While I do hope and believe that Microsoft can get their mobile strategy right, there are days when I worry that Windows Mobile 7 is going to be like this:

I started my presentation at WordCamp Toronto 2009 yesterday – Better Living Through Blogging — with this slide, which got a lot of laughs. A number of people have requested it, and I’m only too happy to oblige. Here you go: share and enjoy!

Click the photo to see it at full size.

The image comes from a Worth1000 Photoshopping contest – here’s the original.

Call me easily entertained, but I still find remixes inspired by the movie 300 funny, such as Brian Jepson’s remix of the Univac ad from the previous entry:

You can click the photo above to see the remix at full size or here to see it in Brian Jepson’s Flickr collection.

Last night’s episode of The Simpsons made some pretty funny pokes at Apple, or as they’re referred to in the episode, "Mapple":

In three minutes’ worth of opening sequence, they manage to get in a fair number of jabs and gags, including:

• Apple stores’ design aesthetic: “It’s so sterile!”
• The price points of Apple products – even the fake “myPod” earbuds cost forty bucks
• The "silhouette” iPod ads
• Steve Job’s keynotes and the breathless, worshipful way they’re received
• The “cool factor” associated with Apple products
• The “1984” ad for the original Macintosh. Comic Book Guy is the perfect guy to throw the hammer – he even has the same shorts as the hammer-throwing revolutionary.

There are many lessons that tech companies (and yes, that includes the empire of which I am part) could learn from Mapple – er, Apple – from differentiating yourself with good design to making an emotional and experiential connection with your users. It’s not just feature sets and price points. After all, even though we’ve had electric light for over a century, candles remain a $2 billion dollar industry and can be found in seven out of ten homes.

(As for Bart’s bit about Steve Jobs and Bill gates smooching on a pile of money, that’s been done before in the form of hot Steve-on-Bill slash fiction.)

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the latest trailer for The Dark Knight, the upcoming Batman movie with Christian Bale in the title role and Heath Ledger as the Joker:

Better still, here’s a trailer that mashes up the audio from the trailer above with scenes from the 1966 Batman movie, in which Adam West plays the title role. It’s camp-licious!

Links

• YouTube page for the latest trailer for The Dark Knight
• You Tube page for the trailer that mashes up 2008 Batman movie audio with 1966 Batman movie clips
• The 1966 Batman movie, silly as it was, had some lovely visuals, which you can see in this page of stills from that movie.
• Bat Battle: Who’s The Best Movie Batman Ever? Cracked.com investigates.