Firstly, Microsoft finally ended the nightmare that was Vista, with the full release of Windows 7. The launch has been a resounding success, and undoubtedly, Windows 7 will usher in a new and successful era for Microsoft. Even self-confessed Mac fangirl Cali Lewis of geekbrief.tv admitted it’s a great operating system, much to the chagrin of some of her own fans. Those holding their breath since XP can finally upgrade to something they see as decent, and those on Vista can look forward to a faster, less cluttered and more satisfying user experience.

Meanwhile, Google just announced their new Google Maps Navigation software, which will give Android 2.0 phone users a turn-by-turn GPS navigation system. It includes voice activation, integration with Google’s StreetView (so you can see exactly what each turn looks like) and of course it leverages all the Google Maps and Google Search features we’ve come to know and love, so you can, as the blurb says, “search for ‘the Museum with the King Tut exhibit’”. Oh, and it’s free. TomTom and Garmin employees are probably already updating their CVs.

To top it off, Google also announced their new OneBox music search system, which allows users to find, preview and purchase music. Again, it leverages Google’s search technology. For example, you can type in a few lyrics of a song to find it, which is something I know many of us have been doing with Google for years (get with the programme iTunes!). Thanks to partnerships with MySpace, Rhapsody, Pandora and iLike , you can now listen to previews, and (this is the one record companies will love,) it will suggest various ways of purchasing the music. Unfortunately, this service is currently only available in the US.

We all knew Windows 7 was coming, but I’m sure it’s no coincidence that Google waited for this week to announce their two new services. Google Maps Navigation software will eventually become available for other phones, including the iPhone, but we’ve been here before with Microsoft. When a company develops an OS and a crucial piece of software (such as Microsoft Windows and Office), guess which OS gets preferential treatment? Great GPS software on a phone could be a dealbreaker for many users, and no-one is better placed than Google to do Sat Nav well, and you can bet the best experience of Google Maps Navigation will be on Google’s own OS. On the music side, an open system (as opposed to something closed like iTunes) will definitely attract users and creators alike. Google plans to make this service feel more like using Limewire than iTunes.

Meanwhile, Apple have reached a zenith of sorts: iPod penetration has reached a type of saturation point; their latest OS is basically a minor upgrade; and the initial euphoria of the iPhone is being replaced by a sort of “so what?” feeling, as other phone makers catch up.

Think about it: Apple’s ad campaigns (“I’m a Mac/I’m a PC”, “There’s an app for that”, and “10,000 songs”) will soon start to sound a bit lame against strong rival phone and handheld operating systems, and the might of Google’s search applied to music.

Of course, the great white hope for Apple is this mysterious “Tablet”. The Tablet may be Apple’s game-changer, revolutionising the world of publishing the way the iPod changed music forever. But now there’s no doubt that Apple needs to change the game, and soon.

Logic Studio adds features like “flex time”; a much needed upgrade to its time manipulation abilities on the timeline, and better workflow tools to allow easier exporting and importing of settings and tracks between projects. Also included are some new features for guitarists like better amp and stompbox emulation, and a bunch of “how tos” modelled on the similar feature in the latest Garageband. None of the upgrades seem like “must-haves” to me, though the most tempting new additions are probably in the new MainStage, which now (finally!) has MIDI Out implementation, and the ability to include basic audio tracks and loops in your live setups; nice!

Final Cut Studio’s improvements also appear relatively minor, though the new ProRes codecs promise better quality at lower data rates. Motion 4 expands its 3D abilities with new shadows, reflections and depth of field. DVD Studio remains at version 4, and there are point five updates to Color and Compressor. Frankly, some of the upgrade highlights in Final Cut Pro itself, such as the ability to discuss your edit in realtime with iChat Theater, seem a bit like clutching at straws.

Overall, nothing earth-shattering has happened here, but the upgrades are reasonable and most will probably find an excuse to make the move soon enough for the price.

Programmes will be available for 21 days after broadcast on the system, so you can “see what you’re missing”, as the blurb goes.

Of course, you probably won’t be watching some of RTE’s bought in programmes, for copyright reasons, and it sounds like, thanks to cutbacks at the national broadcaster, there’ll be a lot more bought in programmes, and a lot less indigenous material.

Still, this is a great development, and it should catch on, much like BBC’s iPlayer, which sadly, is not available here, again, for copyright reasons.

Check it out at http://www.rte.ie/player/

Of course, it’s not just audio apps that can get the remote control treatment. What about remote-controlling PowerPoint presentations? Or even DVD Player or VLC on your Mac? It’s all especially pertinent now that new Mac laptops no longer come with the little Apple Remote as standard.

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, and you’d like to be able to control your Mac remotely, this is a no-brainer.

Apparently, according to an article in Silicon Republic, this is really ground-breaking stuff.

I’m sorry, but what rock have the suits in Eircom been under for the past 3 years?

Don’t get me wrong, this guy, Richard Griffiths seems to be a hotshot, and he knows what he’s talking about, but do Eircom really think they can oust the Sky+/NTL Digital brigade, years after the on-demand revolution began? After over a year of absolutely blitzing the market with introductory rates, anyone who cares has Sky+ already. And don’t even mention AppleTV or Media Center, because it’s likely these decision-making dudes in our former national telephone company never heard of these things until the meet with Griffiths, who might already be regretting his move from BT Vision.

Eircom, just stick to what you’re good at, which is… hold on, I forgot. What ARE you good at?

Apple, of course are famous for dropping support for what they see as “legacy” standards. They were first “floppy droppers”, getting rid of the 1.4MB disk to the dismay of many. Of course, history has shown they were right, albeit, a bit premature. And they have been right in this regard many times, whether it be SCSI, VGA or ADB, they killed them off before they could retire gracefully. No over 70’s medical card for defunct Apple formats then! (In-joke for the Irish there)

But firewire? A dead format? For one, DV (and HDV) relies on firewire, so video enthusiasts will be disappointed. Audio interfaces are also not USB-only affairs; I won’t even bother naming some of the manufacturers making firewire audio interfaces.

OK, this is supposed to be their entry-level machine, but seriously, there are plenty of entry-level firewire cameras and audio interfaces out there.

This seems like a bizarre decision by Apple, but if history is anything to go by, firewire is dead!

Yes, indeed, Apple have users of their notebooks in a bit of a constant quandary; the size of their hard drives versus the size of the software they suggest we put on those drives. Of course this forces us all to consider an upgrade to the latest model with the slightly bigger drive, which means Apple have us exactly where they want us – constantly on the upgrade path.

Personally, I have a MacBook Pro with an 80 gig hard drive. I have iLife, iWork, Logic Studio and Final Cut Studio. It’s impossible to fit them all on, so I have had to figure out some nifty ways to save space on my drive. Here’s 9 tips I can think of right now.

1 – Buy an external hard drive
OK, this is obvious, but who wants to deal with power cables and a brick in your bag all the time? That is, of course, unless your drive is a USB powered mini hard drive; the size of an old iPod, and with no cables apart from the USB one. I always keep one in my bag, and I plug it in when needed. All the support materials for the Pro software, my music library, and some of the lesser used applications sit on the external. I only need it when I need it, but if I didn’t have it, I guarantee I’d need it then! OK, it’s only 5400 RPM, but portability wins out over speed in this case. Try http://www.lacie.com for more information.

2 – Archive Stuff
Finished that project? Archive it to CD or DVD. Twice if you want to be safe, and store the archives in different locations.

3 – Learn how to make Unix aliases
So you can move files onto an external and leave pointers on the original drive. Try http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21134 for a contextual menu plugin.

4 – Don’t use iPhoto.
It’s a dog that doubles the amount of hard drive space you need for photos. Dump it I say!

5 – Purge Cache Files
Final Cut Pro render files? Logic Pro freeze files? DVD Studio Pro nonsense all over the place? Find them and destroy them! Don’t know where to find these files? Well maybe the next tip will help.

6 – Use Disk Inventory X
It’s a brilliant app that shows you exactly what’s on your hard drive and how big it is. Find the bloatware and kill it, or move it. Brilliant. Especially good for finding big big mostly useless caches from apps like Google Earth, Joost, DVD Studio Pro or Second Life.

7 – Use AppDelete
I love freeware and shareware but sometimes I end up accumulating it like 5 cent coins. (Taking up space in my wallet and no good at a parking meter!) Just turfing the application may not get rid of all the flotsam it leaves around the drive. Use AppDelete, and all files associated with the app (such as preferences and application support stuff) will also be deleted. Good riddance!

8 – Not a Garageband or Logic User?
Nothing hogs the hard drive like Garageband support files. Go to Library/Application Support/Garageband/ and dump it all. And then dump the app. Of course, if you use Logic, don’t do that, as Logic uses all that stuff!

9 – Take out some RAM
OK, I am scraping the bottom of the barrel here, but every byte of RAM uses up a byte of hard drive space, for the purposes of safety in case your machine’s battery dies mid-operation or whatever. So ironically, taking out a stick of RAM will give you that much hard disk space back! Not really recommended practice though!

One of the things about it that is very interesting is that its streaming nature means that advertising works again! Yay! Boo!

Whatever you think about it, ultimately, this is probably good news, as PVRs kill advertising, and ultimately that kills a lot of TV funding, which may mean less quality programming. On Joost, you get the programme, and then a little ad, and then another programme, and so on. You also get little corner flashes, where a product shows up discreetly in the corner, without the artifacting of the main feature, so it looks really clear and tempting to click on!

Overall, I am very impressed by the picture quality on Joost. On my home 2 megabit line (which is sometimes half that, thanks NTL!), it looks really good. The interface is pretty good, but I’m sure it will get even better. But mostly, they need to get some more mainstream stuff on there. I’ve no doubt it will happen. For now, check out the Onion News on there. It’s class!

I watched the iPhone ads with two types of incredulity. One was, “I can’t believe it’s this cool!”, as in, what a brilliant interface. It looks so usable and intuitive. I want one!

The other was, “I can’t believe it’s this cool” as in, well, I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe when I pick up an iPhone it will feel as intuitive and as responsive as the ads suggest.

Well, folks, I picked one up, and it IS that cool. I was immediately in the iPhone ad, ordering calamari from the local take away (virtually, mind – no phone calls were actually made!); browsing through albums using the beautiful cover flow; skimming through the photo collection; marvelling at how it automatically switches to landscape when I turn it on its side. All the issues I had about a touch screen interface not living up to expectations melted away. That aspect of the iPhone is pretty amazing.

The other aspects, the non-3G, mini-drive, Skypeless 3rd-party app-less nature of it, I imagine many of these issues will be sorted in the coming months.

Of course, it won’t matter to us Irish much, given that it’ll probably arrive on these shores in, oh, 2018 or something…