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Microsoft 'fakes old Mac' to promote Windows 7

October 22, 2009

Microsoft appears to be using a picture of an Apple laptop on the cover of its Windows 7 launch documentation.

The cover of Microsoft's "Final Win7 Product Guide" shows a man sitting on his couch apparently using the new Windows 7 operating system on his laptop. His son - we presume this is his son and not a random child jumping on his head - is also excited by the new OS, so much so that he risks breaking his father's neck.

But canny-eyed Andrew Harrison, Reviews Editor of PC Advisor, noticed that the laptop in question appears to be not a recent PC portable but an old Apple PowerBook G4 Titanium - itself incapable of running Windows 7.

"I'm discounting Connextix/Microsoft VirtualPC as a solution, as it'd be too glacially slow to run any post-XP Microsoft OS," says Harrison, who once owned a couple of models of the Titanium PowerBook and is therefore intimately aware of what the back of one looks like - even with the metal port-defending flap raised.

See the suspicious picture below:

Windows 7 on a Mac

To make matters worse Microsoft appears to have tried to disguise the Mac laptop by crudely Photoshopping a Windows logo over the prominent Apple logo that was part of the PowerBook's lid design.

The Apple PowerBook G4 in question was current from 2001 until 2003. The first Mac laptop with an Intel CPU that could theoretically run Windows 7 was the 15in MacBook Pro from February 2006.

So either the man with the child on his head was using Windows 7 way ahead of time (in which case why, for heaven's sake, didn't he stop Microsoft releasing Windows Vista?) or he loves his PowerBook so much that he hasn't upgraded in around seven years.

Another explanation would be if Microsoft is suggesting that he owns a Mac but loves Windows so much that he has obscured the horrible Apple logo, and is only now ready to switch to Windows 7. Anyone else got a plausible suggestion for why else Microsoft would feature an incompatible, rival product on the "final" documentation of its most important software launch in years?

Microsoft has been accused of using Apple Macs in the past. We can't be sure of the veracity of the image shown on failblog.org and pictured here, but the possibility that the Mac in question could actually have been running Windows seems a poor defence of a company not even supporting its own Windows partners.

Microsoft Mac fail

This embarrassment tops off a rather red-faced Windows 7 launch week for Microsoft. At the London launch - held at a club called Hospital... - the company demonstrators failed three times to get the touchscreen Windows 7 PC to connect to the Internet.

The first two times it didn't work they blamed the PC for having a loose cable. The third time it happened - or rather didn't happen - they just stopped trying.

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Posted by Matthew Purchase on October 22, 2009 :

LOL, Dey has failed init, the used the Mac instead of a windows compooter!

Posted by Harley Street on October 22, 2009 :

Ha ha. Even they know the Mac is best! LOL!

Posted by Jim Gibson on October 22, 2009 :

Assuming you are asking a serious question here, the answer is obvious to anyone in the graphic design field. This image is a stock photograph and was selected because the interaction between the father and son (and computer) is emotionally engaging and naturally appealing to the eye. The designer assumed that once they removed the Apple logo, the laptop in question would be unrecognizable. S/he certainly didn't bank on the Apple nerds out there for whom no detail of Apple's hardware--no matter how minor--goes unnoticed.

--Jim Gibson

Posted by Joe Anonymous on October 22, 2009 :

I hope Apple goes after them for trademark infringement.

Posted by Dr Happy Mac on October 22, 2009 :

Stock image or not, it's inexcusable as part of a major product launch. What, MS can't afford a photo shoot. This sort of thing happens to MS all the time because they don't sweat the details. A similar error would never happen at Apple.

Posted by Sun Spot on October 22, 2009 :

Hmm, actually that looks more like a Sony Vaio. I'm pretty sure the PowerBook didn't hinge like that and didn't have an S-Video port on the back.

Posted by Too much analyzing on October 22, 2009 :

To the 1/2 wit who wrote this. You forget 85% of mac users run windows because it sucks to stay in leopard all day. That said, I have BOTH leopard and windows 7 and must say 7 is hands down better in several areas. But it is newer, so now it's up to apple to catch up. They, as you said, may want to show it can run on low powered hardware But it seems apple fan tards look all day long in desperation hoping to find something to make fun of ms with because they are insecure of their own favorite os. That kind of thinking comes from the deceptive ImAMac commercials who prompt teens and tards that the only way to gain market share is to make fun of the competitor. Also I the "son" is unlikely his real son. While there is no EXACT answer to why they did this, I think the best answer is it's JUST an advertisement, and what they use doesn't matter, but it's the people in the picture they like. My final guess is they probably erased osx and put windows 7 on it, lol.

Posted by FAKE PHOTO SHOPPED by poster on October 22, 2009 :

Oh CRAP. I just realized it is a Sony Vaio after all. I feel dumb now. And the picture is Photo shopped by the person who put this up. Completely FAKE.

Posted by holsten on October 23, 2009 :

@Sun Spot

Its not a Vaio the the model they used is an old Titanium Powerbook G4 or Tibook. Its a really old model, made way before the Aluminum Powerbook/Macbook Pro chassis you might be more familiar with.

Posted by CK Lai on October 23, 2009 :

What Jim Gibson said is absolutely spot on.

Posted by Dave D on October 23, 2009 :

That's no Vaio. It's an old stock photo of the PowerBook. Yes, Jim Gibson it's the designer who mocked it up but, as Dr Happy Mac says, MS really should have been a bit more savvy about using a rival product for such a big launch. BTW, I like Windows 7!

Posted by JAM on October 23, 2009 :

Its not a vaio I used that computer for 6 years its unmistakably a G4 Titanium Powerbook. MS use them in their advertising all the time because they get all their images from Getty and they are used in Getty stock photos all the time. Thats the answer.

Posted by Will on October 23, 2009 :

No, this is not a Photoshop Mistake by the Microsoft Marketing Machine. What's actually happened it that said MMM has been duped into accepting an image of Steve Job's evil relative, Bill.

Legend has it that said evil brother has set out to undermine the Apple Empire by seeding apples with the Windows Gene and this is conformation of said undertaking.

Posted by PC and MAC user on October 23, 2009 :

It's sad that the Apple community must use these kinds of agency related mistakes as a rallying cry to defend an over-bloated total cost of ownership for a redundant computer. Hipsters rejoice.

Posted by xxx on October 23, 2009 :

Picture of the PowerBook G4
images.businessweek.com/ss/09/02/0211_outdated_tech/5.htm

Posted by steveballmer on October 26, 2009 :

That is a PC! A dell iotuck, they were just never released to the general public!

fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

PC Advisor staff
Blogger Daily news, views and thoughts from the PC Advisor staff as they put together the magazine. Collectively the PC Advisor team has over 100 years of computing experience, so as you'll imagine they're never short of an opinion or two.
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