Windows

Apple checks on Microsoft at WinHEC

Among the more than 3,500 attendees at Microsoft's annual event for hardware experts are some perhaps unexpected visitors: Apple Computer employees. The Cupertino, Calif., company has four people at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle this week, checking out what Microsoft is up to.

"I am attending WinHEC to keep tabs on what is happening in the industry and what Microsoft is looking to do over the next year," said David Harrington, manager of the hardware technology group in Apple's worldwide developer relations department. He declined to make any further comment, citing Apple's … Read more

Fun with Vista's magic 8-ball

Last week, Microsoft released a test version of its "Upgrade Advisor," a downloadable tool that aims to tell users how Vista-ready their system is.

I decided to run it on all the systems I had at my disposal and found some interesting results. The first candidate was the four-month-old Compaq desktop that I have been using to test Vista. I also have a Windows XP partition, and I ran the tool using that.

But despite the fact that I have been running Vista on the machine for months, the advisor tool said it would need a memory upgrade … Read more

With enthusiasts like this, who needs enemies?

Mac fans certainly have enjoyed no shortage of fun with the many delays and feature cuts of Windows Vista. Apple Computer itself has gotten in on the act.

Now, even hard-core Windows enthusiasts (yes, they exist), are joining in.

In a posting last week, Windows blogger Paul Thurrott took Microsoft to task for its execution of the new OS.

Thurrott focuses less on the timing and more on the negative comparison between what Microsoft has promised with the new OS, and what he says it stands to deliver when it does get Vista out the door.

In many cases, he … Read more

Microsoft makes minor tweaks to Vista beta

Although a major update to the Vista test version is still some time away, Microsoft has been making some minor enhancements to the current test version.

The next big release is the consumer test version of Vista, which Microsoft is shooting to get out this quarter and make available to about 2 million testers.

Before that release, though, Microsoft is considering a smaller update that would be made available only to those Technology Adoption Program (TAP) customers and other testers who are already using the latest test version.

"We are considering releasing updated Windows Vista code to Windows Vista … Read more

Windows iMac runs Photoshop faster than on OS X

One of the biggest hang-ups with the Intel Macs is that there's still software, notably Adobe Photoshop, whose Apple-specific code has not yet been converted to run on Intel-based hardware. Apple's answer was emulation, but the performance in intense content creation apps like Photoshop and Sorensen Squeeze for video editing is ugly. But here in the post-Boot Camp world, Intel-based Apple owners can now have it both ways.

With Windows XP Pro running on a 2.0GHz iMac Core Duo, we ran our Photoshop test in less than half the time it took than with the same … Read more

Consumers won't get Vista until 2007

just in Microsoft said Tuesday that Windows Vista won't show up on new PCs until January 2007, though Microsoft will make it available to business customers in November.

Windows chief Jim Allchin said that the company will finish the code this year, but will push out the full launch to ensure that all PC makers will be ready for the launch.

"We needed just a few more weeks and that put us in a bubble... where some partners would be impacted more than others," Allchin said in a conference call with reporters and analysts.

Microsoft schedules Vista conference call

Microsoft has just announced a Vista conference call to take place in a few minutes with Windows chief Jim Allchin. A media alert went out at 2 p.m. for a 2:30 p.m. call.

For what it's worth, Bill Gates said earlier Tuesday that the new OS is due "late" this year, which didn't sound that different than Microsoft's long-standing goal to get the OS on PCs that sell this holiday season.

Businesses to get updated Vista test version

Microsoft is planning to update the current test build of Windows Vista in the coming weeks, but only for businesses that are part of the software maker's early adopter program, known as TAP(Technology Adoption Program).

"Microsoft is considering releasing updated Windows Vista code to TAP customers in the coming weeks," Microsoft said in a statement.

Other Vista testers will have to wait for the next full update of the Community Technology preview program, which is due next quarter. Microsoft is also set to let more consumers test Vista at that point.

Vista launch date set for November?

The launch of Windows Vista appears to have slipped towards the back end of this year, according to Microsoft Watch, a Web site that tracks the software giant closely.

Microsoft Watch reported on Tuesday that an official blog for Microsoft's business developers had revealed that the launch of Vista would take place in November 2006.

Previous reports had suggested that Vista might hit stores in October, although there have also been unconfirmed claims that the launch date will be Nov. 15.

"This is the year?? the year that Microsoft releases the newest version of Windows. Yes, Vista will … Read more

Apple bitten by own words

With the old G4 version of the Mac Mini, Apple made a lot out of the fact the diminuitive desktop had a standalone graphics card.

Rather than just tout its own graphics power, Apple took a swipe at many low-end Windows PCs, which use integrated graphics chips that share memory and processor power with the rest of the PC.

"Go ahead, just try to play Halo on a budget PC," Apple said. "Most say they're good for 2D games only. That's because an 'integrated Intel graphics' chip steals power from the CPU and siphons off … Read more