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Isn't this a pretty good move? By setting some sort of standard or look across all of its products, wouldn't users find it easier to use them because they have a better understanding of the interfaces?
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This exactly. It builds a cohesive brand presence for Microsoft, who in the past have had rather disparate and unrelated product offerings.
Look at Apple. They are kings of brand integration. Their products all have familiar product design, similar GUI design. Their website, their ads, even their packaging all work together, and they all scream “Apple”.
But the biggest part of that is how they tie together their products. Think about iCloud, iTunes; how you can buy iWork apps for all their devices; how you can use Airplay to send music between devices, or how Airdrop lets Macs shift files to one another; how Apple’s backup HDD integrates seamlessly with OSX’s backup software.
That is what Microsoft is trying to do, with Windows, Xbox, and Windows Phone. They have a music streaming service that works between them all; they have a cloud storage app that syncs between Windows and Windows Phone (and I’ll bet Xbox’s cloud saves feature gets tied in too); Windows 8 and Windows Phone both have SmartGlass apps to make them work as Xbox remote controls; I could go on.
The point is that this type of integration is something that can hugely benefit Microsoft’s entire ecosystem while also making shit more convenient for their customers.
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I doubt that for desktops, touch screen will ever replace mouse and keyboard... Having to keep up your arm to touch stuff all the time would be annoying... Mouse covers a long distance on the screen and you dont have to use your whole friggin arm.
I just think it would bother people in the end....
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I agree with this – I couldn’t really imagine working with a touchscreen desktop monitor as they stand right now.
However, one of my favorite all-in-one concepts is this thing Lenovo came up with:
That looks rad as hell and looks like a solid solution to working with touch in a desktop environment.
I don’t think Windows 8 is a traditional OS. But that’s okay, because hardware is changing
fast.
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Yea I don't think touch screen will ever completely replace the mouse and keyboard, though I did see this video where this guy was talking about different ways touch screen could be combined with normal desktop computers one way or another, like having a sort of roll-up touch screen as a second monitor flat out on your desk
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It’s a pipe dream, but one of my fantasies for future technology is that eventually you end up with one device that carries everything—your files, logins, apps, settings, social networks, whatever—and that one device just seamlessly ties itself to whatever “slave” machine you need it to.
So you have a device which starts out as maybe a smartphone, and then you sit down at your desk and it connects to the monitor standing on your desk and you just move straight into doing whatever on the bigger screen.