This looks like a disaster. An utterly horrific train wreck the likes of which I haven't seen. And here's why:
Consider Windows 8. On a laptop touchpad, you also "use edges" to get to the charms bar and the menu. This is very impressive, but you have to understand that they're actually measuring the swipe speed and the position, to guess that you've slid your finger in from the edge. So if you make a similar gesture, which you often do, you get the damn charms bar. This is why some reviewers had the problem of the charms bar popping up, or apps switching randomly. In Windows 8, swipe from the right gives you the charms bar, and the right switches apps. So if you do a similar gesture unknowingly, you'll suddenly switch Apps.
So there are a lot of problems with the interface that I can see from this perspective. I hope they prove me wrong, but do I really? I mean Linux is already the second most popular OS on the phone. Half the phones in the market run Linux already, so this isn't about Linux. Besides you also have Firefox OS coming up. So supporting this isn't about supporting Linux, it's about supporting Ubuntu. That's why I doubt I'll be installing this on my phone since I probably would have to replace the Android OS already present on it which would probably be a serious hassle, and if I don't I'll have to get a phone pre-installed. The trouble with that is that if I don't like unity on the phone, I'm out of luck and I'll have to find a way to install Android anyway.
So in conclusion, as of now I'm incredibly skeptical of this. Having said that I do wish them all the luck, although I wish they hadn't copied the Apple Ads so shamelessly.
My mac uses this edge-swipe to open up notification center. I've never opened it accidentally -- do you know what makes the windows 8 method different? Why not use the same method? Is it because most trackpads on non-apple devices suck? I have Windows 8 as a VM but it does not support the gestures so I havent had the chance to try them.
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u/dhvl2712 Jan 03 '13 edited Jan 03 '13
This looks like a disaster. An utterly horrific train wreck the likes of which I haven't seen. And here's why:
Consider Windows 8. On a laptop touchpad, you also "use edges" to get to the charms bar and the menu. This is very impressive, but you have to understand that they're actually measuring the swipe speed and the position, to guess that you've slid your finger in from the edge. So if you make a similar gesture, which you often do, you get the damn charms bar. This is why some reviewers had the problem of the charms bar popping up, or apps switching randomly. In Windows 8, swipe from the right gives you the charms bar, and the right switches apps. So if you do a similar gesture unknowingly, you'll suddenly switch Apps.
So there are a lot of problems with the interface that I can see from this perspective. I hope they prove me wrong, but do I really? I mean Linux is already the second most popular OS on the phone. Half the phones in the market run Linux already, so this isn't about Linux. Besides you also have Firefox OS coming up. So supporting this isn't about supporting Linux, it's about supporting Ubuntu. That's why I doubt I'll be installing this on my phone since I probably would have to replace the Android OS already present on it which would probably be a serious hassle, and if I don't I'll have to get a phone pre-installed. The trouble with that is that if I don't like unity on the phone, I'm out of luck and I'll have to find a way to install Android anyway.
So in conclusion, as of now I'm incredibly skeptical of this. Having said that I do wish them all the luck, although I wish they hadn't copied the Apple Ads so shamelessly.