Microsoft Experiments With Interactive Live Tiles

Video's broken.

Having not ever used Win8... The live tiles aren't interactive? That's not already a thing? WTF is the point, then?
 
I'd be happier with dead tiles...or better still undead tiles! Zombies are popular right now and having undead tiles would make Microsoft products more popular too.
 
GilmourD said:
Video's broken.

Having not ever used Win8... The live tiles aren't interactive? That's not already a thing? WTF is the point, then?
Click to expand...

This was up earlier as I just saw it about 30 minutes ago, it looks like they took it down. A tile is an app view that points into that app. In it's simplest form the tile is static and simply launches the app. More complex tiles can display HTML that can be dynamically updated through push notifications or local scheduling, though there are a number of restrictions particularly on local updating to conserve resources. Apps can create their own tiles which can deep link into that app. For instance the Xbox Music app as the ability to pin individual songs and playlists to the Start Screen which go directly to that content.

Titles are a far more powerful representation of an app than a static icon. Unfortunately too many have focused only the aesthetics without understanding what they can do and their flexibility. Hopefully as the modern and desktop UIs become more integrated, desktop apps will be able to take advantage of tiles as well as things like interaction and more organizational options like folders, views, etc.
 
GilmourD said:
Video's broken.

Having not ever used Win8... The live tiles aren't interactive? That's not already a thing? WTF is the point, then?
Click to expand...

They're live, but not interactive. New data is shown but you can't really manipulate it. Given that even the largest tiles aren't that big, I really don't think they can do much. A few buttons on the bottom? Sure, but not much else.

Don't expect anything major to come out of this.
 
dgz said:
Don't expect anything major to come out of this.
Click to expand...

Why not? This is some pretty slick stuff and a natural evolution of the Start Screen and hate or love the Start Screen there's not doubt that it's capabilities are going to increase in the next Windows release.
 
On a serious note, as live tiles evolve and get larger to handle more information and functions, you'll see them become resizeable and eventually, they might get one of those borders around them with the dash, box, and X buttons in the corner. That's kinda the natural evolution of programs as they go from like a useless tiny thingey to an application that fits into a window and it's good to see that Microsoft is making experiments with how to make full sized applications that fit into a scalable window that you can actually interact. I'm also excited to see new science experiments that are shaping rocks into circles. I hear they're going to call them wheels or something.
 
heatlesssun said:
Why not? This is some pretty slick stuff and a natural evolution of the Start Screen and hate or love the Start Screen there's not doubt that it's capabilities are going to increase in the next Windows release.
Click to expand...

See the post below. CreepAunt seems to get it. I program UI for a living and happen to agree completely with what she said.

This is exactly why I don't expect anything major to come out of this. Good stuff on the other hand? Sure thing. Simple logic, not hate.
 
Pretty sure we already had this and Microsoft just abandoned them as usual like they'll eventually abandon this: remember when they were called Windows Sidebar Gadgets
 
dgz said:
They're live, but not interactive. New data is shown but you can't really manipulate it.
Click to expand...

Not having seen the video, I can't say for sure if they are actually thinking 'manipulate' or not, but even so it could make sense to do. If you hover over your taskbar icons in Win7, you'll notice a lot of them have a modest set of controls (obvious example - Windows Media Player, where you can 'play' or 'pause' music from the hover-over) that would not be inappropriate in a live tile.

Still, the thing that annoys me MOST about the live tiles is that there is no interaction with the app at all. This is infuriating with things like Twitter or Facebook - you see a message go by, and are, like, 'oh - interesting, let's see more about that', tap the tile and...no, now you've got to scroll through 10 million messages to try to find the one that caught your eye on the tile. 'News app' tiles have the same problem - catchy headline goes by, no way to click through to the story behind it, you just have to fire up the application and dig around in it to see if you can find the story associated with the live tile.

Idiotic!

If they are fixing that, alone, I'd be giddy...
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
On a serious note, as live tiles evolve and get larger to handle more information and functions, you'll see them become resizeable and eventually, they might get one of those borders around them with the dash, box, and X buttons in the corner. That's kinda the natural evolution of programs as they go from like a useless tiny thingey to an application that fits into a window and it's good to see that Microsoft is making experiments with how to make full sized applications that fit into a scalable window that you can actually interact. I'm also excited to see new science experiments that are shaping rocks into circles. I hear they're going to call them wheels or something.
Click to expand...

on a long enough timeline, I picture tiles within a windowed environment becoming another windowed environment which will then foster more tiles which become more windowed environments fostering more tiles. since Windows®: Fractal Edition isn't catchy enough, Marketing will inform us "We must go deeper!" by wiring our brain to a Winception Surface Tablet wherein we surf on tiles and with cool slow-motion effects and create our own windowed environments in which to go deeper a grow unimaginably old, all while accompanied by blasts of Hans Zimmer music.
 
I think thats a great idea. THAT is the way it should have been designed in the first place.
 
rflcptr said:
on a long enough timeline, I picture tiles within a windowed environment becoming another windowed environment which will then foster more tiles which become more windowed environments fostering more tiles. since Windows®: Fractal Edition isn't catchy enough, Marketing will inform us "We must go deeper!" by wiring our brain to a Winception Surface Tablet wherein we surf on tiles and with cool slow-motion effects and create our own windowed environments in which to go deeper a grow unimaginably old, all while accompanied by blasts of Hans Zimmer music.
Click to expand...

You need to patent that idea before Microsoft tries to do it! :D It's such a good one that even heatlesssun is all like, "OMG, I have no idea how to make up an argument that can refute this so I'm just gonna call it all strange."
 
heatlesssun said:
Some strange responses here. Tiles are an app capability, not an app itself.
Click to expand...

I'd like to see some tiles that had controls on them. Like music app with previous/next/volume on the tile itself. Not the whole app, just some very basic functions (up to the developer and the user).
 
Ur_Mom said:
I'd like to see some tiles that had controls on them. Like music app with previous/next/volume on the tile itself. Not the whole app, just some very basic functions (up to the developer and the user).
Click to expand...

A demo of exactly what you mention here was shown. He expanded the Xbox music tile, scrolled through the playlist and changed the track from the tile.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
You need to patent that idea before Microsoft tries to do it! :D It's such a good one that even heatlesssun is all like, "OMG, I have no idea how to make up an argument that can refute this so I'm just gonna call it all strange."
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to refute so much was just explain what tiles are. They aren't a direct analog to desktop Windows gadgets though there are similarities. The big difference is that a tile is an inherent application capability of all modern apps which isn't the case when comparing Windows desktop apps to desktop gadgets.
 
Ok... I give in...

That window:wheel analogy, windows fractal... some decent comedy there :p
 
dderidex said:
Still, the thing that annoys me MOST about the live tiles is that there is no interaction with the app at all. This is infuriating with things like Twitter or Facebook - you see a message go by, and are, like, 'oh - interesting, let's see more about that', tap the tile and...no, now you've got to scroll through 10 million messages to try to find the one that caught your eye on the tile. 'News app' tiles have the same problem - catchy headline goes by, no way to click through to the story behind it, you just have to fire up the application and dig around in it to see if you can find the story associated with the live tile.
Click to expand...
That's exactly this will solve and more! In face, you might not even need to open the app at all!

Just watch the video on youtube!
 
This is something I wanted for a while!

I hope this makes it out, if only for email alone.
 
Hmm... after watching those videos I think the interactive Live tiles can bring something useful to my desktop experience. They can add to the traditional desktop windows interface as long as they can be integrated INTO it without intruding upon it.

I'd like to be able to customize the size / resolution of individual tiles and the modern-UI window as a whole. I'd also want to be able to move and place individual tiles anywhere in the desktop workspace like shortcuts or widgets in android.

I'd like to use these as complementary and convenient information-at-a-glance as opposed to an obtrusively stuck-together block of widgets from which I'm expected to navigate a complex work environment.

At worst, if the modern-UI requires its own screen or something... I'd like to be able to put it on a secondary display or a virtual workspace using a program like Dexpot (does win8 have virtual workspace functionality yet? It really should.)

Virtual workspaces on a 21:9 @ 5040 x 2160 resolution = what I want. Fully customizable interactive live tiles would play well with that setup.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top