The Future Of Windows: Metro Ui

Earlier today, Steven Sinofsky (the president of the Windows Division at Microsoft, as we all know by now) has posted another entry on the “Building Windows 8” blog, centered on the UI of Windows 8 and how the new Metro experience could affect consumers.

An important goal for Windows 8 he emphasizes is the harmony of the two UIs: one similar to Windows 7, and a Metro interface. The inception of Windows 8, he reveals, began in the summer of 2009, before Windows 7 shipped, and the goal? To completely reimagine Windows and asking some important questions: How do you attract a wide set of developers to a new platform? How can installing and removing applications be made painless and easy? How do you prevent applications from draining battery power? With these questions and more in mind, the building of Windows 8 began.

There is no doubt that Windows 7 has been a huge success. “Hundreds of millions of people rely on the Windows 7 UI and existing Windows apps and devices every day, and would value (and expect) us to bring forward aspects of that experience to their next PCs.” Sinofsky writes. He recognizes that Windows 7 powers business software, a wide variety of apps that people rely on, and provides a level of precision and control that is necessary for certain tasks. In other words, the desktop experience provides things that you can’t do as easily with a touch-only interface. Sinofsky points out that people don’t want to carry around two devices; those who have embraced tablets also usually own a laptop for those times when they need more precise control or need to use an application that is not/will not be available for use on tablets.

The bottom line is that Windows 8 brings together all the power and flexibility you have in your PC today with the ability to immerse yourself in a Metro style experience. There are no compromises. You carry on device that does everything you want and need, which is connectable to the peripherals you desire.

What do we think? I personally applaud Mr. Sinofsky; I agree wholeheartedly with his approach. I think we can all agree that no one uses tablets exclusively. Whether at work or at home, you have another PC. For more “heavy” tasks like modeling 3D objects or animating video, we automatically look to our desktop or laptop. Isn’t it peculiar that almost no one writes applications for a tablet on a tablet, while desktop programs are always written on a desktop? The unification of the tablet UI and the desktop experience is a necessary process and one that must be well thought out.

What do you, the readers and customers, think about Microsoft’s approach?

News from - http://windows8center.com/featured-articles/the-future-of-windows-metro-ui/

My son feels I'm not cool enough: Shah Rukh

Shah Rukh Khan enjoys huge fan following at home and abroad and is seen as a very cool actor, but his 14-year-old son Aryan feels that the superstar is not cool enough.

Welcome to Windows 8 – The Developer Preview

If you’ve been following this blog, then you know today is a big day for the Windows team. At the BUILD conference we are about to preview Windows 8. There’s a ton to see in the product and so we’d really encourage everyone to check out the available streams on http://buildwindows.com, where we will webcast the keynote. The BUILD conference this week is focused on developers and hardware partners, and there are over 100 sessions (all of which will be available from the link above within about a day of the scheduled presentation time).  In that sense it is good to keep in mind that today is the launch of the developer opportunity for Windows, not the launch of a product (and certainly not the launch of new devices).

Windows 8 represents a reimagining of Windows from the chipset to the experience. Since this is a week focused on developers, we also detailed the bold underpinnings of the re-imagination of the Windows platform, tools, and APIs. We will show off the opportunity to build applications for all of the customers of Windows 8, no matter what type of PC they have—from tablets to laptops to convertibles to desktops. We will show the brand new tools that allow you to code Metro style applications in HTML5/JavaScript, C/C++, and/or C#/XAML. The investments you have made as developers in all of these languages carry forward for Windows 8, which lets you choose how to best make use of the Windows 8 system services. We talked about Windows 8 being a no-compromise OS for end-users, and it is also a no-compromise platform for developers.

Many are interested in Windows 8 for ARM processors. Everything we showcased today at BUILD also runs on the ARM-based Windows PCs being created by ARM partners and PC manufacturers. Windows 8 running on ARM will ultimately be available with ARM-based hardware that  you can purchase.  ARM requires a deeper level of integrated engineering between hardware and software, as each ARM device is unique, and Windows allows this uniqueness to shine through. The new development tools enable you to start today to build Metro style applications that will seamlessly run on x86 (32 and 64 bit) or ARM architectures. Even if you use native C/C++ code, these tools will enable Metro style apps to target specific hardware if you choose.  As new PCs become available for testing, PC manufacturers will develop seed programs for developers.

You probably want to try out the preview release—and you can. Starting later tonight you can download the Windows 8 Developer Preview. This includes a 64-bit (x64) build with development tools to build apps, and a 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) build without development tools. The releases also include a suite of sample applications (please note these are merely illustrations of potential apps, not apps that we intend to ship with Windows 8). The ISOs are linked to from dev.windows.com.

Upgrade from Windows 7 installation is not supported for pre-release code; only clean installs are supported. Reminder: this is a developer preview release and is not meant for production. It is not a beta release. We will be updating the release with various quality updates and drivers over the coming weeks/months just to exercise our overall update and telemetry mechanisms.

We’ve got a lot more blogging to do. So stay tuned. This blog continues to be a big part of the development process. Now we have a lot more shared context, and so we expect folks commenting on posts to be running the Preview so we share in the context of the release. Let’s keep comments focused on the topic at hand and we’ll pay attention for potential new topics.  We know there will be a lot—that comes from reimagining a product used by a billion people!

--Steven

Slight correction inserted above.

UPDATE 2 (11:30 am PST) -  I bet a lot of you heard about the machine that attendees at the conference received (this was a limited production run and is not available for sale). It is pretty cool. Keep in mind, Windows 8 is a no-compromise OS, which means you do not need to have a tablet or touch-capable machine to experience Windows 8. Mouse and keyboard are first class in the whole experience. If you are curious, a little later today we will post some of the touch hardware we have experienced in our labs so you can see what existing Windows 7-based hardware experiences we have. Keep in mind there are no PCs designed for Windows 8 yet—that’s a big part of the BUILD conference—gearing up for newly designed Windows 8 PCs of all types.

NOTE: The preview build does not include every feature shown this morning.  Shown but not in the Developer Preview release include the Windows Store, Windows Live Metro style apps, and some of the user interface features.  The focus of the preview is the API and development tools for building Metro style apps.

News from - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/09/13/welcome-to-windows-8-the-developer-preview.aspx

Taste Test: Is Mexican Coke Better?

If there's one thing this country is really great at, it's coming up with clever new ways to take what is a completely normal product, apply a bit of subtle psychological manipulation, convince people that it's something special, and sell it at a jacked up price.

I'm talking here about Mexican Coke, and I do so not without a hint of irony, because I myself am a firm believer in its superiority over regular old American Coke. I mean, how could it not be better? Real sugar instead of corn syrup. Glass bottle instead of aluminum or plastic. The cachet of seeing the words refresco and no retornableprinted instead of plain old pedestrian "refreshing."

But here's the thing. More than once in the past, I've discovered that the brain has a powerful effect on the taste buds. Free-range eggs taste better? Nope. Darker colored eggs taste better. Is New York pizza better when made with New York tap water? Nope. At least my panel of experts couldn't tell the difference. I've done tests where I've fed an entire room full of people two batches of identical carrots, labeling one as organic and the other as conventional. Unsurprisingly, they unanimously pick the carrots labeled organic as superior in flavor every single time, even when they are two halves of the same carrot.

Is it possible, however unlikely, that somehow we—the cult of Mexican Coke lovers—are all being hoodwinked? Does Mexican Coke really taste better? This week, we're gonna find out.

Behind The Bottle

First off, before we even get to the tasting, let's examine the differences between regular old American Coke and Mexican Coke.

Mexican Coke contains: Carbonated water, sugar, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors, caffeine.
American Coke contains: Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors, caffeine.
 
The Tasting

For the purposes of my taste test there were a couple of criteria I had to set up first:

Mexican Coke would come in bottles, American coke would come in cans.Of the packaging widely available in America (plastic or aluminum), aluminum is less reactive, less porous, more opaque, has a longer shelf life, and is thus more likely to give me a product that simply tastes more like it should.

All Coke must be served ice cold. Bottles and cans would be stored in the fridge then placed in an ice water bath for at least 1 hour before tasting.

All Coke must be as fresh as possible. According to Annette, canned Coke and Mexican glass-bottled coke both have a shelf life of 9 months (plastic bottle coke, on the other hand, starts losing bubbles after a mere 10 weeks). I managed to find cases of Mexican Coke and American Coke with expiration dates within a week of each other next April.

Here's what I tested in my first round. All tests were carried out completely blind. Tasters were brought one at a time to taste and did not discuss their answers with either myself nor any of the other tasters until all responses were completely collected. For each taster, tests were administered in a completely random order (both in terms of test order and sample order), and fresh bottles and cans were opened for each taster. In cases where liquid had to be poured from one vessel to another, the utmost care was taken to ensure a minimal loss of carbonation. Tasters were asked to pick their favorite from within each sample set of two.

The Tasters and the Feelers

he spread of results I got from this initial testing was surprising to say the least, and answered one thing for sure: There is a perceivable difference in the flavor between Mexican and American Coke, despite the best efforts of the Coca-Cola company to convince us otherwise.

So that settles it. America reigns supreme in the Coke flavor wars, right? Not so fast. Looking closer, we see something even more interesting: Half of the tasters seemed to have no real preference between American and Mexican Coke, while the other half of the tasters unanimously chose American Coke as their favorite for nearly every test, regardless of the vessel it was served in. We'll call these folks the Tasters—the ones who let their tongues and noses do all the deciding.

The Tasters pick out American Coke as superior to Mexican Coke a full 7 times out of 8.

When you take the Tasters out of the pool in order to determine what the other half are basing their tasting decision on, everything becomes clear: the other half of the tasters unanimously picked Coke served out of a glass bottle as their favorite for nearly each and every test, regardless of whether the liquid in there was Mexican or American Coke. We'll call these folks the Feelers—the ones who care more about the tactile sense of the bottle against their lips or in their hands than the minor differences in flavor or aroma that the product inside may have.

So just to sum up here:

People prefer American Coke to Mexican Coke from a pure flavor and aroma standpoint.
People prefer glass bottles to aluminum cans from a purely tactile standpoint.

News from - http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/taste-test-is-mexican-coke-better-2544634/

Lorgat slams Indian team for skipping ICC Awards

The ICC Chief made it clear that the invitations for the event were sent well in advance

London: Describing the Indian cricket team's skipping the ICC annual awards function here as a "shame", International Cricket Council chief Haroon Lorgat Tuesday said the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should be questioned on the absence.

Indian team manager Shivlal Yadav claimed the invitation came late, though quite a few players were on the list of nominees.

Lorgat, however, said the team was invited several months ago for the Monday event.

"I am very disappointed that the Indian team did not attend the award function last (Monday) night," Lorgat said.

"I know for a fact that my team had invited them some months back. We send those invitations through the BCCI and perhaps this question (why the team was absent) must be asked to them."

Lorgat also said the team had confirmed their presence and the event was scheduled keeping in mind their availability in London.

"We had the confirmation of their likely attendance. In fact, the very date was scheduled around their visit and their availability in London. On the other hand, the England team attended the function."

"In fact, everybody who was in attendance last night was disappointed that India was not there. It is a great shame and very disappointing. India had a fantastic year. They were not so long ago the No.1 Test team in the world; they won the World Cup in such a great style. There were many great fans and people looking forward to their attendance."

Lorgat also criticised Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for not turning up to collect his Spirit of Cricket Award.

"The Spirit of Cricket Award went to M.S. Dhoni for that wonderful leadership that he showed when he called back Ian Bell. It was a well-deserved award and it was a shame that he wasn't there to accept it."

News from - http://sports.in.msn.com/cricket/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5429675