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| Microsoft Calls Its Shots |
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posted by Editor on Thursday May 16, @02:31PM
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This article by ZDNet reports that Microsoft has identified the few technology trends it thinks are most likely to reshape PCs over the next five years, and is trying to define how Windows XP and its successors will take advantage of them. The key trends are digital media, global networking (using a yet-undefined method), a business shift to software services delivered over the Web, and the idea that consumers will own multiple, powerful-yet-low-cost PCs. Microsoft plans to gradually refine the Windows graphical user interface around common tasks performed on a day-to-day basis, in a communications-centric way (which it calls a "people-centric" user interface). The first example is Freestyle, an alternative interface for accessing Windows XP's digital media features. Best quote: "We used to build cars for auto mechanics. Now we need to build them for drivers. In the old days, we'd say, 'Hey, it's got a great engine, or the gear shift is really good.' But we wouldn't think about where the cup holders are in the car. Now we have a team that thinks about the cup holders and what the steering wheel feels like."
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This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
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by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 16, @10:37PM EST (#1)
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Talk about being clueless on the use of metadata! Contrast their convoluted "My Music" interface to something like Apple's iTunes. Apple's interface puts access to tons of songs/playlists at your fingertips in an interface they were able to scale to an iPod. The MS solution? Not even 9 album covers on one full screen! The only car analogy that really comes to mind in bolting a Lay-Z-Boy into an SUV . . .
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by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17, @11:26AM EST (#2)
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You know, and for the vast majority of clueless users (i.e., those who fear their computers like cavemen feared fire) this still wont help. I mean, how long before people realize their paying $1000+ for a machine that does essentially what a $25 CD rack and a $100 stereo does?
I think this emphasis on making peoples Pictures, Music, Videos, etc. easily accessable is really a waste of time, and eventually people will wise up.
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