The Breakroom

The Mac community has been watching Microsoft’s new ad campaign closely and we think it’s fair to say they’re not impressed. First we saw actress turned laptop expert, Lauren DeLong, profess that she wasn’t “cool enough” to own a Macbook Pro. Then we got a taste of Giampaolo who told us “Macs are more about aesthetics than they are about computing power.” Uh huh.

Now we have former Fake Steve Jobs himself, Dan Lyons who’s run a “Macs won’t fly in this economy” opinion piece for Newsweek. In the article, Dan quotes David Webster, general manager for brand marketing at Microsoft in regards to Macs “Not everyone wants a machine that’s been washed with unicorn tears.”

Well, pardon us Mr. Webster, but as Mac users we happen to like unicorn tears! During last night’s TUAW talkcast, Mike Rose challenged listeners to come up with an appropriately snarky t-shirt, and our own Talos Tsui was only too happy to oblige. Just remember, every time you buy a “Crappy PC”, a unicorn sheds a tear.

To top it all off, artist David Lanham has managed to bottle up some of the most magical unicorn tears we’ve ever found and make them available just for you as this week’s QuickPix release. Head on over to our freeware page and download them today for your Mac or, yes, even your PC desktop. Don’t wait though, because just like rainbows, they’ll be gone before you know it!

We remember back in 2003 when the trailers for Ron Moore’s re-imagining of the short-run but classic 1978 camp sci-fi series began to play. We were not sure what to think. Cylons that look human? Starbuck is a girl? But we gave it a chance despite our concerns about someone frakking with our fond memories of that ragtag fugitive fleet searching for Earth.

Six years and four riveting seasons later we find ourselves wondering what to do now as we re-watch last Friday’s series finale and attempt to wring the last bit of gritty drama, dark humor and spectacular visuals out of what some of us here consider the best television series ever created. Even if you were not completely satisfied with the closing three hours, it was quite a journey.

As a tribute to the end of series Corey Marion and Louie Mantia have assembled a set of icons to help ease your pain. Show your pride in the Colonial Fleet with this collection of folders and rank insignias. Download them now for your Mac, PC or as a handy CandyBar iContainer. So say we all!

Apple fans are in for a treat with this week’s freeware release from Louie Mantia. Inspired by the industrial design of Apple’s hardware maven, Jonathan Ive, Louie has gone all out to create Ive Drives.

This massive set of 40 desktop drive icons comes in four styles: Time Capsule, Apple TV, Mac Mini and Unibody MacBook and looks just great on your desktop. Head on over to the Iconfactory’s freeware section and grab Ive Drives for your Mac or PC or as a handy searchable CandyBar iContainer today.

If there’s one constant in the universe, it’s that you can never have enough application replacement icons. Anthony proves the old adage once again with the release of this week’s freeware collection – Litho Extras Volume 6.

This latest set of organic and distressed desktop icons includes popular app replacements such as Things, Coda, Front Row, VLC and more. As an added bonus, there’s a multi-state status icon for all you Adium junkies out there. If you’ve missed Anthony’s previous Litho installments, be sure to round them all up and give them a home. An offset icon is a terrible thing to waste. Litho Extras Vol. 6 is available today for your Mac, PC or as a searchable CandyBar iContainer today.

If there’s a truism here at the Iconfactory, it’s that visitors can’t get enough of Smoothicons. These playful, bold icons that Corey designed originally back in 2000 pop on the desktop and make using your computer a joy. So we’re only too pleased to announce Corey’s latest additions to the Smoothicon suite of creations, Volume 14. MacBook owners will delight to find new versions of their favorite portable hardware as well as the entire array of iPod Nano colors to pick and choose from. Head on over to the freeware page and pick up Smoothicons 14 as a Mac, PC or Candybar iContainer archive today.