Demonstrating unfinished aspects of the Microsoft Windows 8.1’s Windows Store experience

For this demo, I’m using a Dell Venue 8 inch tablet with an optional bluetooth keyboard.

I’ll present you with a few frustrating use cases that are very non-intuitive and in which regular users would absolutely get lost during the task at hand.

1. When updating apps, it’s very hard to discover how to select just a single app as Microsoft introduces yet another unnatural gesture for single selection of an item.

2. When installing an app, there’s no “OPEN” action available on the store.
When the user goes back to the Start screen, the app is nowhere to be found.
Once the user figures out how to see all the apps, the user will have to search for the app as there’s an overwhelming amount of icons with very small type to choose from.

It’s not as bad as it used to, but it still has some details that really need to be taken care of to not frustrate users and send them running for Android/MacOSX.

I hope someone at the Microsoft Windows UX Team is listening, and can see the frustration from a long life computer user’s perspective.

First impressions of the Dell Venue 8″ pro running full blown Windows 8.1 (Intel Atom)

Check out the new Dell Venue 8″, this is a pretty cool $300 tablet that runs FULL blown Windows 8.1, so you can use like a full blown desktop. Then if you’re not working, you can take it to the living room, bedroom, couch, wherever and have fun with it like with any other tablet.

In this video I’ll set it up in front of you and share with you my first impressions.

After using it for a few days here are a few thoughts:

Pros:
– Great 8″ form factor for tablet use.
– Has all the popular apps you’d expect on a tablet.
– If you associate a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, flip it over, you have a full blown desktop computer to do actual work.
– Has an x86 CPU, so you don’t end up with Windows RT which nobody has developed apps for. You can all the available Windows desktop software, and all the new stuff coming out for the touch world.
– Expandble storage via SD cards.
– Affordable, only $299.
– You can attach a larger monitor via USB using the Pluggable Dock (see this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPPY4m8iY0k )

Cons:
– Super Heavy for that size when compared to the iPad or the Kindle Fire HD.

Still Testing:
– Battery life so far I can’t complain, let’s see how it holds up with a bit more usage throughout the day.

Kindle Fire HD Unboxing, First Impressions, Thoughts about iPad 3 and iPad Mini

Welcome to my unboxing of the new Kindle Fire HD. If you don’t know me, I’m an Android product designer and developer of FrostWire for Android, been an Android user for the last 3 years, as a developer I’ve had the opportunity to try lots of different Android phones and tablets and this year I got fed up with the shitty experience of all the Android tablets and became an iPad 3 owner.

I’ve bought this Kindle Fire HD hoping that Jeff Bezos and his teams have finally made an Android tablet experience not meant for early adopters or developers willing to withstand a shitty experience, a tablet taking into consideration the average Joe and what they expect a tablet to be like.

So far I can say that I’m not disappointed, join me on this unboxing and see if you agree with my first impressions of the product, my suspicions of why Apple had to go against Steve Jobs wishes and release a 7 inch iPad (iPad Mini) ended today as I tried the Kindle Fire HD.

First Kindle, or Amazon packaging I remember that comes in a black box, first statement of the experience. You don’t need a knife to open the package, just tear the band and you’re done, beautiful.

There it is, and you can’t help but pull that arrow, they play with our curiosity to force us to read the only physical instructions that come in the box, they didn’t waste any resources on printing warranty sheets or manuals.

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