Metro UI is here to stay. It's the new "start menu". I'm not a big fan either, but it's not like someone is coming out with a better option to compete with them any time soon.
Its a bit annoying on pc without a touchscreen, I just go to classic view on my laptop, but here I think it looks great for the X1 UI. Why wouldn't they use it, its their baby and it integrates all microsoft products, it would be stupid not to build a ecosystem like that.
You do realize that X1 comes with Kinect 2.0 and that you can use it with voice and gestures to navigate the entire Dashboard right? No, you might not be touching your screen while using X1 but many will be swiping and mimicking the very things they do with touch to navigate it. Its brilliant.
I hate the windows 8 interface it works well for a touch interface but sucks for others. There is a reason why they are officially bringing back the start button. I think it will such for this too because it can take forever with the control but kinect will probably make it easier.
It's not as inventive as WiiU's UI with about 500 mii's in real time running under their favourite game badges and you can friend request any1 right on the UI,this xbox 1 UI looks rubbish abit like a smart phone or windows 8 ???
I an on the fence with Windows 8. I think it looks good here and on tablets but their smartphone windows 8 style is awful and I don't think it looks that good on a PC when it doesn't have a touch screen
I moved to windows 8, works like 7 when you flip to desktop. But metro is good for quick glance at new email, appointments etc also some good apps in store now. But like @cgoodno, I would like one monitor with the metro screen and my other 2 with the desktop on. Win8 works great on my tablet and even my 8 year old son is a wiz with it, he was showing my wife how to personalise her profile! so it's not difficult to pick up and use.
I have windows 8 on my Samsung series 5 Ultra book and it does take time to get used to it. But after a while the start menu doesn't bother me at all plus there are many things that I find easier to do with 8 than Vista (from my last computer).
You will be happy to know that in 8.1 (coming out in October), you will be able to split the screen 50/50 and can also have Metro on multiple monitors 😊. I'm currently using it now on my Surface...its great.
I'll keep my Windows 7, there's not much benefit for me upgrading to 8. I'm not having problems with my memory and I'm certainly not digging that interface after trying it out on my gf's laptop. It irritates me that it's not intuitive and even shutting it down is a chore. My mind simply refuses to learn Windows 8.
Ya my laptop has windos 8 and I dont really like it too much. Its not good for tech savy people(ironic) cus they switched so many things around and that metro thing is quite annoying. I am glad they put the start menu back however, but pressing the window key and the start menu not popping up is quite still annoying.
For example finding and changing all of the regular things you would want to do on a PC like the administrative settings very hard to locate at first while using metro. Simple shortcuts are no longer there like mycomputer they tried to streamline everything but the differences are so night and day its really a completely different OS and you have to learn it again from the top down unlike all previous versions of windows.
@iron i shouldnt have to guess where functions are they should just show up and be obvious. If I am looking for a certain settings/function its very hard to find where it is especially since MS changes a lot of locations where things are. I dont want to search everything I want a list of options which metro doesnt allow easily.
I am doing software development for some time now and found Windows 8 much easier to navigate around. In fact I know prefer using Win8 over OS X and Linux.
Why should a simply menu define you? Back in <WIndows 95, we didn't have start menus, OS X doesn't have one... same with GTK+ (GNOME) UIs in Linux...
If you are a tech savy person, then the UI and the platform shouldn't be a problem...
I don't mind the Windows 8 UI, except when it's on Windows 8, because it's actually practical on other devices.
Something I don't like from the screens, is that they kept the location of notifications at the bottom center of the screen. I was hoping the notifications would be much more low profile and dedicated to one of the corners of the screen.
I know while I"m pulling off those 10 hit combos in my games I've always thought to myself that I'd want to go onto Bing and search out information on the newest Star Trek movie. Real gamers use Bing.
I'm going to troll my friends Xbox One, and say "Xbox, Bing Back Door Sluts 9" While they're playing a game lol.
But on the real, snap mode is nice to have, but I personally rather use my phone, tablet or PC instead of having something blocking my screen and me talking to my TV lol.
you guys are commical... So a new console allows you to multitask while you game and you down play it with the come back of "I have a laptop, tablet or smart phone near me all the time anyway so I don't need it"... F'ing brilliant logic.
So you do multi-task but you would much rather do it through two seperate devices versus one? Now thats smart... @DoomeDx "I can turn 90 degrees and there it is" LOL... yes that sounds much better than just looking at the same screen.
Judging by MS it seems they don't want to allow much UI customization. I guess you can pin things like Win 8 but I would expect lots and lots and lots of green!
Sony hands down has the best theme support and solution. I remember when they changed the dashboard on the 360 after I spent a few bucks in themes. They were barely visible after the UI change making them basically worthless and MS said nothing.. Took the money and ran.
They will always evolve the look of the Dashboard, but it will remain Metro. This is the cleanest, most elegant dashboard I've seen from anyone. It gets you the info you need without making you scroll to do it.
Now this (and Touch devices) is where the Metro UI works well. Fast and light interface with smooth transitions and Colourful but on PC it's no no IMO. The black theme looks awesome.
The Ps4 UI doesn't look any better, but at least everything is structured. It just looks like MS smashed some tiles together. I hope it's better when I get my hands on the system.
it looks like the tiles are either recent things you were doing or customizable pins.. so basically it's not "unorganized" because you are the person organizing them..
The snap feature is really a game-changer to me. I hate using apps on the Xbox 360 for a number of reasons. They take too long to load up and you have to exit completely back out to the dashboard to open another one. It's really frustrating. But being able to multitask with the Xbox One and have several apps open at once with your game paused in the background really will change the way I use my console.
If I'm playing a game today on the 360 and I want to look up a video guide on YouTube, I would have to completely exit the game, open the YouTube app, watch the video, exit back to dashboard, start up game again... No thanks. With Xbox One I can just open the YouTube app with my game still running, just like a window in the background.
If this is as intuitive as it sounds, it's going to be frustrating to play on other consoles that don't have this kind of simple, user-friendly interface.
Im an Xbox guy but ill be honest this looks too simple and it looks great no doubt BUT im actually liking the PS4 UI over the Xbox One................DONT KIL ME!
doesn't these guys realize that people hate Windows 8? If only they knew how much people have been buying new PC's and downgrading them to Windows 7. XD
This is not gonna end well. MS does not want to win next-gen either.
I Like it, it's refreshing, besides, the 8.1 upgrade is turning out very good for me, been using it for 2 months now and it's working much better, haters gonna hate, all that bitching about the stuff they did with W8 is just that, bitching.
Watching breaking bad on netflix while i play halo? FUK YES!!!!!!! Video chatting with my friends while im in a clan? FUK YES!!!!! I for one am pumped for this feature.
Everyone hated the Metro UI and Start Page causing them to redesign the UI with the 8.1 update. And their big idea was to use the same UI that everyone hated for Xbox One? It's great for touchscreens, I'll admit that, but for normal inputs it's horrible.
You're entitled to your opinion. At least they had a conference though, unlike Microsoft which had absolutely nothing to announce.
There's like 30 indie games coming exclusively to PS4. 15 of those were announced today. If you didn't at least care for 1 of those, you're not a real gamer. Go play your TV TV TV TV COD COD COD COD HALO HALO HALO
sure indie games are fun but they are not very good at replay value. u beat it once. its over. i rather have full blown disk based games again thats my opinion against yours. so no clear winner.
Funny how Indie's mattered when Microsoft was pushing them hard on the 360 but now that Sony wears the indie crown indy games aren't significant? The hypocrisy and the lengths people go to in order to push an agenda is getting awful.. Sony is putting all of their prowess behind these indie studios some of whom will be making AAA full budget games in a few years time.. Don't forget that most large studios started small..
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I am looking forward to using the PS4 interface but it will also take time to get used to. But I hope MS dith this touchscreen UI.
Cause the majority of people think Metro is trash, yet MS are too stubborn to change it.
You do realize that X1 comes with Kinect 2.0 and that you can use it with voice and gestures to navigate the entire Dashboard right? No, you might not be touching your screen while using X1 but many will be swiping and mimicking the very things they do with touch to navigate it. Its brilliant.
Sadly you need MS money to take on MS.
For the Xbone though this looks perfect.
1. Metro UI only works on one monitor on PC.
2. You can only split a screen in Metro UI as 20%/80% and that's it.
It's clearly a UI designed for tablets only and forced limitations PC users have to deal with.
I know I work in desktop mode, but that can mean other issues in Metro UI integration (must be run in Win7 mode or Win8 mode, no hybrid).
Agreed. However they now have the 50/50 split in windows 8.1 preview
Motorola RAZR i
You will be happy to know that in 8.1 (coming out in October), you will be able to split the screen 50/50 and can also have Metro on multiple monitors 😊. I'm currently using it now on my Surface...its great.
please, do tell me more.
Sounds like you need to spend more time with it, or you don't actually have it.
http://www.magnetismsolutio...
Why should a simply menu define you? Back in <WIndows 95, we didn't have start menus, OS X doesn't have one... same with GTK+ (GNOME) UIs in Linux...
If you are a tech savy person, then the UI and the platform shouldn't be a problem...
Most other recent UI, is extremely hard to read and is messy.
As cgoodno said, until something better is shown, Metro is da sh!t.
Something I don't like from the screens, is that they kept the location of notifications at the bottom center of the screen. I was hoping the notifications would be much more low profile and dedicated to one of the corners of the screen.
I think Rain was being sarcastic dude........
@DoomeDX,
I for one always have a laptop, tablet, smart phone free at hand to look up anything i need whilst gaming.
But on the real, snap mode is nice to have, but I personally rather use my phone, tablet or PC instead of having something blocking my screen and me talking to my TV lol.
eh - ok??? Feels like irony but i aint sure?
I have a wikia app on my smartphone which is a fantastic way to access guides on the net.
Motorola RAZR i
So you do multi-task but you would much rather do it through two seperate devices versus one? Now thats smart... @DoomeDx "I can turn 90 degrees and there it is" LOL... yes that sounds much better than just looking at the same screen.
Well now you can! And yes, real gamers always use Bing, its the best!
"Real gamers use Bing" is my "/s" in this comment for those that didn't get it.:)
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VERY!!!
Sony hands down has the best theme support and solution. I remember when they changed the dashboard on the 360 after I spent a few bucks in themes. They were barely visible after the UI change making them basically worthless and MS said nothing.. Took the money and ran.
But that plain black background surely must be customize-able ?
Other than that, I have no complaints. Simplicity isn't a bad thing as long as it gets the job done.
And besides, the more complicated the UI the less RAM available for games
I've had two well saids, no bubbles added.
Marked ONCE for trolling, instant de-bubble.
Good job N4g.
I really like the UI though, it looks clean and purposeful; just does the job it needs to do. that's all you need in a UI
If I'm playing a game today on the 360 and I want to look up a video guide on YouTube, I would have to completely exit the game, open the YouTube app, watch the video, exit back to dashboard, start up game again... No thanks. With Xbox One I can just open the YouTube app with my game still running, just like a window in the background.
If this is as intuitive as it sounds, it's going to be frustrating to play on other consoles that don't have this kind of simple, user-friendly interface.
theres no way the UI from sony could beat a ms one
like theres no way ms could do "in house" hw better than sony
This is not gonna end well. MS does not want to win next-gen either.
Confirmed: you sir must have google fiber to be able to completely escape lag and video & audio stutter.
For video chat, you only need 3 or 4 Mbps. If your internet can't handle two things at once, it's time to join the 21st century.
Too be honest I'm stuck with 3mb dsl, so anything else is super fast to me. I don't really have a good point of reference.
Heck even an upgrade to 12mb would appease me. lol
There's like 30 indie games coming exclusively to PS4. 15 of those were announced today. If you didn't at least care for 1 of those, you're not a real gamer. Go play your TV TV TV TV COD COD COD COD HALO HALO HALO
I prefer AAA games as well. PS4 is getting those too in case you didn't' know.
even if it makes you look like a dumb troll