Hasta La Gadget!

I installed Windows 7 Beta on an HP TouchSmart PC over the weekend, getting cozy with the new touch and multitouch features, then loaded up a sweet two-handed Air Hockey demo. Have a look:

[When you’re done here, check out our complete Windows 7 coverage]

The basic touch and multitouch actions found native to Windows 7 are nothing to oooh and ahhh over, but there are a lot of little intuitive moves and conveniences that work well, even in the beta stage. More importantly, developers in and out of Microsoft are now getting all touchy, and we plan to track that pretty closely. But first, here’s the starter menu of touch and multitouch maneuvers:

Tap: The quick screen touch doesn’t reveal an arrow cursor, but the screen ripples outward, like water, plus there’s a tiny crosshair where you are actually tapping. The TouchSmart makes a beep (and when you tap with a second finger at the same time, that touch emits a higher-pitch beep).

Tap and hold: The “right-click” behavior is very well constructed: You tap and hold, and a circle swirls around your finger. Let go to reveal the right-click menu.

Flick: When you enable flicks, you can swim through longer pages and menus a lot faster, both vertically and horizontally. When you reach the end of the menu or screen, the window recoils a bit, indicating the termination.

Type: There’s a surprisingly MacBooky on-screen keyboard lurking just off frame in Windows 7. You tap the screen’s edge for it to stick out just a bit; tap it again and out it slides to center screen, sizable to your fat-fingered liking.

Zoom: In spite of new concerns over multitouch patents, this zoom behavior is pretty much identical to the one seen in Apple products (and on Microsoft’s Surface as well). You put two fingers on the screen and move them together to zoom out, and separate them to zoom in. I will note that this was easier to do with two hands—one-handed pinching was probably too micro for the TouchSmart screen.

Rotate: Same as zoom, this is straight out of the basic multitouch playbook. Just move two fingers in a circular fashion, and the photo rotates. And again, it was easier to use two hands than one. (I found that amazing bee shot in the video on Flickr—it’s by a user called aussiegall who has some beautiful nature close-ups.)

Draw: Two-fingered drawing is a multitouch phenomenon I don’t fully understand, but that’s probably because I’m not much of an artist. It’s cool to show off—and at this point, it’s the epitome of the finger Paint interface, because three or more fingers is still apparently taboo—but it seems to be a function awaiting a purpose.

The Windows 7 Media Center touch interface is really cool, especially if you’re using MC in a cramped dorm or kitchen, where the “10 foot” remote-control experience just ain’t happening. I ran the following video back in November, showing pretty much the same experience I can now pull up on the TouchSmart I have here, only they had more content, so it looks cooler:

A multitouch interface designer called IdentityMine created, among other things, a simple two-person multitouch Air Hockey demo to run at PDC 2008. Since it’s still available for download, I grabbed it and challenged my wife to a duel. We’re both out of shape, hockey-wise, but man was it a bloodbath:

In case you were wondering, I installed Windows 7 Beta in two ways on the TouchSmart PC, both which had different advantages. First, I upgraded from Vista, keeping all the drivers, etc. intact. Though I was able to get going quickly, the experience was hampered by touch software that HP ran on top of Vista. To get at the control that come native in Windows 7—which I highlight above—I had to partition the drive and do a clean install. Though I had to gather up some drivers and install them manually with some trickery, I got the more honest Windows 7 touch and multitouch experience.

I am happy that HP is pushing its TouchSmart platform to consumers with such enthusiasm, and I’m happy that Microsoft decided to weave touch into the fabric of its OS. One day we may even take it for granted, like keyboards and mice now. The real question is, what will developers do? I’m going to spend the next few days investigating more touch and multitouch applications and interfaces, because while Microsoft and HP should be praised for supplying the capabilities, the goodness will come in what developers do with them.

User Account Control annoyed a lot of people in Vista, so Microsoft turned down the volume in Windows 7. But they’ve also opened up a massive security hole that leaves PCs exposed to nastywares.UPDATED.

Update: Microsoft has decided to patch the hole after all.

By default now, UAC no longer bugs you when you make changes to Windows settings, just when programs try to makes changes on your computer. Which, admittedly, results in a smoother overall experience. But if you tried to turn off UAC in Vista, it required several confirmation screens. That’s no longer so with the new settings, since modifying UAC is considered a Windows settings. So, a script can turn off User Account Control entirely, leaving your computer totally exposed whatever dirty stuff malicious software wants to make your computer do.

Long Zheng’s proof-of-concept script turns off UAC entirely, without prompting, by emulating a keyboard inputs. So all an attacker would have to do is turn off UAC with a similar script, force a reboot and have a program launch at startup with full admin access to do whatever unseemly things it wants.

The fix, as he points out, is simple: Just make UAC modifications always require a prompt. In the meantime, you might wanna slide your settings up a notch, if you’re feeling paranoid. [I Started Something]

Windows 7 is shaping up to be an awesome OS. It’s everything people wanted Vista to be and more. Which is exactly why Microsoft should give it away—or offer it dirt cheap—to Vista users.

Windows 7 is the solution to Microsoft’s Vista problem, which is really a nasty hydra of a problem. Let’s not pretend that this isn’t the case. There are three major heads to the beast: Consumer perception of Vista as an abysmal failure and a crappy OS (hence, Mojave); the use of XP instead of Vista in increasingly popular netbooks; and the critical lack of Vista interest from the business community.

Windows 7 neatly resolves them: Word-of-mouth sentiment for Windows 7 has been overwhelmingly positive, even from Mossberg, a dude who spent half of his Sprint Instinct review pre-reviewing the iPhone 3G. Windows 7 is slimmed down when it needs to be, running fantastically on netbooks. And the IT buyers and consumers who skipped Vista have been waiting, cash in hand, for whatever came after, so Windows 7 will have a much more enthusiastic customer base.

The stars are aligned for Windows 7. It could wash the bad aftertaste from Vista out of everybody’s mouth. But that’s only if Microsoft sells it right.

For starters, Microsoft needs to get rid of all the separate license types (OEM vs. upgrade vs. full) and trim the number of boxed configurations. Give buyers three versions, Home, Business and Ultimate, all at a reasonable price. $129 would be ideal for the first two, with $149 for Ultimate.

Second, every Vista user should get it for $49, or even less.

Apple gave away OS X 10.1 for free, and Microsoft should take a lesson there. It doesn’t matter that Vista isn’t really broken—like OS 10.0 really really was. Or that it was mostly the hardware guys’ fault for not delivering their drivers on time. Or that Mojave proves, at least to the nimwits who appear on camera, that Vista is a warm and fuzzy OS. Or that, conversely, most people who hate Vista have never really used it. All of that could be true, but regardless, people’s perception is that Vista was, is and always will be broken. And perception is reality.

Microsoft screwed up the Vista launch, and well, first impressions are the ones that matter the most. True, it’s already paying for that mistake. But taking that small hit per user wouldn’t just be the final cost of the Vista screwup, it would be “earnest money,” as they say in business. Microsoft would be buying something it hasn’t had the opportunity to get in the last few years: People’s faith.

Ever notice that a printer–a multifunction printer in particular–shows up in Windows as five or six different parts? And they seem completely unrelated, too: Launch a scan and it’s as though Windows has no idea you’re already printing. Microsoft aims to unify those features in Windows 7, through Device Stage, a new visual interface that makes it easy to find and launch the tasks you want from your devices on your Windows 7 PC.

Most hardware at present isn’t set up for Device Stage, which requires the manufacturer to create a series of XML files that define functionality and include all those pretty pictures. And no, the camera, phone, printer, monitor, or whatever you currently own probably won’t suddenly grow this extra functionality when you install Windows 7. But the Canon MP980 works with it, out of the box. Simply plug the multifunction printer into your Windows 7 PC; the Device Stage files are located as part of the device driver installation, and load seamlessly in the background. The MP980 doesn’t install a taskbar icon by default, as the Nokia N95 I tested did, but it was easy enough to add: Just open the printer’s window from the Devices and Printers control panel, right-click the window in the taskbar, and select “Pin this program to taskbar.”

More details about this new functionality, after the jump.

As part of Windows 7, Microsoft is polishing more than just the operating system itself; the company aims to ease interaction between you and your cell phone, printer, camera, and more, with a new feature called Device Stage. Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc describes the feature pretty well on the The Windows Experience Blog, as a “new visual interface that makes it easy to find the things you want to do with your devices on your Windows 7 PC.” With Device Stage, a photo-realistic picture of your gadget can live in your taskbar, providing one-click access to relevant apps, services, and information. The feature is barely finished (and there are only a handful of working devices), and I’ve already got it working with a couple devices.

In order for Device Stage to work, Windows 7 loads a custom XML file (and possibly custom drivers) when you first connect a printer, scanner, whatever. LeBlanc points out that Device Stage “not only works for devices connected to a Windows 7 PC via USB, but also Bluetooth and Wi-Fi as well. In many cases, software installation isn’t required for Device Stage – with any additional drivers that might be needed automatically retrieved from Windows Update.” Maybe in the final iteration things will work that smoothly, but it’s proved a challenge so far. I’ve gotten two devices working at present: a Canon MP980 (flawlessly) and a Nokia N95 8GB (laboriously).

I’ll post a wealth of screen shots and information soon, about how I did it, how well it works, and what to expect from your devices. In the meantime, feast on a few neat screen grabs that highlight some of the features, after the jump.