GeekwithEnvy

Computers

The Mighty Web Browser

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BrowserWe are constantly using our web browser, it’s one of the most frequently used applications on any computer, so we need it to be stable and quick. Sometimes though, things start to fail and we get frustrated. When things get ugly we just move on to the next one, perhaps even back to the one we used to use, to see if it has gotten any better. Fortunately, there are plenty of browsers out there to choose from.

I test out a lot of browsers but tend to find myself using either Firefox or Safari the most when I am not reviewing one. I actually had a good run with Internet Explorer for a while, up until I started to experience issues with certain web applications failing. These web application failures only happened when using IE and it was an app that I used on a regular basis.

While looking at web browser statistics, I was quite surprised to see StatCounter showing IE in the lead. I thought for sure that Firefox or Chrome would top the charts but IE is still quite dominant. It’s easy to see how a pre-installed web browser on the world’s most popular OS could easily grab such a large percentage of users and while many may have installed a second browser, they continue to use IE as their default browser. I’m not saying that IE is unusable but it needs a lot of improvement. In fact I prefer Internet Explorer’s UI over most, but the stability issues that plague my applications are just too much.

I basically consider four major factors when choosing a browser, stability, speed, simplicity and security. I like my browser to more or less, stay out of the way. I want the content to be the main focus and I like a clean interface that has only what I need and nothing else. An ideal browser should be fast and reliable, unexpected crashes and failure to load specific, media rich content are major decision factors for me. Security needs to be strong, especially if you use online banking and or shopping.

Here is a recent snapshot of the top 5 browsers from 2011 to 2012.

StatCounter-browser-ww-yearly-2011-2012-bar

How to Tell If You Are Taking Advantage of USB 3.0

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USB (Universal Serial bus), how did we live with out it?

gravisGamePad
Gravis GamePad

It’s probably a safe bet to say that most of the people who use USB technology have no idea what the world was like before it existed. Remember PS/2 and RS-232 connectors?It used to be a very different world when it came to how we connected devices to our computers.

Imagine having a different type of connector for each device you connect to your computer, that was reality in the early years of computers. I remember plugging in my Gravis Game Pad into the sound card, yes that’s not a typo, which had a midi/joystick port next to the 3.5mm jacks for microphone and audio out.

Fortunately for all of us, USB which was officially introduced in 1996, standardized the way we connect devices to our computers. We no longer had to worry about which device needed what port and which device would work on what type of hardware, everything became “universal”. The USB standard has undergone a few changes over it’s lifetime with each version slightly more stable and faster than the last.

USB1
USB 1.0

Transfer speeds for USB 1.0 are 1.5 Mbit/s and 12 Mbit/s

USB2
USB 2.0

Transfer speeds for USB 2.0 are 480 Mbit/s

USB 3.0

Transfer speeds for USB 3.0 can be up to 5 Gbit/s

Of course there are many other changes that go along with each USB release besides just transfer speeds. Changes to USB have also included power management and simultaneous two way transfer. The USB connector is really amazing, everything from keyboards to cell phones utilize this amazing interface and USB 3.0 is even better.

Now that we know how much faster USB 3.0 is compared to 2.0 (about 10 times faster) we need to know if were even using it. It may be difficult at first to tell which technology you’re using because USB 3.0 ports are backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and therefore look identical to their 2.0 counterpart . If you haven’t bought a new computer in last year or so you probably don’t have USB 3.0.

In some cases an indication that you may have USB 3.0 will be a blue colored USB port on the computer itself, but the best way to tell is to check your hardware configuration via your preferred OS.

Microsoft Windows

You can check your computers hardware on Windows machines by right clicking “My Computer”, then “Manage” and then “Device Manager”.

Locate USB and you should see “USB 3.0” somewhere in the hardware description.

Mac OSX

Similarly, in OSX you can click the Apple logo in the top left of the finder bar, click “About this Mac”, then “More Info” and then “System Report”.

So is it worth all of the fuss? Absolutely! I have a USB 3.0 external hard drive and data transfer speeds are incredibly fast compared to 2.0 models. Any device using 3.0 should perform significantly better.

Hmm That Clock Looks Familiar

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With iOS 6 came many new changes, but one change has Apple paying up for it’s new clock image. The clock image looks identical to a clock image owned by the Swiss Federal Railway service.iOSClock

The Swiss Federal Railway Service was happy to see the design being used but they were quite upset to see its clock design featured on Apples new iOS release without their permission. Fortunately, it seems that Apple and the Swiss Federal Railway Service have settled their issues with some type of licensing deal. The amounts being paid by Apple to use the image have not been released.

All of this comes at a time when it seems like every company is out for blood in this new, ‘wild west’ of portable technology. Every detail of every product including it’s software is under scrutiny, and in this case it’s definitely an infringement on Apple’s part. Often though the answers aren’t so obvious and we begin to question just what should and should not be patented and protected by the law.

One example of something that I think should be universal to all touch devices is the gesture. Gestures are an absolute necessity for any touch device and trying to come up with anything else to replace the “original” set of gestures is just silly. Nick Wingfield, a content contributor for the New York Times, likened recreating gestures to placing square wheels on a car. I’m not saying that Apple shouldn’t get any credit for initially incorporating these features but locking them down and trying to pull them away from competitors is silly, at least for gestures.

Either way I’m glad to see that Apple and the Swiss Federal Railway Service have reached an agreement.

The Windows 8 Desktop and Moving on From the Mouse

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The desktop computer has been number one in homes around the world until recently. We demand portability and technology has forever changed because of it.  Laptops and tablets have replaced our big box desktop computers and it seems very few are missing them. However, desktop computers are still necessary for many things and are still widely used by businesses and those who just need a little more than what a laptop can offer.magictrackpad_handWEB

For the longest time companies like Microsoft had been trying to emulate the Windows desktop experience on portable handheld devices, which was ok but not ideal for a touch screen. Eventually, things began to change and the mobile OS began to stand out on it’s own.

Apple’s iOS  and the iPhone changed how we thought a mobile OS should work. Mobile operating systems began to be developed and designed primarily around touch input . These changes worked so well that software companies started creating OS software for desktops that integrated many of the UI features of mobile operating systems into the desktop experience, and it worked.

OSX is a great example of how bringing mobile features to a desktop UI can work really well. Many iOS users will likely find it very easy to get into OSX as it has a similar feel to it. Microsoft has done the same with Windows 8, which looks and feels a lot like Windows Phone.

So, we have a touch based UI on the Windows PC and this is where the main disconnect for Windows 8 comes into play. I have mentioned before that Windows 8 overall looks pretty good  and should work very well with any tablet but it feels downright weird to use with a mouse in a desktop environment. One of the features of OSX that I really like is the ability to use gestures on the touchpad and this is exactly what I think Windows 8 needs in order to feel right.

The mouse has long since been a part of our graphical user interface experience and never before have we needed to move away from it, until now. The touchpad with gestures, in most scenarios will make your interaction with Windows 8 on both desktops and laptops much smoother. With the exception of maybe gaming, I can’t see why I would need a mouse when you can have a touchpad that offers everything you need and more.

Ready or Not Windows 8 is On it’s Way

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Well, it’s been really fun talking about how different Windows 8 is and how crazy it all seems but we are slowly approaching the release date for the new OS and some feel it just isn’t ready.

product_win8-startscreen_Web

I would argue that any OS is never really ready when it first releases. There are so many things that will likely only be discovered when the masses begin to upgrade  and tear apart the shiny new OS. This process of fix-on-the-fly  is nothing new for Microsoft and I’m sure we won’t be happy with the new OS until the first service pack releases or maybe even the second for that matter.

What is truly important here is that Windows users really try to look at Windows 8 as something entirely new and try not to compare it to Windows 7. The world is changing and Microsoft is adapting with it, and this is a great thing. Many of us hate change and for this reason alone we tend to look at Windows 8 and feel like we will never upgrade. However, as we march forward and watch Microsoft make one of the biggest changes to it’s operating system since the ‘Start’ button, I wonder what I plan to do personally.

product_win8-keyboard_Web

Do I jump in? Do I wait a few months ? What computers do I upgrade first and do I upgrade all of them or just one? These are the questions that I’m trying to answer, even as I write this I’m trying to figure out what I will do.I have been experimenting with the developer preview and the release preview and I still feel very uncomfortable using Windows 8 with a mouse and keyboard. I don’t know why I can’t seem to shake this feeling. This OS is designed to work with touch and it feels like the laptop and desktop experience is an afterthought.

I’m pretty patient when it comes to OS software, I have tried just about every semi-popular OS out there from obscure linux based OS’s to OSX and back to mobile OS’s. Generally I give an operating system a fair shake up until it’s first major patch. Once we reach the first major patch, if I still feel it’s not working for me, I will usually move on to something else.

When we look at Windows 8 we can’t forget that it’s not just about how we feel about the new OS, it’s also about the faith that hardware manufactures put into the new OS. After all, the hardware is useless with out a good operating system to make it work. Let’s not forget that Microsoft is also going to be releasing it’s own tablet with Windows 8 on it, which will have Microsoft competing directly with those same hardware manufactures that Microsoft want’s Windows 8 to run on.

What about developers? what will they do with existing titles? How will they fit-in with the new OS? Is this change something that developers want to engage in? Some developers feel threatened by Windows 8 and feel that they will be forced to operate within a “box”.  Take the keyboard and mouse out of the equation and now you either are forced to work with touch or an Xbox controller.  Something doesn’t feel right here and I can quickly begin to understand why.

Now, take all of this crazy change and bundle it up in a nice, shiny, new Microsoft store that you build right across the street from the Apple store and you’ve got a front row seat to historic change in the world of technology.

To sum things up, I say if you support Microsoft then use Windows 8 and provide all the feedback you can to help Microsoft build the software you want to use. This is the only way they can get a real feel for what consumers want and need from their software. In the meantime I remain optimistic about Windows 8 and hope to see it succeed.