Microsoft have release the first peek at their latest operating system, currently codenamed windows 8. Although its still a year off release, there's a lot to be excited about already. Check out this video:

It looks like a major paradigm shift in the user interface(UI), closely matching up with what microsoft have been doing with their phone platform. Its all based around the concept of tiles, which I liked on the phone and think it will make for a different user experience. This is obviously very influenced by touch technology and certainly by tablets. It looks like Microsoft are trying enable a uniform version of windows to coexist on multiple platforms.

I was a shade disappointed when the UI flipped back to what still looks like Windows 7 running in the background. Make no mistake about it, this is a UI layer over the top of the regular operating system, much like using media center currently. They haven't used this as an opportunity to ditch the old UI altogether, but I guess then you probably shouldn't call it windows anymore...

I do like that you still have full access to the file system, something that definitely bother me about iOS. Whilst its great that it hides what is essentially un-necessary for the bulk of users, I grew up with DOS, and I like to know where my files actually are!

Obviously its still a bit rough and will have some work to go. Still, you think that microsoft coul ave sprung for a microphone for the first official preview video (unless the UI team has gone rogue...)

Apple will (supposedly) be unveiling their next iterations of OSX (10.7, or Lion to its friends...) and iOS 5 next Monday (Tuesday Australian time). Although OSX has been pretty widely spoiled due to developer versions, what apple are going to unveil for iOS 5 is anyones guess. The original iPhone OS was absolutely groundbreaking, and it looks like many features from it will be heading to OSX. But it was first unveiled four years ago, so are we about to see another new paradigm, or are we in for another evolution of what is a very mature operating system?