I myself have seen quite a few apps with the default template gray background and box-with-an-x icon. And no-one should go wanting for a unit converter app on Windows 8. Is MS going to crack down on this tripe?

Thanks for the link.  

You guys are winners, and winners don't complain about things, they go out and screw the prom queen!

Make Apps not war!

Go-Fight-Win!

-Josh

How do you meld crisp text and lines with juicy fart sounds?

-Josh

14 hours ago, JoshRoss wrote

...If you have a heartbeat and a developer account...

WTF is this supposed to be? This is what you get when you have zero design influence.

13 hours ago, JoshRoss wrote

@DeathByVisualStudio: Fart apps seem more like something out of the skeuomorphic world of Scott Forstall than the Metro world of Microsoft.

How do you meld crisp text and lines with juicy fart sounds?

12 hours ago, JoshRoss wrote

Forget the crisp text, Josh. Think fast and fluid. You could translate gestures into bodily noises. A quick flick might emit a high pitched toot, while a slow drag will... I think you get the point.

-Josh

Thanks for starting my day out right. Who needs corn flakes? Damn you're funny.

Windows8 Rubbish Apps said:

I feel like I've uncovered a conspiracy and I have no idea what to do with the information!

I emailed both Kusuma Sruthi and Pavan Kumar asking them why they had felt the need to submit their game multiple times to the Windows 8 store. I wasn't really expecting a response. Yet both replied, pretty quickly, saying that they were told to do it but would remove the duplicates if I told them to. Was my email written with such authority?

Both claim to have been contacted by POOJA PATIL and told "to upload our apps with DIFFERENT NAMES and with SAME SOURCE CODE". Whilst Pavan Kumar claimed not to have contact details he did say that she was from Microsoft. Kusuma Sruthi was more forthcoming with both a microsoft.com email address and an Indian mobile number. A brief Googling confirms the existence of a Pooja Patil with this phone number working for Microsoft to organise the Windows 8 Guiness World Record attempt in Bangalore.

Why would someone from Microsoft have told these two developers to submit their game multiple times? Were they really so desperate for apps that they encouraged this cloning? Were they really expecting that no one would notice?

I feel on a mission now to find a third developer to confirm this suspicion! Have you noticed any clones in the store?

21 hours ago, DCMonkey wrote

So, it looks like someone has taken up the task of calling out some of the truly terrible Windows 8 Apps that are getting into the Windows 8 App Store. Examples include trivial "games"  submitted dozens of times under different names, rebadged SDK samples, and my personal favorite: App13.

I myself have seen quite a few apps with the default template gray background and box-with-an-x icon. And no-one should go wanting for a unit converter app on Windows 8. Is MS going to crack down on this tripe?

How is this different from any other app store? Microsoft (and Apple and Google) aren't in the game of deciding what apps are "good enough" to be in their store... and if they were you'd have a different complaint thread about them censoring. Just look at the complaints made every time that Apple rejects an app, not based on whether it's good enough, but for other reasons. We all can smell a fart app when we see it, but banning them is a slippery slope and not something Microsoft should do.

That said is it my imagination or is Microsoft marketing the idea that their store, while fewer apps it may have, contains more quality apps? Maybe it's just a bad assumption a lot of us make but if it isn't I think that's where this kind of conversation starts.

11 minutes ago, Harlequin wrote

This is where design evangelists would come into play...but they are far and few right now. We have MVPs to give direction, but nothing on the design side of the coin. How popular would a Windows 8 Design MVP be right now

I got some great advice from one of the UK evangelists - nothing I didn't already really know but having someone tell me made all the difference!  The main thing I have learned about design is that compromise is not really an option (and as programmers I think we naturally tend to think the job is done when the function is complete).

Hmmm, maybe a  blog post coming - "things that a designer highlighted that I had just 'let go'"

32 minutes ago, Harlequin wrote

How popular would a Windows 8 Design MVP be right now

Judging by the constant change that Blend has undergone, Designers perfecting their Photoshop skills is a far better bet than the chopping and changing that the XAML stack has undergone, especially the anxiety around the silence before the full Windows 8 announcements.

That ultimately has been the Achilles heel, where Blend MVP's have decided to move on.

Conspiracy? Took Josh's advice? Or maybe they just don't care anymore.

The cool thing is this new guy put together a Windows 8 app store browsing site so we can see the glory that is the app store from non Win8 devices.

isn't there already web pages for Metro store? I bookmarked the drawing app and I remember is it a Microsoft URL. Will post once I get home.

18 minutes ago, magicalclick wrote

@DCMonkey:

isn't there already web pages for Metro store? I bookmarked the drawing app and I remember is it a Microsoft URL. Will post once I get home.

There are, but you had to know the URL as there was no way to browse or search the store outside of Windows 8. Although incomplete, this site allows that to some extent.

what is just soooo odd. I hope MS hire 5 intern get make the browsing page. Because everything id already setup.

But there's a difference between being creative with the guidelines and making a horrible ugly mess of the app bar as in that application.

But as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water ...

BTW I think my design skills are actually improving, Still lots of work to do but actually quite chuffed with the latest revision to LTN.  (Go on, I dare you ... do your worst ...)

I like the shot of the semantic zoom, looks really good.

Herbie

2 hours ago, Dr Herbie wrote

@Ian2: Remove the gradients from the group titles, they don't sit well with the general flat look.

Herbie

Thanks and damn ... I thought the gradient just added a little something that seemed like it was missing before.  (Kind of expecting to be hammered for that at the workshop next week though)