I'm a PC, and I'm a Mac. And I'm a Vaio?

We're a little hazy on the message Sony's trying to get across with their "Vaio C Series, the non-PC PC" campaign, but make no mistake about it, despite this Apple "I'm a PC, and I'm a Mac" ad spoof, Vaios really truly are PCs. Especially stylish and expensive PCs, yes, but that doesn't make them any less unreliable (and we should know, we've owned more than our fair share of "non-PC PCs"). Anyhow, in their probably-not-meant-to-be-viral flash ad (shown after the break), Vaios are the cute, fun-loving girl to the stodgy and farting PC, and the annoying too cool for school Fonzie wannabe HEY!-ing Mac. Of course, the greatest irony of all here is that the original ad campaign often depicts the PC as a sad, silly Mac imitator. The tables certainly have turned.

[Via TUAW]

[Zadillo @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:02PM]

Umm, one thing I've always associated Sony with is a fair amount of class (I also owned a Sony Vaio s360, which I generally liked as well). So I never imagined I'd see is any sort of official advertising for a Sony Vaio which includes a farting sound. Also, generally, as much as I liked the Vaio s360, it was still most certainly a PC, and I can't imagine seeing how they could be described as the "un-PC PC", unless Sony decided to really go full bore in terms of adding a lot more unique custom software, etc. to their Vaios.

[Ryan @ Dec 4th 2006 7:02AM]

Sony?? Class?? You've got to be kidding me!

[Mikey @ Dec 4th 2006 10:32AM]

I have a Vaio at home, and somewhat agree with the first post. They were better, but now they are losing their edge.

Still, it upsets me that it only lets the PC fart twice. :-(

[Dave @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:02PM]

Sony should go with a teenage boy. It overpromises its capabilities. Underdelivers the finished product. Comes loaded with DRM and all sorts of other nasties. And when you leave the house, it burns the place down.

[Paul @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:04PM]

This comment made me crack up laughing, its perfect for the post. I loved it.

[Nick @ Dec 4th 2006 2:56AM]

maybe the funniest comment ive ever read on engadget

[exodus @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:04PM]

I'm still just don't get Mac vs PC. Once mac switched from powerPC processors... what makes them any different? MacOS? Last I checked it wasn't Windows that made a PC a PC.

[Zadillo @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:50PM]

No, Windows isn't technically what makes a PC a PC, and the switch from PowerPC to Intel didn't necessarily change much of the distinction either (it's not like when Macs ran on 68k or PPC processors they weren't PCs).

But of course, we're not talking about the technical definition of what PC or personal computer means. In common usage, it is normally pretty understood that when people talk about the PC, they are not talking about any personal computers, but specifically personal computers running Windows. In that sense, even a "PC" with Linux isn't specifically what a lot of people think of when they hear and use the term.

[Javaflash @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:06PM]

Does that ad imply she farts, too?

[Porkchop Flavored Cupcake @ Dec 4th 2006 2:14AM]

If you notice where her left hand starts to go as she giggles, ummmm, no it aint farting she's into my friend. She wants to party.
Oh yeah.

[Ed T @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:07PM]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Do the Japanese know that adage? This ad is as lame to American audiences as Apple's Japanese versions of Get a Mac.

I've always been amazed at how Sony, a company with tremendous resources and engineering talent, cannot do software to save their life. Every product they sell with interface software sucks to high heaven. Cameras, DVD players CD changers, you name it, the software that connects to the rest of the world just sucks. Yes Vaios are decent machines, but they run lousy software and using them with other Sony products is a joke.

[Chris @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:08PM]

IS that the girl from mythbusters??

[Andrew Damin @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:14PM]

rofl my copters! sonys back and hes brought his skanky girl friend!
ahhhh!

[ryan @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:24PM]

where's the ad where her battery bursts into flames?

[Eric M @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:33PM]

And I'm a rootkit!

[DM @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:45PM]

"I'm a PC, I'm a Mac, I'm a VAIO", that's all bullcrap. They are all the same. It's just a matter of preference.

[you will shut up and you will like it @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:49PM]

i have a vaio tx that is amazing in size and style, and some dweeb (who is the image of apple) making fun of the pc like it aint cool and shit pissed me off to no end, especially when everyone is asking me questions about the laptop and complimenting it whenever im using it on a plane or train. the vaio is not that dorky pc, i am not that dorky nerdy guy they try to make people think u are if own a pc.

of course it goes without saying windows is a OS, and the mac is a computer, so its a little unfair to the different manufacturers that use the windows OS.

[Jayson @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:54PM]

Maybe she is laughing because she just did one of those "silent but deadly" ones to rival the PC.

[daedric @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:55PM]

lol, funny thing is that the only laptop that explodes are Macs and Dells! Apple definitely needs to learn how to make a charger before doing anything else.

[Boris @ Dec 4th 2006 12:47AM]

eh, actually I believe just about every major laptop manufacturer excluding HP had to recall thousands of Sony batteries, including Toshiba and Sony itself

as for the power connector/adapter, Apple did come up with "MagSafe" which is extremely overhyped, but still a nice, useful feature that no one else thought of first

[Jordan Orelli @ Dec 5th 2006 4:14PM]

Macs and Dells were exploding because of the Sony-made rechargeable batteries. Do you honestly think that Sony computer don't use the same lithium ion cells? Those same batteries were in many Vaios and there were reports of Sony laptops exploding too, just not as many because there aren't as many on the market.

[Eh @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:56PM]

Ok, I get the whole "Im a Mac" parody stuff since Apple was just begging to have their product be made fun of with an ad like that, but what I dont get is why the hell they turn their backsto you and then you "pinch" them which results in a strange 1 frame animation. What is that supposed to mean? Maybe mines broken.

[chenry @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:58PM]

Hi, I'm a Sony Viao an airheaded chick with terrible fashion sense?

[crypt @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:59PM]

Hi, Im a Pc, and Im a Mac,

And Im Sony The Non-(P)ersonal (C)omputer (P)roprietary (C)rap

[Alan Mooiman @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:59PM]

Be careful, she might seem cute, but she'll really screw you over one day.

[Yuusou @ Dec 4th 2006 12:01AM]

Sony engineers did help design the Powerbooks. So, I'll look pass this one. :p

[liorean @ Dec 4th 2006 12:06AM]

"lol, funny thing is that the only laptop that explodes are Macs and Dells! Apple definitely needs to learn how to make a charger before doing anything else." -- daedric


Ever noticed which company manufactured those batteries? That's right, SONY!

[Big C @ Dec 4th 2006 12:12AM]

Engadget you are a little late with this, Digg had this a couple of days ago. So what does it say when Engadget posts an article about a corporation immitating/ ripping off another corporation. Engadget please get your act together.

-long time reader

[John Doe @ Dec 4th 2006 1:47AM]

Please do us all a favor and STFU. Some of us don't have the time to spend browsing every damn site on the net. I really don't give a shit if this is a couple days old. I didn't hear about it until now and AFAIC that is all that matters.
Dumbass.

[Ryan Block @ Dec 4th 2006 5:24PM]

Sorry, we had real news to cover, we can't always stop the presses (so to speak) to hit minor stuff like this that runs on a Sunday night (hint hint).

[Sam @ Dec 4th 2006 12:14AM]

Yeah seriously, it's not the chargers that were making the Apples flame up. It was the Sony batteries. The Apple chargers are some of the most advanced in the business.

[Tom @ Dec 4th 2006 12:21AM]

Do Apple chargers charge devices wirelessly? Or serve a continental breakfast?

No? They just charge stuff? Wow, I was expecting a lot more for the "most advanced" chargers in the business. Shame on me.

[Mike @ Dec 4th 2006 9:07AM]

"Most advanced" does not necessarily means "with the highest number of gadgets".
And for the Apple charger, the were the ones who first came up with a charger that can be pulled out suddenly without breaking it or the computer.
So yes, shame on you

[Dixonij @ Dec 4th 2006 12:32AM]

I have to say the most ironic thing is the ad under the post was one of the new rounds of Mac ads.

Other than that, way to go Sony for trying to cash in on an ad campaign that has already ran its course. Will it really spur people to go consider a Vaio? I highly doubt it.

[daedric @ Dec 5th 2006 1:53AM]

LOl, well I'm not sure if you're getting it in the head, maybe you're like the airhead chick on the ad, but I specifically stated that Apple and Dell are the ONLY ones with exploding batteries. Do you know what that means? It means that they are the ONLY ones with exploding batteries. Recalling laptop batteries somehow mean that they had exploding laptops due to batteries? Give me an article on any other companies with exploding laptops due to Sony batteries and you can talk. Apple are poor quality products with poor quality material inside just like the cheap Dell materials. Blaming Sony is like blaming knife makers because someone got stabbed by a knife.

[vakerrokero @ Dec 4th 2006 1:13AM]

I'm a proud owner of a Vaio Pc and I think the cool chick image is not the right one, you know what would be the right image for them? That old guy that buy a Porsche right after getting divorced just to get young chicks around him, or that middle age guy that buys that VW Jetta just because he saw that they give a matching guitar for free, since guitar are cool no matter what age, and you can "rock out". Or that Lady that goes to the gym & suntan saloons everyday to find that only a pair of silicone implants would make her feel young again after all those kids. Vaios are the same shit and are more prone to fail than "fat nerdy guy pcs" since their tried to make everything propietary and charge a little more for that, I've had to replace my notebook's fan twice in 2 years and they cost me $60 for a $3 fan with a sealed aluminum case Sony enjoys to use. Thank god they haven't decided for a propietary Os, imagine what a eye-candy-flash-based-smell-o-rama it would be!

[David @ Dec 4th 2006 1:26AM]

"It's my sex box, and her name is Sony (VAIO)."

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Dec 4th 2006 4:14AM]

I hope it would look better than that wasted/stoned [self-censored] [self-censored] that Opera made out of models for their ads.

[Macinjosh @ Dec 4th 2006 4:29AM]

I swear to god, can Sony EVER come up with anything original??

And YES people, if a computer comes LOADED with Windows on it then guess what?? IT'S A PC! Even PCs that run Linux now came with Windows on them & are still PCs. Thats like saying "Im a Mac. Im a PC. And im a Linux?" Sounds pretty stupid, huh?

So, there are 2 choices here. Mac or PC. Thats it! Now, shut up Sony. Get back to making your root kits, copying Apple & Nintendo, and gearing up for your next proprietary format failure. Thank you & goodnite.

[jerk @ Dec 4th 2006 9:53AM]

I never understood the giant debate, they are all Personal Computers....no matter who/what built it. The joke is still a bit worn out tho.

[Rynth @ Dec 4th 2006 4:45AM]

Id sure like to play with the Vaio chick...

[E.H.Zatarga @ Dec 4th 2006 5:33AM]

I'm sure that as soon as you get comfortable with her pretty exterior and non-farting nature and plug in your cell phone interface connection, her battery gets hot; and before you can pull your male end, it blows...taking your little black book with it!

[Daemyon @ Dec 4th 2006 5:34AM]

I'm sure that as soon as you get comfortable with her pretty exterior and non-farting nature and plug in your cell phone interface, her battery gets hot; and before you can disconnect your male end, it blows...taking your dongle and little black book with it!

[Dean @ Dec 4th 2006 5:50AM]

Vaio, Vaio, You won't believe what I saw

[Asher Pat @ Dec 4th 2006 8:06AM]

arrogant apple had it coming with the cheap jibe "I'm a flatulent cool guy/Mac".

Apple's whole success is built not (only) on good products but mainly by cultish following of consumers who think that they suppport some non-for-profit missionary organisation, which is also a perennial cheerful and stylish underdog.

Wakey Wakey!

However, the color of Engadget is as usually revealed, and guess what, it's white!

[Tom @ Jun 29th 2007 3:36PM]

http://news.com.com/2061-10793_3-6026430.html

Underwriters Labs has been doing this for years. Apple's Magsafe charger is patent-pending because in order to get a patent, you have to be the first one with the idea. The patent originates from 2001, held by Underwriters.

Shame on you for not doing your research.

[Tom @ Dec 4th 2006 2:44PM]

A. Apple did not come up with this idea. This feature was patented in 2001 by Underwriters Labs: http://news.com.com/2061-10793_3-6026430.html
B. Apple filed a false patent application, because you can't patent a product that was already invented simply by attaching it to something else.
C. An Apple charger is still just a charger. It might have a trendy little logo on it, but it does exactly what every other charger on the market does - charge. The innovative people in this case are the good folks at Underwriters - while it was certainly a good idea to include that feature, they were neither innovative nor the "most advanced".

So next time Apple comes out with something new, do some research to find out who the inventors are.

[Jarvis Slacks @ Dec 4th 2006 9:39AM]

People who own a mac know how badass macs are. They just work. I've had zero problems so far and I've had my PC freeze up just for me looking at it wrong. PCs are unstable, unpredictable, slow, and boring. And before you talk shit, why don't you get a mac and try it out. Trust me, you won't want to teach anything not made by Apple again.

[Asher Pat @ Dec 4th 2006 10:14AM]

Slacks, can you back your arguments by objective statistics?

Guessed not. Had you spoken to some IT dept people of companies that run Macs? Word is that objective, rather than wishful, comparisons are not that black or "white"...

[Brian @ Dec 4th 2006 9:50AM]

So is the PC only used for PORN? What excatly is "the PC" doing when you click on his back repeatively??