As mentioned previously, there are no ‘Vista Ultimate Extras’ to be downloaded as yet. Microsoft is keeping them up their sleeves for now, with Jim Allchin suggesting on a couple of recent previous occasions that there will be some big surprises and hidden features for Vista Ultimate customers beyond, I’m guessing, what they’ve already slated for release as part of the Vista Ultimate package.

Seeing as my Logitech USB headset works perfectly well with Skype, I decided to try it with Vista’s inbuilt voice recognition technology. While I am certain that Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking would do a better job, especially once it is released to work with Vista, Microsoft’s own software and training wizard has certainly be done with style.

I probably spent at least 15 minutes going through the mini training procedure of Vista’s voice-rec, but it was very slick and smooth. I was dictating into wordprocessing software, moving between open applications and using a grid system to pinpoint precisely where on the screen you want to ‘click’ something by voice. It all works very well indeed.

Of course you can always use a mouse to do this, or just speak a command. But the voice control of the mouse cursor is a very cool little trick and must be seen. It’s very reminiscent of the way Deckert (Harrison Ford in Bladerunner) was able to look at a photo and zoom into a certain part of the photo all by voice.

As stated, Nuance has more experience at this and is no doubt busily working on a Vista compatible version. But if you want voice recognition, it’s now a standard part of the operating system and works more than well enough for me. For now, anyway.

My SD card slot doesn’t seem to be working either, but I am using a 2Gb USB flash memory drive for the purposes of ‘ReadyBoost’, new software from Microsoft that allows space on a separate USB drive to be used for improving system performance. I’ll need to use Vista for more than 24 hours to see what kind of additional speed increases I really notice when the USB flash drive is plugged in and when it isn’t.

Also with my tablet, the screen doesn’t automatically rotate when I swivel the screen around and fold it face up over the keyboard, but I’m guessing this is due to video drivers which need to be released by their manufacturer, which in this case is Intel. I haven’t yet checked to see if any upgrades for Tablet PC fix this, but for now I am happy enough using the ‘Windows Mobiliy Center’ to rotate the screen as necessary, a process which does indeed work nicely.

Vista RTM is definitely a polished, release-worthy version of Windows. But with many developers using Vista RTM, legally downloaded from the MSDN website, and with business people with access to the software if they are part of Microsoft’s volume licensing program, there can be no mistake: Microsoft still has to be working on Vista in the background, using the next two or three weeks at least as a final launchpad to correct those errors before being burnt to millions of DVDs.

Windows Vista is my new favourite operating system, even more than Mac OS X, of which I’ve had extensive use, and it’s certainly a lot more fun and definitely much cooler than W95/98/ME/XP, along with other versions I missed out on typing (like WIindows 2000) and other operating systems like Linux.
 
But with the true consumer and business launch slated for January 30, the current release feels like an excellent RC3 than the true finished product.

That said, I’m very, very happy to finally have it. But it’s only piqued my interest in what the real 'Vista’ will be like with the updates they’re untertaking between now, then and into the future.

For some, the problems I’ve encountered will be potentially showstoppers. But I haven’t had any such issues, thankfully! Vista Final RTM. It may be just an RC3 in disguise, but it’s the best version of Vista yet (after years of stops, starts, beta versions and RC versions). Are you, dear reader, itching to try Vista now (or very soon), or do you have the patience to wait another 7 weeks, or even longer if you want Vista with the inevitable SP1?
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