William Computer Blog

In preparation of Windows Vista, Yahoo has decided to rebuild its popular instant messaging software from scratch. The new Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista will take advantage of Vista’s new graphical subsystem called Windows Presentation Foundation (It was code-named Avalon before).

Windows Presentation Foundation will bring some significant improvement to the look and feel of the software. Some noticeable change would be: smoother animation, better looking animations, improved scaling and transparency.

The Contact List

The first noticeable change to the contact list is your contacts’ info and avatar would automatically scale up when you place your mouse over on a contact.

An iPhoto-like slider is available at the bottom of the contact list which would allow the users to resize the contact list depending on the users’ preferences. When you resize the contact list to very large, you will be able to see your friends status on Yahoo services such as Flickr, Yahoo! 360, etc.

Chat window

Similar to Adium, Yahoo Messenger for Vista will feature tab chats which will allow you to organize multiple chat windows into a single window.

To turn a single chat window into a tab, all you have to do is drag the window and drop it onto another chat window. Drag a tab out of a window and the chat window will reappear.

I hope Yahoo will allow users to set tab chat as the default chat window mode. So when you started a new chat with friends, a new tab will automatically appear.

You can now share your flickr photos right from your chat windows.

Windows Sidebar

Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista will also take advantage of Windows Sidebar, a panel for Desktop Gadgets (a.k.a Widgets) located on the side of your Windows Vista desktop.

The new Yahoo Messenger will include a custom Yahoo Messenger gadget which will allow you to drag someone from the contact list to the gadget. The gadget will then show whether that particular contact is available or not.

New Emoticon

A rather obtrusive feature is the new animated emoticons. Similar to Windows Live Messenger, you can now send a large animated emoticon which will automatically shrink to normal size.

I’m not sure when the software will be available, you can now leave your e-mail address on Yahoo Messenger for Vista web. They will let you know when it’s ready. Meanwhile, you can preview the video of Yahoo Messenger for Vista.

A quick review of Xbox 360 that I bought last Christmas holiday.

Why Xbox 360

First, I’d like to explain why I decided to buy the Xbox 360 when everyone around me is buying Wii or waiting for Playstation 3. The main reason why I didn’t get a Wii is because it cannot produce high definition video (I have played Wii at a friend’s place for a few hours). Playstation 3 produces high-definition video but the price is too expensive (I don’t want to spend too much money on video games).

Price

For $689 AUD the console pack include 2 Xbox wireless controllers, Xbox 360 20GB Hard Drive, Xbox 360 Media Remote, Component Cable to connect to my HDTV and two games: Dead or Alive 4 and Project Gotham Racing 3.

Setup

The console is quite easy to setup, the first thing I did was connect the component cable to the console and then slide the switch on the connector to HDTV then connect the red, green, blue, red (audio) and white (audio) to the TV. Then you need to connect the power supply. The power supply is huge and takes too much space.

When the console is turned on, I pressed the “connect” button on both the console and the controllers to sync the controller.

The dashboard appear right after I turned on the console (because I have no games inside). I went straight to the system tab on the dashboard, click on the console settings and then change the display settings. I went to the HDTV Settings to select the high definition output setting and select to 1080i.

According to Arstechnica article on Xbox 360, the only way the Xbox 360 could produce 1080p display is by using the VGA cable.

Online

The Xbox 360 has built-in ethernet port to connect to Xbox Live. You can also purchase $165 AUD wireless network adapter if you want to go online with Wifi. My home router is located far from the Xbox 360 but I don’t want to spend $165 for wireless network adapter. So I decided to enable “Internet Sharing” (NAT) on my MacBook Pro ethernet port and connect the network cable to my notebook’s ethernet.

Xbox Live

Xbox Live is the online gaming and entertainment service provided by Microsoft. By connecting to Xbox Live, you will be able to play other gamers online, download system and game updates, shop for xbox arcade games/themes/user pictures, and download game demos.

There are two types of Xbox Live membership: The Silver membership and the Gold membership. Xbox Live silver membership is free for all Xbox 360 owners while the gold membership requires you subscribe. The gold membership is the only account type that allows you to play online with other gamers.

Here’s my Xbox Live gamecard and link to my Xbox Live profile:

Games

Just a quick comment on my first few games:

Gears of War — Tactical first person shooting game. Gears of War is currently the fastest selling title on the Xbox 360. It won so many awards. I’ve finished the game on casual level. Awesome game, I have no regret buying this game.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion — A role-playing game with a very large map and very good graphics. This game is also available on PC although I don’t think my PC at home is capable at playing this game. I haven’t spent much time playing this game so I can’t comment whether I like this game or not.

Dead or Alive 4 — Yet another fighting game with high definition graphic.

Project Gotham Racing 3 — Yet another racing game with high definition graphic.

Microsoft XNA

Last released the final version of Microsoft XNA last month. According to Wikipedia, Microsoft XNA is a set of tools and technologies for game developers. By downloading XNA Game Studio Express, hobbyist and casual developer could develop their own game for Windows and Xbox 360.

A $99 USD annual fee to the XNA Creators Club is required to run the games you developed on Xbox 360.

In 2007, Microsoft will release XNA Game Studio Professional which is intended for professional game developers.

Happy New Year to all of you. Here are some technology that I look forward to in 2007:

Windows Vista — On 30th January 2007, Windows Vista will be released for general public. I tested Windows Vista while the operating system was still in beta and release candidate. I don’t think my small business customers will be upgrading to Windows Vista anytime soon but I will buy Windows Vista (probably the Ultimate Edition).

Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) — A new major version of Mac OS X, dubbed Leopard, is expected to be released this year. Mac OS X Leopard will include some new exciting features. I’m also interested to try Mac OS X Server, which I wrote about a few months ago.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 — Adobe Creative Suite software are also expected to be released this year. This version of Adobe Creative Suite are Universal Binary which would provide performance benefit for Intel Mac users. Photoshop CS3 Beta is currently available for download at Adobe Labs.

Microsoft Office for Mac (Universal Binary) — I have been using my Windows PC to work on office documents because I don’t want to purchase an Office 2004 license which doesn’t work very fast on Intel Mac (because it’s not universal binary yet).

I hope Microsoft won’t delay releasing Universal Binary version of Microsoft Office. This version of Microsoft Office should also support the Microsoft Office Open XML. Microsoft Office Open XML is a new default file format produced by Microsoft Office 2007.

Parallels Beta 3 — The Parallels team released a new beta version of Parallels Beta for Mac with a new feature called Transporter. Transporter is a powerful tool that helps you: Migrate your existing Windows PC to a Parallels Virtual Machine and Convert VMware and Virtual PC virtual hard disks to Parallels virtual machines.

Linux Kernel 2.6.20 — According to an article on linux.inet.hr, the upcoming 2.6.20 Linux kernel is bringing a nice virtualization framework for all virtualization fans out there. It’s called KVM, short for Kernel-based Virtual Machine. Read more about it: Finally user-friendly virtualization for Linux.

Feel free to share some technologies that you look forward to in 2007. Once again, I hope you all have a wonderful and prosperous new year.