June 18, 2010
I’m not a huge fan of Google Buzz – that’s not to say there isn’t a ton of interesting, amusing and useful content being shared which, like any social network, is down to the people you follow – it’s just that Buzz suffers from the same thing that blights many Google products – UI.
For an organisation that prides itself on the crisp, uncluttered design of it’s homepage, the rest of Google’s offerings look almost thrown together. Buzz is no exception; compared to Friendfeed or Amplify, Buzz looks raw and unstructured, and I find myself shying away from using it because it’s not easy to look at.
Today, I noticed a little bit of a change – multiple items shared by the same person used to be stacked, slighty askew, on top of each other like a deck of cards; now they’re simply listed underneath the most recent item in the batch:
It’s a small change, but anything that tidies the presentation up and makes the feed easier to scan is a step in the right direction.
Am I being overly critical? Does Google have a long way to go in the “beautiful software” race, or does function beat form every time? Let me know in the comments!
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February 23, 2010
In the mid-Nineties, when the Filofax was battling with Lotus Organizer for the title of King of the PIMs; as the PC industry was blooming and before the days of Apple Stores, a device so cool it was like something from science fiction began to get some buzz. The Apple Newton.
Of course, there was no way I could afford one of these mythical things, so I opted for the next best thing: the Amstrad PenPad. In January 1995, when an Apple Newton was weighing in at around £700 (a lot of money for an underpaid IT Manager!) the Amstrad PenPad could be had for less than £100. You get what you pay for, and for reasons that will become clear, it was consigned to the bottom of my work bag within a month of purchase.
The spec on this thing was amazing. For a handheld device. Of the time. Boasting 40 hours battery life, handwriting recognition for calendar, contacts, tasks, meeting notes and Other Things, the PenPad had a capacity of 330 full pages of addresses (“Full” pages, mind you!) or 6000 diary entries.
You could expand the storage (to a whopping 2mb) via a PCMCIA slot on the underside; but you were only able to write to the internal storage or the PCMCIA card; there was no dual usage. There was no wifi, so sharing was done manually – in other words: you printed stuff via the serial cable interface on the top. 
The first time I turned up to a meeting packing my PenPad, my colleagues were green with envy… until, that is, I actually tried to take notes. The handwriting recognition system still didn’t recognise my handwriting, despite hours of supposed training to get it to do just that. I’d input all of my contacts and thought the crappy recognition was all part of the device’s learning process!
After retraining the thing twice more, and even going as far as to adapt my handwriting in an effort to suit, it just wasn’t working and my Penpad’s days were numbered.
Despite it’s failings, I’ve kept it, boxed with manual and handy multi-language help stickers since then! (What can I tell you? I’m a pack rat – which is why I’ve still got a boxed copy of Windows v1.03, too!)
OK, I’ve shared my “dodgy gadget purchase” story; it’s time for you to ‘fess up and share yours – even if you bought the Sega 32x.
(thanks to China Guccio for the Newton photo, used under Creative Commons)
Posted in Apple, gadgets, tech 1 Comment »
February 17, 2010
TechCrunch is carrying a post by MG Siegler, who points out that Microsoft are using Google-owned YouTube to host videos that are going after Google’s low cost apps and email. In it, he says
Another key selling point [according to Microsoft]: if you choose to use Google Apps, your formatting may be screwed up when you inevitably have to work with others who are using Microsoft Office. When all else fails, turn to FUD.
This isn’t FUD. When it comes to collaborating with Microsoft Office users, Google Apps (and Zoho Writer, for that matter) do screw around with formatting.
Like many people today, I’m looking for work, so I’m sending my CV/résumé out several times each week to recruitment agencies. Most recruiters and job sites will insist on having CVs sent to them in Word format, so I have to export my document as a .doc file.
And there’s the problem: a document that looks fine in Google Docs can be all over the place when it’s saved as Word document. Inconsistent tab- and line-spacing; random hieroglyphic characters in place of bullet points; disobedient font sizing are just some of the problems I’ve encountered.
It would be great to be at a point where I could simply share a link to my CV with a recruiter, a job site or an HR department, but we’re not; Microsoft’s Office document formats are still what most businesses use today. My CV is usually my first means of introduction to a prospective employer, so there’s just no way I can afford for it to look untidy – it would be like turning up to a job interview with breakfast down my jacket.
If there’s one feature that cloud-based word processors absolutely must get right, it’s making sure that exporting to the most widely-used document format works faultlessly.
Posted in Google, Microsoft, applications, cloudcomputing, communication, software No Comments »
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