New York Times says Microsoft withdrew its bid to buy Yahoo. Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer:

We have a talented team in place and a compelling plan to grow our business through innovative new services and strategic transactions with other business partners.

Uh huh. How’s that been working out for you? Good for Apple. Good for Google.

Yes.

Different browsers can and should have different feature sets to appeal to different users. Web pages should be rendered the same in every browser.

If you love to have the latest software for your Mac, it doesn’t get any fresher and tastier than the nightly WebKit, the open source browser engine in Safari.

WebKit is an open source web browser engine. WebKit is also the name of the Mac OS X system framework version of the engine that’s used by Safari, Dashboard, Mail, and many other OS X applications.

If it looks like Safari, works like Safari, feels like Safari, is it Safari? No, it’s WebKit; what Safari will be tomorrow.

The OS wars are not over, and neither are the features wars, competition Microsoft used to win. PC World found 18 features not found in Windows XP or Vista. Beware. All 18 are shamelessly spread across page after page of ads.

Windows is the world’s most dominant operating system. But when you look at some of the hot features found in competitors such as Linux and Mac OS X, both XP and Vista can seem a little incomplete.

Uh huh. Of the 18 features not found in Windows, Mac OS X has 16. Which ones?

Minutes, the Dashboard Widget with a purpose and a colorful, neo-friendly way to get there; an elegant turn-the-knob timer that can play iTunes, stop iTunes, open a file, then put your Mac to sleep.

Minutes is a countdown timer widget featuring simple interface, polished graphics, and considered interactions.

Right. A prize should go to anyone who figures out Minutes without reading instructions.

Rogers Communication announced a deal to carry Apple’s iPhone in Canada. Eamon Hoey, a sour grapes management consultant whose client list includes most of Canada’s major telecom companies except Rogers, disses the deal, calling it too little too late:

It just doesn’t matter anymore. There are now alternatives to the iPhone, which has been introduced everywhere else in the world. It’s no longer a novelty.

Equity analyst Felix Narhl said the iPhone “could hurt Rogers’ competitors Telus Mobility and Bell Canada.” Hoey’s clients? Telus Mobility and Bell Canada.

OS X hint in Macworld on how to use Spotlight to search for lyrics in iTunes. Added to my ‘much-ado-about-not-much’ file.

There are two fairly large caveats: first, Spotlight will only search MP3s, not AACs or any other file format, and second, you must have previously added the lyrics to the songs.

Or, to grab and add lyrics to iTunes: CantoPod, DeskTopLyrics, and, my favorite, Harmonic.

I hate it when some songs playing in iTunes are so much louder than others. iTunes’ Sound Check helps, but not enough. iVolume is the answer. The Techno Geek Speak:

iTunes uses a very fast algorithm to quickly analyze the volume of its songs. It’s fast, but it’s not very accurate. iVolume corrects the volume information that iTunes has calculated with better values. Therefore an algorithm is used that is oriented on the perception of the human ears.

In other words, using iVolume makes music in iTunes sound better, even if it isn’t.

Get a free Mother’s Day portrait when you sign up for Windows Live, whatever that is. It’s here, here, there, and over there. From Fake Steve:

Microsoft now has contracted a serious case of Ray Ozzie Disease, aka Featuritis Creepionis Complicationibus. And this is only the least of their problems.

Sorry. Please accept my apology. I couldn’t help myself.