Metro is irrefutably beautiful, but the imminence of Microsoft’s bold new UI in Windows 8 has a lot of power users worried about just how they’re going to be able to function with the new system. Judging by how multi-display systems seem to be working, the answer seems to be “more or less the same.”
It’s Apple, not Microsoft, whose products have long been known for careful minimalism. However, Redmond is evolving, relying heavier on Metro, the simple, design philosophy marked by simple typography and big blocks of colour that is infiltrating most of its platforms.
Microsoft Zune and Windows Live apps may not be included in the upcoming preview of Windows 8 — at least not the way we’re used to seeing them. Though the brands and apps will be gone, their functionality will be included in other parts of the OS.
There’s all sorts of current applications that won’t work on ARM-based Windows 8 tablets when they emerge. Mozilla’s looking to sidestep that restriction, with plans for both traditional desktop and Metro versions of its browser application.
Underground metro stations are inhumanely warm come sun or rain, so it makes sense for builders of a new housing estate in Paris to want to draw from that energy, harnessing it for 17 apartments’ heating systems above-ground.
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After the futuristic Dubai, here is the real Dubai as seen in high-speed from its new metro, inaugurated on September 9. Impressive, in a New York and Miami get drunk and have a bastard child kind of way. [Thanks Gerald]