Ted Landau:

No other company besides Apple has such complete control over both the hardware and software ends of the market. This is what allows Apple’s devices to work so well together. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the product integration we saw on the WWDC stage today

(Via Dan Frakes.)

Andrew and Vero:

What you have to remember is that Spotlight’s primary objective is to search your files and a small handful of pre-determined web sources. Meanwhile, Alfred’s primary objective is to make you more productive on your Mac with exceptional and powerful features like Clipboard History, System commands, iTunes Mini Player, 1Password bookmarks, Terminal integration, fully bespoke and customisable user-created workflows and much, much more.

The new design looks great.

If you want to get a taste of how the new UI will look on your Mac, here’s a couple of high-res images from Apple’s site. Just open these in Preview and then go Full Screen: Safari with Messages; Finder; Spotlight.

And, I love the massive update they’ve given to Spotlight. I’ve been using an application launcher for years (Quicksilver for years and now LaunchBar), and I think they are just so great. There is much you can do with Alfred or LaunchBar that you can’t do with the new Spotlight (clipboard history just to name one thing). And so I think that for many people (myself included), a more powerful application launcher will still be their preference. But for many people, this new, more powerful version of Spotlight will be their first step into the awesome world of intelligent and awesome application launchers. And that’s great.

John Gruber’s classic overview of what he thinks we will and won’t see later today. I too am excited to see the potentially massive overhaul to OS X. And, of course, I’d love to see some significant improvements to iCloud and Photo Stream storage.

Starts in just a couple hours, and Apple will be streaming it live for everyone to watch.

Matt Gemmell added some excellent thoughts of his own in response to my article a few weeks ago, “Fighting to stay Creative“:

I write every day: seven days a week. I’m working on a novel, and I also write for this blog and various magazines. It’s my full-time job now, and I don’t have another one. Staying creative is thus absolutely critical for me.

I’ve learned a lot about the obstacles to continued creative output, and I’ve found a few techniques that can help. Many of these are just common sense, but it’s useful to have them all in one place.

Jason Snell:

I have no idea if Apple and Beats will end up being a good match—I’m interested to see if Apple truly embraces music subscriptions, or keeps Beats Music at arm’s length from iTunes. What I’m excited by is the fact that the Beats acquisition is not a move that Apple would have made a few years ago.

On this week’s episode of The Weekly Briefly — published a day early this week, for both your and my traveling convenience — I talk about what every other Mac nerd is talking about this week: The upcoming WWDC keynote.

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• Lost Photos: Re-discover the images buried deep in your email.

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I think Casey Liss speaks for most of us:

The one tip I recommend most to attendees is to say “hi” and make friends.

The thing is, those going to WWDC who don’t want to be spoken to have figured out their way of avoiding the lines and the places where people are. The rest of us are there in order to meet up and hang out.

Federico Viticci:

Reeder 2 for Mac is not terribly surprising in any way – it’s a sequel, but its “more of the same” approach might just be what Mac users who fell in love with the original Reeder were looking for.

The app is fast. Even with thousands of RSS items, scrolling is smooth and responsive; when you navigate across articles, text flies by and images load quickly; clicking through sections in the sidebar or the Unread/Starred/All filters of the top toolbar reveals animations that are not too fast and not too slow, but just right. Reeder 2 feels good in motion, which can’t be said about many Mac apps these days.

Hooray! I’m telling you, this is the best RSS reader for the Mac.

Over at MacStories, Graham Spencer pulled together some of the highlight quotes from last night’s Code Conference session. And gotta love those photos.

Brian X. Chen, for The New York Times:

For Apple, the acquisition of Beats, expected for weeks, largely follows a familiar pattern. Apple has historically bought technology outfits that have resources and talent that it can blend into future devices and online services. Beats fits that criterion.

But the Beats deal is also different. Until now, Apple, the richest tech company in the world, has avoided billion-dollar takeovers in favor of smaller deals. The Beats deal is its largest ever.

What I think is even more different than the amount of this deal with Beats compared to others is the that Beats is a huge brand. They have celebrity endorsers, their headphones are insanely popular, and they have two very high-profile co-founders. Money aside, this is a rare acquisition indeed.

In terms of significance, the 1996 deal with NeXT was Apple’s largest ever. In terms of money, this Beats deal is the largest ever.

I think the Beats deal will prove to be Apple’s 2nd most significant acquisition. I’m curious to find out how “Jimmy and Dre” will help shape the internal culture of Apple, and how the Beats brand will impact the Apple brand (and vice versa). Will Apple eventually start putting their logo on Beats headphones or leave them as they are? How long will Jimmy and/or Dre stick around at Apple?