William Knelsen As I wait in hope for the Lord.

Archive for the Technology Category

OS X Lion Review: First Impressions

July 20, 2011

I’ve been using Mac OS X Lion for a few hours now and I wanted to post some first impressions before I get used to all the changes and forget about them.

My initial thought is that the user interface takes some getting used to. This is a major change from Snow Leopard, even though at first it doesn’t seem that different.

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Investing in Social Networking

June 18, 2011

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I recently joined a social networking site called Empire Avenue. The purpose of the site is to invest in other people and boost your social networking “value” by getting others to invest in you. I think this is actually quite a brilliant idea as it engages the social networking users and encourages activity on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. If you could care less about social networking, this will seem like a waste of time. You are probably right. But it’s a good alternative of a waste of time to killing virtual zombies and engaging in virtual warfare, which I can’t seem to bring myself to find a good use of time either.

If you want to check it out, you can join by visiting this link (it helps me out if you do): http://empireavenue.com/?t=nh1hnfb

Microsoft tablet… not so much.

January 7, 2010

Yesterday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer almost embarrassingly showed of the new “slate PCs”. It’s almost as though, when they heard Apple was releasing a tablet this month, they quickly got HP to load some software on the slate so he could show people that it exists.

Here’s a “promo” video created for the slate. I’m guessing the HP marketing team quickly put this together at Microsoft’s request.

Why I Would Buy a Microsoft Tablet

January 6, 2010

With rumors that Steve Balmer will release a tablet PC today, I got to thinking… what would it take for me to buy a MS Tablet? Here’s a non-exhaustive checklist:

  1. No Windows!
    That’s right. The tablet would have to be running an entirely new OS. There would be no sign of this being a Windows device, rather a Microsoft (or hardware manufacturer) device.
  2. New Web Browser.
    Along with Windows, IE would have to be thrown out. Use web standards this time, and call it anything but Internet Explorer. It needs to be a fully functioning browser.
  3. Cheap.
    I’d be willing to pay no more than $800 for a tablet. If Apple comes out with one, I might be willing to pay more.
  4. Not Brown.
    Please, Microsoft, don’t make another brown mobile device.
  5. Wireless Connectivity.
    The device should have WiFi (obviously), Bluetooth and 3G.
  6. It just needs to work!
    If Microsoft would just come out with something that works very well and is really easy to use, they will have a winner.
  7. It needs to be as good as or better, plus cheaper, than Apple’s tablet.
    This can mean many things. But, essentially, every aspect of the device would need to match up or function better than Apple’s tablet. Even then, if it’s around the same price, I would rather buy Apple’s device simply because it will likely sync well with my MacBook Pro, iPhone and soon-to-be-purchased iMac.

There are many other things that could make me decide not to buy it, but if these 7 items are checked off, there is a good chance I might be interested.

User Experience in Everyday Objects

January 5, 2010

This is a brilliant talk observing user interface features within objects we use and see every day.

Learning IxD From Everyday Objects
View more documents from Bill DeRouchey.

Mac vs. PC: Game On

September 18, 2008

I have to admit, Microsoft sure made a really good point with this ad. While Apple succeeds at making PC look lame and boring, Windows is still used by more than 90% of the world and by more than just chubby IT managers in brown suits.

This ad was well done and I look forward to seeing more of them. However, that is about as much as I’ll enjoy anything made by Microsoft ;) .

Let the advertising war officially begin!