Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface
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Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface
1–10 of 162 posts
Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface
#2's funny; one of the screenshots is used to call out the Charms bar as an example of great UI. For me - as a user of Windows 8 on a desktop - it has become something of an icon of just how poor Windows 8's UI is.
On a tablet, you swipe it out from the left edge of the screen. Makes sense - so much sense that Apple copied the idea in iOS 7.
On a PC, you bring out the charms bar by frustratedly wiggling your mouse against the right edge of the screen for a few seconds before remembering that to make UI widgets appear out of the middle of the screen's edge, you inexplicably need to move the cursor all the way up or down to one of the corners.
Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface
#3's funny; one of the screenshots is used to call out the Charms bar as an example of great UI. For me - as a user of Windows 8 on a desktop - it has become something of an icon of just how poor Windows 8's UI is. On a tablet, you swipe it out from the left edge of the screen. Makes sense - so much sense that Apple copied the idea in iOS 7. On a PC, you bring out the charms bar by frustratedly wiggling your mouse agai…
I found the gesture really natural, myself. I quick flick and swipe up, and you don't really need to do it precisely.
Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface
#4"There are artists who draw on iPads, and musicians who make music on iPads, and writers who write novels on iPads, and movie makers who cut their movies on iPads. But the fact that you have to point to these people, the fact that there are articles about these people, shows that they’re unusual."
Unusual in a relative sense, the same way artists and musicians and movie makers are unusual in any segment of society. There are millions and millions of iPad users; of course most of them are going to use their iPads primarily for consumption.
Using a Microsoft Surface is in itself unusual. I remember clearly the one time I saw someone using a Surface. It was an usual event. But on my way to work I see tens (hundreds?) of iPads and an assortment of android tablets and kindles.
My point is, I don't believe there is a large difference between the use cases and potential offered from the many consumer tablets currently available (despite Microsoft's marketing that would lead one to believe that a Surface can truly replace both and iPad and a laptop). Maybe the Surface is better for productivity, but I suspect that for every tech blogger who tried the Surface and found it to be a better laptop replacement than their iPad, there are tons of Surface owners who's use case resembles the stereotypical iPad consumption use case.
Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface
#5's funny; one of the screenshots is used to call out the Charms bar as an example of great UI. For me - as a user of Windows 8 on a desktop - it has become something of an icon of just how poor Windows 8's UI is. On a tablet, you swipe it out from the left edge of the screen. Makes sense - so much sense that Apple copied the idea in iOS 7. On a PC, you bring out the charms bar by frustratedly wiggling your mouse agai…
Shooting the mouse into a corner is actually one of those gestures that is hardest to get wrong, which is why we've placed the window's close button up there for decades. Your mistake is aiming for the side instead of the top right corner of the screen; you can't overshoot it, so it never takes more than one physical gesture.
You can also swipe from the right edge of your touchpad as if it were the screen.
Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface
#6I think the Surface2 Pro is really great and shows the strenghts of Windows 8, except for its battery life maybe. But the idea to carry around one device that is a good tablet, laptop and can even be used as a full desktop computer with keyboard/mouse and 2 huge screens if you like is pretty fantastic and the OS scales well to all those different usage patterns.
Now you might say, it does all that, but none of it really good and that might be true, but its already good enough for most people. Sadly Apple seems to want to unify everything into iOS down the road, which could go horribly wrong for professional users and Linux ? Well, the community was totally divided about where to go in desktop computing for the last decade and that will probably never change, so i don't except them to solve this as the current state of a dozen half-baked desktop environments is a disaster.
Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface
#7's funny; one of the screenshots is used to call out the Charms bar as an example of great UI. For me - as a user of Windows 8 on a desktop - it has become something of an icon of just how poor Windows 8's UI is. On a tablet, you swipe it out from the left edge of the screen. Makes sense - so much sense that Apple copied the idea in iOS 7. On a PC, you bring out the charms bar by frustratedly wiggling your mouse agai…
Dunno, it's never been an issue for me. I'm used to edge-activated features from OS X, and slamming the mouse into the corner to call up the menu always seemed like a simple, efficient user interface to me.
It's a bit weird when you use a computer via VNC, though, because you have to move the mouse more precisely.
Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface
#8's funny; one of the screenshots is used to call out the Charms bar as an example of great UI. For me - as a user of Windows 8 on a desktop - it has become something of an icon of just how poor Windows 8's UI is. On a tablet, you swipe it out from the left edge of the screen. Makes sense - so much sense that Apple copied the idea in iOS 7. On a PC, you bring out the charms bar by frustratedly wiggling your mouse agai…
I've found the least annoying way to bring up charms on my desktop computer is Win+C.
Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface
#9Great writeup, good points about the culture of those building on the platform, and lovely software gore[0] screenshot.
In terms of productivity, what kills my efficacy on iOS versus OS X (and even locked Android versus desktop) is the inability for platform devs to build things that reach outside of the app sandbox. TextExpander and LastPass on iOS are near useless compared to their desktop counterparts, but are even more powerful for getting work done with a slower typing speed.
Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface
#10Man, finally! I love this blog, but there hadn't been an update since December. Glad to see another post!