Someone learned how to make pretty icons!

Microsoft just announced the "demarcation" of Windows Vista (nee Longorn). Incidentally, the media release video the kids over in Redmond, Wash. whipped up is unintentionally the funniest thing I've ever seen. There are also a lot of shots of the new "improved" interface which features glossy aqua icons circa OS X 10.1. Basically, some scotch tape and Photoshop layer elements, because as we know, nothing says new version quite like some "inner glow" applied to the logo of your choice. The new fenestrated tagline "clear - confident - connected" sounds a bit like a new STD drug marketed towards social butterflies (paging Quagmire).

All cheap shots aside, for the first time I don't really have any clue about where the future of the dominant OS is going. With Mac soon to be available to run on Intel's X86 chips, and subsequent hacks to put Tiger on non Apple-hardware sure to follow (by the like of tech-junkies like my brother, Eric) There may be some real bumps in the road for both companies as roles are redefined.

Talking to Eric when I was at home brought up some excellent points. While he considers the aesthetics of Apple's hardware to be superfluous, he did not seem particularity opposed to potentially running their OS - it is very stable, UNIX-based and just as capable as Windows - on a PC box he'd have built. Strange times indeed.
[Via Engadet]