Oh Snap! Barack Obama uses a Zune!?
OK, I realize there are many of you who would like to now take back your vote, but assuming you were able to remain conscious after reading that headline, I think there is some good we can take from this. Yes, Neal Santos over at CityPaper claims he got to jog next to the President elect (and his Secret Service detail) at his local healthclub this morning, and yes, according to Santos, Obama:
“broke a mean sweat while reading a copy of USA Today and listening to his Zune. “
Ouch. Yes, this is truly a kick-in-the-nuts for many a Mac-friendly Barack supporter, but, there are two things we as Americans (and world citizens in general) should be happy about here.
First, apparently Obama can multi-task. To be able to run fast enough on a treadmill to “break into a mean sweat”, I’d say you need to be going 5-6 miles per hour. So, if the man can read a newspaper while running 6 mph AND listen to music (no matter what he’s playing it on) then I think it’s safe to say we have upgraded from our current CEO who often has trouble merely speaking while standing still. Second, and perhaps more importantly, we now know where the lone Zune sold in 2008 is, and we can keep an eye on it as a nation, so it will never sneak up on any of us.
Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Ryan for the tip!
Oh god, what have we done? The US is screwed.
Well, at least it’s a digital music player. I think McCain walks around with an original Edison cylinder, listening to “Mary Had A Little Lamb”.
🙂
I’m not sure I believe this. Obama is a confirmed Mac user, and it isn’t too much of a stretch he uses OS X as his primary OS, considering there have been articles on his implementation of iChat in his campaign. As far as I know the Zune is not Mac compatible, andeven if he was dual booting it wouldn’t make much since for him to load Windows every time he wanted to sync with his music library. In addition, in one recent issue of Macworld magazine, they had a blurb with Barack Obama telling what music he has on his iPod. So I’m going to put aside my trust in Macenstein on this one and call BS.
First of all, Rowlings is hilarious. Great comment.
Second, I do not think it is true. Obama is indeed a confirmed Mac user many times over.
Third, as bad as this is, and a Zune is pretty bad, I would much rather have Obama with a Zune than Bush with an iPod. Bush sucked.
Doc got his info wrong on this one. No confirmation!
Well he did say he wanted to be bipartisan; he uses a Mac as his OS, a Blackberry as his phone and a Zune as his mp3 player and Linux servers to run his websites. That’s pretty bipartisan if you ask me.
I certainly hope none of you come to Macenstein for facts, guys. Take it up with Neal Santos.
🙂
-The Doc
Im a mac user, but I have to say that Zunes are really not that bad. Lets try and not be biased in here guys…. Dont let your fanboyism talk intead of yourself…
I want a picture.
Twenty5: take your dick out of your ear.
“I certainly hope none of you come to Macenstein for facts, guys.”
WTF! BUt you guys are the BBC of Mac-dom. You mean practically nothing i’ve read here is the truth?!
Are the Mac Chicks even real chicks?! Oh, the horror!
Interesting you all think a “confirmed mac user” wouldn’t use a Zune. I have 3 Macs, I think that makes me confirmed…I also have 3 iPods (Nano, Classic 160 and Touch) that are collecting dust because I love my Zune. I always said before that it wasn’t about the iPod, it was about iTunes. The new Zune software is awesome for finding new music and I am an addict of the subscription Zune Pass service. I love my Macs, but my media center box now runs my music.
Is it April or December?
As for the Beeb, a few years back on April 1st they reported, in the middle of the main evening news, with their best “grave news folks” voice, of a large tanker of dehydrated water overturning in the west country, and fears that it would get wet and cause major flooding!
6mph is nothing. There are many reports that Bush ran a 5K in under 20 minutes. That is hauling! That’s like running 9MPH for 20 minutes (not easy)!
Given how many gift baskets full of free shit the dude has probably gotten at various events, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he owned a Zune. as well as an iPod. And if I were jogging, I would definitely bring my Zune to risk dropping and sweating on instead of my iPod for my Air Force 1 trips.
Can’t stand Obama for the same reason I can’t stand Microsoft:
Both promise to change the world and to be innovative, different, and new.
Well, Microsoft hasn’t given the world anything new and special in my lifetime, and Obama is filling his cabinet with rusty old-school Democrats who have been in power for decades…
Neither party will ever be capable of delivering “Change We Need.”
“merely speaking while standing still”….I really would not mind if you leave the BDS comments off the site. Why not rap “The One” for not being able to speak without a teleprompter.
Kurt – masterfully said. You would think all of the old-time Mac users would be able to recognize vaporware and FUD when they see it. 🙂
Kurt: take your dick out of your ear.
Seriously… I live in Seattle, have worked for MS on occasion and even Microsoft employees don’t use Zunes. They Suck! They have had to start using different earbuds to hide the iPhones or iPods at work because of the number of emails that were sent internally about it.
Honestly if they were that good, people would use them, but they really aren’t… they are just average.
Maybe Eric should take his dick out of Kurt’s ear.
Awesome! I was ready to sell all my Apple products when I found out comrade Satoro used a Mac. The Zune is more along the lines of evil, commie dictator devices! LOL
they gave democratic national convention themed zunes away at the dmc this year (a dude i know went this year). he’s probably just using it to be polite.
Maybe Eric and Kurt are trying to create gay republican porn on their ZUNES…
Good article (as usual)…
-Once again beating Gizmodo…
I don’t know what’s worse. Mac fan bois or liberal idiots.
Awww… does Michael miss his Rush Limbaugh ZUNE Stream?? Weren’t you guys supposed to have crawled back under your rocks after the sun came out in November?
From http://www.iphonesavior.com
http://www.iphonesavior.com/2008/12/obama-crushes-zunegate-rumor-with-his-ipod.html
The Obama camp dealt a crushing blow to a hopeful community of Zune goons on Thursday when a spokesman for the president-elect put a scandalous rumor to death. “Not true, the President-elect uses an iPod,” he said. That one statement confirmed what every Machead already knew, there’s no way Barack Obama deliberately owns a Zune media player.
The wild rumor, quickly coined as ‘ZuneGate’, was launched on December 2nd when Philadelphia writer, Neal Santos posted a story recounting his routine morning workout that unexpectedly included President-elect Barack Obama on an adjacent treadmill.
“He hopped on the machine next to me and broke a mean sweat while reading a copy of USA Today and listening to his Zune.” Santos said in his report.
Overly zealous Zune zombies immediately began to jump on the story, celebrating the news like Tom Cruise on Oprah’s couch. One user wrote on a Zunerama message board; “Look at what President Reagan did to the sales of jelly beans! This is great news!” “This is probably the best endorsement Zune could’ve gotten… for free,” another poster said.
On December 3rd Neil Santos sparked instant controversy after posting an awkward correction to his claims about Obama using a Zune. At that moment ‘Zunegate’ was officially born. Judge for yourself.
“I want to correct what I said yesterday about Obama using a Zune. I claimed that it was his Zune. I don’t know for sure that it was his. It could belong to one of the many Secret Service dudes that were at the gym, Michelle, or even one of his daughters.” said Santos. Source: WSJ
By the afternoon of December 4th, the Wall Street Journal reported a statement made by an Obama spokesman confirming that the President-elect is a committed iPod user. A brief moment of hope and adulation gripped by a gaggle of drooling Zune goons was instantly ripped from their hands by a shocking dose of iPod reality. The President-elect had been properly exonerated, while every Zune fan was sweating like a blind lesbian at a fish market.
I would expect its gonna take some time for the Zune scene faithful to fully recover and come out of deep denial over the loss of their mistaken spokesmodel. It must have been incredibly difficult for any Zuneiac to ignore the hype of an Obama Zune rumor. It was one change I could not believe in.
Barack Hussein Obama has picked Gen. Jim Jones, a former Marine commandant close to McCain, as his national security advisor. He’s invited Bush’s defense secretary to be his defense secretary. He’s picked Hillary Clinton, who publicly denounced Obama’s naivete in the primaries, as his secretary of state. He’s vehemently opposed the surge in Iraq, yet owes the possibility to even reasonably consider a drawdown in Iraq to the fact that the surge was successful. And if you
hippiesliberals need anymore reason to be regretting electing The One to run the country, he’s a “confirmed” Mac user, yet uses Microsoft products.And as for the “Change we Need,” well, let’s do a little comparison…
Bush wants troops to “return on success” in Iraq – so does Obama.
Bush supports an increase of troops in Afghanistan – so does Obama.
Bush wants a larger military – so does Obama.
Bush has entered the tribal areas of Pakistan to attack al-Qaeda and the Taliban – Obama wants to do the same.
Bush wants to close Guantanamo Bay, but has been bedeviled by the difficult choices inherent in it’s shutting – Obama will be too.
Bush has put out diplomatic feelers to Iran, while warning of the unacceptability of it’s nuclear program – so has Obama, but with a bit more of an accent on diplomacy.
And why is this happening?
Well, maybe
HusseinObama’s finally realized that the United States of America is the sole superpower in a dangerous world full of enemies that only we have the military resources to defeat and of rival powers with interests divergent from our own (*cough*cough* Russia *cough* China *cough*).Oh, and one more thing… who gives a flying f*ck what kind of computer the guy uses or who’s mp3 player he prefers. It doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference. Pull your heads out of your proverbial asses. I don’t understand why this is an issue… I mean hell, FORGET that Mr. Obama is trying to close Gitmo, or that America’s ideological enemies suddenly want to sit down and share a cup of tea (they can smell weakness), or that Russia keeps testing the West to see how far we’ll let them push us, or that Russia is continuing to sell arms and new missile technologies to Iran, who has a decent nuclear program (which Russia helped with) and has sold weapons to terrorists in the past… OBAMA USES A ZUNE!!!
Hey Mason,
I’m curious if that tinfoil hat has cooked your brain yet? You do realize this is a Mac site for discussion of Mac topics and not the Rush Limbaugh ‘lovefest’ right? I think thats over at iloveassrape.com
so? so many people use iPod, iPhone
No wonder the zune guys are calling ipod users apple fanboys. we cant judge a president elect on what music player he’s using! and holy crap i am tired of ipod users saying that zunes and sansas are inferior to ipods. They’re not! you guys talk so freaking biased.
Best president ever