Podcast: Play in new window | Download (7.1MB)
- Android Sales to Pass iPhone in 2012
- Shape Shifting Smartphones
- Cebit Scales Back
BLOCKBUSTER Total Access click to activate coupon for $10 off your first month.
 |
|
SDR News is a Daily (M-F) Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit
Click Here to Sign Up for the SDR Newsletter
Prefer a Direct Download ? (mp3)
Download today’s show.
If a news item has disappeared from the Del.icio.us list above, try the full list here.
Thumbnail Views: Via Thumblicio.us
SEARCH ANY STORY YOU HEAR ON THE PODCAST
Time for a New UI
by Andrew McCaskey
Time for a UI Change PDF Print E-mail
Written by Andrew McCaskey
Monday, 09 March 2009 19:57
Netbooks Lead the Way
It’s awfully easy to become set in your ways, and determine that the best tool for any job is the one that you first learn. Once that preference settles in, your brain and reflexes somehow get patterned into the “one right way” to do a task. We’ve had about twenty years of conditioning with desktops, icons, and folders, and netbooks are telling us it’s time to change.
It’s with interest that I see this is being challenged by the new Linux based operating systems for Netbooks. And the challenge is to the human factors, not the underlying operating system. Innovators noticed that the restrictions of the netbook – seven inch screen, small keyboard were as much as a driver for change as the relatively underpowered CPU and power / battery life restrictions.
They also noted the success of the iPhone’s large icons, choosing from among a number of pre-defined common tasks. Thus, systems such as the CloudOS will look a lot more like the iPhone and a lot less like a desktop of any description, Vista, XP or KDE. They are betting that netbooks will be used a lot like mobile phones. If that is the case, the applications will in the main be simple – and if they are fast,easy to read and stable they will more than make up for a lack of variety.
On the MacBook, I have gotton a lot of use out of the utility “Hazel” – which main function is to sweep icons representing files and folders off the desktop and into the Documents directory where it is searchable but out of sight. Hazel does it automatically, a service that I gladly pay for on the full capabillity laptop. It will be great to have the same built in to the netbook that’s on the purchase list once this recession loosens it’s grip.
CES 2008 Coverage for Tech Podcast Network
Intel Envisions Shape Shifting Smartphones
Click to view videos submitted or recommended by other SDR podcast listeners. . .
If you find a YouTube video that pertains to one of our news items, or have produced an item that would be of interest to SDR listeners, please send us the link slashdotreview{at}gmail.com
Save $10 on any order of $50 or more at GoDaddy.com!
Be sure to sign up for our upcoming roundtable. We will be using GoToMeeting. Also, be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techroundtable.
- Take 10% off any order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH
- Take $5 off any $30 order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH2
- .com Domains $6.95 at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH3
- More blogs about SlashdotReview…
- Slashdot Review by Email – Sign up here:
