Microsoft has opened their first Microsoft Store, and kudos to them for that. However, we can’t help but feel that by literally copying an Apple Store to the degree that only the signage and products are swapped out, Microsoft cost consumers a chance to experience something different, something innovative, and something that would have continued to push the retail part of the computer and smartphone industry.
Same decor, Gurus in lieu of Geniuses, colored shirts, hiring Apple executives and store staff, even the same opening festivities. Gruber’s right:
It’s creepy, as in like stalker-ish creepy, just how blatantly they’ve copied Apple.
While even our friends over at PreCentral.net haven’t exactly been thrilled by Palm’s own, creepy Pre ads, we’re not sure Bell Canada’s approach — filming an original iPhone 2G ad using the Pre as a stand in — is any better.
As a Canadian myself, I’d like to assure the world we’re really a heckuvalot more creative than this! (Right Bell?!)
Recent iPhone ad for comparison’s sake, after the jump!
“Pink” iPhone Killers, from the folks who brought you “Blue Screens” and “Brown Zunes”. Mmm, taste that rainbow… Sigh. Maybe Pink is the XBoxPhone we’ve always dreamed of. Maybe it really is just a candy-coated Diamond 2 with pop-tart trademarks. Dunno. Nobody does. Giant mystery in puzzle pastry with enigma frosting. Until we know for sure, however, there’s no danger in speculating, is there?
WMExperts links to a Wall Street Journal story that makes it seem like something Microsoft and Verizon think could might possibly take on the iPhone with such killer features as “multimedia” and “App Store”.
Guessing it’s NokiaExpert Matt Miller week and Windows Phone day here at TiPb, as we’re linking up another great review about another interesting WinPho: the HTC Touch Diamond 2… that just happens to be put to the test against our very own iPhone 3G.
I’ve already gone on record (and on video!) with my thoughts on the previous-generation HTC touch experience (and I still stand by those reviews, dagnabit!), but what will someone with different tastes and perspectives, not to mention next gen HTC goodness, think when he puts them phono-a-phono?
Check out Matt’s ZDNet “Clash of the Touch Titans” review to find out! (Then come back and tell us why the iPhone pwned, k?)
Our sibling sites, WMExperts and CrackBerry.com have both, coincidentally, just put up posts that show how to make your Windows Phone or BlackBerry “slide to unlock” just exactly like the iPhone. This may be nothing new, as themes and indeed the ability to theme other platforms is almost as longstanding as it is popular in some circles. iPhone Jailbreakers can even get in on the action with WinterBoard. But here’s the thing, if you’re running a Windows Phone or a BlackBerry, why would you want it to look or behave more like an iPhone? (and yes, the same holds true if you hack your iPhone to look/act like something else).
Do you love the iPhone UI but need functionality it doesn’t offer? Are you locked to a non-iPhone carrier and can’t get the iPhone, so will make do with a skin until your contract expires? Do you just love to be able to configure your phone, your way, and change it up as the mood strikes you?
Personally, I re-install and restore stuff so often, I’ve just gotten used to leaving almost everything I can in its default look and with its default settings, so I’m curious as to how the other side rolls.
Those of you with iPhones, any desire to skin it up like a WinPho or a BBerry? Maybe a Palm Pre? (Have you already?) And to those rocking other smartphones and going for an iPhone-look, how’s it working for you?
Personally, I still think Microsoft’s only hope at this point is an XboxPhone, but what do I know, I don’t run the largest, richest, most talent-laden software company in the world… that runs itself, and everything it produces, into the ground due to paralyzing politics and committee. So, excuse me if I’m nonplussed by the rumors of a new Zune HD, which while not an iPhone clone, or even an iPod classic or nano clone, looks to be positioned exactly opposite the iPod touch. A strategy which has proven so successful for Microsoft thus far…
Dear Steve Ballmer: Please, scorch the earth, start from scratch. Stop worrying so much about Apple and Google and start investing in Microsoft. Start making wonderful experiences for customers all your own. Build an integrated ecosystem from the ground up where Server, Windows, Xbox Windows Phone, and Zune all share a single unified brand and delightful cross-compatibility. Take a lesson from Palm. Spend your years in the desert if you have to, but at least walk in a single, considered direction.
No, we’re not talking about Bono. Sigh. We’re talking about Don Lindsay, who was, according to Apple Insider:
Design Director of the Mac OS User Experience Group, he led what was called the “Mac OS X interface concept project” and directed the design team responsible for the user experience of Mac OS X 10.0 “Cheetah” through Mac OS X 10.3 “Panther,” which included the company’s first-generation of iLife digital lifestyle applications.
From there he was hired away by Microsoft to create — wait for it! — Vista. More specifically, AERO Glass, Flip3D, and Windows Calendar. Redmond start your copiers, indeed.
So what do you get if you copy a copy? Aside from artifacts and banding galore, RIM’s new VP of user experience, it seems. There’s only one problem with this, of course, and it should be obvious to RIM or to anyone who’s seen Vista or the Star Wars prequels.
Great artists need great editors. The best kindergarten teachers know when to pull the paper away from the kids. Steve Jobs is a great editor, a great kindergarten teacher. Word is he would scrutinize the UI down to the pixel level.
Hiring the guy who was already hired away by the other guy doesn’t give you the iPhone. It gives you the Storm. And RIM already learned how that worked out. Vista on the Storm… Good luck with that.
If you’d like a better idea, instead of trying to get the guy Microsoft got from Apple, and trying to dupe the dupe that is Vista, find someone new. Find something new…
Every spring, the interweb gadgeteratti turn their attention towards rumormongering Apple’s June iPhone release. So what does the BlackBerry world do? Try to wedge in a little next gen Storm chatter.
The code name just might be “Odin”. The Storm, of course, first leaked as the Apple Killer (AK — yeah, that turned out well…) but was originally code named the Storm, then became branded as the Storm so was re-code named (code re-named?) as Thunder. This time fears that mediadisdain and user dissatisfaction may have reached levels where the Storm brand itself is radioactive could get it changed again. What’s with Odin? Father of thunder-god Thor (we get the connection!), one-eyed lord of the Aesir, gallows-god…
But what’s the iClone aspect this time? Why trying to tout a long missing feature as a big upgrade, of course! Sure, the little berry has long supported copy/paste and MMS, so no luck there. But — wait for it! — this one may actually have WiFi! (If Verizon doesn’t strip it out as per usual…).
Yeah, that should distract attention away from whatever little device Apple was planning for WWDC…
Okay, so the iPhone stole the Nintendo DS’ portability, touch screen (albeit capacitive instead of retro resistive), creative input methods (like blowing into the mic), and emphasis on casual, on-the-go gaming. And since all’s fare in love and console wars, is it really a surprise that the big N has decided to follow Apple’s lead — and the growing Google Android Market, RIM BlackBerry App World, Microsoft Windows Phone Marketplace, Palm (Pre Store?) conga line — with the launch of their own direct download DSiWare application store alongside their new DSi hardware.
Sure, DSi doesn’t have ubiquitous internet connectivity like 2G or 3G enabled smartphones, so it’s WiFi only (WPA if you can dig it out of the settings). You also have to buy credit in ridiculous $20 chunks (some things never change, eh, money-grabbers?), but this will no doubt appeal to gamers who want new stuff now, now, now, and developers who want to excise the the usual 75% retail+licensing cut, along with manufacturing, storage, shipping, and other physical media related costs.
Ars Technica has an excellent article up with all the details and developer comments, and it’s certainly worth the read.
Our question is, is the iPhone enough for your casual gaming needs or do you also carry a DS (and/or PSP) everywhere you go, and will DSiWare make you more likely to carry a DS in the future?
Dieter managed to score an awesome video walkthrough of the Palm Pre’s app launching functionality and a look at some of the apps themselves. We’ve joked about how the Palm Pre, supervised by the guy who helped build the iPhone, developed by engineers who helped program the iPhone, felt more like a branch of the iPhone sometimes than a linear descendant of PalmOS.
Turns out we were wrong. To be joking. You swipe horizontally to switch Home Screens, just like the iPhone (though you can scroll down vertically as well to jam more apps on each screen). You hold your finger down and then move to reposition apps, just like the iPhone (though they don’t do the jiggle dance). They even seem to be a little bit laggy and slow to launch at times, just like iPhone 2.0 was! (Though these are widgets, not native apps, so that’s really more of a concern at this point).
Palm, I love ya. I had PDA’s going back to the Visor, smartphones going back to the 600. You left me, I didn’t leave you, remember? So now I found a new phone, and seriously, dressing up just like it isn’t the way to win me back. You gotta be yourself, the new you not a new version of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I really dig your Synergy, that touchstone charger, and that awesome alert system. Gold. But Apple didn’t make that first big iPhone splash by holding up something that worked like a BlackBerry or a Treo. They didn’t show off a Nokia-style experience. They made something new and instantly iconic. Copying the iPhone’s UI and interactions to this degree isn’t recognizing that Apple nailed the multi-touch paradigm for all time. It’s not surrendering the default behavior. It’s just copying Apple’s experience when you should be creating the next generation Palm experience.
Maybe you should have stuck with Palm leadership, engineers, and innovation?
I have..."
