There has been more Vista scoops posted today on the series of tubes than the last 3 months combined. As we approach judgment day, things are starting to make sense.

Product branding icons

Paul Thurrott (image credit) has posted an image snippet of all the branded products’ icons in Windows Vista, set against the new default Aurora desktop wallpaper. From left to right: Windows Calendar, Windows Meeting Space, Windows DVD Maker, Windows Mail, Windows Media Player, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Photo Gallery. I haven’t seen so much glass in my whole life. But both the DVD Maker and Media Player’s icon seems extremely quirky.

New wallpapers (and real build 5840)

kenipnet (image credit) from the Neowin forums has posted this screenshot of a Vista escrow build with the final wallpapers including the new default Aurora. Comparing the wallpapers inside the betas, new ones visible on the screenshot includes a yellow beach-sunset, a standard landscape view with shrubs rock and sky, and a real aurora. The real aurora looks spectacularly hot.

Vista and Office packaging

Nick White (image credit) from the Windows Vista team blog posted these rendered shots of the packaging cases for Windows Vista and Office 2007. As Robert McLaws also pointed out, I was (nearly) right with my original assumptions for the packaging. Regardless, they’re unique and aesthetically pleasing. Although the Office box-art is considerably better than the Vista one. Like everyone else, we wait for what the Ultimate edition might look like.

Update: Big thanks to Andre Da Costa (image credit), the other Windows Vista editions’ packaging has also been released. Can anyone say, holy freaking super deliciously awesome? Jenny Lam and her team did an amazing job. Funny how Home Basic doesn’t get a prominently visible aurora background.

Windows Vista sounds

James Senior from Microsoft UK has posted a compilation of all the new sounds in Windows Vista from an unidentifiable build. The sounds he demonstrates includes: critical stop, ReadyBoost drive inserted, Windows UAC control prompt, new e-mail notification, low battery alarm, exclamation, Windows start and exit Windows. What you will hear will shock and awe you.

Vista has NOT been RTM-ed

As oppose to what several people has stated in and around enthusiast communities like Neowin, several key Microsoft employees has firmly stated that Vista has not been released to manufacturing. The day might be soon, but is certainly not today, or tomorrow. There’s still a bit more work to do. Build 6000.16384 is real, but it also doesn’t mean RTM. These days, Microsoft doesn’t have to increase the major version number when building, so theoretically, any sub-set of build 6000 (6000.16385, 16386, etc…) can be RTM. 😉

Mysteries yet to solve

However not everything has leaked, there are still many mysteries we have yet to solve, including:

• Ultimate Extras
• Television commercials/posters
• Official theme song (XP was Ray of Light)
• Celebrity endorsements (besides Demetri Martin)
• Anytime Upgrade pricing
• Windows Vista sounds (since James was no help)

It’s not over yet. The party’s just getting started.

Update: Added snippet debunking rumors Vista has been released to manufacturing.

No, terrorists did not take my blog hostage. What some of you have been experiencing in the last 12 hours can be explained with this simple graph:

The blue line also indicates the number of times the server died. Only kidding.

Clarification: I think some of you got the wrong idea, so I’ll clarify.

I am making light of the whole situation. The person to blame is me for having not set up a mirror beforehand. Obviously what happened as Oscar (my host) explained, my blog was causing the server to continuously crash so he removed the config for my domain, subsequently causing it to be redirected to the next website in the config, Jengajam. Obviously it was an abrupt change without notification to the users, so most people were confused, nevertheless, I don’t mind it. Jengajam is a fun site, a site which I helped design way too long ago.

So in conclusion, don’t blame my host. It was either having a dead server, or having this blog turned off temporarily. And you can see which was the obvious choice. The guys at Annandale Nordic (company representing) are great. They literally sponsor me with unlimited bandwidth, so I’m extremely grateful. What they’ve done might have been abrupt, but it was in good intention. I support their decision and as well as Jengajam.

If you don’t fancy the back story, skip directly to download.

Sometime after the launch of XP, somewhere in Redmond, someone on the Microsoft design team was in the progress of developing something for Media Center. It was believed to be too powerful for public consumption and forever archived in the servers at 1 Microsoft Way. Now, a young hobbit man by the name of W3bbo saw light of this unheard of theme, and traveled far and wide to uncover its mysteries. One theme to find. One theme to upload. One theme to rule them all.

Devoted Channel9 member W3bbo spotted an interesting theme on one of the “people_ready” television commercials airing in the Kingdoms. After some dedicated searching, he finally uncovered this mystery Windows XP theme by Microsoft. W3bbo writes,

Continue reading →

James Senior has taken the concept of “embrace and extend” and applied it to Windows Vista screencasts. His current life ambition is to beat me on Live Search for “Vista Screencasts”. So I thought I should help him along. He has done to-date 8 screencasts looking at various specialized features of Vista, much more in-depth than your average overview videos. And some of them are in the series called “3 Minute View on Vista”, which gives you all you need to know about a feature, in a feature-full 3 minute long presentation. They’re worth checking out, and so is James’ blog.

Remember that cool health application from PDC a few years ago? Well, it’s back and James has it covered in the “next generation applications”.

Update: You can also win some funky looking Vista-themed lanyard to earn all sorts of brownie points around the office, school or home.

And you thought magazines were dead. Think again, and think really really hard. If our most beloved print media disappears, what will we read in the bathroom? Bet you’ve never considered that. Now moving right along.

The very kind magazine editor Paul Douglas from Future publishings has made available 5 copies of their soon-to-be-released Windows Vista Preview Magazine, the officially Microsoft-endorsed magazine for Windows Vista, to be given away right here. I will also be writing for this very magazine in the near future, and I’ve been in regular contact with the wonderful team at Future contributing many silly ideas and useless feedback. So if this magazine flops, you know who screwed up.

The Windows Vista Preview magazine is slated for released on November 1st, and features 164-pages of previews about the most delayed operating system in history. It also comes with a hands-on interactive DVD which allows viewers to explore the look and feel of Vista without installations. It also has a collector’s cover inside and a cool embossed Vista orb logo on the front. The inside looks pretty cool too.

Expect to find guides on nine key features in Windows Vista, from music to security. There’s also an aid to picking the most appropriate edition out of the 5 available, a concept many “Vista Ultimate is too expensive M$ sucks ROFLMAO!!!oneone1”-people don’t get.

If you can’t wait for the magazine, then I recommend you check out the magazine’s blog, where contributor Jon Hicks always puts up a few neat Vista tips and tricks. You can also subscribe and feel good about yourself.

Enter the giveaway to win 1 of 5 copies of the official Windows Vista Preview magazine
Competition closes Friday 3rd of November, 2006. Open to residents of any country with a postal service.
This is a random prizedraw, the quality of your response will not be judged.

If you happen to crash-land and lose a wing, the solution is to huddle with any other wing-less moths and fly together towards the light. Another smart idea brought to you by the Zune.

Music: So Many Ways by Mates of State