After the thrill of the Consumer Electronics Show and MacWorld in January there’s nothing much happening in the computer biz these days. We’re in the February doldrums, but the rumor mill is still active about some upcoming events that may affect your digital life.
Windows 7. The big news, as far as I’m concerned, is that Windows 7 will probably be with us sooner than anyone can imagine.
Windows Vista was released just a hair over 2 years ago. The traditional release cycle for Windows has been just over 2 years. Yet, after Windows XP first came out in 2001 it was 6 years before anyone saw Windows Vista. The delay did not help with Vista’s image.
With Windows 7 looming soon, it seems Microsoft is back on track with a 2-year release cycle. Also, Windows 7 seems to be working better than Vista. That means Vista will be relegated to the junk heap, along with Windows ME. Maybe I’ll be wrong and there will be mass upgrades. It all depends, of course, on what W7 offers that people are clamoring for. We’ll see.
New iMacs. My friend Bob just bought an iMac. As anyone who buys Apple products knows, as soon as you buy something from Apple a new version comes out quickly. The new model is far better and a lot cheaper than the one you just bought.
The Macfanboys were expecting new iMacs last month at the MacWorld Expo. No dice. Still, the scuttlebutt is that Apple has stopped shipping iMacs to vendors and the availability of iMacs is rather thin now. That signals a product update real quick.
I don’t know what to expect from a new iMac. There may be a new design or new hardware features. I don’t believe they’ll adopt the BluRay disc standard just yet, but Apple is known for surprises.
iPhone 2. Also from Apple, there have been electronic sightings of a cell phone code named iPhone 2,1 in the south San Francisco Bay area. Obviously should the wiz kids at Apple have new toys to play with, they’d be working with them on their home turf. That’s probably what’s happening now.
No news on what the iPhone 2 may have as far as looks or features. The Macfanboys are pining for video chat, which would essentially make the iPhone 2 into the first real video cell phone. That would be nice.
Target date for the iPhone 2 is guestimated at June of this year.
Random Rumors. Another rumor, though it’s an old one, is that Apple will introduce a tablet version of its popular MacBook line. There’s nothing substantial on this one yet.
Also out there is the mystery iPhone Nano, though most rumor mongers have accepted that such a model would probably be for foreign consumption only.
Aside from Windows 7 there’s nothing major on the PC front. I’m surprised there haven’t been more closings or consolidations among the PC manufacturers. That probably means that they’re stronger than other industries, but I do know that sales are down across the board. Perhaps Windows 7 will help revive things?
In my opinion, Windows 7 can’t come too soon – the longer MSoft seem to keep it, the worse it gets. Slashdot has an article today that it is coming out in 6 versions!! Its just amazing what pointy-haired-boss can do to a product that by all (technical) standards seems to be a better product than Vista.
In all fairness though, I don’t think Vista is like the ME debacle – the hardware and driver issues were mainly due to vendors pulling their feet. Everyone who bought a new computer from (HP/Dell/etc.) with Vista pre-installed seem to have no problems with it (they need 2GB ram though…)
Comment by sriksrid — February 4, 2009 @ 7:18 am
I hear that Windows 7 is actually just one program. Whatever you input as the activation key is what determines which flavor of Windows 7 you have, which is how Windows Vista works as well. Seems dumb to me.
I wonder what Win7’s minimum RAM requirement will be?
Comment by admin — February 4, 2009 @ 10:37 am
I am guessing the new iMacs will not be released until Mac OS X Snow leopard is released. It would only make sense.
Comment by matthewdk — February 4, 2009 @ 2:12 pm
That would make sense, but Apple rarely makes sense. I doubt if they would hold one up for the other.
Comment by admin — February 4, 2009 @ 2:27 pm
Dan,
I heard Win 7 has less hardware requirements than Vista – I think 1 GB RAM is the recommended. Its video card requirements are also reduced, with aero being available on more chipsets.
Your comment on activation key deciding the product key reminded me of this : every USB drive you get is fabricated with the same capacity. At the last step, they just seal off certain parts to give you a lower density usb drive. Cheaper to manufacture.
(I see you got the avtaar thingy up and running 🙂 )
Comment by sriksrid — February 5, 2009 @ 5:52 am
You’re correct on the RAM usage: Microsoft is claiming 1GB, though performance-wise I’d like to see how much better it gets with 2GB of RAM.
I was unaware of that trick with the USB drives. Seems like a waste, though. I mean, if you’re going to make a 4GB drive you can sell for a certain amount why sell it for less and just claim it has a lower capacity? It seems like they could use a lower quality manufacturing process and then increase their profit margin. But what do I know?
Yeah, the gravatars are working! I just updated the software here to WordPress 2.7. It’s a good release and while the update didn’t go smoothly, it worked!
Comment by admin — February 5, 2009 @ 8:38 am