Mar11
Here’s what Windows 8 Consumer Preview looks like on my iPad 2.
And, yes, there is a trick to it. Look at the pop-up in the lower right of the display.
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OgasaWalrus
Eccentric Technology
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Mar10
Windows Live ID server down briefly. Not a good Cloud-year for Microsoft
on March 10, 2012 at 1:08 pmPosted In: Microsoft
2012 has not been a good Cloud-year for Microsoft so far. Their Azure cloud service was down on Feb. 29, 2012 because its developers apparently had some date dependent code that did not know about leap years.
Today, Microsoft’s Windows Live ID service was down for at least a 10 minute period and, perhaps, more. I noticed updates for three apps on my Windows Phone and tried to update them. However, you can see the Windows Live ID error message I saw twice when I attempted to update the apps. The issue was resolved when I went on to other activities and then made a third attempt to update the apps. This was not a critical path activity for me. However, imagine if you were trying to do something important that required access to the Windows Live ID servers.
Mar10
New Apple TV iPhone-like interface slows navigation because of the lack of a touch interface
on March 10, 2012 at 12:50 pmPosted In: Apple
The new iPhone/iPad icon driven Apple TV interface looks nice. And, it probably looks familiar to iPhone and iPad users. However, it really doesn’t make much sense on a non-touch display like a TV. The former drop-down menu interface was faster for navigation. You could, for example, look at one menu and then use the remote control to move side-ward to the next menu group. The new icon view requires you to go to a completely new screen, back out home display, and then select the new category (icon) which again requires a new screen to be displayed. This seems like a lot more work (and waiting) to navigate around the Apple TV using a remote control.
Mar09
Surprise! Netflix streams OK on an underpowered netbook running Windows 8 Consumer Preview
on March 9, 2012 at 10:03 am
Why the surprise? I’m running Windows 8 on an underpowered Asus Eee PC T91MT netbook (multitouch display). How underpowered is it? It has a sluggish Atom Z520 processor paired with what is apparently the world’s slowest solid state drive (a mere 32GB). It is so underpowered that it was unable to stream YouTube or Netflix videos when running the operating system it shipped with (Windows 7 Home Premium Edition). So, I wasn’t too surprised when I could not stream video to this netbook when I installed Windows 8 Developer Preview last Fall.
So, I was very surprised to see and hear Netflix streaming reasonably well on this netbook running Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
Mar08
The first set of Metro app updates arrived for my netbook today. Unfortunately, Windows 8 provides the same amount of information about app updates that Windows Phone does: Nothing. So, I have no idea what is new or fixed in these three apps.
Note to Microsoft: This is a bad idea. End-users should know what is in an updated app. Apple allows developers to provide this info in its App Store product information pages. Google does the same for Android. What’s up with Windows Phone and Windows 8 app updates not providing any information?