Well as we approach the end of the year, looking back on it, it was also one of the more busier ones. The stuff I’ve mentioned below isn’t even the start of it. There is heaps more that I want to write about, but a lack of time to do so.

Windows 7
After the Windows Vista fiasco, Microsoft started to play hardball with its core product. No longer would we see five year time gaps in between releases, it was a strict 2/3 year distance in between operating systems. It also seemed to employ Intel’s tick-tock model whereby a major release (Windows Vista) would be supplemented by a minor release (Windows 7) in an alternating fashion.

Windows 7 is built on the core of Windows Vista, but a more refined and fine-tuned version. This release also saw the super dock replace the iconic Windows taskbar that’s been with us since Windows 95 and the addition of libraries; a collection of folders acting as one. We also saw speed and battery life improvements making this release of Windows much better received then Vista.

Snow Leopard
I couldn’t write up a story about Windows 7 without also mentioning its mortal enemy; Snow Leopard. Like Windows 7, Snow Leopard is also a tune up and improvement of Leopard, even going so far as to claim that it has ‘no new features’, despite some new features being available.

The biggest change with Snow Leopard is the rewrite to 64-bit applications and stripping the old PPC code from it. It also included new Grand Central technology, which allowed it to use multiple CPU cores more efficiently.

Unfortunately for Snow Leopard, its launch wasn’t as smooth as Windows 7. It came with a rather embarrassing bug that could ultimately wipe your user account if you logged in with a guest account.

Bing
After years of failed search engines, Microsoft finally stumbled onto a bit of success this year. That success was called Bing. Starting off as msn search, it soon got rebranded to Live Search, then Windows Live search and after Microsoft decided that that wasn’t working; Bing.

If Bing wants to take on Google (and it does), it won’t be able to do it organically. It needs to play ball. It needs clever marketing features and it needs to buy out the competition – in this case Yahoo. Useful features and a nice design also help, and in this case Bing’s got some of them too. The daily image looks great and aside from the orange the interface isn’t bad either. The image and video search is miles ahead of Google’s and the Visual search shows some potential (it could be better if it wasn’t Silverlight).

Above all, it needs a decent search engine. And it does, if you live in America. Like the Zune HD the rest of the world misses out and gets some sort of watered down version. Thankfully, it’s as easy as changing a setting to get the US version and a better search engine. Sometime next year, I’ll give Bing a proper test run and use it solely for a month but I want to wait to see if they release an Australian version first.

Google needs competition to keep it on the right track. Without it, it could turn into the Microsoft of the 90′s while Bing plays the role of Apple (a strange but plausible turn of events).

Zune HD
Microsoft needed a new product to compete with the iPod touch. Its normal Zunes weren’t good enough. So rather than play catch-up with the iPod touch, it decided to play leapfrog and created the amazing Zune HD. Well, almost amazing – it’s still a US exclusive device, but it looks great on paper. Aside from HD video out (at 720p) it contains a multi-touch OLED screen, giving it a superior battery life. Oh, and it has wireless synchronisation, meaning it doesn’t even need to be plugged into your computer to sync it.

But with all of this comes the products downsides. The first is its lack of available applications. Although it’s still early days, the lack of applications for the device is a little disappointing. This turns people off buying one, but people may be deterred from buying one until it can do more things (not me however, this would make a great video device). Its next weakness is the marketing. Apple products are 50% features and 50% marketing. If it wasn’t for the “I’m a Mac” ads, I’m sure Apples market share wouldn’t be what it is today. In the past, Microsoft has lacked the creativity that Apple has but if these renderings are anything to go by, things might be looking up for Microsoft.

The biggest letdown? It’s still a US exclusive device. Not even the original Zunes have made it down under yet. I think this quote from robdazomba on digg sums it up quite nicely:

N900
While the N900 may not have attracted the attention of some of the other releases of 2009 I think it still deserves an honourable mention. Think of it like a cross between an iPhone, N97 and Android OS.

It has a slide out keypad and the basic form factor of the N97 (think slide out keyboard with 5 megapixel camera and 32gb of internal memory), the specs of an iPhone (600mhz processor, 256mb of ram) and the Operating System like android (except we call it Maemo)

And Maemo is awesome. I can’t say I’ve used it before, but on paper it seems to be the best in terms of features. Firstly, it has Firefox. Firefox with weave, allowing me to carry my entire web browsing history with me at all times. I’ll never forget a website again. It even has multitasking. The best feature of all though is the root access. No other operating system supports this, and it opens up a whole range of possibilities for the Maemo platform in general. It also supports the QT framework, and as soon as it becomes supported on S60, you’ll have two platforms to write for with only one set of code.

So what’s missing with the N900? A lack of UTMS 850 MHz support for starters. This means that poor chaps like myself wouldn’t be able to use it on Telstra’s NextG network in Australia, or America’s AT&T. The jury still seems to be out decided if we will ever get one that’s supported, but it would be great if it could. I’m also waiting for a Nintendo 64 emulator, which when released, would instantly blow all iPhone games out of the water. Being a Linux based device, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before one appears.

I realise that we still have another year in the decade left, but at the same time it doesn’t feel right calling 2000 part of the 90′s. For me, 2010 starts a new decade and a new era of technology. What this technology will be, no one knows as I doubt that anyone predicted half the stuff we see today. Still, its fun to guess and I look forward to taking a guess in February as to what things we’ll see over the next ten years.

Happy New year!