WebOS 2.0 Beta Screenshot Are Sexy!

Any one who knows me knows I'm an Android guy. I love open source, I love Google, I love the promise and the power that the Android OS has. Not long ago similar promise and power was available not just in one OS but two.

Web OS was the final software product of the now defunct(read, devoured by HP) Palm company. It, like Android, is a standards based mobile OS with incredibly good fit and finish and who's down fall was less the software and more the hardware Palm chose to put it on. Sharp looking devices that were a bit anemic compared to the likes of the iphone and Android offerings of the time. You can see below a screen shot of the application launcher from web OS.

Image via Wikipedia

Check the link below to peep some of the Web OS 2.0 beta screen shots they're flashing around.

WebOS 2.0 beta screenshot extravaganza -- Engadget

Random Thoughts on UI

Button Button Who's Got the Button? I read a blog recently, which I don't have the link for, that was pondering if the buttons layed out in rows is the 'best' interface for touch devices. Cnet's Buzz Out Loud podcast also put forward similar pondering's but as related to some of the current Apple shenanigans. Lets get real about all this silly pondering. All the icons on the desktop are are buttons. Icons are the virtual equivalent of a button. If this isn't the ideal layout/format for a finger friendly interface than all those folks who make and use keyboards, mice, elevators, vending machines, tons of kitchen appliances, cameras, game controllers and nuclear devices during the past century have been wrong. Some how I don't think we, meaning every one in the entire world, has been doing it wrong for a century and if we have then civilization is doomed. I think we're doing ok so lets put all the to rest. K, thanks!

Android Needs A Style Guide

I’ve suggested this for discussion on a few Android related blogs and yet to see this get any talk time. Android needs a style guide. In kind of a bad way. While it’s seeing a lot of up take and it’s gaining ground on market share it’s headed for a bad spot if Google doesn’t take some steps to clean some things up. I’m not saying everything needs to look and act the same every where but having a mostly common UI for things I think would help the uptake of the platform immensely. For example if they simply released some suggested guidelines for how far away from the edge of the screen is good/best for button elements to be or standardize common locations for common buttons e.g. File, Edit, View in the Windows world.

I’m not saying Google has to crack down on it or anything but may be put a system in place similar to the way they maintain the OS and offer a ‘Google’ stamp if programs meet the minimum style standards or something. That way I always know how to find the settings for a program and I get to feel at home even with a new media player. Comfort and familiarity play in to usability as much as originality and style.

Google Android Needs a Style Guide

I've suggested this for discussion on a few Android related blogs and yet to see this get any talk time. Android needs a style guide. In kind of a bad way. While it's seeing a lot of up take and it's gaining ground on market share it's headed for a bad spot if Google doesn't take some steps to clean some things up. I'm not saying everything needs to look and act the same every where but having a mostly common UI for things I think would help the uptake of the platform immensely. For example if they simply released some suggested guidelines for how far away from the edge of the screen is good/best for button elements to be or standardize common locations for common buttons e.g. File, Edit, View in the Windows world.

I'm not saying Google has to crack down on it or anything but may be put a system in place similar to the way they maintain the OS and offer a 'Google' stamp if programs meet the minimum style standards or something. That way I always know how to find the settings for a program and I get to feel at home even with a new media player. Comfort and familiarity play in to usability as much as originality and style.

RANT: Windows Phone 7

May be because I didn't go to the Microsoft launch event for Windows Phone 7 and wasn't threatened by a large man ready to break my knee caps if I don't stick to Microsoft's ridiculous naming convention but why does the media keep calling it that!? It's sooo ridiculous and we all know that if the crowd demands it companies give it up. So lets us, as in all of us, quit calling it that! Lets either call it Windows Phone, because series 8 doesn't exist so we're not going to get it confused. Or, call it what we've been calling it till Microsoft mandated this stupid name and call it Windows Phone 7. From this point on I refuse to type that entire kermudgeon of a name and you should too!