TidBITS Publishing Inc., publisher of the Take Control electronic book series, is celebrating the 5th anniversary of the Take Control ebook series with a 50%-off sale. Cult of Mac readers are invited to take advantage of this special offer by following this link to access the discounted pricing. Discounts apply to all ebooks and are calculated once items are added to the shopping cart. The sale runs through October 14, 2008.
The Take Control series launched in October 2003 by publishing Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Upgrading to Panther” simultaneously with Apple’s release of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Since then the series has grown to include 58 titles and numerous free updates, bringing together nearly 8,000 pages of professional content from some of the top names in the Macintosh world: Joe Kissell, Glenn Fleishman, Matt Neuburg, Sharon Zardetto, Ted Landau, and Take Control publisher Adam Engst.
Take Control ebooks use carefully designed layout and typography for easy onscreen reading and printing. They also include bookmarks, clickable links, a feedback channel to authors, and a Check for Updates button that readers can click to access free updates. Print-on-demand versions are available for most titles, and steep discounts are available for classroom and library copies.
Engst is grateful to have been able to keep the series alive for five years and commented, “the people who really deserve credit for Take Control’s success are the readers who trusted us enough to buy our first ebooks and who kept coming back for more. As much as we put a huge amount of thought and design work into making our ebooks more than just digital versions of print books, we know it was leap of faith for many people to try a PDF-based ebook.”
Written by Lonnie Lazar on October 6th, 2008 with no comments.
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Image by LuisDS via Flickr
Flickr user LuisDS discovered metadata on the creative copy of the “stereotyped PC user” and other photos appearing on Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” website that reveal they were produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3.
Microsoft code monkeys scrubbed the identifying information from the website stills overnight.
Via RoughlyDrafted
Written by Lonnie Lazar on September 19th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Advertising and Apple and News and Quickies.
Image by LuisDS via Flickr
Flickr user LuisDS discovered metadata on the creative copy of the “stereotyped PC user” and other photos appearing on Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” website that reveal they were produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3.
Microsoft code monkeys scrubbed the identifying information from the website stills overnight.
Via RoughlyDrafted
Written by Lonnie Lazar on September 19th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Advertising and Apple and News and Quickies.
PC user in “I’ve got a beard” shocker!
Leander already wrote about the new Microsoft ads, noting that they convincingly portray “the PC as part of global culture, unpretentious and down-to-earth”.
But, really, they say very little. Instead of finding these adverts a refreshing antidote to the brash and somewhat tiresome arrogance of Apple’s ads, they just come across as a feeble and overly defensive response, like a weedy geek whimpering “stop picking on me, dammit!” Microsoft should have blazed on to the scene, proving its worth and reasoning why it’s better than Apple, or at least hammered home its point with a little humor.
Instead, we get dry, by-the-numbers, designed-by-committee adverts that are borderline nauseating. Little more than a self-congratulatory pat on the back, they tell us what we already know: lots of people use PCs, and PCs can be used for diverse things. Thrilling. They don’t say lives can be made better by using PCs, nor do they provide any compelling reason whatsoever to check out Microsoft’s output over the competition. (Possible exception: beard lovers.) They’re also dull, unimaginative and unoriginal, riffing weakly off of Apple’s ideas, rather than Microsoft coming up with its own. While that might make them very relevant to Microsoft, that doesn’t make them good adverts.
Apple’s gains on Microsoft haven’t been down to advertising—in fact, one might argue that Apple’s advertisements actually put many people off the brand. Instead, they’ve been down to user experience, and rallying against complacency. Until Microsoft can offer similarly persuasive arguments, I can’t see its adverts convincing anyone to stick with ‘PC’, let alone switch to it.
Written by Craig Grannell on September 19th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Advertising and Media and Opinions.
PC user in “I’ve got a beard” shocker!
Leander already wrote about the new Microsoft ads, noting that they convincingly portray “the PC as part of global culture, unpretentious and down-to-earth”.
But, really, they say very little. Instead of finding these adverts a refreshing antidote to the brash and somewhat tiresome arrogance of Apple’s ads, they just come across as a feeble and overly defensive response, like a weedy geek whimpering “stop picking on me, dammit!” Microsoft should have blazed on to the scene, proving its worth and reasoning why it’s better than Apple, or at least hammered home its point with a little humor.
Instead, we get dry, by-the-numbers, designed-by-committee adverts that are borderline nauseating. Little more than a self-congratulatory pat on the back, they tell us what we already know: lots of people use PCs, and PCs can be used for diverse things. Thrilling. They don’t say lives can be made better by using PCs, nor do they provide any compelling reason whatsoever to check out Microsoft’s output over the competition. (Possible exception: beard lovers.) They’re also dull, unimaginative and unoriginal, riffing weakly off of Apple’s ideas, rather than Microsoft coming up with its own. While that might make them very relevant to Microsoft, that doesn’t make them good adverts.
Apple’s gains on Microsoft haven’t been down to advertising—in fact, one might argue that Apple’s advertisements actually put many people off the brand. Instead, they’ve been down to user experience, and rallying against complacency. Until Microsoft can offer similarly persuasive arguments, I can’t see its adverts convincing anyone to stick with ‘PC’, let alone switch to it.
Written by Craig Grannell on September 19th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Advertising and Media and Opinions.
