Engadget HD has gotten the latest on the highly anticipated update for Vista Media Center and it doesn't look good. The first release candidate made it into testers hands recently and they weren't happy to see that the most anticipated features -- support for a DirecTV HD tuner and native H.264 support -- got pushed to Windows 7. So head over to Engadget HD for more details (screen shots included).

Microsoft is trying its darndest to stay mum about future versions of the Windows Client, since all that talk and expectation for Vista sure didn't treat 'em right. Luckily for us, all that transparency Microsoft has been working on with its corporate bloggers is paying off in little slip-ups here and there, with this one coming from Charlie Owen, the Windows Media Center Product Manager. In a blog post tagged "Fiji," which he has since pulled, Charlie mentions the next version of Media Center being "yet another out of band release" and that "the team is pretty happy about that because it allows us to get back on our (approximate) yearly schedule of delivering goodness to customers." He has since apologized for leading his blog following astray with the info, but that doesn't mean we can't still skim some info from this, including the implication -- which is growing in other circles -- that Fiji is a "shoulda been in Vista" update for Media Center, not the whole OS. As to what will actually end up in such a Media Center update is anyone's guess, but we've all got our own personal wishlists to be sure. Let's start with a few bug fixes, shall we?

[Via Chris Lanier's Blog]

Aw c'mon Microsoft, why you always gotta ruin our fun? We were perfectly content to push around vague rumors of a Windows Vista followup in late 2009 and whatever features it may or may not have, dangling all our hopes and dreams off of a thin and potentially out-of-context quote from Ben Fathi, and now you've gotta come along and disown the guy. According to Kevin Kutz, Director of Windows Client: "The launch of Windows Vista was an incredibly exciting moment for our customers and partners around the world, and the company is focused on the value Windows Vista will bring to people today. We are not giving official guidance to the public yet about the next version of Windows, other than that we're working on it. When we are ready, we will provide updates." Ars Technica conjectures that the original story might've even gotten Ben wrong, and the 2.5 years might be how long it takes for for Vienna to make it out the door after the Fiji service pack. Of course, the word from Mr. Fathi was evidently not "official guidance," so who knows. What we can be certain of is that there are two mistakes Microsoft doesn't want to repeat with this OS: taking forever to release, and drumming up false hopes of any sort of launch date earlier than the actual one.

[Thanks, Mike]

All those cool kids with their messy hair and loud rock music like to talk about how Vista is the "end of an era," and from now on the OS will move towards modular updates and internet service-based functionality. But before they get too smug, Steve Ballmer warned on Monday that there's "plenty more where that came from." He sort of dodged the questions about when to expect a service pack, saying "We'll put one out if we need to," but he also mentioned "We've got a very long list of stuff our engineers want to do, a long list of stuff all of the companies here want us to do," and that "There are so many areas where we need innovation." Hard to really tell what he's hinting at -- other than the fact that he obviously wants you to buy his shiny new OS -- but while Fiji does seem destined for our desktops sooner rather than later, it's hard to discount rumors of the tantalizing upgrades and reworkings we're hearing about in Vienna, which would be Microsoft's first big break in Windows backwards compatibility, and could provide much more power to the OS. 'Cause you know how we do: we're doing our Flip 3D thing, tagging our photos and burning those DVDs, and we can't help but wonder, "is this all there is?"

Vista hasn't even completely made it out the door yet, but Microsoft looks to already be hard at work on the inevitable first service pack, code named "Fiji," sending out a call for testers in hopes of rolling out the upgrade by the end of the year. As rumored the first time we got wind of the Fiji moniker, the upgrade will apparently add a number of features to Vista that had to be axed in order to meet this month's launch date, as well as address various "high impact" issues, although Microsoft doesn't seem to be willing to elaborate on exactly what those issues might be or how high their impactedness may rank. Of course, all this pales in comparison to rumored changes coming in that other exotically-named Vista upgrade supposedly in the works, with Vienna promising to turn the OS on its head, doing away with that pesky compatibility for "all applications" and throwing everyone for a loop with a completely new interface. No word yet on a possible service pack for it.

[Via The Inquirer]

Face it, Windows Vista is just so played these days. With that preliminary biz release under its belt, we're ready for bigger and better things, and luckily a certain "jameskyton" drive-by-blogger has the low-down for us on Vista's successors, Fiji and Vienna. James calls Fiji a sort of "Vista R2," which should include most of those fancy features Microsoft had to cut out of Vista to get it released this century. Highlights include the reappearance of WinFS, which will sit on top of the NTFS file system; a more full-featured sidebar app; tight Windows Live integration, especially when it comes to media; built-in playback of HD DVD; Next-Generation Secure Computing Base; and possibly even a Garage Band clone called Monaco. There will also be the usual interface and other minor enhancements you can expect from such an update, but Fiji has nothing on Vienna, which is purported to feature a complete overhaul of the OS, including a break in compatibility with "all applications," though hopefully Microsoft will have some Apple-esque transition schemes in place before that time comes. The fresh beginning will give Microsoft more OS-building freedom than it has had in a long time, but right now it sounds like they're a bit too excited about this: Vienna will supposedly do away with the Start Menu, toolbars and menus in favor of some sort of pie-menu interface, WinFS-t-the-core and search, potentially leaving long time users stranded with a brand new interface to learn from the ground up. The OS will also feature beefy speech support, along with a sandbox mode for running non-managed code without risking your security. Much of this is hearsay so far, and we're really hoping Microsoft doesn't go off the deep end with Vienna, but we're still curious to see what they have up their sleeves after being cooped up so long ironing out Vista bugs.

[Via Slashdot]