Apple’s former “I’m a Mac” guy has been unhappy with Cupertino for a few years now. After Intel hired actor Justin Long for several commercials highlighting Intel processors over Apple’s own Mac chips, the former I’m a Mac Guy actor is now poking fun at the company by promoting Windows on Arm PCs.
The Verge spotted this ad during Qualcomm’s Computex 2024 keynote. In a 30-second skit, actor Justin Long is bombarded by unuseful macOS notifications. This makes him Google one of the weirdest questions in tech: Where can I find a Snapdragon-powered PC?
The fun ad finishes with Justin Long saying: “Things change,” while looking at the camera. Even though Qualcomm makes incredibly powered chips, I honestly don’t think anyone has been searching this query online.
Qualcomm and Microsoft have been making noise about their partnership, as Redmond is now adding Arm-chips compatibility, and the company is also moving away from Intel. With Microsoft’s latest Surface notebooks focusing on the “Copilot Plus PCs” strategy, the company believes it can beat Apple’s M3 processor and make Microsoft notebooks get the MacBook Air place as the best-selling laptop.
Microsoft calls these AI computers “the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built.” Copilot Plus PCs each feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors, all-day battery life, and access to the latest and greatest AI models.
Microsoft says its Copilot Plus PCs outperform Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air by up to 58% in sustained multithreaded performance and offer up to 20% more battery in local video playback. In order to achieve these results, Microsoft EVP Yusuf Mehdi revealed that Copilot Plus PCs will have minimum specification requirements, including at least a 256GB SSD, 16GB of RAM, and an integrated Neural Processing Unit (NPU).
The company states that the first Copilot Plus PCs will launch on June 18th, starting at $999. Two of the first models will be a new Surface Laptop (13.8-inch and 15-inch displays) and a new 2-in-1 Surface Pro with an optional OLED display.
That said, who would have thought that 2024 would bring back the old Mac vs. PC battle and that it could be so good?