First look at Windows 7’s User Interface
At PDC today, Microsoft gave the first public demonstration of Windows 7. Until now, the company has been uncharacteristically secretive about its new OS; over the past few months, Microsoft has let on that the taskbar will undergo a number of changes, and that many bundled applications would be unbundled and shipped with Windows Live instead. There have also been occasional screenshots of some of the new applets like Calculator and Paint. Now that the covers are finally off, the scale of the new OS becomes clear. The user interface has undergone the most radical overhaul and update since the introduction of Windows 95 thirteen years ago.
First, however, it’s important to note what Windows 7 isn’t. Windows 7 will not contain anything like the kind of far-reaching architectural modifications that Microsoft made with Windows Vista. Vista brought a new display layer and vastly improved security, but that came at a cost: a significant number of (badly-written) applications had difficulty running on Vista. Applications expecting to run with Administrator access were still widespread when Vista was released, and though many software vendors do a great job, there are still those that haven’t updated or fixed their software. Similarly, at its launch many hardware vendors did not have drivers that worked with the new sound or video subsystems, leaving many users frustrated. more…
Nokia Touchscreen Phone, on the S60
During an otherwise uneventful podcast on the S60, Nokia revealed this shot of an unnamed concept device. It features a big touchscreen interface like the HTC Touch or the iPhone, but a QWERTY keypad can fold out while the touchscreen swivels, transforming the candy bar device into a premium clamshell. We’ll have to wait and see whether or not anything comes of the concept, but if Nokia knows what’s good for them, we’ll hopefully see the real product soon enough.
Source: Gizmodo
Highest Skyscraper in the World
When it’s finished in ten years, Dubai’s latest architectural monolith will be the tallest skyscraper in the world. At more than one kilometer high (3,280 feet), the Nakheel Tower will have the hundred floors.”From our perspective, we are building a tower that’s going to be over a kilometre in height. This is a complete iconic development. It may be the tallest.”
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5059258/the-highest-skyscraper-in-the-world