Seinfeld curbs enthusiasm for Microsoft, goes back to Mac

Have you ever been hurt by a lover who went back to her ex?

Have you ever experienced that constant troubling frisson, even when you were with them, that it was only a matter of time?

Well, might I offer you a little televisual solace? Jerry Seinfeld, he who walked a mile in Bill Gates' shoes with the man himself, has gone back to his first wife, the Mac.

It seems almost a movie from an alien world to remember Jerry and Bill buying shoes and moving in with a normal American family.

I know some found these ads bizarre. I found that a good thing. And a very good thing for Microsoft. These movies were a delight, a departure, a signal of something that was finally different, a signal that someone was, well, thinking different.

Yes, they didn't last. They were, perhaps too daring for their time and their brand. But they were more viral than the "I'm a PC" campaign.

So to now discover that Seinfeld has appeared on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" with a MacBook Pro craftily centered on his desk is to experience something akin to a kitchen knife being sharpened upon one's spine by a recently fired busboy.

You can see a still over at TUAW, because I am too disturbed to show it here.

Although I have embedded a little waffle from Seinfeld and his co-starring minions explaining their enthusiasm for "Curb"'s Larry David.

However, if it is, indeed, remotely true that Seinfeld was paid $10 million for his aborted Microsoft ads, one might have hoped that he would have wondered if it was quite right to be seen with a Mac again so quickly.

Unless, of course, Apple paid him $15 million. Which they wouldn't. The company would have been more ready for him to pay it. So, Jerry, love "Curb Your Enthusiasm". But did you really have to? Did you?

[sartor1]

It's fun to see the old Macs in the Seinfeld reruns!
Curb + Jerry + Macintosh = Win!

[slickuser]

MS itself made some of their ads using Mac, remember?

[Mr. Dee]

Microsoft also writes software for the Mac and is considered the most successful third party developer on the platfrom. So whats your point? I am sure many Apple employees dump the crappy iWork in favor of MS Office for Mac.

[aka_tripleB]

I read that in a funny way

Curb + Jerry + Macintosh = Windows!

[Jourdy288]

@Mr. Dee
Dump iWork for Open Office. It rules.

[solitare_pax]

Agreed - Open Office does the job pretty darned well on PC or Mac.

[dowell100]

No news here. The Mac has been around for 25 years and has never got more than a 5% market share (except on brief occasions for a few months) in all that time. There is no reason to keep writing about those computers made by Apple, the music and phone company.
.

[cnetguard]

@Mr. Dee: Numbers is certainly inferior to Excel. Word is also much better than Pages in general, unless you use Pages as a page layout program where it has a small edge. But Keynote.... Keynote... it beats the crap out of PowerPoint in such an overwhelming way it is not even funny. In fact, it has been vastly superior since at least 2005, when I started using it.

[pcsrock]

Well the ads are great and all. What's really funny is walking into an Apple store, purchasing an iPhone, MacBook Pro, iMac or any apple product. Have you noticed they have no point of sales/cash registers? They walk around with these cool little gadgets (running Microsoft Window Mobile) no less, to process all the transactions at the store.

Funny how "There's an app for everything" except for running your Apple store :)

[cincytee]

Re: Apple store checkout. Visit later this year. Apple is reported to be rolling out a point-of-sale system on modified (with bar code and credit card readers, I assume) iPod touches. Apparently, according to employee comments, the Windows hand-helds proved rather unreliable.

[Random_Walk]

"Microsoft also writes software for the Mac and is considered the most successful third party developer on the platfrom."

...that used to be the case; not so sure about that these days.

(Incidentally, did you know that Microsoft pretty much got its start as a contractor for Apple?)

[man_w_balls]

all the Hollywood and TV people use macs
they have money to buy them

[ti99_forever]

Gee, Macs are not *that*expensive... and you get what you pay for, remember?

[slickuser]

exactly. you get what you pay for. pay peanuts you get crap from microsoft and their buddies like dell

[gwailo247]

You get a sense of belonging.

[alt117]

except apple gives Macs to many productions to use inshows, and for their production offices. Part of the half a billion $ apple spends on marketing.

But they didn't have to give Cnet a dime. they ran this promotion for free.

[cowhide--2008]

I love it when they have some kind of sticker or logo pasted over the Apple logo of computers they have on movie or TV sets. I guess it means that Apple didn't pay or give computers to the show. The producers and actors sometimes bring their own.
The prop department could find some dummy stand-ins but the Mac must go on,

[johninsapporo]

MS Office stopped being good after version 5.1. Now it's a bloated and disorganized monstrosity. Pages is brilliant, well laid out, easy to use and produces great looking documents. With Office and with a PC, I waste minutes thinking, "How do I ......?" With iWork and a Mac, I just get work done.

John Davis

[lazycat202]

john
when it comes to team collaboration and advanced functions, Office is top in the line :P
i've been trained with MS Office Enterprise products and it took me around 4 week to get to know deep inside of Office. yep! everybody could jump in and type, bolding, text size, etc.. all basic stuffs! But you need training to get to the point where you'd make Office works for you; as the way you want it to be.

[tektaktyks]

"You get a sense of belonging" thats a nice one

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

wow...always be able to count on CNET to post an article that has anything to do with the mac. macs are used in entertainment cause they look nice and the shows are produced anyway on macs.

[Drummer16161616]

I second hat

[tipoo_]

Second hat? Can i have one?

[CyR00k]

@Gold_Storm_Mac Apple has to pay to have their products on a show just like anyone else. While film editing is possible on a Mac (and any other computer) the Film Industry uses a lot of Linux farms.

[Inconnux]

the real tragedy is that they are remaking that idiotic show

[mrcjacobs]

I've been a pc and I've been a Mac. I found both equally as annoying and now I happily use Linux!

[vamman]

idiot news story

[sharmajunior]

i dont care about the story...but i do want to see Seinfeld on Curb your enthusiasm

[stale_pancake]

It's a prop, get over it.

[myles taylor]

Actually, while it is a prop, it's a prop based on the fact that movies are made using Macs and that's why you see them as "props" more often. It's an amazing amount of free advertising that helps Apple's image. Did you know that the inclusion of Reeses pieces in the movie E.T. was what propelled Hershey into the chocolate competition again? Don't rule out the amount of good exposure does for Apple. The fact that Microsoft paid out the nose for theirs, that they were confusing, had no PCs in them, and were basically a failure....yea what does that tell you?

[CyR00k]

@myles taylor systems used for visual effects and digital film editing tend to be custom built hardware with custom peripherals so Macs are not even an option in the film industry. Apple has always paid high amounts of money to have the protagonists shown with Macs even if they never actually touch the computer during filming.

[ckh1272]

@CyR00k--Funny. I don't remember Final Cut Pro running on anything other than Apple hardware. FYI, it is a mix of Linux, Windows, and Mac OS in Hollywood these days. It mostly depends on the specific task.

[myles taylor]

Go for it! Glad to see him back on the right team.

[lifelonglego]

The reason Macs are used so much in entertainment is that the creative types don't get computers or math or any of those "logic" related things, they are just interested in shiny toys.

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

wrong, cause macs are best for media due to all the technologies they have in os x. open gl, core video, etc.

[pjhenry1216]

@Gold_Storm_Mac: No, the reason macs are used is due to tradition. They honestly have very little left other than the fact that they used to be the best. Now that they run the same hardware, they really don't do anything better than a PC. Its simply that the industry used them before so its just legacy. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm not saying one is better than the other, I'm just saying make sure you don't spread rumors. Their older hardware had an advantage in graphical design over intels, however, they now use intel so they lost that advantage.

[baconstang]

I can't figure out why Jerry would go back to Macs. I'd heard he liked to spend his Sunday evenings cleaning up his registry and updating the A/V ware on the Windows box he got along with the $10mil.

[CyR00k]

Actually @lifelonglego most video production work is done using custom built farms running Red Hat Enterprise. Apple has always paid big money to have the products showcased on the side of the protagonist.

[lazycat202]

"wrong, cause macs are best for media due to all the technologies they have in os x. open gl, core video, etc"

LOL!!! i got nothing else to say! by the way, i love my GeForce GTX 275 1792MB & Intel Core i7-950 on Win7 Ultimate.
I'm still deciding if I'd buy PC version or PS3 verion of Modern warfare 2.

Best media due to all the technologies in OSx?? what a joke!! I'm not anti-Apple or MS. Both platforms have their own advantages.

[joe_suff]

@pjhenry1216 @CyR00k

Actually, most professional grade video editing is done through Final Cut Studio, a Mac program. Additionally, a lot of professional music production is done via Logic Pro, another Mac program. Go to any electronic/dance concert and see what system the DJ is using -- you'll get my point.

[lazycat202]

FinalCut and Logic Pro belong to Apple. No wonder Apple locks them up on OSx only :P

Video Editing: Adobe premiere Pro, Vegas Pro, Liquid, etc....
Sound editing: adobe Audition, Digidesign, etc...

I'm not a video professional and I've played with Adobe Premiere and Vegas. They're nice apps. I didn't pay for it. I got it off warez sites ;)

[studiodave56]

There you go another PC user, If I can't steal it I don't like it.
Mac users pay for their software.

[lazycat202]

the different is to keep it or not to. I didn't keep it. geezz! i buy the ones I like it. Since i don't do video editing, why do l need to keep video software for? I got a share of Office Enterprise products and Win7 with my company code :) that's why i didn't pay for it :PP

"mac user pay for their software?" what a joke! Mac users pay because they don't know where to get them from :P All they know is Apple Stores and iTune. That's it!!

[ckh1272]

@lifelonglego, CyR00k, lazycat202--Three uniquely wrong posts for three entirely different reasons. Assumptions about certain users habits, IQ levels, and such is just beyond ignorant. Hollywood uses a variety of OSs and systems these days for different tasks. Most "starving artists" can't afford Macs (unless you are also assuming all artists are wealthy). Finally, I (and many others) have plenty of places to buy Apple related software (as well as where I buy my Windows related software) besides Apple Stores and iTunes (for music and videos). The amount of ignorance on some of these posts is just plain staggering. Ragging people based on what they use is pointless and really degrades the IQ level.

[CupertinoBill]

"Not that there is anything wrong with that."

[stickfu]

+1

[egockel70]

Chris M is becoming the Lou Dobbs of cnet.com ... headline about Seinfeld using Mac, but won't embed picture because you're "too disturbed"? What's that about? Useless.

And passing judgment about how long Jerry should wait about being seen using a Mac? I'm sure there were plenty of clauses in his contract. What you can't get over is that you can't even buy someone's loyalty to a PC.

[bubba77777]

Actually, not all TV and movie character uses a Mac, only the good guys. If you look at what they use, it is easy to see who the traitor will be on many cop shows and movies!

[cbscowards]

Many shows I see use an aluminum-bodied laptop that looks very much like a MBP, except there is a globe where the Apple logo goes. Does anyone know if it is a real brand? I have seen it on several unrelated series.

[baconstang]

I've seen a bunch of laptops on TV that look like Macs, but with the logo obscured.

[baconstang]

They use what they really, really want.

[gary85739]

nice, wonder when guru Jobs will donate an equal percentage of his finances to charity like guru Gates!

[tm_anon]

He might already, just without advertising it. Like with his illness, the rest of his personal life could be off limits as well.

[dverlaque]

Of course, guru Gates was actually what we'd call (block it if you want, Cnet) and @$$hole. He kicked someone out of MIT because they were going to invent the computer first. He polluted the earth with chemicals and poisoned people. Now, he's setting up a foundation so that he'll be remembered as a saint.

[jture]

I think you're all taking this way, WAY too seriously. Just relax and use whatever you want instead of bashing each other about your hardware preferences. IT DOESN'T MATTER, people!

[tm_anon]

software preferences, not hardware. That's a completely separate subject.

[sdipaola]

yet another stupid cnet story.

It is Hollywood - it is an illusion. Where an actor sits on a set and what props the prop guys puts there says nothing about the life of that actor or his choices - like for instance choosing to be paid to do a PC commercial or choosing a computer to have at home.

[rapier1]

What kind of idiocy is this? He's an actor playing a character on a television show. The fact that the picture him with a Mac doesn't mean that he's endorsing Macs, only that the prop department had a Mac on hand. Does *anyone* really and honestly think that this is an endorsement?

[bloopit]

Obviously you are not that familiar with Seinfeld. For the ENTIRE SERIES, anytime you see a computer in Jerry's apt, it's a Mac. That's probably the REAL reason there's a MacBook Pro.

[The_happy_switcher]

Now THAT'S funny.