Screen Grabs: Ugly Betty meets mutant laptop
By Thomas Ricker 
posted February 27th 2009 5:17AM
posted February 27th 2009 5:17AM
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posted February 27th 2009 5:17AM
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This has to be the first time in TV history when they do use a mac, and try to make it look like Windows
You'd be surprised - a lot of ads (or commercials for you US types) have MacBooks as the shiny-looking hardware, and then put Windows on it if it's displaying anything on it, to show that your everyday user can use whatever they're advertising. Tesco do it for all their Tesco Insurance ads and have done for years.
If Microsoft made Macs...
How about that annoying finallyfast.com commercial? I think there are three different Macs in that commercial, each "running" Windows. What's even funnier is that they have a disclaimer at the bottom of their advert stating that their services are PC only.
The finally fast one is what I was going to mention. They don't even blur out the apple logo.
And one more inconsistency to note, is that the icons on the desktop are from vista.
Um... Vista Icons?
And why is there a title bar for the wallpaper?
I remember an episode of This Old House where the host visited the shop making cabinets or something for the house they were building and noticed the shop was using an iMac running Windows. I guess the software they used was Windows only, but they like the all-in-one form of the iMac.
Yes, OpenThirdEye, I hate those FinallyFast ads. I never noticed the "PC only" blurb at the bottom, but I assumed a 2-bit company like that probably only supported precisely one platform -- 32bit XP.
The "My Computer" icon is from Vista, or at least it is close to it, but the folders are definitely not. Folders in Vista stand vertically.
I love it when the Mac in the finallyfast commercial blue screens.
Yeah did anyone else notice the Mac's BSOD on that FinallyFast commercial?
First of all, I'll never be first again I can't keep track of my inbox.
Secondly, I'll recaption."Finally a UI that matches the rest of the elements on the series"
On Dexter, he has a MacBook but the OS is like a Fake XP
Very Ugly.
Very Betty.
WOOF WOOF!! ON BOTH ACCOUNTS!!
engadget forgot to note that she's not ugly betty so much as attainable betty.
the irony is they probably spent untold thousands of dollars on the fake graphics when they could have just used the normal os and imported the image.
If they want to use someones brand/interface in film/television they have to pay a fee, I am guessing it was more cost effective this way...
Is it another way 'round?
Somebody get Ugly Betty some product placement...
looking kinda good, the real zam.....i mean betty's looking kinda good. yeah, thats what i meant...(looks around.....good no one is on to him.)
Or maybe they had their browser set to full screen (available in Firefox on Mac) and created a VERY cheap HTML or Java interface which would take, maybe, a few hours for a mediocre programmer.
@ Jack B
You don't have to pay a fee to show a product on TV. You just need permission. In fact, a lot of companies pay the studios to put their products on TV (product placement). Apple, however, has a history of not paying for product placement. So when you see Apple stuff on TV, it's not because Apple ask them to. The studio wanted it on the show. I think the only times Apple refuses to let their products shown are in pr0n and other "objectionable" contents. At least that's what I hear.
yeah, but that doesn't mean Apple doesn't strike deals. Just look at The Office. They have Apple stuff in there all the time, hell, they had a whole secret santa episode where everyone was fighting over an ipod. The Office got a spot during the iPhone introduction as well as the first video ipod. So whilke they may not pay, they do indirectly.
ok seriously @The Real Zam is your profile pic designed exclusively to make you look like an enormous douche?
not just The Office, It seems like Apple has had Macs, iPhones, or iPods in nearly every popular NBC show (and other networks too). I've seen them in Journey Man (best show ever --- those fuckers canceled it), 30 rock, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (also excellent, also canceled), Chuck, Life (best show on television), I believe lipstick jungle, and i'm sure many others I can't think of at the moment..
I think for the cost of cgi-ing and editing all that crap in they could have just, you know, bought or licensed a real laptop.
I think the vista desktop icons were left out of the happy little arrows edit. Plus the fact that the laptop itself is a G4 iBook, not just the power. Also instead of having to harass companies for use of their brands they could simply let a few producers have fun in paint, and that is what they got, the most ugliest OS ever.
Thousands of dollars? 50p says that the mocked it up in Photoshop, set it as the OS-X screensaver and were done with it. Is that the right relative position for the iBook power button... thought it was closer to the corner.
Ditto on the power button--or at least I thought. I just took a look at my old iBook, and turns out that is where it is on a (possibly slightly older than theirs) 12" (I think that's what mine was...). Mine was the little one with no space between the keys and the edge of the body, so there's also a speaker between the button and the edge (Imagine that! Holes for a speaker, instead of coming out of the nowhere!).
It's allmost like someone went back in time with the DeLorean and merged Microsoft and Apple. This is an ugly example of what disrupting the space-time continuum can cause...
They use macs and put windows on it and vice versa all the time in commercials and movies. They do it because they can't be showing preference to one company or another, unless of course they have sponsorship. For example, in Iron Man, his laptop was that now decommissioned huge Dell XPS laptop, and they showed the dell logo because Dell paid them money to feature their product in the film. Companies do it all the time.
So in this case most likely, neither Microsoft or Apple have any sponsorship with the show, so legally they have to show both products or risk being sued by the company not featured.
You also tend to notice that company logos on the case are covered up with a convenient Post-It Note or the like.
Sued by the company not featured?! I find it pretty hard to believe that this is even a remote possibility. Why on earth would it be an offence to show one company's product but not another's, but fine to do this if the first company was paying you? It makes no sense.
It's not that they would get sued for not giving equal screen time to both products, it's that they just don't want to give away free advertising. If you show all of your characters using macbooks, then apple is getting free advertising. So you give them some sort of Frankenbook, and that way they leave the door open for a deal with any manufacturer. Seinfeld was a major exception. I believe they did all of their product placement for free, because they thought that using real products would be more realistic / funnier.
I have to agree that it's not because they'd get sued, it's probably as simple as: they don't want to alienate any of their fans. The reason why they cross brand things(especially computers and such since fans of that tend to be more... hardcore) is because if they didn't they would make fans that support the other side(whether microsoft or apple) angry if they only showed one product. Kinda like what happens here...
I wonder what would happen if one were to click the top right [X]
The universe implodes.
I really don't see what the big deal is... an ibook g4 with isight is hardly a mutant laptop, and having an os made in photoshop in 5 minutes is nothing out of the ordinary.
There is also a Windows Vista My Computer icon on a Windows XP theme.
Same for the recycle bin. Those two have Vista's facing-left orientation, while the folders have XP's face right orientation.
Look remtards, why is running windows through bootcamp anything to do with cgi? thousands of dollars? Americans are dumb.
Are you fucking stupid? That Windows is doctored to hell. The operating system does not run in a window itself and the start menu does not look like that. This is either CGI or a really shitty skin. You are dumb.
That's not an intel Mac, so no bootcamp, and that sure ain't a real version of windows.
Read the article properly before commenting.
"why is running windows through bootcamp anything to do with cgi?"
Speak English, please.
I'm not offended because I'm American, I'm offended because you and I are the same species.
Was the remtard intentional?
AMERICA FTW!!!
My Computer and Recycle Bin are Vista style, while the folders are from XP.
actually they do stuff like this for a technical reason and thats because its actually pretty hard to flim a laptop from an angle like that and have the screen readable and clear. so they basically make the laptop a little greenscreen and put something mocked up on there. i dont know how they came up with such a screwed up version of xp/vista/osx
yeah, you would have thought one of the cgi guys new about cmd+shift+3....