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Adobe Guru Moves to Microsoft to Help Improve Windows

Posted on May 1, 2008 8:05 AM by Rob Williams

Whenever an OS X vs. Windows argument arises, a common theme is design and aesthetics. It's no secret, Microsoft is not the king of amazing user interfaces, although what's been pushed out has at least been usable (some would argue about the Office 2007 ribbons, however). Microsoft is looking to change this plague they've suffered with a new hire, Mark Hamburg from Adobe.

Mark was a programming guru for Adobe Lightroom, which happens to be a fantastic looking - and intuitive - application. The problem, though, is that its UI is far different from Photoshop, so changes like that aren't going to be practical for Windows. If simple ribbons added to Office burdened some people, overhauling an entire OS would make them switch to OS X or Linux!

Still, Apple fanboys love to shout at Windows fans for their ugly and counter-intuitive OS, so hopefully this move will help Microsoft push out a great looking and well designed product, instead of the same product with see-thru glass.

Designing a user interface for a product with as limited a range of abilities as Lightroom is a very different task than a user interface for an entire operating system, though. But even if Windows doesn't directly copy Lightroom, for example, by changing its look to suit the task at hand, I for one would welcome a version of Windows with elegance, personality, and power.

Source: Underexposed Blog


NeroLinux 3 Updated to 3.5, Receives Command-Line & Eee PC Support

Posted on May 1, 2008 7:45 AM by Rob Williams

It's closing in on a year since NeroLinux 3 was first released, and somehow, a "major" update has passed without me noticing. At CeBit in March, Nero launched 3.0.5.1 of the application, bringing a few new features and bug fixes along. One of the biggest new features is a command-line interface, which I'm sure will get about as much use as the HD DVD burning feature.

I kid, of course. Also new is direct audio ripping to MP4, encoded with the AAC codec. That's fine and good, but I'd still love to see tweaking-abilities for each codec and also a secure ripping mode, though. Another great feature is support for new sub-notebooks, including the Eee PC. When a small resolution is detected, the application will scale itself appropriately.

Though it's a paid program ($20), I love NeroLinux and recommend it to anyone, especially if you are coming from a Windows environment and want a familiar face. Many people will debate the cost though, and for good reason since k3b handles everything just as well. I prefer the GUI in NeroLinux though, and it also feels more stable. While Nero spits out great burns, k3b has for some reason been erroring out on every one lately. Probably a simple issue to resolve, but troubleshooting is not so much fun.

You can check out a trial version of NeroLinux 3 here and read my review from last spring here.

Nero, leaders in digital media technology, have announced that they will be releasing Nero Linux 3.5, the latest update of the definitive burning solution for the Linux operating system, allowing users to access content on a variety of platforms. Nero Linux 3.5 further extends Nero's technology expertise with a new command line client that lets users engage the powerful engine through scripts and third-party applications.

Source: NeroLinux 3 Site


May 1st Tech Roundup

Posted on May 1, 2008 1:00 AM by Rob Williams





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