...where have I seen that interface before?
LOL, this ought to be good.
A primary reason Windows made the grade 20 years ago was the ability for programmers to create applications and load them with ease. Visual BASIC made that happen, followed by Borland C++ and Turbo Pascal. With all these “stores” Apple and others created, it makes loading apps difficult. Developers must ask permission to publish their works and it takes months to get that done. Toss in Microsoft .Net on Visual Studio to easily develop apps and it is a no brainer which development platform developers prefer.
I will not use it. Until they make a Windows 8 “specifically” for the desktop, and ONLY for the desktop, I’m staying with Windows 7. If they try and push out Windows 7, I’ll go back to XP.
I think the author isn’t thinking far enough ahead.
The four basic hardware types out there are phone, pad, notebook and desktop. I think in five years all but the phone will have largely disappeared as “computers.”
The formats will still be used, but will be only dumb data wireless entry and display platforms for your phone, within which all data manipulation and storage will take place, with auto backup to the cloud. So a pad will be only a display device that allows you to read or do other stuff more efficiently than on your small phone. Cost, maybe$100?
Think about it. You always have your phone with you, and the phone AFAIK has the potential to handle internally all the processing and storage, though perhaps not now. So why would you want to use three or four platorms and OSs instead of one, or spend time manually syncing them?
The OS that allows you to move seamlessly from one platform to another, espcially with effective backwards compatability, wil dominate, probably as much as MS did in its heyday.
W8 is not this OS, but it looks like a step in that direction.
I’ve been using an original Transformer for the last year. Android with a keyboard and touch screen is a user experience superior to the iPad IMO, my iPad goes unused now.
I spent a little time on the the Asus RT tablet this weekend. It uses hardware a generation better than what I have and has twice the RAM. Frankly, it was laggy. The UI didn’t make me happy, but I could get used to it, but switching between apps, it would stop accepting input and feel like it was frozen up.
It felt like an android phone circa 2009-2010.
"Wow! Okay, wait a sec."
"Bring up the news."
"I am."
"Go to the news."
"Wait a sec."
"Did you turn it on?"
"The pad, yes, it's still booting up."
"Can't you boot that thing any faster?"
"It's microsoft, hold on a sec."
"Never mind, I have a Droid." (((click, fob, fob))) "Thanks for trying anyway. Good luck."
"Wait! Don't go. It's up now'oh crap, it's updating a patch."
Yup, sure.
And GM will build better cars than Toyota and Honda, too.
/s
I think Apple will stick around. What I am hoping for is an eventual demise of Android. It is still a poor mans iOS ripoff. I am using it right now on my phones and tablets, and its just not a great OS.
Windows Tablet/8 etc is an interesting addition to the field.. As a non-fanboy of anything, I like the competition and hope it leads to better products.
...where have I seen that interface before?
LOL! Pure geek fantasy. I went to check out the Surface and Win 9 at the Microsoft Store yesterday. I was browsing on the Surface and Explorer too forever to load a page and get to native resolution.
Surface hardware is a bit heavy, plasticy, and cheap feeling — a bigger Kindle Fire (previous version) at an iPad price. Windows 8 isn’t entirely intuitive like iOS or Android either. It’s an interesting concept, but doesn’t seem like it’s just there yet.
Clearly it’s a Rev A product. This version isn’t going to outsell anyone. We’ll see what next enhancement next round brings. But I don’t see a whole lot of consumers buying in just yet at least — if every. Consumers are moving away from the the traditional CPU all together (See falling PC sales) and with the big libraries of apps people already have for their Android and iOS devices, Microsoft is still far back in this race.
LOL! Pure geek fantasy. I went to check out the Surface and Win 8 at the Microsoft Store yesterday. I was browsing on the Surface and Explorer too forever to load a page and get to native resolution.
Surface hardware is a bit heavy, plasticy, and cheap feeling — a bigger Kindle Fire (previous version) at an iPad price. Windows 8 isn’t entirely intuitive like iOS or Android either. It’s an interesting concept, but doesn’t seem like it’s just there yet.
Clearly it’s a Rev A product. This version isn’t going to outsell anyone. We’ll see what next enhancement next round brings. But I don’t see a whole lot of consumers buying in just yet at least — if every. Consumers are moving away from the the traditional CPU all together (See falling PC sales) and with the big libraries of apps people already have for their Android and iOS devices, Microsoft is still far back in this race.
I’m sorry, but I am not looking forward to Windows 8’s interface, at all.
My wife and I are now considering an Apple for her.
I don’t trust Microsoft to upgrade a dang thing on ANY portable device. Apple gives you OS, security, functionality, and bug fixes for over FOUR YEARS. And all Apple portable devices JUST WORK.
My family went through four Windows devices and none worked as advertised and they consistently crashed with no option to fix the issues short of buying a new Windows device with a new version of the Windows OS.
Microsoft’s whole approach, which actually seems is also Android’s MO by accident, is to have device makers never bother to upgrade any existing device for longer than six months, if at all.
I can’t tell you how much happier we are with devices that have ACTIVE support one year later!!
Hey ShadowAce, this might be worthy of a tech ping.
might just slow Windows 8 down a little!
My biggest gripe with Windows 8: that radical interface, the biggest change to Windows since Windows 95 arrived some 17 years ago. It’s going to take a while for end users to accept and master that radical change.
By and large people either hate windows or, at best, tolerate it. Nobody (that I know of) actually likes it. I think any predictions of impending world domination by Microsoft needs to take this into account.
Has Microsoft enabled an option in Win 8 to turn off the touch interface or the tiles in what they call the Metro Sexual UI? If I can’t get a classic desktop (and no I don’t mean the workaround where you can get to a desktop but requiring a few key clicks to make it happen). Also is there a classic start menu option? If not I stick with Win 7
The author of this piece doesn not understand Apple’s marketing.
This idea that the Mac-mini is crippled to not cannibalize the iMac and the iMac is crippled to not cannibalize the Mac Pro may not know that the current iMac is already more powerful than a stock Mac Pro.
Apple likes keeping product lines lean, especially after the Gil Amelio disaster. IN fact, Apple discontinued to Mac XServe, and recommended NOT the Mac Pro, but the Mac Mini as a replacement.
Apple is about profits, and when three cell phone models that are more alike than different carve out a huge chunk of the entire market in a short time, when battling against dozens of Android models of every stripe, the result for Apple is $$$$$. Apple would love cannibalization if they could get Mini and Pro users to use the iMac, and the Mac Book users over to the Mac Air. Apple wants folks in their eco system, and they want to keep the number of devices well under control
The author also hasn’t noted that Apple is trying to make OS X more iOS like, so far without the touch capabilities.
The new Microsoft Windows incarnation, like the ribbon interface before it, is a solution to a problem that people weren’t complaining about. I almost suspect, after Microsoft’s failed Windows Tablet Edition 10 years ago, that the ships are being burned to make sure that Microsoft doesn’t bail out this time. That’s a big gamble.
There is a market for a Microsoft OS tablet in the Enterprise, as Apple is aggressively indifferent to security and user management issues. That doesn’t mean they dominate. Rather than converging all computing into the phone, an absurdity, Apple will be the Toyota, IBM will be Mack Truck, and Microsoft will be GM. Everyone making money, some more than others, in differently defined markets.
Desktops and phones are no more converging than pick up trucks and motor scooters.
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