Google’s new ad goes full Jony Ive on the Pixel 5A headphone jack
theverge.com
theverge.com
They got rid of the jack, after making fun of others getting rid of the jack, and now they're bringing it back. The only way to go about that is to laugh at yourself.
This is funny.
The last Apple computer I owned was an Apple IIc. I used a MacBook Pro for work a few times, and just never enjoyed the experience of it. I just completely never got the same level of joy using it than I did when I first got the Apple IIc.
(And anyone who takes this seriously needs to go in for a reality calibration. Their distortion field may be misaligned)
I'm glad they kept the jack, though.
I don't know much about advertising. Why would they post the video in its current form on YT? It seems likely to be a turn-off to those who would otherwise be enthusiastic about the phone, and fodder for its detractors.
I won't be buying a Pixel, but I can certainly appreciate the fun the marketing team had with this one and I'll take it. :)
Also, if you're like me, you have multiple headphones/earphones (the earphones always with me, since I might not have a bag to carry the headphones). Thirdly, the adapters are not universal, and thus they won't work with all your phones (I always carry two phones with me: personal and work one)
* I have many headsets at home, some quite expensive, that I want to use directly, without any dongle hell
* "remove something so that people use a dongle" seems to become Apple's mantra which is really irresponsible given the current situation of our planet
* Apple's initial excuse "we removed the jack but made the phone waterproof" holds no water (pun intended) as other manufacturers were able to do it and keep the jack so it just makes Apple look lame
* people applauding Apple need to realize we had been able to use bluetooth audio also before they removed the jack, so the only result of their decision is the limitation of our freedom of how we use our device
I don't want to compare wired and wireless audio (including things like charging the batteries of BT headphones, the high cost of AirPods etc.) as these are more of a red herring and tangential to the main issue. The removal was clearly a customer-hostile move, that's all.
On a serious note, apple dropped 3.5mm because they acquired beats and wanted to push users to buy their BT headphones.
Some people even haced the first jack-less iphone to prove apple could have fitted in.
I just dont understand why other companies followed apple.
... however, having switched to BT for audio devices myself (receiver, headphones, and of course even cheap cars have had it for years now), I need USB-A on my MacBook a whole lot more than I need a headphone jack on anything, now.
Note: You'll need to watch more than 10 seconds of the video to understand the joke. The whisper voice echoes an English pronunciation of "Aluminum" with "Fancy Pronunciation," dispelling any confusion as to the seriousness of the ad.
If it was, the fact a bunch of Yanks are taking it seriously will tickle them pink.
It has the feel of the "With Bob and David" sketch that spoofs Shingy.
https://www.youtube.com/c/madebygoogle/videos
So if it's fake, the account has been hacked. And it looks like a lot of effort for a fake!
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
So whether mocking Apple was the goal, the ad pokes at a particular sore spot for many folks.
however they are mocking themselves because their "serious" presentations are worse than apples
Not that I think Google is any better, but it's honestly Apple that mocks Apple the best.
"Privacy"
Their whole image and pretentiousness is surface deep, insincere rubbish.
They are, in fact, literally mocking themselves.
If this isn't the peak of empty marketing-speak, I wonder what the next step is. To me that ad is so lame, it's only one step removed from a very slick narration of
"Buy our stuff. It is good stuff. Please buy our stuff."
Having said that, I’m probably not going back to Pixel. In 2019, I got an iPhone 7 Plus on EBay for a great deal. I also work on a MacBook and liked it so much I bought a personal one. My AirPods Pro work seamlessly with both the phone and the MacBook. Everything just sort of works out of the box and I don’t have to mess with anything.
If Google can do that and do it better, I might consider switching.
> I don’t have audio on
> I’m not the target customer if they’re after customers who really need a headphone jack.
Prototypical HN comment.
Mocking Apple by copying its style makes you look hollow.
Even back when Apple was mocking PC users, back in the infamous "Switch" commercials and "Mac vs PC", they didn't just copy the Windows XP style.
Like it or not, Apple has style. It also doesn't have headpone jack, but there must be better way of communicating it than "hehe apple dumb". Especially when Ive is not even there anymore...
> “a glorious achievement that draws from our past as it propels us into the future.”
Nothing tells that something is stuck in the past like focusing on one part that's no longer common on smartphones. I'd like to see what the ads for Google's wireless Bluetooth buds claim. When Apple removed the headphone jack, Samsung made fun of that too in its marketing campaigns. But guess what? It ditched the headphone jack too (as is usual for Samsung to do when it comes to copying the very things it ridicules Apple for, like user replaceable batteries, for instance).
Within a year, we'll see Google come "full circle" and ditch the headphone jack on smartphones it makes...assuming it's still into making Google branded smartphones by some means. I'm positive this ad will age poorly.