john.blog

Since most of my job deals with developing GUI that can work with both a mouse and a finger, I thought I would share my current views on this subject. Most people know me as a very pro-Microsoft person, which is mostly true, I will admit that. My huge problem with all modern “desktop” operating systems is that the primary method of interfacing with the system is still a keyboard and mouse. All popular desktop web browsers are a total pain to use with a finger. Most of the desktop shells and file managers are worse. While Windows 7 and OS X Snow Leopard did bring some improvements to using a touch driven UI, they are still remarkably horrible to use. I am going to add Tablet PC’s into the mix as well, as using a stylus/pen is about as good as using your finger.

Now to the point where i’m not a complete Microsoft worshiper. I currently own a Google Android Phone (DROID) and an iPod Touch (Current Revision 32 GB) and really really like both devices. These two devices, while small, have had one common goal from the beginning…a touch screen interface that is in every way meant to be used by a finger or fingers. Every application on both of these devices is meant to be used by touch.

So the work I do, which fixes only part of the problem, fixes application launching and window management(we use 3rd party here, but i’m working on replacing this with out own solution). This aggravates me because i feel like our solution is a good solution, but is not the total solution to making a touch screen desktop/laptop really usable with just a finger.

Here is our new website which is still being updated but you can kinda see what I do everyday. Take a look around and let me know what you think or if you have any ideas on this subject.

http://www.thinix.com

I was sitting at work thinking, i should do some development for the iPhone/iPod Touch.  Then i got to thinking, i need to get an iPod Touch, a Mac, and eventually become an iPhone developer.  So the cost for any developer that doesn’t have any of the above would be, in it’s absolute cheapest form(unless you were to find a cheap intel mac on ebay)…Mac Mini – $599, 8 GB iPod Touch – $229, iPhone Developer Fee – $99…for a grand total of…$927 w/o tax, so pretty much $1000.  So next i was browsing Engadget, and i keep seeing all the stuff about Google Android, so i thought, well i don’t have $1000 at the moment, and Android Development is free, so i could do that, it would be a good learning experience and the best part, its free.  Then i was thinking, well since im pretty decent at c# development, i could possibly do some windows mobile development, and its for the most part free, since Microsoft provides an emulator for doing WinMo development.  So… I’m still undecided, anyone have any thoughts on the situation??

Ok, im gonna start out with the link to an article i saw this afternoon at work.

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080908/windows-home-server-v2-time-machine-ui-media-center-live-mesh-integration/

This article is the exact reason i am working on creating Thinix Kiosk in WPF.  While the graphics in Thinix Kiosk are not created by me,  the layout and the UI design are all mine, and i have lots of creative ideas on how to make it better.  Since i am limited by machine hardware (Thin Clients) graphical “coolness” is not on the list for our production product.

So while i work on that side project, i need some help from you guys with screenshots of the current WHS since, even though i am a beta tester for the project, i do not have a machine to put it on(unless i find an old beater at work to run it on).  I may have to resort to this to see for myself the functionality, but if i can get away with screenshots i will.  The plan, develop a new UI as something to do for fun that will improve my WPF skills and my overall programming skills.

So, shoot me some screenshots or any other helpful information to my gmail.