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January 31, 2006
IE 7 Preview Release
Have spent a little time this afternoon playing with the IE 7 preview. Some good stuff, some bad. I'm not wild about the interface, which isn't quite as slick as Opera's.
Some outstanding bugs/issues/thoughts:
- Favicons don't seem to work (or don't work properly). Maybe they do if you bookmark the site, but the standard these days is that they show up automatically.
- The RSS detector is broken.
- It's really awkward to get to the menus. Right now all I can figure is that you're supposed to right click ont he toolbar (but not the address toolbar) and select "Classic Menus," which, for some reason, appears below the address bar. I'm not sure if that's the only way, but it's the only way I can find. Ostensibly it's so that the address bar can't be moved by spyware, but it just ends up looking strange.
- Zoom works with keyboard commands, but not from the menus.
- "Stop" button doesn't seem to know if the page is still loading or not; only has one state
- Synchronization hasn't changed; was hoping they'd do some new stuff with that part of the browser
Stuff I like:
- The visual tab menu is very slick and fast, letting you see the contents of all your tabs at once. Very nice.
- Printing "shrink to fit" mode is long overdue, but happy to have it.
- RSS interface is cool, supports categories, very Safari-like
- Internal search engine kept my old preference! Very pleased about that.
Decent beta, but let's hope they get this thing whipped into shape before release. Surprising number of bugs, in my mind, considering how long it's been since IE 6.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 2:55 PM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2006
Review of Vista Build 5270
BentUser has a worthwhile review of a recent build of Windows Vista. Some good screenshots, particularly in comparison to XP. I'm glad that Windows Media Player is getting an overhaul, as it's one of the most uncomfortable media players I've ever used. I like the speed of WMP, especially compared to the Windows version of iTunes, but the interface can be challenging.
The "live" task switcher looks great, though for people who run with 15-20 windows at a time, I hope it'll still be usable.
Glad to see Media Center functionality making its way to the over-the-counter OS's, since the current version has to be installed from an OEM machine. MCE is really nice software that doesn't get nearly enough attention. I think that'll change once more people get their hands on it.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 9:43 AM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2006
iPod Wish List
- Why can't iTunes and the iPod play protected and unprotected WMA? Sure, the all-you-can-eat services might take a little business away from the iTunes Music Store, but it would basically turn the iPod into even more of an unstoppable juggernaut than it already is.
- Why no "Now Playing" queue? The On the Go playlist is unnecessarily awkward. Most players have a "now playing" list that you can easily add to to queue up the next song you want to listen to. That's how I'm habituated, so it'd be nice if the iPod worked the same way.
- Why can't iTunes make iPod-compliant video? It'd be nice if you could drag any video into iTunes, including unencrypted DVD VOBs, and get video easily into the iPod. It's an awkward process right now.
- Why can't the Mac iPod updater update a PC-formatted iPod? It can read the data (which is great for those of us who live on both platforms), but it can't update it unless it's on its native OS. Not a deal-killer, but annoying.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
Smoking Pieces
The Smoking Gun, normally best known as the site hosting the worst picture of Yasmine Bleeth ever taken, has an impressive expose on the apparent lies behind James Frey's best-seller, "A Million Little Pieces." It's fascinating to watch that site go from being the place you go to read about Celebrity X's DUI or Bill O'Reilly's sexual harassment suit to an actual journalism piece. Worth a read.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)