Windows Vista

Microsoft have announced their new OS to be released at the end of this year : Windows Vista. Apart from all the usual upgrades in security/performance ect. they are turning Windows style up side down. Windows are translucent, effects 3D and altogether has a very flash website feel to it. Other improvements include live search. ie, as you type a letter in it instantly comes back with the results. This was first used by Google with Ajax and is available at google suggest. If you have Fire Fox with Grease Monkey then you can get a script for it that will use it on the home page.

Another update to the searching it that you can apply 'meta tags' to the file. These are basically key words so you don't have to know what the file name is to find it.

In the gaming world one of the most exciting things about Vista is it will ship with DirectX 10. Microsoft claim it will offer 6-8x the graphical power of DirectX 9. The implication of this is if you are looking to get a graphics card, wait until the big companies release their DirectX 10 cards.

Another feature is the multiple browsers. For example you have a media browser which lets you view images, watch movie clips and listen to tracks, there is also a games browser which will allow you to sort by numerous things. I think they will both be a like iTunes/WMP in the sense that, as far as I am aware, get information of a server that says all the pieces of information.

Stay tuned for more Vista updates and don't buy a new computer unless you have to, hold off until Vista.