Results

Maybe if you hear it from the only technology journalist in the world, you’ll finally believe it.

Aero Peek is a good start. I like it, I really do. I think that if Microsoft gave it a little more refinement, Microsoft could be like – this is why you need to get Windows 7.

They should build this feature up more, but I would settle with them perfecting the feature as it’s implemented.

For example, they could:

• When I’m hovering over a thumbnail selecting my application, half the time I’m looking for information. Peeking at a window on the screen, if you will. It would be useful to me if Microsoft could do a few things. If they could move the window out the way when the thumbnail is on it, so I can see the entire Window, that would be helpful. It’s always in the way.
• Make it so when I’m peeking at one window in another application, I should be able to window surf everything on the screen from that location. Think of that peek box as a little mini application, designed to bounce across the screen showing you application windows. Once your there, it doesn’t close until your finished with it.
• I’m cool with the task bar growing to take up half the screen, if it means that i can quickly flash through every window I have in lightening speeds. Make it work like a mouse gesture, that’s what Apple did. Make it work on a hot corner, or just make it work on the taskbar as advertized. 
• When you do a desktop Peek, I would really appreciate more information than window position and size when I look at the screen. Like, glassify the content of the window, and do some sort of neat overlay trick so I ca kind of identify all the windows on the screen when peek is in use.

Then I would be happy with it.

Not that I even own a Zune. But still, I should have seen this from a mile away. Leave it to Microsoft to end a lackluster year with an EPIC FAIL of stupifiying proportions.

According to The Zune Forums, Reddit, Digg, and pretty much every blog outfit on the internet, at 2AM on December 31, 2008, every single 30GB Zune bricked. The cause of the colossal failure is unknown, but most are blaming Microsoft’s inability to write software as the main culprit. 

Poor ol’ Microsoft. They just couldn’t make it one more day without some massive failure on their side of the valley. If this would have just happened tomorrow, we could all look back at 2008 and say ‘Hey! Microsoft had a decent year!’ But no. We can’t now. So much for all the buzz about the Zune being a great media player. As it turns out, it’s a decent device right up until they all quit working simultaneously for no apparent reason. 

Luckilly for me, I was smart enough to buy a Sansa Clip. Best decision I ever made. Sure, I don’t have all those fancy Zune features people keep telling me about, but I can slum it out with my FM playing, Voice Recording, really-really-tiny $60 device with 16 hours of battery life that still going strong. Jokes on you, idiots.

Well, it’s finally here. Windows 7 Beta 1. Unlike the M3 Builds (well, before running the unlock tool), Windows 7 now sports a strange now Dock. Microsoft’s still calling it a Taskbar, but our good, dear friend ‘Taskbar Classic’ is gone forever. This is probably one of the more radical changes Windows has ever undergone, and it would be a shame to write a review without carefully analyzing this stupendous change to the universes most recognized piece of software.  So, without further ado…

(more…)

You know, I kinda feel bad about the last post I wrote regarding my laptop. With all the discussions of problems I’m having, casual readers might reckon that I’m having a negative experience with OSX on my PC. Quite the contrary, I can assure you. As a matter of fact, this experience – if anything – has solidified my firmly held belief that OSX is the best damn operating system, period. All the problems I’m having aside, I’m very impressed by OSX; It’s obvious to me that Microsoft or our friends The Open Source Community got nuthin’ on Leopard.

I don’t want to discuss technical merit. Obviously, Windows has it’s uses where OSX simply wouldn’t fit. I.E. anywhere you already have a non-apple computer and want to put an OS on it. Anyone who wants to win that discussion can simply point at my laptop and laugh. I want to discuss design philosophy, I want to discuss User Experience, and most importantly – I want to discuss work flow. Not the scripting app, the concept involving starting from point A, and ariving at point B. Getting things done, if you will.

I love the Macintosh Desktop. Leopard still has a few mountains to climb before I call it Computing Utopia, but it’s lapped Vista six or seven times already. The proof is in the pudding, I reckon. Just look at Vista.

(Another long post, after the jump)

(more…)