Karan's space

I’m a PC. Short and simple. Microsoft is continuing their advertising campaign with “Life Without Walls”, and part of that campaign is understanding that being a PC is not a stereotype. Check out the new campaign commercials that people will be able to see online, on TV as well as on the streets:

I really like the commercials and it really speaks to me, especially because “I’m a PC, just like BillG”. It’s nice to know that I’m a PC and can connect with so many others as well as do so many things, but I am different than other people who are PC’s as well. One of my favorite quotes is:

I'm a PC and a Human Being, not a Human Doing, not a Human Thinking, a Human Being...

As the next steps in marketing are about to start, I am getting all excited and just getting ready for what we can expect. Be prepared for a new commercial tonight to continue what Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, already started. Did I ever say how much I love this company…

So last time I had blogged about the first commercial that had come out as part of the campaign, and now the second commercial is out and has been aired.

Now I was a little skeptical when the first commercial aired, but like everybody I was looking for a commercial that hit all the points immediately. But what these commercials do is break the ice. It allows people from all over, whether they use a Mac or a PC or even Linux to just talk about this commercial. It is not product specific, but just allows people to sit back and laugh and enjoy it.

According to the Windows Blog, the commercial is doing exactly what it should be, and that is generating interest and making people talk about it, which is great, because talking about the commercial, leads to talking about Microsoft, which is what they want.

There are some really good lines in this commercial and they seem to be from Jerry Seinfeld,

I love a condiment with booze in it…

I can’t help wondering what’s next. Frog with an email, goldfish with a website, amoeba with a blog…

I don’t know why but those just make me laugh. Bill Gates, does do the robot at the end, which is funny as well. I know that I am really excited to see what comes next. So let us see what happens.

Some people like to blog and sure you can use things like the occasional twitter, to share your thoughts, but what if you wanted to be able to get all the benefits of using your Spaces site on the go (such as your friends being notified that you made an update, as well as RSS feeds). So how do you do this?

Go to your Spaces Site, and chose the Options Tab and go to Email Publishing. What you need to do is turn it on, and follow the steps to set it up (one time).

Before you start you will need a phone that can send email and thus you are going to have to have a data plan as well. There are a few options you need to configure:

• Your from email address - These are addresses that you authorize to email into your space so that you can update pictures and blogs.
• Enter a secret word - Just a security feature and select something that is known to you only, and you will see why it is used.
• Select a photo album – If you want to upload photos then it is a good idea to create a new blank album, or use an existing one and select it here and give it a keyword (something short and simple to remember).
• Publish or save the entry – This is a chance to select whether you want to publish immediately what you send in, or leave it up there as a draft so when you are at a PC you can make changes and then finalize.
• List of email addresses for you to remember – You can write these down or save them to your phone or if you have a Windows Mobile phone and use Hotmail create a contact and use Live Hotmail on you phone, so that you can start an email message and just choose this contact to send it too.

Essentially, you now have set up Live Blogging. So for example I have it set so that it publishes immediately and hence I can send an email to the email address that is given to me, in step 5, and my entry will get published. For blog entries, subject line is the title of the post, and the body is the text for the blog. For pictures, subject line is the caption, and just remember to attach the picture to the email, for it to be included in your photo album.

And there you have it. If you have it to publish immediately then your posts will show up immediately. This works and I have tried it out before, with pictures too. Enjoy and hope it makes people think about sharing and blogging on the go .

Part of what Microsoft, is trying to do is change its image and appeal and thus has an ad campaign out there to try and accomplish just that. The first commercial (shown below) is trying to do just that and there are more to come shortly.

What do you think of the commercial? As the PressPass link above said this about the first commercial.

After seeing the new ad from Microsoft, which debuted today, some may wonder what Jerry Seinfeld helping Bill Gates pick out a new pair of shoes has to do with software. The answer, in the classic Seinfeld sense of the word, is nothing.

Thus one is supposed to see and realize that this just set the stage for more commercials as they come out and understand that Microsoft is doing other things as part of this campaign. You will soon see Microsoft Gurus who will assist PC buyers and help share the Windows story.

Anyway's after a couple of days of discussing this one at work, it came down to the fact that this commercial means to me that it is about you, the user having choices which is important. There are other things as well but I will leave it up to you to come up with your own thinking around this. All I can say is that it should come out to be one “Delicious” campaign .