If you use a Mac then you likely use the Growl system for notifications.  Instant messaging applications such as Adium and Skype use this system by default to popup a notification on the desktop when a message is sent to you.

I was lucky enough to get a spot in the Apple iPhone Tech Talks yesterday last week (forgot to post this) in Toronto at MaRS. I really enjoyed it.

We've submitted a proposal lately that  involves bringing a popular Mac application to Windows.  When doing research for this proposal, I've finally figured out the claim "Macs just work".  My answer to this claim is that:

 The Operating System is the framework.

By this statement I mean that the engineers at Apple have put a lot of thought into what support developers require.  They make sure that this support is bundled with the Operating System and a nice touch, it is all free.