As you’ve probably heard by now, Microsoft has announced the addition of Sidebar Gadgets to Vista, the next looooong awaited version of Windows. Microsoft’s Sidebar Gadgets bear an uncanny resemblance to Apple’s Dashboard Widgets. Now, I’m not going to engage in the usual Microsoft bashing about how Microsoft is always ripping off Apple’s ideas. There’s plenty of that on Microsoft’s own Gadget Blog. Some people argued that Apple ripped off Konfabulator. Microsoft claims Gadgets date back to a research project called “Sideshow” conducted in 2000-2001. Whatever; these ideas are floating out there in the collective unconscious anyway, and you can’t copyright an idea.

But here’s what gets me: does Microsoft have to copy Apple’s look and feel? The font used on the Microsoft Gadget Blog looks so familiar.

Where have I seen it before?

Actually, I’m pretty sure that Apple uses Myriad and Microsoft is using Lina. They aren’t the same fonts, but they’re damn close.

Maybe there’s a Windows user out there who can explain this Windows dialog to me… Every time I launch Virtual PC (which is only when I can’t avoid doing so; for example, to run Schwab StreetSmart Pro or one of my chess training programs), I get the above dialog: Cancel, Try Again, Continue. I get the message because at some time in the past, I had a Total Training DVD in my drive and I removed it after quitting Virtual PC, which saves its state (one of the nice features about Virtual PC; you don’t have to shut it down). If I launch Virtual PC again and there’s no disk in the drive, I get the enigmatic Cancel, Try Again, Continue message.

Here’s what irks me: obviously, Try Again is the wrong answer, since there’s no disk in the drive. But if Try Again is the wrong answer, what’s the right answer? Cancel? Continue? It doesn’t seem to matter. Whether I click on Cancel or Continue, Windows always does the same thing. The Windows XP Critical Stop sound plays, the window disappears for a second, and then it pops back up and asks the same dumb question. My cat does the same thing every morning—bangs the door to the bedroom to wake us up, gets yelled at, bangs the door again, gets yelled at, and finally gives up after the third or fourth try.

So here’s a question every Windows user should ask themselves: Cancel? Try Again? Or, Continue?

HE, Holland Electro, may offer the ultimate sound system for your iPod. Designed by Marcel Wanders, the new HE components include Pandora, a small wooden side table with integrated woofer; Egg, beautiful sculpted speakers; and Merlin and Mathilda, antennas for sending music from your computer or MP3 player to your speakers. I think they’d look great with the new iPod Nano.

Via Popgadget

Business Week has published the Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEAs) winners for 2005. “In a sea of look-alike products and services, design creates the ‘Wow!’ factor,” they write. “Design is fast becoming a must-have competency for corporations.”

Let’s hope it’s true. Mac lovers already know the value of good product design; it’s the reason many of us buy Macs and iPods. In fact, it’s interesting to note that Apple is ranked second only to Samsung for design wins for the past five years, with a total of 17 (Samsung has 19). Microsoft is ranked 11th, with 8 wins. This year, Apple won awards for the Mac Mini, iPod Shuffle, and Airport Express.

Award winners run the gamut, from DaimlerChrysler’s Jeep Hurricane to empower shoes (designed by San Jose State University student, Angie Kim), which can be put on and taken off without having to bend over (getting them off has always been easy, but getting them on…). But my favorite is HP’s DJammer (pictured above), a musical instrument that lets you manipulate digital music files with hand movements, so you can scratch and mix while prancing around onstage or wandering into the audience.

You can view the design winners by company or design firm here.

Via rootburn.