Much has changed in our world in the past decade. Remember 2003? 50 Cent was still on top, as was Dubya, and you were hot shit if your cellphone had a color screen. Imagine knowing that in ten years, we’d interact with tech using our voices, our gestures, and even our brainwaves. 2013, in particular, has been a year of change.
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Today, Android published a helpful blog post offering up a list of design tips for developers slaving away over new app icons, encouraging them to use shadows, textures, and micro detail. We’re watching Android grow up into its own distinct visual identity—independent even from Google mothership.
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Last week at CTIA, we sat down with Lixin Cheng — CEO of ZTE USA — for a candid discussion about the company’s future in the US. The conversation started with ZTE’s current portfolio in the US, which consists of 18 SKUs — primarily inexpensive Android smartphones (most with LTE) for the prepaid market. Mr. Cheng mentioned that the company’s doing quite well in the US thanks to an 85.7 percent year-to-year growth in market share. ZTE is now in third place among prepaid handset manufacturers with a market share of 17 percent. He explained that carriers are seeing revenue growth from prepaid services which now account for 22.5 to 29 percent of revenue. This puts the company in a strong position for the future, despite last year’s investigation by Congress. So we asked Mr. Cheng if and when ZTE would bring flagship phones like the Grand S or Grand Memo to the US in partnership with the four major carriers. His reply:
I have promised you at CES that we’re going to bring the Grand S or Memo series into [the] US, and we are working on that, and I think that very soon we will announce some good news.
That’s good news indeed. Hit the break for more, including our video interview and full transcript.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
When was the last time you tried to find a government form on the Internet? For me, it was a few months back, trying to track down an absentee ballot. And while I love American flag GIFs as much as the next patriot, I was amazed at the labyrinth of independent sites I had to visit before I found what I was looking for. Bringing the web presence of an entire government under one roof is a Sisyphean task, and the UK is one of the only countries that’s managed to do it, with Gov.uk, a one-stop-web-shop that launched earlier this year. More »
The look and feel of iOS has remained largely unchanged since its unveiling in June 2007, which has led some to decry that the platform is stale, or worse, that Apple isn’t innovating as quickly as its competitors. While that’s …
Some times, the good ol’ fashioned ways are the best. Seems Facebook would certainly agree: according to a blog post, its new news feed was developed using paper, Post-its, and a large blank wall. More »
It’s hard to blame Microsoft for making bold decisions with its upcoming desktop operating system. But the renamed Windows 8-style UI (or Modern UI) instead of Metro might be too great a departure from known and trusted interactions found in the previous versions of Windows.
According to Raluca Budiu, User Experience Specialist with Nielsen Norman Group, who gave an interview to Laptop Magazine, some design decisions are confusing at best and, at worst, a cognitive burden that slows down the user.
Budiu used to do research in human-computer interaction at Xerox PARC, the very same company that invented the Graphical User Interface and gives therefore a valuable opinion on user interfaces and user experience.
Budiu states that the main problem with Windows 8 will be that users will have to deal with two completely different interfaces, that is to say the traditional Windows desktop interface and the tile-based Modern UI. Not only will some interactions be drastically different in Windows 8, but users will have to keep track of which action to use in which environment.
In addition to piling up two different user interfaces, Budiu believes that the app switcher is problematic. It shows each Modern style app in its own tile but all the desktop apps are regrouped in one tile. Users will have to remember the apps that are currently running on the desktop in order to avoid going back and forth between the desktop and the Start screen.
When it comes to finding a common point between these changes, the Start screen seems to incur Budiu’s wrath. It is both a waste of screen space and unintuitive. The Start menu button is gone and switching between the desktop and the Start screen is not evident at first — the button is hidden in a corner and you must hover to make it appear.
Many of the Modern interface paradigms are taken directly from Windows Phone 7. Buttons are not in plain view and most of the screen real estate is dedicated to content. It should have been adapted more thoroughly to the desktop environment.
The risks for Microsoft are clear. Windows users might react badly to UI changes by using the desktop interface as much as they can. Some will put off upgrading their operating systems. By stating that they won’t offer to boot straight to desktop, Microsoft is courageous. The question now is whether they will be able to stay the course and whether the Start menu is effectively gone forever.
HP’s webOS team has been keeping busy with its open source project, but it’s time for a new challenge in the form of Gram: a fresh HP-funded offshoot focused on “software, user experience, the cloud, engineering, and partnering.” We’re not quite sure where that list could lead, but webOS, Enyo and cloud services are all expected to play a role in future endeavors. Judging from the fancy flyer after the break, a lot of energy is going into brand-building right now, along with a dose of secrecy, but hopefully some more concrete details will happen along soon.
Continue reading webOS team becomes Gram, isn’t heavy on mission statements
Filed under: Internet, Software
webOS team becomes Gram, isn’t heavy on mission statements originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 06:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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