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jasonsRX7 · Dec 13, 2005, 12:51 AM

I was watching Monster House tonight and saw the guy in the trailer looking up something online. They showed the laptop from the front, and I couldn't tell what it was, but didn't pay much attention at first. Then, they showed a closeup of the screen, and he was searching Dogpile with Safari. Then, they showed the back of it, and you could clearly see that it was an HP laptop.

Did anyone else see this episode? It's the one where they're rebuilding the Hollywood house. Maybe it's just a skin on XP and/or Firefox. Or maybe the guy is running OS X86 on his laptop. I wish I was watching it on the DVR.

mduell · Dec 13, 2005, 02:10 AM

Probably just a Firefox skin.

JoshuaZ · Dec 13, 2005, 07:01 AM

No doubt a skin. That or they painted a Powerbook.

I love how they use sticker to cover up the big glowing apple on the back of iBooks and Powerbooks in TV shows.

rickey939 · Dec 13, 2005, 09:23 AM

Mac spotter.®

Spook E · Dec 13, 2005, 06:08 PM

its actually pretty freaky how many computers you see in movies that are clearly non-mac from an exterior shot but when the have the obligatory "OMG he is using the innerNet!!11!!" shot of the screen its always OS-X, and usually internet explorer for mac their running. weird.

Tesseract · Dec 13, 2005, 06:39 PM

Another common 'blooper' (in print ads especially) is the screengrab of Windows on a TiBook. The Apple logo is usually airbrushed out, but not always.

::maroma:: · Dec 13, 2005, 07:14 PM

Usually when TV shows or movies show computer interfaces, and people using them, they are essentially movies that are played at full screen to simulate the UI and simulate the person using it. I read one of the companies that does that sort of thing for movies and TV shows say that they commonly use the Mac OS interface because it is much more aesthetically pleasing, even if they use it on what is obviously a Windows machine. Also a lot of the time you see the interface being used, you'll notice that its just not exactly right. You'll see oddities that don't belong and such, which is a product of reproducing it.

They also do the same sort of thing for hardware in TV and movies. They often use Macs because they look so much cooler, even if the interface they show is nothing even close to Mac OS or Windows even.

ghporter · Dec 13, 2005, 07:24 PM

Or it could simply be an editing thing. All the screen shots were on a Mac, but the "reaction shots" were done at some other time and the director didn't care what the computer looked like.

residentEvil · Dec 13, 2005, 07:32 PM

I still love the audio click noise of a mouse in commercials; the 'click' is the mouse circa Mac Plus days. Same with keyboard click noises.

Oisín · Dec 13, 2005, 07:45 PM

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

I love how they use sticker to cover up the big glowing apple on the back of iBooks and Powerbooks in TV shows.

I always think everyone have Macs that are blatantly positioned so they're impossible not to notice in TV shows. A particularly obvious example: the US version of Queer as Folk. If you look closely, you'll see that simply everyone has a Mac on that show. I can think of five different Macs that are shown at regular intervals throughout the show.

On a side note, I was in a store, looking for USB headsets earlier today, and saw a few rows of some Belkin USB Bluetooth adapter. Only thing was, when I looked at the picture on the boxes, it was a guy sitting by his Aluminium PowerBook, with the Belkin gadget plugged into the USB port. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all AlBooks have Bluetooth built in? What precisely would be the point of plugging in a USB Bluetooth adapter?

Tesseract · Dec 13, 2005, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by Oisín

I always think everyone have Macs that are blatantly positioned so they're impossible not to notice in TV shows. A particularly obvious example: the US version of Queer as Folk. If you look closely, you'll see that simply everyone has a Mac on that show. I can think of five different Macs that are shown at regular intervals throughout the show.

On a side note, I was in a store, looking for USB headsets earlier today, and saw a few rows of some Belkin USB Bluetooth adapter. Only thing was, when I looked at the picture on the boxes, it was a guy sitting by his Aluminium PowerBook, with the Belkin gadget plugged into the USB port. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all AlBooks have Bluetooth built in? What precisely would be the point of plugging in a USB Bluetooth adapter?

To show off the adapter?

shabbasuraj · Dec 13, 2005, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by Oisín

What precisely would be the point of plugging in a USB Bluetooth adapter?

Removed it from his PB and sold it online.

perhaps not

johnnybmxer · Jan 2, 2006, 11:28 PM

Everytime I walk into Best Buy it always makes me smile to see their little computer ads.

It always shows someone clicking away on their PC, but the close up is always OS X.