24 Ways has been running for several years now, providing 24 end-of-year articles for web designers and developers. It’s like advent, except the tasty treats are web design tips, not chocolates.

This year, the company is releasing an annual. The idea is to compile everything over the season into an 80-page book, then fire the proceeds at Unicef. The book’s only going to be on sale until the end of December and is looking for sponsorship, so:

• If you’re a wealthy but charitable sort, sponser the thing (PDF).
• If you’re in the web industry, buy the thing.

There’s a lot of Apple in Microsoft and especially in Windows. However, when Apple started branching out into other fields, Redmond’s photocopier seemed to malfunction; while Apple blazed ahead with the iPod, Microsoft stalled with Zune.

Cult of Mac reports on Microsoft’s latest me-too blunder: opening retail stores across the way from Apple’s own stores.

John Brownlee:

The problem here is that Microsoft isn’t really a brand the same way Apple is: with the exception of the Xbox 360 and a few accessories, Microsoft sells software, not hardware, and so their stores aren’t showcases of their corporate inventiveness… they’re merely the same as any other big box electronics retailer.

Of course, he’s right. Microsoft is a big, successful company, and a hugely profitable one. Despite people saying Microsoft is ‘doomed’, it still has income and profits that are the envy of many in the industry. However, it’s not Apple. It doesn’t control hardware and software relating to its most important product (Windows), and it doesn’t have end-to-end product lines in the consumer electronics space, nor a strategy that’s nearly as coherent as Apple’s.

When you go to an Apple Store, you’re primarily looking at Apple products, augmented by third-party items that Apple doesn’t care to produce itself. When you go to a Microsoft Store, you’re instead largely looking at third-party products that Microsoft is somehow associated with. The Apple Store is unique. The Microsoft Store is a prettier version of Best Buy or Currys.

So:

• The new Apple TV, slightly larger than a Club bar and only £99.
• The recent iOS 4.2 upgrade, with AirPlay, enabling you to send video from your iThing to your Apple TV, just by prodding an on-screen button.
• The spiffy Air Video, enabling streaming and live conversion from Mac or PC to your iThing.

In the world of non-idiots:

• User buys all of the above, and happily plays anything stored on their computer on their TV, wirelessly.
• User also buys and rents stuff from the iTunes Store with absurd ease.
• Buyer is now hugely happy.
• Apple makes buckets of cash.
• Everyone who likes TV loves Apple.

In the world of Apple:

• AirPlay video is blocked to developers, out of pure spite and stupidity.
• Apple TV considered a waste of time by loads of people.
• Buyers left with other equally problematic products.
• Apple makes buckets of cash, but fewer buckets have Apple TV written on them in marker pen.
• Everyone who likes TV hates Apple.

Maybe iOS 4.3 will change everything, but I think it’s more likely Steve Jobs will broadcast a live video of him smashing an iPhone to pieces and announce Apple is to become an Android-based company.

As the USA gives thanks today, the UK is doing anything but…

A must-read on student protests by Laurie Penny:

I didn’t understand quite how bad things had become in this country until I saw armed cops being deployed against schoolchildren in the middle of Whitehall.

Issue one of Future Publishing’s new iOS magazine, Tap!, is out today in the UK.

Editor Christopher Phin was kind enough to let me run riot on the gaming section, and so there’s a 17-page chunk of irreverent, fun, iOS gaming goodness in the mag.

In addition, there’s plenty to get your teeth into: loads of app, web-app and kit reviews, tutorials, interviews, opinion pieces and features. The entire thing looks great, is handily iPad-sized, and is packed full of fun, passionate copy.

If you’re not in the UK, the mag will soon be on Zinio and also US shelves. For more on when and where, follow @tapmaguk on Twitter.