As promised yesterday and after 5 years of development, Vista is finally finished.

Jim Allchin, the co-president of Microsoft’s Platforms & Services Division has put together a video about the announcement where he announces the General Availability (GA) date of 30 January 2007 for Vista.

Nick White, product manger in Windows client also had this to share with Neowin readers:

“Ultimately, we never could have achieved this milestone without you, the enthusiast community, who have played a key role in making this the highest-quality, most secure, most reliable and most usable version of Windows the world has ever seen. You gave us unprecedented support in testing and providing your feedback while we designed, developed and refined Windows Vista — so much so that it has in many ways become a reflection of your involvement.”

Availability of the RTM code on MSDN is still not known officially with a Microsoft spokesperson citing “within 7 days” after todays announcement. Given MSDN has scheduled down time from 7PM PST to 9PM PST on Friday, November 10th - I’d expect it to arrive shortly after that.

Expect exclusive RTM ship party photographs shortly.

Source: Neowin.net

In a TheShishShop.com first, we attempted to create a small promotional video starring a new superstar in the making: Big Momma! It took a few takes, but its almost ready for its debut now! Since we are it, we would like to annouce our very own YouTube account available here. Now remember, we need your comments and appraisals and of course video’s of you guys and girls with all your Shisha’s!

Since we are at it, we’d also like to announce our Myspace site at: myspace.com/theshishashop! At this stage, it’s still very new, so if you already are a myspace user, please do add us as your friends! If any one has any tips or tricks on using myspace feel free to drop us an email!

This week we met the Dark Lord Sauron who had a new Ring of Power, Tamara, Mya & Jay from Manchester, the lovely Katherine and Doris, Begona, who is here from Barcelona, Spain (Hola, Cómo estás? Hasta pronto!) and of course Sarah, July and Big Momma!

We hope you thoroughly enjoy your Shisha experience!

Just a quick reminder, we have a guide on How to Setup Your Shisha available so if you do get stuck, follow the guide or contact us. Remember, if your in one of these pictures and would like a copy of the original image, or have a question regarding Shisha, email us at info@theshishashop.com or use the contact form here. Hope to see you guys again real soon!

Link to us in emails, blogs, podcast and all other forms of communication! Rate us on YouTube and Join us on myspace!

Source: TheShishaShop.com

Here’s a photo blog of someone that has recieved the Nintendo Wii. The packaging itself is a very simple white box that appears to be quite small in size. Within it, there is two seperate boxes that house the console itself the rest of the components respectively.

Bring on December 8th!

The mass upgrade process has begun, the Automatic Update is now offering Windows Internet Explorer 7 as download:

This free upgrade to Internet Explorer for genuine Windows customers offers improvements such as: enhanced security to help protect you from malicious software and fraudulent websites; a cleaner look, including tabs for browsing multiple pages in one window; features to make everyday tasks such as printing and searching the web easier.  This upgrade preserves your current home page, search settings, favorites, and compatible toolbars, and can be uninstalled if you decide to do so.

More information for this update can be found at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=71727

Size: 14.8 MB

A source close to Microsoft has confirmed to me that Windows Vista will in fact carry the build number 6.0.6000. He found this out by receiving a mail with the build stamp “Microsoft Windows Mail 6.0.6000.16384″ so that ends that speculation.

Also the MSDN subscription page has been updated with the following information

Windows Vista and Office 2007: Availability on MSDN Subscriber Downloads
Windows Vista and Office 2007 will be available through MSDN Subscriber downloads within 7 days of release to manufacture (RTM). MSDN Subscriptions is committed to making new content available to our subscribers as soon as is practical.

Looks like we’ll be seeing this appear soon.

Update: Several key Microsoft employees has firmly stated that Vista has not been released to manufacturing. The day might be soon, but is certainly not today, or tomorrow. There’s still a bit more work to do. Build 6000.16384 is real, but it also doesn’t mean RTM. These days, Microsoft doesn’t have to increase the major version number when building, so theoretically, any sub-set of build 6000 (6000.16385, 16386, etc…) can be RTM.

Soruce: Neowin.net