Like it or not, the beloved start button we all know and love is gone in Windows 8. In its place, we have the new metro U. I. start screen. With this new start screen, you gain the ability to have live tiles, where the program icon can display bits of program information within opening the program. If you press the windows key on Windows 8, it takes you to the start screen.
However, this means that things can get somewhat cluttered, especially if you have a bunch of programs installed. To solve this, I propose that Windows 8 should allow us to have groups. Groups allow you to put like tiles together I saving screen space in the process. It would also allow people to hide tiles which are used infrequently. Being able to put shortcuts on the desktop mode from the metro ui would be nice as well.
As far as keyboard shortcuts go, alt-F4 and Ctrl-Alt-Del and Alt-Tab still work under Windows 8. I am not sure about other keyboard shortcuts.
Finally, windows 8 requires a windows live id to login. If you use Hotmail or Xbox Live, you are covered and just use the same email address and password for Hotmail or Xbox Live. If you don't have one, you can easily get one. There is the possibility to have local users on the system which are not connected to Windows live, but those users cannot sync settings with other windows 8 computers.
I would like to invite you to try Windows 8 right now. You can do so by going to http://bit.ly/H04H05. In the windows 8 setup program, there is an option to upgrade a Windows 7 installation to Windows 8. I would advise against this (at least until windows 8 is officially released to the general market). In my next post, I will detail how to install windows 8 toa separate part of your hard drive so your important data is untouched. For now, just download the windows 8 setup, but don't install it unless you know what you are doing.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask me via the comment box below or via
e-mail at catholictechgeek@gmail.com. You can subscribe to my rss feed
or follow me on Twitter (username is @rctechgeek).
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Frustrations of an Uninformed Developer
When a developer develops an app, he tries to design the app with what the target audience, not just himself, will want in that app in mind. When a developer puts a program out on an app marketplace, he (or she) hopes that the app will do well. However, when a developer tries to improve the app, there is only so much that he will recognize that needs to be improved. To help close this gap, this is where the end-user comes into play.
We all know that the developer is human and every person is different. When the end-user uses the app, the person might see something that needs to be changed or improved in the app that the developer didn't catch. It is VERY IMPORTANT that users notify the developer about changes or possible improvements to the app. If not, improvements to the program can't happen. It is very frustrating when a developer finds that he is getting a decent number of downloads of his app, but there is little to no feedback (whether it be positive or negative feedback) from users of the app.
I will mention that when users are giving feedback on changes and improvements of an app, users need to be as clear as humanly possible as to what they want changed or improved. Stuff like "this app crashes" is not very helpful. Restating that as "this app crashes when ... happens" or "this app crashes when I do..." is much more helpful to the developer. Ratings are also important as well. Ratings can give a developer a gauge of how well his app is doing.
Developers, you need to be accessible as to how your app's users can issue support requests to you. It is also important to reply as quickly as humanly possible to those support requests. Honesty is another big thing. If there is something that users are wanting that just isn't possible with the current environment, just be honest with the users about it. People always appreciate honesty.
Now you may be wondering what this has to do with me. On the windows phone marketplace, I have an app called Mobile Media Manager, which is a media player. I have been getting a good number of downloads but I have been getting Very Little feedback on the app. With little feedback, I don't have a strong idea of whether people enjoy my app or not. I can only assume that with a good number of downloads of that app, people enjoy using my app. If you have downloaded either the paid version or the free version, please rate and review the version you tried. If you have a support issue, please see http://catholictechgeek.blogspot.com/p/mobile-media-manager.html.
To find my Apps on the windows phone marketplace, just search for "Nowaksoft". You can also use the following links to get to it:
paid version: http://bit.ly/y3rf6V
free version: http://bit.ly/xGCsWE
I should have an update for both the free version and paid version of Mobile Media Manager out soon, depending on how fast the update passes certification. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me via the comment box below or via e-mail at catholictechgeek@gmail.com. You can subscribe to my rss feed or follow me on Twitter (username is @rctechgeek).
We all know that the developer is human and every person is different. When the end-user uses the app, the person might see something that needs to be changed or improved in the app that the developer didn't catch. It is VERY IMPORTANT that users notify the developer about changes or possible improvements to the app. If not, improvements to the program can't happen. It is very frustrating when a developer finds that he is getting a decent number of downloads of his app, but there is little to no feedback (whether it be positive or negative feedback) from users of the app.
I will mention that when users are giving feedback on changes and improvements of an app, users need to be as clear as humanly possible as to what they want changed or improved. Stuff like "this app crashes" is not very helpful. Restating that as "this app crashes when ... happens" or "this app crashes when I do..." is much more helpful to the developer. Ratings are also important as well. Ratings can give a developer a gauge of how well his app is doing.
Developers, you need to be accessible as to how your app's users can issue support requests to you. It is also important to reply as quickly as humanly possible to those support requests. Honesty is another big thing. If there is something that users are wanting that just isn't possible with the current environment, just be honest with the users about it. People always appreciate honesty.
Now you may be wondering what this has to do with me. On the windows phone marketplace, I have an app called Mobile Media Manager, which is a media player. I have been getting a good number of downloads but I have been getting Very Little feedback on the app. With little feedback, I don't have a strong idea of whether people enjoy my app or not. I can only assume that with a good number of downloads of that app, people enjoy using my app. If you have downloaded either the paid version or the free version, please rate and review the version you tried. If you have a support issue, please see http://catholictechgeek.blogspot.com/p/mobile-media-manager.html.
To find my Apps on the windows phone marketplace, just search for "Nowaksoft". You can also use the following links to get to it:
paid version: http://bit.ly/y3rf6V
free version: http://bit.ly/xGCsWE
I should have an update for both the free version and paid version of Mobile Media Manager out soon, depending on how fast the update passes certification. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me via the comment box below or via e-mail at catholictechgeek@gmail.com. You can subscribe to my rss feed or follow me on Twitter (username is @rctechgeek).
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