Vista is finally here

After a tumultuous 5 years in development and much feature hacking, the successor to Windows XP was finally released to consumers today.

Windows Vista promises a more secure, stable and prettier Windows than has ever gone before and seems to deliver on most of those but most reviewers seem to agree that it's not a must-have upgrade and is simply a 'warmed-over' version of XP.

Certainly there's been a lot of comparison with Mac OS X Tiger and it does appear as though a lot of the features Microsoft has been touting as significant, such as live desktop searching and 3D / transparency effects to name but two, have been around for sometime in the Mac world.

But for the masses of PC users out there, I'm sure it will be fun and interesting to finally get to use a nicer looking, stable operating system. And with more than 100m computers predicted to be using it worldwide within 12 months, that will be quite a few people!

It's about time Windows dragged itself into the 21st century but the real test will be when people can compare it to Leopard, coming this spring.

Leopard leaps ahead

Steve Jobs previewed the new version of the Apple operating system earlier today, Mac OS X Leopard, the sixth major version of Mac OS X.

There are some revolutionary new features built into Leopard, the most intertesting of which are Time Machine and Spaces.


Time Machine is an automatic backup utility built into the operating system. What's really clever about it is it's ability to auto-save any content on your computer to an external hard-drive or server.

The user can then use an innovative interface to visually 'warp' (see above) through time to view and restore a single file right through to entire photo albums or even the entire system.


Spaces enables you to create multiple, virtual desktops to organise all of your open applications. So, for example, you could create a collection of open web pages and an instance of iChat in one 'space'; have PhotoShop and Illustrator open in another 'space'; iTunes and Mail in a third 'space' and then quickly and easily switch between them.

Think of it as application switching for desktops.

Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, said "Breakthrough features like Time Machine and Spaces are good examples of how Mac OS X leads the industry in operating system innovation. While Microsoft tries to copy the version of OS X we shipped a few years ago, we're leaping ahead again with Leopard".

Indeed, these features do seem way ahead of what Microsoft will be able to offer when the oft-delayed Vista is finally released.

Other features in Leopard to get an overhaul include iChat, Spotlight, Mail, Dashboard, Boot Camp, Front Row and Photo Booth.

See Apple's new 'Leopard Sneak Peek' site for more detail and some QuickTime movies of some of the new features.

Tags: apple, wwdc, mac, leopard, preview, osx, time machine, spaces, tech, technology, gadget, schmadget, scb

Apple rips into Vista

OK, so the next couple of days, the whole internet is going to be taken up by posts about Apple, you have been warned.

WWDC day has finally arrived and the Steve Jobs keynote speech is due at 10am PDT, 5pm GMT, 6pm BST today.

A few keen Apple watchers have been taking photos of the Moscone exhibition centre where it will all take place. Apple isn't mucking around and is clearly making Vista their main target.

There are various flickr accounts floating around with loads of pics of banners depicting slogans such as "Mac OS X Leopard, Introducing Vista 2.0" and "Mac OS X Leopard, Hasta la Vista, Vista". Nice work.

Check out MacRumorsLive.com at 6pm tonight (UK) for a minute by minute update of the event.

Tags: apple, wwdc, mac, osx, leopard, rumours, vista, flickr

More delays for Vista?

A few sites are reporting today that Microsoft is being cagey again about Windows Vista release dates. Macworld reports:

At its annual Financial Analyst Meeting on Thursday, Kevin Johnson, co-president of Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division, said that while Vista development remains on track for now, Microsoft won't ship the OS until the company thinks it's ready.

"There is no data that says we're not going to make the November business availability," Johnson said, speaking to analysts and media on Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus. However, he said that the company continues to evaluate Vista "milestone by milestone" and will ship the product "when it's ready" rather than according to a hard and fast schedule.

Whether they are just being cautious because they've been burnt so many times with Vista release dates already remains to be seen.

Tags: microsoft, vista, delay