Tag Archives: Windows 7

Intel AppUp Webpage Browser Hostile?

I wanted to try the Intel AppUp beta for Windows 7 netbooks. So, I pointed my Google Chrome browser at…

http://www.intel.com/Consumer/Products/appup.htm

This resulted in partially rendered web page and Chrome attempting to use all available processor resources. I had to use Windows Task Manager to terminate Chrome.

Next up was Firefox. It rendered correctly and did not cause the processor to rev up. However, I could not download the AppUp EXE file using Firefox.

This forced me to use Internet Explorer 8 which takes forever to startup (why is that). The AppUp webpage rendered correctly and let me download the EXE file.

Thanks for the terrible user experience, Intel!

Windows 7 is a Great OS, But it is Not Touch Screen Ready (video demo)

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated HP’s soon-to-be-available Notebook Slate (no physical keyboard) running Windows 7 during his CES keynote in Las Vegas last night…

Gizmodo: HP’s Windows 7 Slate Device Revealed by Steve Ballmer

Here’s the thing though… I’ve had an Asus Eee PC T91MT netbook for a couple of months now. It has an 8.9-inch multi-touch screen in a convertible configuration (physical keyboard can be used in netbook mode or hidden to use in slate mode). Windows 7 is a great operating system. I happen to like it a lot and have upgraded my desktops and netbooks to it since it release. It is not, however, tweaked for touch use based on my experience with the T91MT. The problem is that Windows 7’s touch screen feature is a combination of the old pen-centric Tablet PC and the hand/finger-centric Surface Table. The result is something neither animal nor mineral. Many, if not most, of the feature remain pen-centric. Finger-tip touch control is an afterthought at best and simply ignored at worst. I recorded a brief video demo using my T91MT in slate mode (physical keyboard hidden in back of the LCD) to demonstrate some of the small but annoying issues I’ve run into over the past few months. And, note that these are just a few of the issues. There are many more.