Windows 8

fangblackbone wrote:

Actually I don't even think that the metro interface is a decent tablet or phone UI.

I think it is for starting an app, it's just that the apps themselves tend to be awful wastes of screen space and confusing UI flows.

You know I trust you guys but I just got a couple of really bad first tastes in my mouth when I tried the metro UI on a surface and a phone. The iphone and droid phones and tablets seemed so simple in comparison.

In fact my wife got an iphone 5c a few months ago and I was really impressed and very tempted to upgrade my phone to get one. I just am not a fan at all of the iTunes and app store ecosystem. So it will never happen.

To hear someone say that Android is more simple than Windows 8 boggles my mind somewhat, however iOS is definitely considered the easiest to understand.

That said, different strokes for different folks in that how your brain works and what you've grown up around informs the operating system they tend to prefer. In general, old people like iOS, middle aged people tend to like Android and a random smattering of people like other stuff. There's many reasons people like what they like, but I find most things on an W8 phone infinitely more easy to use than on an Android device. They all have learning curves, it just depends on which way you adapt best, I suppose.

Btw, I went with a W8 phone in part because I have a bunch of Android devices and wanted a different phone experience as I was bored with Android on my phone.

Full disclosure: most of my "android" time is with my kindle. Other than the fact that I still cannot play PvZ 2 on my kindle (or pc for that matter), I absolutely love my kindle experience. And I find the new kindle hdx ads that directly target the ipad airs very effective. (more resolution, lighter and cheaper) I wonder if it is helping make a dent in the ipad's tablet dominance. (not an ipad bad statement but a competition good statement)

Kindle is way, way different from a standard Android operating system. It's made to be simple so you'll buy more stuff.

I too own a Kindle, so I'm not crapping on it.

MS may have been better served if they had implemented a hotkey or button in the corner that let you wipe the metro preset collage.

I haven't seen it since the first release beta, but at the time, the 'collage' had about eight different ways to give Microsoft money, and no help pane.

That told me everything I needed to know about Metro.

It's not in their interest to give you a nice blank screen that you can fill in.

Malor wrote:
MS may have been better served if they had implemented a hotkey or button in the corner that let you wipe the metro preset collage.

I haven't seen it since the first release beta, but at the time, the 'collage' had about eight different ways to give Microsoft money, and no help pane.

That told me everything I needed to know about Metro.

It's not in their interest to give you a nice blank screen that you can fill in.

More FUD.. you might consider changing your tag or something.. There is currently ZERO advertisements on the Metro page that are telling you to give Microsoft Money. Possibly the only thing that could be considered that is the Store Live Tile which does rotate out a name of a Featured App (what constitutes an app to be featured is unknown to me.. possibly similar to how Apple ranks featured apps?)

/sigh

Some of the pre-loaded apps do show ads internally instead of their Live Tile, so it's not a slam-dunk for either of your positions. But we digress.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

Some of the pre-loaded apps do show ads internally instead of their Live Tile, so it's not a slam-dunk for either of your positions. But we digress.

And the store is a disaster. Too many bad/shady apps.

I bought ModernMix for my desktop a while back and just recently stopped even trying to use some of the Modern apps like weather, mail and calendar. I thought I'd like the live tiles, but ultimately found them way too distracting. Also, most of them are broken and don't update regularly.

After you completely disable the Modern interface, Win8 is quite nice on desktop. It's mostly the same as Win7, but is leaner and faster.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

Some of the pre-loaded apps do show ads internally instead of their Live Tile, so it's not a slam-dunk for either of your positions. But we digress.

Big difference in scope though.. they arent in the live tiles on the Metro Start Screen..you have to actually go into the app to see the ads.. I agree though the ads are dumb and unnecessary..unless the OS becomes free.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

Some of the pre-loaded apps do show ads internally instead of their Live Tile, so it's not a slam-dunk for either of your positions. But we digress.

All of which can be removed from your computer or phone, which I was especially happy when it came to the crap Verizon puts on phones.

PaladinTom wrote:
Kurrelgyre wrote:

Some of the pre-loaded apps do show ads internally instead of their Live Tile, so it's not a slam-dunk for either of your positions. But we digress.

And the store is a disaster. Too many bad/shady apps.

This is definitely true. I was saddened to see how much crap was on the W8 store as I was hoping it'd have less junk than the W8 Phone store.

HP: Windows 7: Back by Popular Demand

We saw similar things for XP early in the Vista cycle, but for this to be a thing this late into the Windows 8 cycle is pretty incredible.

EDIT: Dammit, missed Miashara posting the same thing last page.

garion333 wrote:

All of which can be removed from your computer or phone, which I was especially happy when it came to the crap Verizon puts on phones.

I'd happily call that one of Windows (Phone?) 8's best features, aside from the performance improvements.

PaladinTom wrote:

And the store is a disaster. Too many bad/shady apps.

Welcome to the free market, where the garden's simultaneously more and less walled than you'd like.

Having recently had opportunities to browse app stores on various devices while testing new phones for work, all app stores are full of uncurated garbage. They're all horrible for it.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Having recently had opportunities to browse app stores on various devices while testing new phones for work, all app stores are full of uncurated garbage. They're all horrible for it.

Which is true, but the Windows stores don't quite have enough good to balance it out. The Kindle app store is almost as bad, but does get most of the good Android stuff.

Yeah, the Windows Store does have more of a discoverability problem. I've never bothered looking on PC but we're getting Windows Phone 8 for work soon and I looked in there. Plenty of good stuff but if you don't research outside the store before going in, it's a mess.

It's all about what apps an individual needs. I've had WP8 for a year now and I'm very satisfied with the apps that are now finally on the platform; I couldn't say the same a year ago. Admittedly the app selection isn't as cutting edge as iOS or Android, but for my needs WP8 is fantastic.

Still need Flipboard on my phone, dammit. Does anyone use Flipboard on their desktop? No idea why it was released there first.

Welcome to the free market, where the garden's simultaneously more and less walled than you'd like.

The garden shouldn't be walled at all: it should be curated. If you buy something from the app store for a device or OS, you should know it won't have malicious code. Code inspection of that kind is a valuable service. But, then, there shouldn't be anything forcing you to use that app store, so that you can run whatever you want, if you disagree with the OS maker about what's acceptable on "its" OS.

Kindle is way, way different from a standard Android operating system. It's made to be simple so you'll buy more stuff.
I too own a Kindle, so I'm not crapping on it.

I see what you are saying but I think built in imdb integration on the movies you are streaming is pretty brilliant. Not to mention the fact that it adjusts on the fly to the actors currently in the scene.

And since all of MS and Droid and ios are looking to get you to spend more, I think Kindle's simplicity being very effective is something MS at least can learn from. Hell I am surprised MS didn't just try to buy the Kindle business outright. (or Amazon?)

Malor wrote:
Welcome to the free market, where the garden's simultaneously more and less walled than you'd like.

The garden shouldn't be walled at all: it should be curated. If you buy something from the app store for a device or OS, you should know it won't have malicious code. Code inspection of that kind is a valuable service.

And that's something the O.S. vendors all do, isn't it?

Aaaaaand stuck updating to 8.1. Whee!

Tine to revert to 8.0 and try again. Fun, fun, fun.

garion333 wrote:

Aaaaaand stuck updating to 8.1. Whee!

Tine to revert to 8.0 and try again. Fun, fun, fun.

Stuck how?

MannishBoy wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Aaaaaand stuck updating to 8.1. Whee!

Tine to revert to 8.0 and try again. Fun, fun, fun.

Stuck how?

Updating System...84%

For three hours. Called it quits after a smidge of research. Removing video drivers and whatnot now to see if that'll work.

garion333 wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Aaaaaand stuck updating to 8.1. Whee!

Tine to revert to 8.0 and try again. Fun, fun, fun.

Stuck how?

Updating System...84%

For three hours. Called it quits after a smidge of research. Removing video drivers and whatnot now to see if that'll work.

Weird. The first search result I saw said some guy fixed it by replacing batteries in his keyboard and mouse. I kind of wonder if that was coincidental.

Sounds more like his keyboard was making the update hang. Microsoft says that you should disconnect things, yada, yada, yada. Gonna give it another go and see. If I get stuck again all it means is I should do a clean install, though it's a tad odd that I got stuck updating from 8.0 to 8.1.

Update worked over night. Wonder if it had to do with the video or sound drivers as I removed those. Could've just been a hiccup in the install.

Hey all, doesn't Windows 8 suck?!

Seriously though, I've been playing around again with the Modern interface as I'm considering buying some sort of touch-screen Win8 device soon. The issue of course is there is still a dearth of good apps. I thought it would be a good idea if we could share some good finds, as I've come across a few that I am very pleased with.

  • Flipboard - Syncs to your account across devices.
  • The Weather Channel - The best weather app imo.
  • News Bento - News aggregator for various mainstream news outlets.
  • Readiy - Really nice Feedly client.
  • MetroRadio - Basic (but very functional) Pandora app.
  • Readability (Unofficial) - Basic Readability app.
  • Songza - I never used this app before I discovered it on Win8. It's now my goto background music app.

I'd still like a Pocket app and some more media apps besides Netflix.

Any GWJ folks in the UK using win 8 tablet, PC or phone? I have a voucher for £25 credit for the Windows 8 App Store that I'd like to pass on to GWJ person for free.

Apparently it's only valid for UK Microsoft Accounts, but it didn't come linked to anything, so I'm going to pass it on. Send me a pm, and I'll relay codes to you (redeem like normal at the Windows Store or in your mobile Wallet App). Came for free while purchasing win8 pc at Argos, but we didn't really want the app stor things - we're very happy with programs on the desktop since it's not a mobile device.

I'm looking for recommendations on start menu replacements. I've searched for them and found a few recommendations but all the stuff I have found is from back when Windows 8 came out and is pretty outdated now. Does anyone have recommendations for a replacement start menu that they currently use?