Posts by MerlynUK 10 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Feb 2012
If this is true then it looks like a blatant integration of Stardock's ModernMix into standard Windows and if so could we expect Start8 functionality too to bring back the start menu!
I use Start8 to bypass the Start screen and restore the start menu, which for $4.99 was more than worth it in my opinion to be able to switch to a better overall OS than Windows 7. I understand people not wanting to pay extra for what should have been a standard option for desktop users, but at that price I see it as no different to buying apps from the AppStore or Google Play to make your phone/tablet more productive, which plenty of people are happy to do. Just consider it as part of the Windows price in the first place.
Putting the ModernUI apps/start screen aside, which is now easy to do thanks to Stardock, I find Windows 8 is faster, more stable and more productive than Windows 7, and having the ability to use ModernUI apps as well as traditional desktop apps is just a bonus in my opinion, if you don't like them don't use them, you haven't lost anything really.
The problem for Microsoft is the out of the box UI experience for desktop users without touch-screens is just not good enough without a small bit of tweaking with 3rd party apps, after which, Windows 8 is a better OS than Windows 7 for the desktop. If they would just admit that, it would make a lot of people very happy and persuade more people to upgrade, but the PR damage has already been done methinks.
Beer, since round here its more expensive than Start8 or ModernMix!
@ Boothy
But you have to pay for "Nexus Media Importer" for a function that should just work without extra software.
Q. Is the iPad able to read SD cards 'out-of-the box'?
A. No, it requires the Apple SD card reader @ £25.
Compare with:
Nexus media importer software - £2.62 from Play Store
Micro USB OTG card reader - £5.99 from Amazon
Total - Less than £10
So £15+ cheaper than the iPad solution, and all it takes is 30 seconds to install an App from the store...no-brainer (for me at least).
This is certainly a factor when people choose to upgrade their phone. 2 years ago I had an iPhone 3GS which was great when I first got it, I bought a fair amount of Apps which were a mixture of cheapo 69p ones and some more expensive ones such as CoPilot SatNav. However I quickly got bored with the iOS and wanted more customisation options so I jailbreaked and installed a few tweaks. I still wasn't entirely happy however and wanted a bigger screen so when it came time to upgrade I weighed up the investment I had made in iOS Apps against jumping to a new platform. I concluded that apart from the SatNav and a couple of other apps I wasn't too bothered about the others. I estimated it would cost about £25-30 to re-purchase those apps for another platform which I was willing to do so I jumped to Android. As it happened I was able to transfer my CoPilot map licenses across to my android phone, which I wasn't expecting, as they are registered against a CoPilot account and not the phone/platform so I only ended up having to pay about £5-10 to re-purchase a few apps on android.
My wife on the other hand loved her 3GS so has just upgraded to an iPhone 4S as she has invested heavily in a lot of apps, mainly games to keep the kids occupied, she's not bothered about customisation so it made sense for her to stick with what she knew and had bought into. I expect for most 'casual' users of iPhones this would be the same.
If App developers made it easy to transfer app licences from one platform to another then I expect a lot more people would at least consider switching platforms but I guess the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft would want to discourage this for precisely the same reason!
Why did they hate it? Was it just TIFKAM as this is easily replaced/avoided with the right add-ons, or with some more time maybe they will learn to appreciate the benefits (and avoid some of the pitfalls) of the new interface. Despite this Windows 8 is a far better OS than Windows 7, just give it a chance.
Windows 8 is superior to Windows 7 in almost every way, however, of course enterprises at the moment still want Windows 7, that is what they have invested in and it makes no sense to roll out a new OS across the enterprise just a few months after its release. It takes time (sometimes years), and money to adapt the processes and support regime to cater for a new OS, especially if the current one is doing the job just nicely thank you.
Windows 8 (or 9, given the apparent trend for enterprises to skip OS versions) will eventually make its way into the enterprise but not for a while yet, this is not a failing of Windows 8 but of the corporate machine. As for small business/home use, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with Windows 8, other than a change to (part of) the UI paradigm. In fact performance wise 8 is better than 7 and brings better tools and functionality. Microsoft is (bravely in my opinion) trying to bridge the mobile, tablet and desktop experiences into a single UI paradigm, hence the move to a 'flatter, non transparent' UI on the desktop to make it consistent with the mobile and tablet experiences, where an 'Aero Glass' interface would not be suitable. TIFKAM on the desktop is a conundrum though, on the one hand it is great that you can use the same apps on the desktop that you do on your tablet and mobile, and for the next generation of tablet/notebooks this is great, however forcing this on the desktop is a mistake, it doesn't work as well with a mouse, and touchscreen monitors in the home are not yet commonplace.
The key thing is that Microsoft is trying to bring coherence across the phone/tablet/laptop/desktop experience for which I believe they should be applauded, they may not have got everything right first time (e.g. should not have dropped the Windows 7 start menu), but that is what 3rd party add-ons and service packs are for.
So this patent application appears to take 3 existing ideas and combine them into a single design:
1. Metal dome contacts have been around for yonks, however they are usually located under a membrane.
2. Lever switches as used in telegraph keys
3. Customisable key caps to be 'aesthetically pleasing'
Individually each of these would fall foul of prior art,. I'm no patent expert so would the combination of the 3 ideas be patentable ???
Even though I used an iPhone as my only eReader for 2 years, I still purchased my books through Amazon. Portability was the key - The Kindle app is available on all platforms so I knew, if I ditched my Apple device in the future (which I now have) I could still access my books on a non-apple reader. That is the main problem with iBooks at the moment, once you have bought into the Apple ecosystem you are stuck (unless you are technically minded and know how to get round the DRM and format conversion). iTunes had the exact same issue until they dropped DRM, which is again why I purchased music via other on-line stores, and even though iTunes has now dropped DRM I still prefer to buy music as MP3 rather than m4a, even though most players now support m4a and for those that don't I can convert it.
Having just jumped from iOS to Android, the one thing I have noticed is that when an app crashes on Android it is usually far more visible. On iOS when an app crashes it just closes with no warning message - and it happened fairly regularly on iOS5, more so than iOS4 on my 3GS, as well as being slower and draining the battery quicker - iOS5 on the 3GS was a big mistake in my opinion (my wifes 6 month old 3GS is the same since she upgraded to iOS5 and she doesn't have anywhere near as many apps and services running than I did).
Andoid on the other hand, presents the 'Application is not responding, Force Close?' message so at least you know there is a problem. So far, I haven't seen it too often although I don't have too many apps installed yet!.
I don't use auto-update unless it is a reputable application, but its nice to have the option. On iOS when there were updates I just tended to hit the Update All button in the Appstore whenever there were updates, however with Android maybe you have to a bit more careful!
With respect to the side power button on the SGS2 and the accidental pressing of the volume down button, might i suggest that the phone is being held wrongly!(Joke!) Seriously I had the same misgivings abouth the SGS2 which is why I went for a different Android handset after having an iPhone 3GS for 2 years. With regards to the iPhone 3GS one of the biggest issues i had was the mute switch on the side - a great idea but very badly designed, it was far, far to easy to accidentally switch the phone onto mute when in your pocket, I missed countless calls because of this 'feature'. Now, the iPhone 4 and later have a redesigned mute switch so I assume that this problem has been rectified somewhat but it just goes to show that Apple don't always get their design right everytime! And as for accidently calling people, I found that happening on the iPhone ALL the time, thats the penalty for having a responsive touchscreen and not manually locking the phone after every call, so its not just an Android issue!
For the last 6 months of my contract I couldn't wait to get rid of my iPhone and get an Android so that I could set the phone up the way I wanted and not the way Apple wanted, I found iOS very limiting and frustrating. Time will tell if Android does what I want it to do better, but so far the novelty factor of playing with a new, flexible, customisable OS has not worn off and so far so good, and Ice Cream Sandwich is due for release for my handset in a few weeks...
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