As seen on Devour. I love Devour.

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.

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.

Dear Photoshop,

When I plug in an external hard drive — one with lots of precious data & backups – please do not assume you can just use it for your own purposes. Ask me first.

Cheers.

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.

A new forecast of the global smartphone platform market from research firm IDC has predicted that Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform will see a resurgence in the next four years, overtaking Apple’s iOS platform which powers the iPhone.

I have a hard time believing that iOS penetration is going to decline between now & 2015. There’s more iOS powers than just the iPhone.

Do these figures include iPod Touches & iPads?

Fact is, we all use both. According to Comscore, 37 percent of mobile users browse the web, and 35 percent use downloaded apps. Presumably those are basically the same people, since about 35 percent of mobile users have smartphones. So it’s not that one is winning over the other in terms of usage; we use both.

This is basically what I’ve been meaning to write for weeks (lesson learned; get off one’s arse sooner). There’s been too much hyperbole recently about native vs web and precious little about appropriate, technology-agnostic solutions.

“We probably worked six or nine months on the technical side of this and saw we could make this work [...] Then we did the commercial side. The commercial deal took us a day.”

I’ll bet Verizon said ‘yes please’ a lot during those negotiations.

Steve had this slide up as he talked about the technology behind iPhone and, as I mention above, this admission that Windows Phone 7 is about 2 years behind iPhone relates to marketshare & profitability, not technology.

“We have a long way to go yet; these are atoms that don’t live long enough to do anything with them. So we need a lot more atoms and a lot longer times before it’s really useful – but one has to crawl before you sprint.”

That would be sprinting at warp 9, presumably.

Would be awesome: let me put my iTunes media in the cloud & stream to any iDevice.

Would be kinda awesome-ish: Beatles on iTunes

A bit meh: more content for iTunes/Apple TV

Every day there are things you need to get done, but they’re not necessarily things that you need to do. Just email us and we’ll take care of it.

Wish I’d thought of that.

Branded “Share Happy,” it is able to sense when people are near. Using facial recognition technology, it can determine age, gender, and emotion. The machine uses an interactive “smile-o-meter” to rate smiles; those with a big enough smile are rewarded with free ice cream.

(If your browser doesn’t have HTML5 chops go see the video on YouTube).