"I'm a PC" Commercial is Good... Seriously

When Microsoft first launched their new Windows Vista campaign, no one knew what to expect. And after the first commercials with Jerry Seinfeld aired, people were... confused. The commercials had nothing to do with anything (similar to Seinfeld's previous comedy), so that was essentially money thrown out the Windows (haha!).

Well, Microsoft is now in phase two of their advertising scheme and what results is an "I'm A PC" campaign, an obvious mock of Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads. Though I might be one of the few who think this, those Apple ads are far past their prime, and I find them excruciatingly boring now. This "I'm a PC" ad was actually completely refreshing, and I don't think anyone expected it to be.

The commercial is no doubt working towards the goal of changing minds about the PC, especially after the countless "I'm a Mac" ads that have put Vista in such a poor light. PC users aren't ultra-naive like Apple's commercials show, but are rather regular people, and as the commercial points out, they can also be hot freaking supermodels. Now I know why I use the PC!

Phase 2 of Microsoft's Windows ad campaign debuted tonight during The Office, and the latest work by ad agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky definitely beats the crap out of those (ill-fated?) Gates/Seinfeld ads when it comes to making a point. The point is simple: Not all PC users look like John Hodgman. Some are even sexy beasts.

Source: Gizmodo

NVIDIA Cuts 6.5% of Global Workforce

Just earlier this year, NVIDIA was riding high, but things sure have changed. The company is unable to catch any sort of a break, what with two different class-action suits against them at the same time for their faulty mobile chips, and the fact that their latest GPU launch was immediately dampened by ATI's surprising performance-packed HD 4000 series.

Well now the company has announced a cut of 360 employees globally, some which will affect those in North America. The number might not seem like a big deal, but given that NVIDIA has just under 5,000 employees, it's a rather high percentage. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang notes that despite the termination of all the employees, the company will continue to invest in all of their upcoming technologies, including CUDA and Tegra - technologies which we've covered many times before.

Although the booting of employees is never a good thing, NVIDIA seems to be treating their dismissed staffers well, with full severance packages, counseling and job placement support. NVIDIA might be in a tough situation lately, but they're sure to turn back around soon enough. Need proof? AMD did the same thing not long ago!

The work force reduction amounts to about 360 employees from its worldwide work force. NVIDIA employees in the U.S. are affected as well. NVIDIA also announced that it will take a restructuring charge of between $7 and $10 million in its Q3 financial results. The charge will be used to fund severance packages and related expenses.

Source: DailyTech

Google Breaks Into Top 10 Best Brands

The list for the top 100 global brands has just been published by research company Intrabrand, and there are many interesting tidbits to be found within. The first is the fact that Google's name has broken through the top ten list to become the number 10, up from 20 last year. Microsoft has fallen a smidgen, from 2 to 3, as the result of a  brand value change of 3%.

Most of the top ten hasn't changed in the least, with Coca Cola still taking the leading spot, with IBM gaining the number two spot. Nokia, Intel, McDonald's and a few others have retained their exact positions. Another leap was from Apple, who ranked 33 in 2007, but now have shifted up to 24. Given their ever-increasing growth, it wouldn't be surprising to see them inch into the >20 spot next year.

A few other notable entries include BlackBerry who sit at 73%... which is rather impressive since it's their first time being on the list. Dell gains a spot to sit at 31, while the GAP has dropped -20% in brand value to hit the 61st spot.

Google, Apple, Amazon.com, Zara and Nintendo are among this year’s top gainers in Interbrand’s annual ranking of The Best Global Brands, and not surprisingly, financial services giants Merrill Lynch, Citi and Morgan Stanley are among the companies that have slipped dramatically down the list.

Source: Interbrand, Via: BusinessWeek

HP Remains Largest Notebook Vendor in the World

Hewlett-Packard might be preparing to cull 8% of its workforce, but in terms of notebook shipment volumes, they're still tops - at least they were back in Q1 and Q2 of this year. In North America, their share was 21.4%, which turned out to be 0.5% short of catching up to Dell. HP made up for the loss in the markets outside of NA, though, where they scored 20.5%, while Dell had only 12.5%.

Other numbers found in the reports are interesting to take a look at also, especially if you haven't studied the markets before. Dell and HP in North America are really the only fierce competitors, with Acer coming in third with 14.4% and Apple in fourth with 10.6%, which I consider to be an impressive figure in itself.

Things change vastly when talking about the world markets, where Acer holds the second spot with 17.9%, with Dell in third with their 12.5%. ASUS, a company's whose notebooks I've come to love, hold 5.5% of the market there. Impressive numbers all around, but it will be interesting to see if HP can hold onto their market lead going into this and the next quarter, especially with these job drops imminent.

Growth of the 13.3- to 16-inch panel segment was the strongest during the period, increasing to 88.5%, while the larger than 17-inch segment saw its market share fall to 7.5%. The 10.4- to 12.1-inch segment also saw its market share shrink to just 4% likely due to the high number of netbooks introduced by leading PC brands during the quarter, DisplaySearch noted.

Source: DigiTimes

Tech Roundup - September 19, 2008

• AMD Fusion Gaming Utility - Bjorn3D

• ATI Radeon HD 4670 - Motherboards.org
• MSI R4850 512M Radeon HD 4850 - HotHardware

• ATP ToughDrive Camo 4GB and EarthDrive 2GB - Elite Bastards
• Crucial Ballistix PC3-10600 4GB - Overclock3D
• Lexar Professional 8GB 300x UDMA Compact Flash - techPowerUp!
• Patriot Viper 4GB DDR3 1800 - Pro-Clockers

• Cirago Mini Bluetooth Headset HS-450 - Overclockers Club
• Cirago Mini Bluetooth Headset HS-450 - Tweak News
• Jabra BT530 BlueTooth Headset with Noise Blackout - TestFreaks
• Sennheiser PC350 Gaming Headphones - Tech-Lobby

• Cooler Master Silent Pro 500W - Technic3D
• Cooler Master Silent Pro M600 - InsideHW

• Griffin PowerDock - Think Computers
• Thrustmaster Glow Saber Duo Pack (Nintendo Wii) - i4u