In the latest September 9 build of the Windows Vista Update Advisor, I spotted a really interesting image out of the “while you wait” information section.

In the screen-view of that Windows Meeting Space client, the background image is extremely interesting. Could it be the Aurora Desktop? Evidently the build is new, since the style of the calendar widget is of those found in the RTM branch. The background has elements of the Aurora as well as the Flare, and even the blue and green the Microsoft guys told Robert Fripp to think about when composing the music for Vista.

The colors are really intense. It looks like nothing we’ve ever seen for a Vista wallpaper before. At least if it’s not Aurora Desktop, it shows Microsoft still has a lot of Vista things under wraps.

Here are screenshots of the internal Windows Vista build, 5721. These come from the RTM (release to manufacturing) branch and is newer than any build we have seen to-date.

All images has been removed by request.

Apart from a slightly brighter “Welcome Center” icon, (sadly) nothing has changed visibly. Could this be a bad sign that the user interface won’t be any more polished in RTM than RC1?

A lot of companies out there, and especially IT companies, just don’t understand the concept of communicating with its customers. “Communicating” should not just imply transmitting a press release every few months, it is a two-way process connecting companies with customers by listening and talking.

Almost every company talks but hardly anyone listens. And even so, most companies ‘listen’ only through the quarterly sales reports to interpret what their customers are saying. Companies should listen on a variety of formal and informal communication channels that includes email, forums, petitions and probably most importantly at this time in age, blogs.

For example, I wrote a blog post harshly criticising the professionalism and seriousness of the eGames & Entertainment Expo’s organisers. The organiser, CyberActive Media, listened to what I had to say and valued my opinions. Should they have not listened to what I had to say, the poor experience might have led me to influence my peers not to attend the event. However since they did listen, a poor experience has translated into a positive experience and I’m telling all my peers to attend.

But what good is it having a public list of emails for top executives if they don’t reply. Listening must also be complimented by talking. Talking too, comes through a variety of formal and information channels. Some express more value than others.

First, I have an example of a company’s poor response to my communications. I contacted Logitech Australia almost a month ago now, concerning a PR enquiry. I assume the person I emailed did not see significance of me as a blogger and disregarded the message. As a fan of Logitech’s products, having 4 sitting on my desk now, I’m appalled. I probably don’t have any significance as a blogger, but I definitely have enough significance as a customer not to be ignored. I didn’t have any high expectations, so I was expecting a “no”, but I didn’t even get that.

On the side of the spectrum, I have two great examples of companies’ talking effectively. One of which includes Microsoft, but since that might be biased, I won’t talk about it. The other is with the TechSmith Corporation. In this case, TechSmith actually started the conversation with me, which is always a surprise. Betsy Weber from TechSmith contacted me though email, but we eventually ended up on instant messaging which to me has a lot more value. Through the many conversations we’ve had, we’ve even produced some great outcomes for both my blog and their business. So it’s definitely win-win.

In conclusion, if you’re a company, have a conversation with your customers. Don’t just listen or talk, listen and talk. If you’re a customer, do you have any good or bad experiences communicating with companies? Share them here.

Back in 2004 when Microsoft was still confused about what build numbers to use for Windows Codename Longhorn, it was like puberty for concept art and codenames: dribble on Aero, draw with Avalon, talk on Indigo, store in WinFS and wrap around WinFX. Everything aside, I think the best thing that came out of WinHEC 2004 was this picture. When I first saw that picture, I went “Wow. Longhorn looks amazingly polished.” Of course I didn’t know it was one of many Macromedia Director demos showcased. Nevertheless, time moved on.

September 2006. Windows Vista RC1 released. Bit of a bummer in the UI area. Better than any Vista beta, but worse than any Longhorn concept art. And just to demonstrate, I mocked up what I would have hoped as the “Longhorn-standard” for Windows Mail.

The Windows Vista UI is an evolution, not a revolution. Oh well. All bets are off for Codename “Vienna”.

A company can accept harsh criticism, redesign their website to pretty high standards, categorise bloggers as ‘press’, use blogging as an official communication medium, and offer me a press pass. I’m impressed.

I was a skeptic of how well-planned and professional the eGames & Entertainment Expo was going to be, but now I’m certain this is going to be an exciting event for Melbourne. It probably won’t match the scale of E3, purely because we’re located in a country only reachable by a double-digit hours plane trip, and even recognised by some Americans as Iraq. Melbourne has never hosted any recognisable technology and entertainment event, so what a great way to start it off than with something like this.

I presume the Playstation 3 and the Wii will make an appearance too. Can’t wait to play with the latter. The expo is on from 17-19 of November, tickets are $16 or $22 for a 2-day pass.

Microsoft Max is an incubation product launched back in September of 2005 during Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference. Today, it received a pretty large update including RSS feeds support. It also runs on the recently released .NET Framework 3.0 RC1 but not Windows Vista due to unknown reasons.

This is one of the finest looking products released publically by Microsoft, followed tightly by Office 2007. Everything from the smoothness of animations to how the hand cursor changes according to how you can interact with objects is just perfect. If Windows Vista RC1 was as polished as this, then forget RTM.

For those who want to look at how Microsoft Max works but don’t have the time or system capable of running this, then have a look this 5 minute screencast overview of the main Microsoft Max features including photo organization, inking and news-reader.

Click image to view video (H.264, 5:09min)

P.S. Yes, my annotations were made by Captain Obvious.