“This is the continuation from our previous article on the latest build, which significantly depicts itself as Beta 2. We’ll cover everything we missed in our first installment of the 5231 coverage, but before you continue, we recommend you read the first part of the article to get a better grasp on the new features and changes Microsoft has made in 5231.”
One of the only interfaces that MS seemed to be getting right was media center, so much so that even Apple is copying it in Front Row.
What I don’t understand is why they are changing it, going away from simplicity and onto what they do best, complicating what should be simple…
Ah well… Vista doesn’t come out for another year or so, hopefully they will revert back to what they currently have..
Apple will certainly have a full media centre by then…
I agree, Media Center is one thing they should try not to muck up. I really enjoy the current version of MCE, but its simplicity is what makes it navigable with a remote control (I would like to see them drop the IR for bluetooth).
As to Apple copying them…how many different ways can you design an interface that works well with a remote?
“As to Apple copying them…how many different ways can you design an interface that works well with a remote?”
A better question might be how many ways can you design an interface for anything and allow it to be familiar, intuitive, and functional?
Come one say me what apple copied with FrontRow.
FrontRow is much designed as the iPod interface, and it brings more usability and easy of use as any MCE of microsoft. FrontRow seems better designed, with a better and more beautiful interface. And anyway, at this moment Apple does not to provide the same things as MCE, Apple want users to have anoother access to their digital life, that they PRODUCE with iLife. There is no TV watching, TV recording or whatever in FrontRow, i think apple does not believe in the ” i use the computer as a TV”. Thats make sense. Why should i use a computer or even buy a computer for the thing that i do with my TV. I can watch TV with a TV, yes….. record TV shows on dvd, and so on…Microsoft is trying to put too many things in the same box, the convergence between TV and computer does not make much sense yet…
and if Apple released a TV tuner tomorrow, what tune would you be singing then?
Although I do agree that FrontRow is base more on the iPod UI than on MCE’s (but I hesitate to make to many pronouncements as I have yet to see it in person)
Well, you can, (and people do) hook their MCE up to their TV.
You people are f–king pathetic.
Windows Vista 5231: the Real Analysis
Don’t support convicted monopolies
I don’t know what the boys and girls in Redmond are smoking but it must be something that’s bad for the concentration.
The list of songs as displayed there, even if you use album art, is not what I want in a user interface. Plus they have that spacy blue background going on. What is that all about?
And clicking a song opens the media player? Wasn’t that what you were opening MCE for in the first place?
I don’t know what it looked like before and I would hesitate to say that Apple copied it, but the very last thing I want when playing music is to make all kinds of selections, options, choices, preferences and sundry decisions.
Give me the list of songs [videos], allow me to find my choice easily and play the damn thing already. I’m not in the least bit interested in a dialog with my application about what life should look like, whether it should be blue, green, red or yellow, whether I want mayonnaise and how much and say did you hear about the parrot in the bar?
NO! List of songs [videos], easy choice, play. In the days of the jukebox, did you have a 5 minute conversation with the thing before you played a song? No. You had a list of songs, you made your choice, you added a quarter, the songs starts. That’s how it should work.
Anything you do more than that is an utter and total waste of my time.
At the risk of being called a fanboy, iTunes is the very best player you could ever want. It is simple, elegant, easy to navigate and it just works.
There’s a bit of other things you can choose to do, but the main objective, the most important thing: to play the music [video], is readily accessible, easily navigable and plays when you click the arrow button [or double click on the song].
I rue the day where everything you want to do is a 5-minute decision making process just to get the show on the road.
There is a major cultural difference between Microsoft and Apple and what I saw in this review is as clear a demonstration of that difference as any you care to mention.
I have a 43-something button remote for my tv. Besides the numeric keys, I use 3 buttons on that remote. 3: channel up/down, sound up/down, off. I couldn’t name two other buttons on the whole thing and I don’t give a wet slap about them.
There’s a famous cartoon about what various parties in a product development process understood as the needs of the customer: it’s a swing on a tree. All of them, including the customer, get it wrong with regards of what the customer actually wants: a tire on a rope, tied to a branch.
Vista MCE, in this incarnation, is -exactly- that jumble of confusion. And the user has to sweat the consequences.