there at 8 AM. So I passed on that one and went straight to the I-35 and Parmer Lane location. There I found a father and son team setting up a tent so that made me 3rd in line. It would have been fun to be first, but it was worth it to have those guys be so happy that someone else was crazy too. Being a Black Friday veteran, I knew that lawn chairs get uncomfortable and that lying in a sleeping bag on concrete isn’t all that pleasant either, so I unloaded my Lazy-Boy recliner and set up shop.

There were record highs the days leading up to Thanksgiving and the day before was up to 90 degrees. Unfortunatly, though, a cold front moved in for Thanksgiving and there was a 10 mph wind the entire time. We had planned on the girls coming to hang out and play for most of the day, but they were only able to stay for 20 minutes or so and drop off McDonald’s for lunch. By noon the line had filled to about 15 which was the minimum number that they had for most of the computers. Most people showed up all excited and spent 15 minutes in the wind before realizing they weren’t prepared for the night and then went walking down to Sears, which was open on Thanksgiving, and bought tents. We had a good time waiting, though, and spent most of the time just standing around talking. The father/son team, Tam and David, kept things lively. When I walked up, I thought Tam looked familiar and it turns out that we both do the same running club on Monday nights. David was about 13 and full of energy. He was excited to hear that I had brought a football. All the guys took turns playing catch with him until our fingers were frozen. It worked out pretty well to end up at that location because the Office Max next door was still under construction so we had port-a-potties available. Some people would go and make a run for food or bathrooms to the nearby McDonalds and others would go sit in their cars to warm up. I’m a purist though and held my spot continously. You might be wondering about what is acceptable. There aren’t any official line rules, so that is why I thought it was worth it to go early to be in the front and not have to worry about people’s friends coming and jumping in line later. But as in past years there really wasn’t much controversy. Someone started a list and wanted the front of the line to keep track of it, but eventually it got lost (oops). Since most people were in their tents at night it was pretty uneventful. The closest thing to a throw-down that we had was when the news vans from two local stations both showed up to broadcast live for the 10 o’clock news. Yeah, that’s right the news guys picked my location. You can check out the video, including the weather report, in our photo album. It got pretty cold for us down here and the wind had some bite to it. I ended up with some windburn on my face and my ears hurt from wearing a stocking hat for so long.

At 3 AM, Best Buy employees came out and went down the line handing out tickets for all of the big deal items. The ticket is a voucher that guarantees you that item as long as you pick it up by 9 AM. This process can be chaotic if you aren’t prepared as the employees aren’t always the best at knowing what it is, how much it is, and may even pass you by if you aren’t watching. My policy is, if you aren’t sure, take the ticket for the item because you can always give it back, but once they are handed out they are gone. This year I made a pretty good haul and got everything I wanted. I got 5 computers - 2 desktops and 3 laptops. If you were paying attention you would know that is two extra laptops. Well you see, they will let you get one ticket for each item. And they had a really good deal on Sony Vaio laptops, one which was just the laptop and the other was with a printer and case. So I got one of each. I’ll keep one and I sold the other one on eBay and made $175. And then if I sell my old laptop I’ll end up with a new laptop for free. Buying 5 computers takes time and it took them 45 minutes to ring everything up and make sure everything was correct. Then I rolled my fully loaded cart (5 computer and 4 printers) through the mob and out to the truck. By then the parking lot was a mess and traffic was horrible. I think camping out for Black Friday deals is crazy, but at least you know you are going to get good deals. However, I have no urge at all to do any shopping on Black Friday where you have to fight crowds. I made it home before the girls were up. In total, I saved 54%, close to $2000 on all of the computers combined.

Don’t miss the videos and pictures in our photo gallery.