The software upgrade, for those of you that don’t have iPod touches, adds the payload of iPhone software. You know, the payload everyone has been complaining was missing from day one (Maps, Weather, Stocks, Mail, and Notes). But, it also adds WebClips and the ability to move items around on SpringBoard (the home screen). Oh, and it replaces the reflective dock with the aluminum dock from iPhone. The upgrade is free to new iPod touches, adding insult to injury.

But, here’s the newsflash you were waiting for… no upgrade, and no third-party software. Even if iTunes is used to deploy the payload, Apple won’t want you running third-party software with no way to manage the home screen. And, you can’t manage the home screen without the software upgrade.  The software upgrade has a lot of transactional code, and is actually both an enabler, as well as the first iPod touch/iPhone application to be released (it uses the same mechanism that iTunes will use to install third-party software on the devices).

Bottom line, no $20 upgrade, no third-party apps. And, with the number of iPod touches out there, that should be a nice padding for Apple’s wallet.

Let’s review history a bit. When Windows 98 came out, most people upgraded from 95. Why? Because most people didn’t have Windows 95 OSR2.1 (OSR’s were the predecessor to service packs), so most didn’t have things like USB support in Windows 95. In short, Microsoft didn’t backport features to 95, pushing people to the otherwise-unchanged 98.

Then Microsoft released 98 SE, which was essentially a service pack to 98 (see how we went from OSR’s to Second Edition to Service Pack… Windows Mobile developers, start taking notes too). Everyone pretty much agreed, upgrading was a no-brainer, assuming you could (and most couldn’t without grabbing a new license). Enter Windows Millenium Edition. The upgrade was universally panned as buggy. Microsoft cut out parts of DOS for what appeared to be no good reason, which wound up causing application problems. The logic behind this was more straightforward however; ME was going to pave the way for future Win 9X releases which wouldn’t have DOS… and added in Windows 2000 elements to augment the platform.

Microsoft however at the time realized Win9X had no future, and scrapped it. Welcome to Windows XP (I’m getting there… just hang on).  XP was the first consumer OS to receive Service Packs, industrial-grade support, and unified Microsoft on a single kernel (for PCs, anyways). All good stuff, but it has been around for five years, people have become attached.

But did everyone hop on the XP train at first? No. For almost four years, I remember the holdouts chanting “2000 is way better than XP, you’re an idiot for using XP!” Kool aid anyone? Sound familiar today?

The truth of the matter is, people will upgrade versions of Windows at their own time. Vista vs XP is not very different than XP vs 2000.

Okay, so you’re getting to the point of asking “But Chris, which version is right for me?” I can only tell you my experiences with XP and Vista (which include the upcoming service packs, Vista SP1 and XP SP3).

First off, there are some things that if you use Windows for… upgrading to Vista is a no-brainer. Windows Media Center and DirectX 10 are two components that stand out as being so extremely re-written… you shouldn’t hesitate. And, considering any Home Premium or Ultimate copy of Vista can be turned into a Media Center PC (with as little as a $50 USB TV Tuner), there are certainly features that make Vista attractive beyond the “faster and more reliable” statement.

Should you stay with XP? From my experience, only those with Pentium III or Athlon systems (or lower) should stick with XP. While Vista only requires an 800 MHz CPU, other bottlenecks start to come into play. Drivers start to be hard to come by, and it just doesn’t make sense considering you can’t take advantage of any of the new features in Vista (even ReadyBoost, a technology that would actually improve performance on older systems, cannot be run on them usually due to timing issues).

As to downgrading… if your system came with Vista, I wouldn’t advise it… unless you can convince the company that sold you your computer to make good on downgrading rights. See, Vista Ultimate and Business owners are supposed to have downgrade rights (and should get a copy of XP). Microsoft says to contact your PC maker, but only a few OEMs are actually willing to do the right paperwork right now. And, modern systems can handle the added Vista overhead, so I don’t really feel there’s a lot of benefit to doing it even if you can.

Almost all my systems run Vista. Granted, Microsoft gave me free copies, and if I hadn’t gotten them for next-to-nothing, I’d probably have more XP than Vista. However, the point of this article is… decide for yourself!

Best Buy is offering online this week Windows Vista Home Premium for $79.99 after a $50 gift card. With SP1 on the horizon later this month, it may be time for you to actually buck the cynical trend and say yes to Vista.

Tune-Up Updated

Obviously, this is a waste of money, time, and needless for most Micromat users. Micromat encourages users to not run TechTool Pro from the DVD, and as such… paying for a DVD to be mailed out is not necessary. But, Micromat has since responded to my last post, saying that they do not have the bandwidth resources to serve the update. To that, I reply, is bogus.

Even if Micromat didn’t have hosting resources for a large update… third-party services such as Amazon S3 are designed to make that not an issue. S3 allows smaller companies to tap into Amazon’s global server network at very low per-GB costs… costs far lower than printing and mailing a DVD. To that, Micromat responded to other users that “The use of servers owned by others is not particularly cost-effective.”

So, here’s my offer to Micromat. I will offer my consulting services for free, nada, zip. I’ll help Micromat deploy Amazon S3 in a cost-effective manner that saves customers money, ensures they get the update at very little charge, and vends the update to them without any intervention from Micromat (all done automatically).

All I’ll ask in return, is that they credit me when a user downloads the update, no different than what they should have done when I pointed out security breaches in earlier versions of TechTool Pro 4.

So, Micromat, the ball is now in your court. I await Micromat’s response.

When Mac made the transition from PowerPC to Intel, Micromat didn’t reinvent their program, they simply recompiled it for Intel. Verision 4.0.3 became version 4.5. However, Micromat refused to offer the updater online. Instead, they insisted that users buy an “Update DVD” and pay a $25 handling fee.

When pressed, Micromat admitted that there wasn’t really a need to do this. They could have offered a downloadable update online. The response was masked in a “large file size” explanation, however, that turned out to be incorrect… the 4.5 update difference was actually not very large in size.

Now Micromat is poised to do this all over again. With the release of Leopard, Micromat had to tweak the program to continue working, but rather than offer the update online… guess what… another $25 handling fee, for another useless DVD.

This process is bad for everyone. It’s costly for the user, antagonizes Micromat… and is even bad for the environment (on some small level).

What do I suggest people do? Search online and download the update from a torrent or similar download site. You’re already a licensed TechTool Pro 4 user, you shouldn’t have to pay for a useless coaster of a disc. You’re not breaking the law to bypass paying a shipping and handling fee… so long as you’ve bought and paid for a license to TechTool Pro 4 already. I for one refuse to pay for perpetual DVD coasters that I don’t need.

What I suggest Micromat does, is end this practice completely. If you want people to upgrade… make a real upgrade with real improvements. Micromat is free to charge for new generations of products that help make the Mac better. If a release is too small to even be considered for a new license… don’t make people pay for a coaster.