When we notice Apple's branding and recognize it as product placement it is equally awkward because it breaks down the fourth wall without advancing the narrative or being symmetric with the themes of story. The cinematography is contrived, it is just that audiences have been conditioned to give Apple a free pass to the point that we expect every computer to be product placed by Apple and are shocked when it is not.
To put it another way, the frontal shots typically used to frame the Apple logo are from the conventions of dialog, not atmospherics. The Apple logo tells us about the executive producer and nothing about the character. It's not ironic, satirical, or editorial. Just cynical.
Complete nonsense. All product placement is awkward when it lingers on the product and tries to show off its features instead of just being the characters and camera acting naturally while using a particular product. It doesn't matter what brand it is.
Also, as for the Apple devices, you only see the device itself. Never a shot of the UI. I have yet to see someone on TV use a Mac and interact 1:1 with the regular version of OSX that is installed on there.
Of course, MS can't do that with the surface cause it is so unremarkable so they just have to show the UI which is what makes it awkward as they really like to linger and make sure you really see that this is the original UI the device comes with.
When you see people using a Mac, for example on "Bones", you will just a custom created UI they interact with. I hear these are mostly flash animation that are supposed to look "techy" while not being boring. Which, incidentally is why things like tracking an IP or similar is looking to hilarious as it is done in the most graphical, bells and whistles kind of way. Even when they just send an email out in a scene they will use a custom animation instead of having the character really interact with OSX and use the standard mail client.
To put it another way, the frontal shots typically used to frame the Apple logo are from the conventions of dialog, not atmospherics. The Apple logo tells us about the executive producer and nothing about the character. It's not ironic, satirical, or editorial. Just cynical.