Tag Archives: Microsoft Bob

Computers

Bill Gates vows the return of Microsoft Bob

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Though roundly ridiculed when it debuted in 1995, Microsoft Bob, or something resembling the short-lived on-screen assistant, will ultimately return, vowed Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of Microsoft.

“You always make mistakes on these things,” Gates said at the Microsoft Research Virtual Faculty Summit on Monday in Redmond, Washington. “We were just a bit ahead of our time, like most of our mistakes.”

Bob, one of Microsoft’s most notorious commercial failures, came up during a question-and-answer session at the summit when a researcher asked how software can be made easier to use.

Gates admitted this remains an ongoing challenge for the computer industry. “It’s a research issue, to make software better. The prize when you do these things is very large in a commercial sense,” Gates said.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

Why the Start button is Microsoft's 'New Coke' moment

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Companies make bad decisions all the time. Some of those decisions do irreparable harm, but others—like forcing users to boot to the new Modern interface in Windows 8, and taking away the Start button—can be reversed. Microsoft needs to ask whether it makes sense to backpedal.

There is new speculation that Windows 8.1, known as Windows “Blue,” will allow users to bypass the Modern interface and boot straight to desktop mode, complete with the Start button.

Retronaut

Once upon a time in 1985, a carbonated beverage called Coca-Cola was by far the dominant leader of its market. However, Coca-Cola’s corporate geniuses decided to scrap the guarded, secret recipe to launch something called New Coke.

It was one of the most spectacular debacles in the history of product marketing. (New Coke makes Microsoft Bob, 10 years later, seem brilliant.) After a customer backlash, Coca-Cola brought back the original recipe under the new name of Coke Classic, but stubbornly hung on to New Coke for awhile, even rebranding it as Coke II. Many credit the return to Coke Classic for saving the brand from complete meltdown.

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From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2035384/why-the-start-button-is-microsofts-new-coke-moment.html#tk.rss_all

Computers

Killing Comic Sans: 5 alternative fonts that protect your dignity

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Comic Sans: It’s the best font in your tool box if you’re committed to sappy, unsophisticated design, and want to prove to the world that your type library hasn’t been updated since 1995. Comic Sans is embarrassing. It makes us avert our eyes. Yet it’s still the go-to font for amateur designers trying to make their messaging more friendly—if only in the same way that reindeer sweaters are intrinsically friendly.

It’s one of Windows’ longest-standing clichés.

“If you love Comic Sans, feel free to use it with the understanding that it makes your work appear amateurish and thus the information it presents is perceived as unprofessional,” says Robin Williams, author of The Non-Designer’s Design and Type Books and How to Boss Your Fonts Around.

When Comic Sans was included in Windows 95, the world was starved for a relaxed, whimsical font, making the bubbly sans serif type face just the ticket. Or at least designer Vincent Connare thought so. He had designed the font the previous year explicitly for the comical (and later to be eternally mocked) software package Microsoft Bob.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

Review: Pokki shows the Windows 8 that might have been

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The death of the Start menu is way up there on my personal list of modern tech tragedies and epic Microsoft blunders. It’s almost as egregious as Microsoft Bob, but not as funny. Fortunately, there’s no lack of ways to bring it back, from traditional-looking applications such as Classic Shell to bolder reimaginings such as Pokki, a free start menu and app store that shows what Windows 8 might have been.

First and foremost, it’s a Start menu. Click the button or tap the Windows key on your keyboard, Pokki displays a list of applications that doesn’t take over your entire screen. Start typing, and potential applications instantly pop up, alongside custom Pokki apps and real-time results from the Web (something the traditional Start menu doesn’t offer). The default theme is light, and the whole thing feels nice and airy.

Pokki’s new, clean look keeps things simple and readable.

Pokki’s search is useful, but it isn’t perfect: Apps from the Pokki store are highlighted (even if you’ve decided you don’t want to install them), and there is no way to mix documents from your local hard drive into the search results. Web results are quick to appear, but they tend to be too general. There is no way to search a specific website, such as YouTube.

Now, about those apps: These used to be the core of the Pokki experience, back when Windows still had a Start button. Now, they’re there mainly to offer added value. It feels like Pokki does want you to know about them and install them, but it isn’t overly pushy about it (except for prominently featuring them in search results). Being subtle about a new breed of apps is exactly the sort of thing that could have won Windows 8 some points, and Pokki gets it right.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld