However, as a long time Jailbreaker, I just could not help but feel a bit bored by it and at some points insulted that Apple did give credit to the Jailbreaking community for some of the functions they introduced. The most glaring example is the control center window.  Or better known to use jailbreakers as SBSettings.

I’m a bit surprised its taken this long to finally get a quick access setting page, but better late then never.

Although the new interface looks different, nothing fundamental has changed.  You still cannot upload your own design themes, you still cannot change how many icons are docked at the bottom, or add a second row.  No animated backgrounds, no alternative login designs.  Bah.

I did say that much of the Apple iOS7 UI feels like Metro.  And credit to zhenghaox who has provided some nice screenshots that really brings this home.  I liked the Metro approach from day 1.  In fact, I use it as a design guideline in my day job.  But something feels cartoony about Apples execution.  Something I not have figured from Apple.  I guess I need to hold it in my hands before I comment too much about it.  You can only get a limited impression of a UI from photos.

from https://twitter.com/zhenghaox/status/344169167395647490/photo/1

All in all iOS7 just feels like another update.  The sharing features do not impress me that much, I like the minor changes around the camera and really like the WebOS/Windows multitasking.  Also like how they are working to be more efficient on battery and net work usage.  Funny, I think what I’m most excited about is having deeper integration into my future car!  But then Microsoft as been working that angle for awhile.

The new safari is nice.  They did a good job taking advantage of every inch of screen.

I think the one feature that would temp me to make me to stay with the iPhone is the new security feature.  I cannot understand why not ALL phone makers have not done this from the beginning!  Buy making a stolen iphone worth less money ( to almost worthless ) that means my phone is less likely to be stolen.  That is a big appeal to me. Bigger then anything I saw from the #wwdc iOS7 announcement so far.  This is something you simply cannot do within a Jailbreak.  At least as far as I know.

All in all, iOS7 is a nice update for jailbreakers, but nothing that I think makes us willing to update and lose our jailbreak.  Now we just need to wait for iOS7 to be jailbroken.

But now that my evaluation version has aged out, I decided to buy Windows 8 pro.  The downside is that all my app got blown away so I have to reinstall everything.  One of the first apps I wanted to install was Skype. I decided however that I would give the metro apps another try.

I installed the win8 skype app.  All went well enough. I did not understand how to get to my history but I figured I would work it out over time.  I sent a Skype  message to someone and then went back to the desktop to do email.  After 15min I was wondering why I have not heard back.  I manaully went back to Skype and I had a reply waiting for me.  FAIL.

99% of desktop PC users are going to use, you guessed it, the standard desktop to do most of their work.  So why would I not have notifications working on the desktop?  Basically once I go into the desktop, the win8 apps may as well not exist because there is no link between the two worlds.

I’m still happy with Windows 8, it has taken my old PC and granted it a few more years of life. But the whole metro bit.  Waste of code and memory. In fact, I’m waiting for a hack that will unload all this and squeeze even more performance out of this thing.  And perhaps get the Start button back too.

{Update}  Seems they have this redirecting now.  Shame.

The design calls all the elements from Metro you would expect, simply bold colors, no shine, no shadows, everything has a smooth movement to it, simple Segoe font family.

“Metro” is based on the design principles of classic Swiss graphic design. Early glimpses of this style could be seen in Windows Media Center.  Now the new Microsoft webpage will be following these designs.  But what is really interesting to me is the dynamic media response (DMR).

If you remember, Peter Yard caused quite a stir when he proclaimed the death of adaptive design (as well as DMR by implication). Many people, myself included, thought that was a bit premature and somewhat nonsensical since DMR is just a tool in web design and construction. What this tells me is Microsoft is really trying to telegraph that is intends to make Windows 8 about phones, tablets as much as it is about laptops and PC with 32 inch monitors… as I’m using now.  Its a big gamble to design once, work everywhere, but MS is coming late to the game, so this makes sense.  They have to take long strides if they want to be relevant. And this preview design shows they are fully committed.

Funny thing, you try to load it with a Mac, and get a ‘you need silverlight’ error.  Fail.

Check out the image gallery. You can see a few screenshots at various sizes.