∞ Wed, 2 May 2012
After messing around with different styles for way too long, Microsoft has finally rolled out what seems to be like a proper redesign for its Bing search engine (only the US version for now, sadly). Only the search results page has been changed, though – the new tiles on the homepage apparently didn’t make the cut.
This is how the new design looks like. It’s much cleaner, I really like it. It’s a little bare bones but that’s nothing bad for a search engine. Hopefully they’ll add the fly-out previews back in; after all, Bing came up with this functionality first, and then Google copied/perfected it.
∞ Sat, 28 Apr 2012
Steve Wozniak:
I’m just shocked, I haven’t seen anything yet [in Windows Phone] that isn’t more beautiful than the other platforms.
∞ Fri, 27 Apr 2012
Instead of using a lightbox script to display enlarged versions of embedded images, I decided that there was a better solution, for my own needs anyway: images should simply expand to their full size on click. So, I sat down today to figure out how to do that, and arrived at a solution that I feel is good enough for me to replace the otherwise excellent fancyBox with. If you want a quick demonstration of what I mean, head over to my PSDs page – clicking on any image will enlarge it, or you can even click on a special link to quickly toggle all images between regular and full size.
Here’s how to do it. Continue →
∞ Sat, 21 Apr 2012
That would be really nice. I used to have Flashblock installed, an addon that blocks Flash by default and lets you activate it with a click. However, sometimes the Flash element simply refused to load after clicking, and the placeholder image was pretty ugly. Hopefully a native solution will work better.
∞ Fri, 20 Apr 2012
Pretty impressive. Definitely shows just how big and important Windows still is.
By the way: When the Windows 7 beta was released Microsoft’s servers crashed. No such issues with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, on the other hand.
However, I think the W8 CP isn’t as stable as the W7 beta was. Maybe my mind is just playing a trick on me here, but I do have some issues with it (text rendering is inconsistent, sometimes random taskbar entries pop up that go away once you click them, and, obviously, all those Metro-style app previews are still very buggy) that I didn’t have back in 2009. I guess I just forgot those…
∞ Thu, 19 Apr 2012
Reading Chinese forum posts is hard. While I do speak Chinese, I don’t know Chinese internet slang since I mostly read English (even more than German) on the internet. Anyway, the full story is linked through the title.
∞ Wed, 18 Apr 2012
After reading up on all the back-and-forth (I’d recommend Ars Technica and LiveSide for a quick overview of the situation), it seems pretty clear that this is not some random rumor; both The Verge and Mary Jo Foley are hearing that current Windows Phone devices will not get updates to Windows Phone 8.
I mean, if that was not the case, Microsoft would come out with an official statement to clear up the confusion and reassure (potential) buyers, right? But they aren’t.
∞ Tue, 17 Apr 2012
Not sure I like this. I was a beta tester for the Android version, but an update promised for early April never arrived, and I didn’t get any emails announcing the change either.
Anyway, Pocket is definitely much improved design-wise, and I can understand the reasoning behind the new name. However, the main list view in the new Android app lags when scrolling, and there’s no clear visual indication anymore whether an article has been saved for offline-reading or not.
The new website is pretty ridiculous. Article headings are way too big, with way too much padding, and placing controls in fixed bars along the top and bottom of the screen… seriously? Just put them in a sidebar and stop wasting space.
But here’s the real bummer:
Once a user starts using us, they use us for years. From a business perspective, having a user pay $2.99 up-front, once, and then use the app for 4 years doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Translation: They’re going to sell subscriptions. Or worse. Seems like the recent explosion in free-to-play/freemium titles that constantly milk people for cash has “inspired” Nate Weiner.
Don’t get me wrong, I really like Pocket (or Read It Later) since I prefer saving the complete webpage over text-only. I will continue to use it. But this sudden change in strategy, essentially screwing over all your earlier customers, is not nice.
∞ Tue, 17 Apr 2012
I like the differentiation between Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro. It’s easy – normal people will just have Windows 8, while professionals and power users get Windows 8 Pro. Basically, Windows 7 Home Basic and Home Premium have been folded into Windows 8, and Professional and Ultimate into Windows 8 Pro. Makes sense.
Technically, there are two more versions – additional “local language-only” editions for China and a few other emerging markets (similar to Windows 7 Starter, I guess) and an Enterprise edition that is essentially the same as Pro, just as in Windows 7 – but most consumers won’t ever hear about them anyway.
By the way, this is really awesome (emphasis mine):
It [Windows 8, the normal version] will include [...] the ability to switch languages on the fly (more details on this feature can be found in this blog post), which was previously only available in Enterprise/Ultimate editions of Windows.
Being a German-born Chinese (or German with Chinese roots, whatever), this is a welcome addition. Changing languages really isn’t a power-user specific feature, and the whole implementation in Windows 7 Ultimate felt more like an afterthought to create an artificial selling point (all language packs were permanently shown on the Windows Update page, for example).
Still, the Windows RT branding for the ARM version is confusing. WinRT stands for Windows Runtime, which is the new API for Metro-style apps, so Windows RT stands for… Windows Runtime as well?
I think what Paul O’Brien suggested on Twitter is really smart. Keep the “Windows 8″ name in front, and then name the various versions Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 Tablet, and Windows 8 Phone. The last one would also solve an issue with the current Windows Phone branding, in that many people refer to it as “Windows” instead of “Windows Phone”, as it becomes pretty awkward when you want to say “it’s a Windows Phone 7 phone”. Maybe this doesn’t make sense with Windows 7 – Windows Phone 7 is just too different from its desktop brethren to call it “Windows 7 Phone” – but with Windows 8 adopting Metro, “Windows 8 Phone” seems completely natural to me.
∞ Tue, 17 Apr 2012
All but confirmed now. The Next Web says it will launch next week, with 5 GB of free storage, and TechCrunch has dug up the Mac client from Google’s servers (although it doesn’t work yet, obviously).
This space is getting really interesting. Microsoft is revamping SkyDrive to support file syncing like Dropbox (Live Mesh does the same but is extremely poorly integrated), and Google Drive will also have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. I don’t think there needs to be one clear winner – all solutions have their unique strengths. SkyDrive and Google Drive would be tied into their respective ecosystems, while Dropbox remains the true cross-platform solution with more sophisticated features (like file history).
∞ Sun, 15 Apr 2012
Go download it using the link above.
∞ Sat, 14 Apr 2012
Of everything’s that’s been written about Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, I find Amit Runchal’s take to be the most thoughtful and realistic (it’s a bit older now as I’m still catching up on the news I missed while working on this website design). Especially this part:
Instagram isn’t an app for Facebook. It becomes a part of the phone, in the same way that the native camera app is for the iPhone. But it’s not just a camera app. In the world of Facebook it’s an order of magnitude better. It’s not about megapixels. It’s not about filters. It’s an entirely different way of thinking about the camera app. Sharing could be built in. The camera is the feed and the feed is the camera.
Exactly. That also occured to me earlier, when I watched Google’s Project Glass concept video. When the guy takes a photo, he doesn’t have to bring up a dedicated menu to share it; instead, two buttons pop up immediately after snapping a picture: share to Google+, or cancel. It’s an entirely different interaction process. The user doesn’t have to consciously decide “I want to share this photo” anymore, which implies that not sharing is the default action. With the Project Glass concept, however, sharing becomes default.
I think that’s a huge opportunity, as it completely reimagines the way people think about photos. It’s part of the appeal of Instagram, which allows one to share photos in real-time, something that isn’t possible with traditional cameras. But Instagram is only a third-party app right now; installing – and using – it instead of the built-in camera app in the first place still constitutes a huge barrier to sharing photos “by default”. The solution:
But a camera that pushes everything to Instagram? A camera that is Instagram?
It might seem ridiculous, but I think it’s a brilliant idea. Suddenly, the $1 billion price tag doesn’t seem high anymore. It would be a paradigm shift, just like the shift from analog photography to digital, which eliminated the step of having to select which photos to keep and print out (anyone still remember those times?). With digital photography, you could just keep every photo, and have them all available for viewing at anytime. Now, with sharing by default, you don’t have to pick and choose which photos you want to share with your friends anymore; it just happens automatically, requiring little to no user interaction.
You won’t need to organize your photo library anymore. It all happens in the cloud, where your photos are automatically uploaded, tagged, and become sortable by date, arranged in a timeline-view… the potential for a Facebook phone that does this is enormous.
∞ Sat, 14 Apr 2012
As reported by Ars Technica:
A South African man, whose name has not been published, was carjacked, robbed, and stuffed into the trunk of his car near Johannesburg on Sunday. The robbers, however, had overlooked his mobile phone, which he used to text his girlfriend, Lynn Peters. From there, Twitter took over.
Pretty incredible and definitely worth a read. Although this situation seems unique to South Africa, and, as one commenter noted:
At 10,000 incidents a year, there would have been, on average, 26 other kidnappings that day that didn’t receive this kind of attention. The internet is a fickle master.
∞ Fri, 13 Apr 2012
Everyone seems to be getting a different Bing interface. There’s the regular version, unchanged for almost two years during which Google has made huge improvements, a home page with tiles (which I’m getting as well), and a proper Metro-style version.
It’s a confusing mess. Hopefully Microsoft will roll out a real redesign in time for Windows 8.
∞ Fri, 13 Apr 2012
And a third have already done so, according to a survey of British workers.
∞ Fri, 13 Apr 2012
It’s a bit old now (kept it around as a browser tab before finally getting to read it today) but a good read nonetheless. If you don’t know who FAKEGRIMLOCK is… he’s the internet’s most awesome giant robot dinosaur, always tweeting interesting stuff about tech and commenting on blogs like AVC.
∞ Thu, 12 Apr 2012
Spent the last few days setting up this site with WordPress and a completely custom theme created from scratch. Lots of work, but I also learned a lot, which is always a good thing. Also, I have much better control over my stuff here, which is why I’ve moved over all my PSDs from deviantART.
Oh yeah, and this is a linkblog-style entry, so click the title! More to come.
