By A company called Ixonos was hiding at Mobile World Congress last week and they were showing off their system on top of Android that allows you to work with windows, just like on a desktop PC.
With the windowed UI, you can have multiple applications running at once, and one application doesn’t have to take a backset to another: you can have a video playing in the background while you surf the web in another window.
The windows are resizable, too, and it appears you might even be able to minimize them. It’s not something we’re sure will ever be right for a tablet, but it could be something to look at for netbook OEMs who are looking to use Android for their next product. Check out the video above. [Engadget]
I like this.
This is perfect. I’m not sure that slapping widgets in the middle of a barren tablet desktop is my idea of a beautiful aesthetic for a GUI, know what I mean?
A windowed UI is the way to go.
i could see it working on a >11 inch tablet.
I kinda feel like you get to a certain point though, and then aren’t you better off just getting a tablet PC?
-Brad
…a fit for the Atrix laptop dock??? I like where this all leads.
No. Who wants to deal with resizing and moving windows on a touch-device? What they should do to have multiple apps open is make them tile and snap into place so that they each take up half the screen (or a third or a quarter depending on how many you have open).
I agree with Brad. Why not just grab a netbook or something at that point?
Hmmm windows or cards for better multi tasking…which ever uses less battery life is better.
.
How about resizable cards? I dont know but either one would be better than what Android has now.
What about battery performance ?
Great to see some experimentation on the UI, but I cant help wondering what impact this’ll have on battery performance. If apps doesnt get suspended they will use more processing time right? Im no expert at this but it seems perfectly logic to me that Google, among other reasons, chose “one-active-app-at-a-time” in order to maximize battery-performance.
I do see some very practical use for the windowed environment though, even on smaller screens.
At this point we are crossing into laptop UI, so what on earth is the point? If you want a windowed UI, you have it. On a tablet it just seems all too cluttered. Again, we already have a handful of OS’s that will give you this look and feel on a laptop/netbook.
I really do like this. Android does have multitasking, but that doesn’t mean I can hit up youtube start a video and go play Gun Bros. am I right? This would be true multitasking, and with the right hardware, I think this would be a jump in the right direction. Great job to Ixonos.
See that’s the thing, where is the fuzzy line between notebook and tablet? For example, I was considering putting even more features into my audio editing apps so they are powerful to use on a tablet. However, then I started to think, what would the point be? If someone wanted a more powerful audio app especially to use “live”, they could just get a small notebook and put some other, even open source, powerful DAW software on it and that’s that. The only thing they would miss out on is the touch screen that is finger sensitive. They could use a tablet PC with a stylus or just a normal PC with a mouse, but I really start to question the reason of making “more powerful” software for a tablet when it seems pointless when you can just get a more powerful small laptop that will already have much more software available for it. I just can’t see the market here.
-Brad
Just look at him gingerly trying to hit those tiny UI elements on the touch screen. WIMP needs the M. If you really want multiple apps visible at once try dividing the screen in half. Anything more than that is missing the point.
I’m not sure if this will fly. On tablet screens, we really only have room for one application. Once you get to multiple windows, why not go find a tablet that can run Windows 7? I think now is a good time to shed all the windowed baggage and start using constructs that are more efficient considering the input device in most cases is a meat sausage.
well for one thing, google would rather have more people use android as a netbook OS than windows 7.
idiotic.