The Take on Tech

Windows 7 came out yesterday. The public beta, RC (Release Candidate), and RTM (Release To Manufacturer) versions of the operating system had already acquainted us with what was going to be in that plastic box.

One of the first things that Windows 7 addressed was the minimum system requirements of Vista. One of Vista’s problems during launch was that many of the computers it was installed on were too anemic to properly run Vista. The operating system would feel too sluggish and users would feel too angry. By sticking with (or in terms of hard drive requirements actually decreasing) the minimum system requirements for Vista, Windows 7 is now accessible even to lower-end computers, since computer hardware technology has marched forward since Vista.

There already have been quite a few nice summaries on the web about Windows 7’s new capabilities so I’ll just list the big ones out here briefly with their practical implications.

New Taskbar: (All versions of Windows) The new taskbar has simple icons at the bottom, which group all the windows of a single program together. It streamlines working with multiple windows open and with the combination of Aero Peek allows for easy organization and viewing of various windows. And it’s pretty.

Aero Peek: This is a feature that lets you see little previews of your windows when you scroll over them. Although already present in Vista to some degree, Windows 7 takes this a little bit further by offering the ability to directly close the program from

Aero Snap: By moving windows to the side of the screen or to the top, the window can be enlarged to cover half of the screen or the full screen entirely. Makes maximizing things (and placing two documents side by side without having to manually resize them) a… nope not gonna say it. Cheap puns are bad for the soul.

Aero Shake: By shaking windows, you can minimize all other windows. It’s like giving your windows ADD. And it’s pretty awesome, if a bit odd.

Multitouch Interface: By using multitouch gestures (i.e. ones that involve touching the screen in more than one place), you can zoom in, zoom out, rotate, etc windows. Unfortunately, only a minority of computers right now have touch-capable screens.

Jump Lists: On the taskbar, jumplists will appear over each icon if you click and drag your mouse over the icon. These jumplists show you the files you have recently opened and use most often (as well as any others that you wish to pin permanently to the jumplist).

Libraries: Now Windows will aggregate all of a certain type of file (e.g. music) from all the folders on the OS and place them all in a central “library” where they can all be accessed in a single place by the user.

XP Mode: If you’re a business, or just have a hankering for stuff that runs on XP but won’t on Windows 7, you can run a virtualized form of Windows XP, just make sure your hardware supports it (you will have to a virtualization-capable CPU).

Now on the Apple side of things, the company has tried to steal some thunder from the Windows 7 release. On Tuesday, Apple released a slew of hardware updates to their Mac lineups. The desktop Mac computer, the iMac, will be offered in two flavors: a 21.5″ screen and a 27″ screen. The new Intel Lynnfield CPUs will be in both the new 27″ iMac and the 21.5″. The i7 variants of the Lynnfield CPU is also available in the 27″ iMac. These new Lynnfield processors mark the first foray of Apple into quad-core CPUs in something other than the Mac Pro. I’ll try posting some more stuff about this tomorrow.