Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 21st Dec 2011 18:56 UTC
Windows 8 will be one of the most significant releases for Microsoft ever, since it pretty much rethinks the entire graphical user interface. One of the problems I personally see with Metro is that it doesn't appear to be particularly conducive to getting actual work done. In an interview with The Verge, Microsoft design director Steve Kaneko confirmed that it's hard to adapt applications like Office to use Metro.
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Member since:2009-07-27
The way window switching is handled on Windows 8 is kind of stupid. You have to go through each app until you get to the one you want.
Good point, and now that I think I about it, I find it rather strange that no touch oriented platform, not even IOS, implements expose-like window switching. What is up with that?
RE[2]: Window management
by justanothersysadmin on Wed 21st Dec 2011 23:56
in reply to "RE: Window management"
Member since:2011-06-09
Android is doing something pretty close in ICS. It's a column of apps with window previews, so not totally Expose-like, but a similar idea modified for the limited screen real estate.
E.g. http://cellphonequick.com/android-4-0-ice-cream-sandwich-now-offici...
(edited to strip out the img src tags since the comment preview shows the image but the actual posted comment strips it down to the tags...preview fail)
Edited 2011-12-21 23:57 UTC
RE[2]: Window management
by Neolander on Thu 22nd Dec 2011 00:00
in reply to "RE: Window management"
Member since:2010-03-08
Hmmm... Several mobile OSs implemented tile-based task switching, though most of them are dead or dying now. WebOS, PlaybookOS (?), WP7 and Harmattan come to mind.
As for why iOS itself didn't, perhaps it is because Apple believed that the iPhone's screen was too small for app tiles and didn't want to create visual inconsistencies between the iPhone and iPad versions of iOS ?
Member since:2007-04-25
My Nokia N900 uses expose-like window switching. In fact, I tend to run 4-5 apps simultaneously on my N900, but only one at a time on my iPad.
The iPad just can't handle multiple apps for several reasons, not the least of which is that Steve didn't *want* it to! He succeeded admirably. ;-)
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/25/13 0:45 UTC
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 23:59 UTC
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 22:33 UTC
Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Linked by Howard Fosdick on 05/24/13 21:41 UTC
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.More News »
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Member since:
2009-10-04
I consider myself an "advanced user" and Metro is more or less what I've always wanted in window management (with some changes).
In my opinion, the idea of arbitrarily positioned and sized, partially overlapping windows is moronic and archaic. This is why I keep experimenting with tiling window managers. But they're all made for guys with beards who like using the command line.
The way window switching is handled on Windows 8 is kind of stupid. You have to go through each app until you get to the one you want. Personally, I think Microsoft should have made swiping from the left bring up a bar (like the one for charms on the right) that has tiles for each running app. This would make window switching less tedious and also make it possible to see notifications without going to the start screen.
However, I really like the way windows can be arranged in Metro. 99% of the time, I have either have one maximized window or a roughly 3:1 vertical split (one main window and one secondary window), which is what Metro offers. My only wish is that you could stack windows in the narrower side as you can with most tiling window managers.