minimalsites.com - Minimal Web Design Gallery and Minimalist Community

marco:

Supposed HP Slate prototype video (via John Gruber)

Some standouts:

• The Ctrl-Alt-Delete hardware button.¹
• The booting.
• The mouse pointer that appears on screen for a few seconds after the desktop loads, tracking the first couple of touches, before some component presumably loads and tells it to hide. The touch features are obviously just sloppy bolt-ons to Windows.
• The little blue dot animation on each touch to give some feedback that it received the touch, presumably because so many applications in Windows aren’t meant to show any sort of touch feedback, because they’re not designed for touch usage. Sounds like a blast.
• The browser scrolling performance right before he says, “Very fast.”
• Flash running in the browser… otherwise it might be responsive.
• Tapping the address bar in Internet Explorer to type a URL doesn’t bring up the on-screen keyboard automatically, or hide it after the URL is entered — he has to hit the keyboard button on the side to show and hide the keyboard manually.

It’s a Windows 7 version of the same old Microsoft Tablet PC form factor, but this time, with a finger instead of a stylus. They used to call these “slate”-type Tablet PCs. They were slaughtered in the market by the “convertible” type that had the flip-around laptop keyboards, because most Windows software simply works much better with a keyboard and trackpad.

This is what happens when a PC hardware company tries to copy an Apple product’s feature checklist without getting it.

I hope that, somehow, this is fake. But I bet it isn’t.

---

1. This is comical, but the actual likely intention is less fun than killing hung apps: it’s probably to get through the Windows NT-style “Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to log on” screen, a relic from 1993, which is necessary on tablets presumably because Microsoft’s internal structure, politics, and fragmentation precluded the Tablet PC team from getting the Windows Account Security Or Whatever team to make an exception to this procedure for this edition of Windows 7. ↩

This would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact that it is so sad.

my notes: a hardware button to invoke the software keyboard… FAIL! The unresponsive screen… FAIL! the same UI as on a pc with a keyboard, mouse and big screen… FAIL! a mouse cursor on the screen… FAIL!

to make it short: A BIG FAIL!

a couple of days ago Tumblr ate my queue. I had ready more tips for simplifying coding, and a series of minimalism related furniture pictures that would definitely change the way you see furniture.

I also had ready a 6 part series of post named: Developing Apps, Special Forces Style. In which I combine special forces tactics applied to development and programming. But again, it’s gone.

I’ll try to recreate the posts from my notes and from memory.

AZB, designed by Japanese- based GENETO , is a minimal house with elegant contrasts and unique grooved decor filtering throughout its interior. Screens and sliding doors are utilized in order to disguise storage and closet space. The interior, as far as minimal spaces go, is rather distinct in terms of limitations given by its 45m2 floor space.

The artistic panels are designed through a Japanese architectural application called Fusuma. In short, Fusuma describes the approach of embellishing sliding-door room separators with scenes of nature. The user is left with the impression that he/she is encircled by nature. The grooves were inspired by the adjacent mountains and city skylines that surround the building. The crevices subsequently become inconspicuous coat hangers and handles.

Photos by Takumi Ota

kung fu grippe — Introducing “ū—”: A Distraction-Free Writing Environment:

OK, take a minute or seven to click the link and read the post above wherein Merlin Mann whips out the shotgun of snark to take down “distraction free/less/otherwise” writing apps like the one I (and just about the entire rest of the free world) linked to earlier today. Go ahead, I’ll wait…

Now, there are those out there who may take such criticism as more than a bit of cranky-old-get-of-my-lawn-ism. While I agree there is better than average mellow harshing is at play here, I also see and agree with the point that is perhaps buried a bit too far under the subtext for those who have not followed his particular schtick for long enough. Let me sum it up in the simplest way possible.

The only way to really become a better and more focused writer is to glue your butt to a solid surface and move your writing instrument of choice to the right (or left if you are Hebrew or Arabic, I’m told). No app, tool, muse, god, magic, incantation, or soul searching will ever change that. No more than the move from shooting the bull about an adventure around a fire after hunting, to cave painting the same message with the fresh blood, made the story being told any different (or, better).

Despite his chosen method for communicating the above this time around, the message is a solid one that bears repeating in an age when anyone can pay five bucks for “focus” and think it really means something.

The real secret of apple’s product philosophy | Stage Two:

A fantastic article about why Apple’s product and user-experience philosophy has put them in the lead on pretty much everything, from hardware to customer support.

We often hear that Apple “plays the game” better than Sony, HP, Dell, etc – that’s not quite right. Apple is playing an entirely different game. What’s most amazing about this? Nobody else seems to want to play with them, they just keep playing the “other” game, and poorly.

Apple is committed to creating fun, functional products that perform flawlessly for consumers. The iPhone changed the way people engaged telephony and internet everyday. iPad introduced tablet computing to the masses. From their take on music to a rock solid operating system, every product design choice Apple makes is governed by simplicity, ease of use and functionality. Apple deliberately kept the user experience in mind at every stage of product development and has benefited greatly from it.

The other guys? They either license existing devices from miscellaneous unnamed overseas manufacturers, or “innovate” through tiny incremental feature design – aka copy others. They certainly talk a good game about product experience, but it’s not even in the picture at anywhere near the same level. And we don’t understand why. It’s easy to see how they all got here, but surprising to see them not trying to change, especially if you bring the dollars into it.

Read the entire article, it’s short but very informative.

And while we are at it, I’d like to point you to these past posts:

- Simplifying the experience

- The sad state of computing today

- As I grow older I want things to be simpler

- On operating systems