"I have 100 billion dollars... You realize I could spend 3 million dollars a day, every day, for the next 100 years? And that's if I don't make another dime. Tell you what-I'll buy your right arm for a million dollars. I give you a million bucks, and I get to sever your arm right here." -Bill Gates



   
BentUser Updates Feed     


Featured Articles
iPhone 3G Review, Gripes and Praise: Part I
Xbox Live Arcade 2008 Preview: Part I
Resident Evil 5 Preview
Customer Service?
The Fallout from Sony’s E3 Press Conference
DRM Hell
Sharp XR-10X LCD Projector Review
Xbox 360 Launch
Microsoft BOB Review
Logitech V200 Wireless Notebook Mouse
Office 12 Screenshot Gallery
Apple Thinks Same, Goes Intel
.NET 2.0 vs. Java 1.5 Shootout
Microsoft Windows Vista Build 5231 Indepth Look - Part 2
Why Google is Being Sued by Publishers
Microsoft Windows Vista Build 5231 Indepth Look - Part I
Comprehensive Tablet PC Review with the HP tc1100
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Review
IBM / Lenovo ThinkPad T43 Review
Windows OneCare Live Preview
OpenOffice 2.0 Writer Beta Preview
Windows Mobile 5.0 Preview
Battle of the Betas: IE7 vs. Firefox 1.5
Unicomp Customizer 101 Keyboard Review
Dell UltraSharp 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 2405FPW Review
Yahoo! Music Engine First Look
TopDesk Review
More
 
  Windows XP and Vista b5270 Side-by-Side
  By Andy

  Front > Software > Operating Systems
  1/10/2006
  Specifications    Images    

 

Search

A new aspect of file system navigation in Vista is a combination of the Library and Search.  The Library is essentially a catalog of all of your files, regardless of where they are located.  The library can be browsed by a number of different criteria, including Date Modified, Keywords, Author, Kind, and Type.  When you perform a search, it will generally be from either the current view or of some subset of the library:

Search
Search 

Search then groups the results by type.  You can think of the library as a variety of virtual folders tied to searches for something like "*.*".  If you then go to, say, Type and browse to Bitmap Image, you will be presented with a search analogous to "*.bmp".  During my encounter with Search and Library, I found Search to be much more useful than Library.  Library could certainly use some work both in terms of presentation and in terms of clarity (it really isn't immediately clear what it is).

Windows Media Player 11

Windows Media Player 11
Windows Media Player 11 

As you can see, the difference is quite striking.  Windows Media Player 11 makes use of a new library view built around album art.  This interface works well when you have full albums for any given artist; however, if you have only one song from many artists - which is often the case - it can end up being pretty inefficient.  Luckily you can flip views with a touch of a button (similar to how you can change views in Windows Explorer).

Another major change is Vista-styled navigation at the bottom of the screen.  Similar to Calendar and Windows Photo Gallery.  A round button flanked by left and right navigation buttons forms the center of the control cluster at the bottom of WMP 11.  This consistent look across some of Vista's built-in applications is interesting.  Probably the most important built-in application is Internet Explorer, which currently lacks this configuration so there is probably a limit to how consistent the interface ends up being.

Artists - Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player 11
Now Playing

WMP 11 also sports a very responsive as-you-type search function, no doubt copied from iTunes, which didn't invent the feature either.  WMP 11 also has a breadcrumb bar (e.g. Music > My Library > Songs) and back and forward buttons.  Incidentally, this brings up an inconsistency.  Everywhere in Vista, "My Music" has become "Music" but in WMP 11 "My Library" is still "My Library."

Overall WMP 11 is a little ugly - aesthetically - as it stands now in beta.  You should expect Microsoft to clean up WMP 11 cosmetically.  Early betas of WMP 10 were quite hideous due to their early state; WMP 10 ended up being a reasonably attractive looking application.

A major coming addition to WMP 11 that was just announced at CES is MTV's URGE.  It will be the first subscription music service to be integrated directly into Windows Media Player.  At the moment, such services as Napster and Yahoo Music Unlimited run as separate programs, which is something of a disadvantage given that they are prone to glitches and stability problems.  A stable, Microsoft-certified music subscription service would be very nice.


Previous      Next  
[ Window Switcher and My Computer ] [ MCE 2 and IE 7 ]
 

 

Contact Us        Links:  NLP APIs      




Copyright � 2005 Retro Reviews LLC.  All Rights Reserved.
Technorati Profile