Windows Vista launch rocked!

SO yesterday I attended the Vista launch and boy was it fun. There was all the regular fanfare but lots more than I expected. There was music, videos, music, videos, and more music and videos…if that seems rhetorical that’s because it is. The entire event was hijacked by the need to kill iPod the fact that most people now think of their PC as the hub of the multimedia experience. Not only were the words “streaming” and “downloading” made synonymous with today’s computing age but new words like “interactive” and “LIVE” had now become even more prevalent with the introduction of Vista…so we are made to believe!




I had fun. Surrounded by journalists I was able to get a feel for just how boring life is without a Tablet PC…poor bastards. Not only were they dropping pens and scribbling noisily on paper, but at the same time they were expecting to go home and read their shorthand sometime in the future. All I did was pull out my Samsung Q1 and record the experience on OneNote using my inbuilt mic array and OneNotes ability to record audio clippings…I didn’t even need a pen. I must admit that when one of the PowerPoint slides clicked over and displayed a Samsung Q1 Ultra-Mobile PC in the heart of its message I couldn't help but feel at home.


Overall there were three major announcements as follows (four really):

1. New online music service from Sanity – The first integrated online music subscription service in Australia was announced by Sanity and Microsoft Australia. The new Sanity service will give Australian Windows Vista customers access to more than 1 million tracks to download and will offer both subscription and purchase options when it goes live in April 2007. It makes digital music both easy and legal for mainstream consumers.
2. BigPond Movies – Microsoft Australia and Telstra BigPond today announced the integration of BigPond Movies content into Windows Vista Media Center. BigPond Movies is the first movie and video download service to be integrated with Windows Vista in Australia and is now available. For the first time consumers can download on their PC in the study then watch on their TV using Xbox 360 as a network extender.
3. Kodak Online Print Wizard - Microsoft Australia and Kodak announced the integration of the Print@Kodak online printing wizard into the new Windows Vista Photo Gallery so people can send their photos to be printed directly from their Windows Vista computers and have them mailed back or pick them up from their nearest Kodak shop.
4. New Solitaire!

I think one the most awkward highlights of the event was when a Microsoft Staff member turned to the big screen, where he had successfully depicted the roadmap for the new online music service from Sanity, and with one push of a button opened some curtains and presented us with the biggest eyeful of LIVE ROCK MUSIC breathing down our necks…here’s what I saw three seats away:

As I left I was fare welled by several tray-yielding wait staff with the friendliest looking chicken skews and quiche Loraine. I grabbed and scoffed, signed for my press bag and headed back on the fairy to Manly beach! Life is good…