GeekwithEnvy

UI

Apple’s WWDC is Nearing

by Leave a Comment

WWDC2013Banner
Image credit: 9to5 Mac

Apple’s upcoming World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) is creating a lot of buzz in the tech community and rumors are at critical mass. What’s next for iOS, OSX and will there be any hardware announcements?

It’s highly likely that Apple will announce iOS 7 at this years event especially considering that banners, like the one above, are being placed at Moscone West in San Francisco, California where the event is being held.

iRadio could be a Spotify or Pandora replacement and with the recent announcement of Apple closing deals with all three major music labels, WWDC could be the perfect place to introduce the new service. OSX 10.9 is also very likely, especially considering we didn’t get any news about an OSX refresh earlier this year and the fact that there’s also a big banner with an “X” on it at Moscone, much like the iOS one. I’m thinking that we will see more integration of iOS features into OSX along with Jony Ive’s UI changes in look and feel, which is rumored to be much “flatter”.

What about hardware? Apple could be refreshing the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with new 4th generation Intel hardware, which we mentioned earlier this week. It’s hard to believe that the MacBook line up could get much thinner but they may do just that as well. If you have never picked up a MacBook Air, it almost feels fake and making it thinner would actually be pretty impressive. We have also been waiting quite a while for a big update for the Mac Pro and anything at all about this would be nice. There are also hopes to hear things like an Apple TV announcement or an iWatch release but like with any of this, we won’t know till the conference begins.

The conference is June 10-14 and you can get complete details including a schedule on Apple’s developer page.

Microsoft Gives Us a Glimpse of Windows 8.1

by Leave a Comment

Win8_1StartScreen
Screenshot of the new, more customizable, Window 8.1 Start Screen. (Credit: Microsoft)

Windows 8.1 will be here soon and it will add much needed improvements to the currently somewhat broken and fragmented experience.

To keep us excited about the release of Windows 8.1 Microsoft has created a blog post detailing some of the features of the new update. Here is a very brief summary of that update, you can read the full blog post from Microsoft for complete details.

Some of the features include:

  • Deeper customization of the Start Screen, which will allow you to have more choice in backgrounds, some even have motion.
  • Improved search functionality from the charms search feature which will now see the integration of Bing.
  • PC settings will now be fully integrated into the new UI so you will no longer need to access the control panel on the desktop to change your PC’s settings.
  • Internet Explorer 11, which will work better with touch and offer faster browsing.
  • Overall better support and features for mouse and keyboard users. Microsoft has said many times that Windows 8 is a touch-first OS but this should hopefully smooth out a lot of the desktop unfriendly issues that Windows 8 has.

 

 

It’s No Longer Blue, It’s Windows 8.1

by Leave a Comment

Windows 8 LogoThe next update to Windows 8, which was codenamed “Blue”, now has an official name, Windows 8.1. That sounds about right, there’s really no need to put any spin on it, just increment and improve please. Windows 8 is an adventure and whether you love it or hate it, it’s clear that the OS needs a bit of repair and a whole lot of love. The update will be available for free.

One of the biggest problems I have with Windows 8 is it’s dual personality. Currently, the new UI doesn’t allow you to access to all of the settings that are available in the control panel, instead you end up back in “Desktop Mode” with the “old” control panel open. The experience needs to feel complete and flipping between old and new just breaks up the flow. It needs to be one or the other. Windows 8.1 will hopefully address some of these issues by fully integrating your settings into the new UI.

This is the first of many updates that will eventually hit Windows 8 users as Microsoft has ramped up their update release schedule. Some see this new cycle as an advantage for Microsoft as it allows them to keep things “fresh”. Others have criticized the new cycle saying that updates could be a lot less stable and/or secure since they have less time to work out the bugs. No matter what we think, Microsoft has chosen a direction and time will tell whether it was the right direction.

 

 

Yahoo Homepage Gets a Makeover, Love it or Hate it?

by 1 Comment

 

NewYahooSS

After a few years (four) of the same look and feel of Yahoo’s home page, we see some pretty dramatic changes, but not everyone is loving it.

The new look of the Yahoo homepage does feel a bit cleaner and seems like it will match up with the style of Windows 8 quite well. The new homepage offers up a sleek tile design that you can easily customize to fit your needs. Another noticeable perk of the new design is how the site looks on a retina display or any other very precise display, it’s much clearer. As with pretty much everything these days, Yahoo is also getting a bit more serious with social networking and invites you to log in with your Facebook account for further customization and social linking.

The user response to the new look of the site is mixed so far. I can’t get through the comment section of almost any post without someone posting a complaint about the new look. Users are saying things are too big or not displaying very well on their screens while others just don’t see why they had to “fix something that wasn’t broken”.

I am taking a more optimistic approach and I actually think that while it may not be perfect it’s a move in the right direction. Infinite scroll on the newsfeed  and the a better connection to social media are a few of those “right” steps. However, there’s just something about the new look that feels a bit out of place; maybe it’s just because it’s new and so much different than the last. I think Yahoo may have to update this look, maybe relatively soon, in order to add a better feeling of solid design while preserving what makes Yahoo appealing in the first place, perhaps more of a hybrid of old and new. How do you feel about the new look?

Windows 8 Feels Like a Dud

by Leave a Comment

product_win8-startscreen_Web

I have been tinkering around with Windows 8 since the developer preview and I was pretty excited initially about it’s release, but now that it’s finally here, I am feeling like something is majorly wrong with this version of Windows.

One only needs to spend 60 seconds with Windows 8 to realize that it’s not Microsoft’s best work. I have been working with people just about everyday trying to help them easily transition to the new operating system and it’s proven to be quite a challenge. You know something is wrong with your shiny new OS when PC hardware manufacturers, like Gateway, need to place an icon somewhere on the screen to help you shut down your computer. In case you missed it, we have put together a brief how-to that shows you how to make such an icon for yourself.

Windows 8 dosen’t fully commit to one user-interface and that alone will drive you crazy. You will find yourself wanting to exist in one space or the other but ultimately you will need to switch between both. This issue leaves Windows 8 feeling disconnected from itself and it’s just downright frustrating. There a many aspects of the new tile UI that I enjoy but it’s just not built to be productive. Many of the applications that I use day-to-day require me to move to the legacy desktop and therefore I spend almost all of my time there.

There are hidden menus in each corner and once they are open, they frequently disappear unexpectedly. When the menus do stay open, I have trouble fumbling through a poorly designed search system to find files or applications that I need. Changing settings or just trying to obtain Windows updates through the new tile based UI is buggy and most of the time I end up, once again, heading back to the legacy desktop.

Your design should be intuitive and new users should feel welcome when they first see Windows 8. Even though you shouldn’t have too, there is almost no attempt to guide the user in the right direction besides a small animation toward the end of the Windows 8 installation that explains how to bring up the hidden menus that are at the edge of the screen.

Even app developers don’t seem confident in the new OS. The lack of a solid app base is killing Windows 8 more than anything, we need a reason to enjoy our new tile system with full screen applications. Many major software companies have avoided making Windows 8 apps that work with the new tile UI, and those who have adapted have buggy applications that don’t feel like their worth the hard drive space.

I believe Windows 8 is the worst release of Microsoft’s OS software to-date. I would consider myself to be advanced user with knowledge of many different operating systems and yet I find it difficult to perform routine tasks. This one screams out “I’m a DUD!”. What’s worse is that I am starting to feel like the guinea pig here and I am just waiting for Microsoft to ask me to shell out more money for a rushed copy of  Windows 9 due to the failure of Windows 8’s poor design.

Honestly, Windows 8 is a mess and we can only hope that Microsoft will do the right thing and fix many of the issues that plague the new OS today, with the release of a service pack in the near future. I am trying to remain optimistic about Microsoft’s ability to create a next-gen OS that’s sleek, functional, easy-to-use, and that works seamlessly across all of my devices, but I’m loosing faith.