Is it me, or are they playing catch up up again?

Catching up does indicate that they are behind.

So far, the new features being demonstrated are very like Mac OS X Tiger.

CES Keynote

Transparency! (Glass windows, hee hee!)
Gadgets vs. Widgets (Windows has the Sidebar which takes up screen space, Mac OS X has Dashboard
Live previews in the 'dock'.
Flip 3D for previewing open windows/apps is very like Expose, just a bit different.

Hmmm.

UPDATE: check out this 'demo' it has the voice over from Windows Vista keynote , but showing Mac OS X Tiger stuff