Windows 8: Tablet > Desktop

                                  

Windows 8 is getting closer and closer to its public release and I’m excited. So I thought I would take a moment to discuss how Windows 8 is different and a serious flaw I’ve seen in it.

The biggest difference between Windows 8 and Windows 7 is really just the addition of a more or less reinvented Start button. Instead of a little window with different options the start button will bring you to the Metro interface to interact with all the stuff that’s there. The metro interface itself is the big thing with Windows 8, it is the harbinger of the touch interface which will then bring Windows to the tablet market.

The tablet market is big right now, and it’s only going to get bigger. Although there are very little competitors in this market right now, Google’s Android, Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. With the introduction of Windows I have no doubt it will fly past Android and the Fire as well to compete head to head with the iPad. Why do I say that? Well Windows has one massive thing going for it, and that’s the huge user base it already has. That’s millions of people that already know how to use it, so instead of getting an Android tablet or even an iPad they’re going to get a Windows tablet- because that’s what they’re used to.

Now taking a couple steps forward into the future of personal computing I want to tell my image of how it will look. Instead of everyone (or nearly everyone) having their own laptop to browse the web and watch videos, etc etc. they will have a tablet. These tablets will have just as much juice behind them as laptops nowadays do, maybe more even. Laptops will basically stop being useful because your tablet will be able to do almost everything a laptop could do. Now, for those things a tablet couldn’t do, say professional work or school assignments then you move over to the desktop to do those. So, wrapping it up, everyone will have a tablet to do most of their stuff, professionals and schools will have super-powered desktops to handle the big stuff, households may also have one of these to share.

Now with that thought process in mind Windows 8 is very exciting, because it’s literally the desktop on a tablet, so until we get to the point explained above you’ll still be able to do things on a Windows 8 tablet that you may not be able to do on other tablets. But here’s the flaw, the Windows 8 desktop experience has been crippled. Not in a fatal way, but crippled nonetheless. Tablets demand simplicity and larger buttons for fingers and mobility. Desktops with the precision of a mouse and the generally large space for things like processors, CPUs , and other innards like that, desktops can just handle more also because of this they stay in one place. But with Windows 8 Microsoft is merging the mobile space and the stationary space is a weird way, instead of making the desktop version similar to the mobile version they seemed to have just fed the desktop to the mobile and treat the features of desktop computers as some sort of app or after-product when, at least on a desktop, it’s doing to be the most important part.

A quick example: in the Metro start menu you move left and right to access different apps, on a phone or tablet this is as easy as sliding a finder across the screen. On a desktop computer you’ve got to drag with your mouse, which isn’t really the most elegant of solutions, although you could also scroll with your mouse, but that’s confusing since you scroll down to move right and up to move left. I suppose though, we can imagine future mouses to have a more touch interface, similar to trackpads, which may be able to handle the touch interface of Windows 8 a little better. We will have to see about this though, as it comes down to the discretion of whoever makes the actual computers, and not necessarily Microsoft.

Windows 8 is a big step in the right direction for Microsoft, and Metro is absolutely awesome, but they may have gone just too far with it, either that or they have to be open to some changes down the road. 8 definitely offers a lot of great features but whether the crippling of their core product is worth it or not, we’ll have to see.

Smart Is More Than A Word

I’ve talked about this before and I doubt this will be the last time I talk about it, but look at what the smart phone has done to the world. I’ve outlined elsewhere what the smart phone could potentially replace in the not too distant future, but it doesn’t stop there. Smart phones started the mobile computing craze, and therefore the tablet craze. Also leading to other far reaching developments in the way we interact with the web and the way the web interacts with the world.

Going a little more in depth smart phones and tablet are really just a different way to interact with the web, which is what is changing the world. With that said, this new concept of smart TVs will further change the way we interact with media, by putting more control into our hands.

Right now Netflix and Hulu are two of the biggest names in (legal) online video streaming. With more coming onto the scene like Crackle and Vdio while others offer the opportunity for original and individual content like YouTube and Vimeo. Over the years these services, as well as others, have helped mold the way we watch TV shows and movies: on demand for free or cheap. NBC, TNT, USA and others have all adopted a similar plan by offering their shows online.

This has sparked my idea of the future of TV.

Right now we access TV shows mostly through TV, at least at first, then they become available online. With the introduction of smart TVs the line between television and Internet will start to fade, until it is completely gone. Soon, instead of going to channel 5 to watch Community, you’ll go to nbc.com. You’ll also be able to access the same TVs shows anywhere you are through your computer, tablet, or phone. HBO is a perfect example of this, they offer apps on almost every mobile operating system as well as many different smart TV operating systems. Giving it’s subscribers the ability to start a show at home and pick it up while they wait for their flight at the airport. Soon everyone will do this.

I can even imagine a time when movies won’t release in theaters but will release to the public, “available at ——.com on July 5th.” The theater is becoming more and more an experience, and for $7 a trip at least, it can become a pricey experience too. The reason people go to the movies is social, but imagine how many people want to watch a movie the weekend it comes out but no one else can or does, so that one person stays home. That’s just as much a lost sale as pirating the movie, which he may end up doing. Now imagine if that same person could just watch that movie the weekend it came out from the comfort of his couch on his shiny smart TV? I expect an huge market for the entertainment industry here, if they would just adapt to it.

That’s one very cool idea that will be on everyone’s minds as smart TVs become more capable and, more importantly, more widely used, but the walls of Jericho didn’t fall in a day. Eventually though, the entertainment industry will hear a very similar shout demanding the collapse of the way they do things, who will be spared has yet to be determined.