So I’ve decided to give Windows Vista a spin and see if it’s worth the wait. I’ve been following the development of this version of Windows for close to 4 years now. There have been dozens of delays and cuts from what the original version was supposed to look like, but I will say that what is included is very good.
It is a very visually pleasing and well put together package. It is nice to look at and everything has a glossy look to it. Because I don’t have a great graphics card, I haven’t even been able to activate the Aero desktop environment which adds many more sweet visual effects. All in all I like it, and if Cassie learns it well enough to break free from Windows XP, I may just switch to using Vista exclusively.
One more thing. The claim has been made for decades now that all Micro$oft does is rip off Apple and Mac OS. Well I think that whoever believes that is probably right. There are a lot of aspects of the Windows Vista visual style that is a blatant rip off of Mac OSX. Plus, they’ve bundled over a dozen built-in Windows applications that seem very similar to iLife and Frontrow. I know that Steve Jobs already hates Bill Gates for ripping him off when Micro$oft first developed Windows. I’m sure he’s still mad that nothing has changed all these years later, but he’s probably too busy counting his billions of dollars in iPod sales and thinking about the billions he’s going to make off of the iPhone in a couple of months.
So this week is like a second Christmas for gadget geeks like myself. Not only is the International Consumer Electronics Show going on right now in Las Vegas, but Macworld is going on in San Francisco. This means a flood of new electronics and gadgets for me to drool over.
The biggest news of the week is of course the iPhone. If you haven’t seen what this little wonder can do, stop reading this now and go watch the demos on the Apple website. It is about as close to a perfect all-in-one device as you can get. There are a few flaws (price, locked to Cingular, no 3G data) but all in all it is amazing. It amazes me how Apple can revolutionize the computer industry and the consumer electronics industry while Microsoft takes 5 years to put out a new operating system. Mac OSX is far better and easier to use than any version of Windows, and Apple still manages to develop superior computer hardware which is something Microsoft has never done. Apple doesn’t have a video game system so the Xbox wins by default, but who will argue that Microsoft’s Zune is superior in any way to the iPod?
Another interesting development this week is the announcement of a partnership of TiVo and Comcast cable to put TiVo software in Comcast cable boxes. This would be a really great development for me personally. I have a Comcast cable box that basically sits there and does nothing because I use my TiVo exclusively. The possibility of combining the TiVo software and some of the appealing features of Comcast cable like OnDemand movies makes me very excited. If the price is reasonable, and with the way TiVo has been hiking prices it won’t be hard, I think we may be switching off our dedicated TiVo box sometime later this year.
Steve Jobs is on stage giving his annual keynote at Macworld introducing some of the new products from Apple for the upcoming year. I am sitting here watching MacRumors.com dictation of the keynote and I am flipping out over the new products they are introducing. They’re finally shipping the iTV that they introduced last fall which will stream all of your media from your computer to your TV. They also introduced the iPhone which may turn out to be the greatest phone ever created. It has iPod technology built in so it works as a music player and also is a smartphone. Too cool.