Fascinating and delightful. And I did not know that the ‘command’ symbol (⌘) was meant to be a castle as viewed from above.

What if you were to keep your iTunes library in that folder? Would that allow you to store your music on a home computer (in that folder) and have it sync up your music, playlists, ratings etc. with your other Macs?

My favourite part is this quote from Paul Rand:

The designer who voluntarily presents his client with a batch of layouts does so not out prolificacy, but out of uncertainty or fear. He thus encourages the client to assume the role of referee.

Although there are a bunch out there, Marshall Bock’s iPhone PSD template is the best I’ve come across. Not only is it constructed from vector artwork but it contains every combination of iPhone 4, 4S, black, white, portrait and landscape you could ever want.

Brilliant.

Have a read through the process they go through when adding new products to the site. It sounds like a real labour of love.

Whilst Scott Forstall demoed it well during the keynote, he obviously didn’t touch on everything it could do. It looks like there’s much more to explore.

My favourite at the moment is this one.

It doesn’t make it any less of a shock though.

[UPDATE 1]
Tim Cook’s email to Apple employees.

[UPDATE 2]
Some awesome photos of Steve testing Photobooth filters in 2005 (via Mike Matas)

Whilst I applaud Microsoft for getting most of the comparisons there or thereabouts — let’s not talk about comparing the 11″ MacBook Air to a Toshiba netbook though — I can’t help feeling that the only drum Microsoft has to beat is ‘PCs are cheaper than Macs’. Whilst this site proves that notion is factually correct, for me it misses the point of why people choose PCs or Macs.

People don’t buy Macs because they’re more expensive. Microsoft should focus more on why people buy Macs over PCs other than cost.

• What about saying PCs are more secure than Macs?
• How about saying PCs are faster than equivalent Macs?
• What if you were to push the point about PCs being more serviceable/upgradeable than Macs?
• What about the range of software available?
• Games?

When you start to think of all the ways computers & software can be compared, it’s rather depressing if all you have to beat is the cost drum.

If we’re talking about cost…

As an aside, all of this is ironic if you think about it. Microsoft don’t make PCs. They make software. So if we’re going to boil it down to cost:

• The cheapest Windows 7 you can buy: $199
• Mac OS X Leopard: $129

• Cheapest version of Office for Mac: $149
• Pages, Keynote & Numbers for Mac: $71.97 ($23.99 each)

Even if you add in the cost of a Snow Leopard upgrade ($29), OS X is still around $41 cheaper. And, don’t forget, we’re comparing the most basic version of Windows 7 here, so it’s unlikely to be apples for apples (if you’ll pardon the pun). Apple’s productivity suite is less than half the price of Microsoft’s.

PCs might be cheaper, but that doesn’t mean they’re better. Microsoft should be focussing on features, benefits, speed, security, technological advances — in addition to cost — if they’re to make a compelling argument.

“I couldn’t be happier that Apple has created a market and built up enthusiasm but longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary.”

Open, capable & affordable will win, you say?

Open: as in Honeycomb? The OS that Google have admitted they rushed to market, making design tradeoffs along the way? The one that’s definitely not ‘open’?

Capable, as in ‘includes Flash’? Yeah. That sounds like an awesome experience.

Affordable — as in the Motorola Xoom? The cheapest Xoom costs $599. The cheapest iPad costs $499.

“An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse and a case [means] you’ll be at $1500 or $1600; that’s double of what you’re paying [...] That’s not feasible.”

Someone get Mr Lark a new calculator. And, whilst you’re at it, tell him that you can’t use a mouse with an iPad. Aside from it adding to the cost, it, uh, won’t work.

“…Our strategy is multi-OS [...] We will do Windows 7 coupled with Android Honeycomb, and we’re really excited. We think that giving people that choice is very important.”

“We don’t really know which will sell more — Windows or Android. So we’re offering both. The more OS variations you offer consumers, the better. Look at Windows 7!”

Time to shut Apple down and give the money back to the shareholders. Definitely.

Microsoft is currently working on a new feature for Windows 8 named History Vault, WinRumors has learned. The feature will allow Windows 8 users to backup files and data automatically using the Shadow Copies function of Windows. According to one person familiar with the company’s plans, the backup feature will include the ability to restore to a specific time or date on the system. Users will also be able to select files and restore them to different timestamps.

What I find interesting is Microsoft’s choice of name for this feature. A ‘vault’ is something that’s purposely hard to get into. Not a feature I’d immediately associate with an automated backup feature.

Unfortunately, instead of making the Windows version of Skype better, they’ve decided to fix the discrepancy by making the Mac version of Skype more like the Windows version.

Totally agree. The new Skype for Mac has completely thrown out the old UI for something that’s much larger and arguably more complex. The Skype blog post that announced the new version is full of rationale of why things changed but, for the life of me, I can’t understand why the Skype team changed the things they did.

Skype 2.8 wasn’t broken. Isn’t broken. One of the reasons I’m sticking with it.

The other reason? Skype 5 for Mac.