Windows 8 is “Terrible,” Says Usability Expert Jakob Nielsen

When gadget and web companies want to make sure people can figure out how to use their stuff, they turn to experts like Jakob Nielsen, who’s most widely known for his free Alertbox column.

Last year, Nielsen’s scathing review of Amazon’s Kindle Fire made headlines, alerting buyers to the tablet’s choppy scrolling and hard-to-use volume controls. Now, Nielsen has published the results of a study where his firm “invited 12 experienced PC users to test Windows 8,” the new version of Windows, on both normal PCs and Microsoft’s new Surface RT tablets.

“Weak on Tablets, Terrible for PCs”

Nielsen pulled no punches in summing up his firm’s study, saying Windows 8 throws Microsoft’s most loyal customers “under the bus” and that it “removes a powerful PC’s benefits.”

For tablet use, like on the new Surface RT tablets Microsoft brought out to compete with the iPad, Nielsen feels Windows 8′s issues are “nothing that a modest redesign can’t fix.” He thinks we’ll have to wait until Windows 9 for that redesign, though, the same way that Windows 7 fixed many of Vista’s problems.

​​Study methodology

The study’s participants were asked to perform a series of tasks, such as changing the Start screen’s background color. Usability consultants then watched how they did, and noted problem areas. Such as …

​”Where can you click?”

Microsoft’s “Modern” UI (previously called Metro) uses flat, monochrome, and extremely simplistic icons, which sometimes don’t even have a box around them. Many of the study’s participants couldn’t find the “Change PC settings” menu, because it didn’t have an icon and it looked like it was the label for other settings icons right near it. Tapping in places you’d expect to have a result, such as a running app’s title, didn’t work, while Microsoft’s new swiping gestures were often hard to figure out.

​”Information density”

On the scale between “coffee table photo book” and “telephone book,” Windows 8 apps are way over on the coffee table’s side. In contrast to websites packed with pages of text and dozens of images, Windows 8 apps feature large, beautiful pictures, and only minimal text blurbs beneath. While this gives them a striking appearance, it also means it takes lots of swiping to get anywhere.

Windows 8′s Start screen, on the other hand, “feels like dozens of carnival barkers yelling at you,” according to Nielsen. The animated “live tiles” which apps use to display up-to-date information are also what you tap on to launch them, so it can be hard to pick out the right one and easy to get distracted.

​Time to upgrade?

Nielsen says he plans to stick with Windows 7 until Windows 9 is released. He has an especially unfavorable view of Windows 8 for “knowledge workers … in the office”. This may be the group least likely to see Windows 8 anytime soon, however, thanks to years-long corporate support contracts and conservative IT departments.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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“Price Is Right” model wins $7.7 million in discrimination suit

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A former model on the U.S. daytime television game show “The Price is Right” was awarded $ 7.7 million in punitive damages by a Los Angeles court on Wednesday after suing the show for not letting her return to work after giving birth.

The amount was in addition to $ 775,000 in compensatory damages awarded to 41-year-old Brandi Cochran on Tuesday, after the jury in the case ruled that the producers of the show had acted with malice by not taking her back after her pregnancy.

The jury rejected Cochran’s claim for mental hardship she said she had suffered.

“I hope my case will help other women in the same situation,” Cochran told reporters outside the courtroom after the trial.

Producers for “The Price is Right” said they planned to appeal.

Cochran, who is married to soap-opera actor Dean Cochran, told the Los Angeles Superior Court the show’s producers began treating her poorly after she told them in December 2008 that she was expecting twins.

The former Miss USA and Miss Teen USA told the court that once she was pregnant, producers made disparaging remarks about her eating habits and weight, and removed her from the show’s website.

The show’s comedian host Drew Carey backed the producers in testimony earlier this month.

Cochran worked as model on the show from 2002 until January 2009. Her son was stillborn in February 2009 and her daughter was born prematurely the following month. Cochran said she asked to return to the show, but was turned down in February 2010.

Cochran said she was encouraged to sue by actress Hunter Tylo’s successful 1997 pregnancy discrimination suit against the producers of the TV show “Melrose Place,” who fired Tylo after she announced she was expecting a child.

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey, Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and David Brunnstrom)

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S&P 500 gains for fourth session on light volume

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks finished modestly higher on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 up for a fourth session, although volume was one of the year’s lowest on the day ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Investors welcomed news that a ceasefire was declared to end the flare-up in violence between Israel and the Palestinians, though the lack of a deal to release emergency aid for Greece limited the market’s advance.

Investors also remained anxious about the mandatory tax increases and spending cuts that would go into effect in the new year if a deal is not reached to prevent it – known as the “fiscal cliff” – though policymakers are not expected to get back to negotiations until after Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday.

About 4.76 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with year-to-date daily average volume of 6.5 billion shares. On Thursday, the U.S. stock market will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, and on Friday, it will close early at 1 p.m. (1800 GMT).

“Usually on patriotic holidays, which I think Thanksgiving is one, we often see a rally on a light volume. So I wouldn’t be surprised if we see that on Friday, if there is no major news,” said J.J. Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.

“So far this week, we have heard good news in terms of (the) fiscal cliff. Both sides seem to be playing nice, but we will start to see big day-to-day swings (in the market) from next week, when we get more details.”

Greece’s international lenders failed again to reach a deal to release emergency aid to the debt-saddled country. Lenders will try again next Monday, but Germany signaled that significant divisions remain.

A truce between Israel and Hamas gave stocks some support around midday after Egypt announced a ceasefire would come into effect later in the day.

Fears that the fiscal cliff discussions in Washington could be drawn out or yield no resolution have been at the forefront of investors’ minds in recent weeks. Combined with concerns about the euro zone’s continued debt problems, the worries had driven a sell-off that has taken more than 5 percent off the S&P 500 since Election Day in early November.

Positive comments from U.S. politicians that they will work to find common ground have helped the S&P 500 recoup some of that loss in recent sessions.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> gained 48.38 points, or 0.38 percent, to end at 12,836.89. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index <.SPX> added 3.22 points, or 0.23 percent, to finish at 1,391.03. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> rose 9.87 points, or 0.34 percent, to close at 2,926.55.

St Jude Medical shares tumbled 12.2 percent to $ 31.37 after an inspection report from health regulators raised new safety concerns about one of the company’s leads that are used with implantable defibrillators, analysts said.

A modest gain in International Business Machines helped the Dow outperform the other indexes. IBM rose 0.6 percent to $ 190.29.

Dow component Hewlett-Packard Co climbed 2 percent to close on Wednesday at $ 11.94, recouping a small slice of Tuesday’s loss, when the stock slid to a 10-year low after the computer and printer maker reported a $ 5 billion charge related to “accounting improprieties” at Autonomy, a British software company that HP bought last year. At least two brokerages have cut their ratings on HP’s stock, while analysts at several firms lowered their price targets.

Salesforce.com Inc jumped 8.8 percent to $ 158.78 a day after the business software provider reported results that beat Wall Street‘s expectations for the third quarter and maintained its outlook for the rest of the year.

But Deere & Co dragged on the S&P 500 after the world’s largest farm equipment maker reported a weaker-than-expected quarterly profit. Its stock lost 3.7 percent to $ 82.83.

The market did not derive much direction from the day’s economic data, with initial jobless claims falling last week, as expected.

Other data showed manufacturing picked up at its quickest pace in five months in November, while the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s final reading for November showed the consumer sentiment index improved only slightly from the previous month.

The focus will likely turn to retailers on Friday as analysts try to assess how strong the holiday shopping season will be this year, according to Kurt Brunner, portfolio manager at Swarthmore Group in Philadelphia.

The S&P 500 retail sector index <.SPXRT> was up 0.6 percent.

Holiday shopping traditionally kicks off the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, as stores offer deals and discounts to lure consumers.

Advancers beat decliners by a ratio of about 2 to 1 on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq.

(Editing by Jan Paschal)

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Map: Where the Emotionally Challenged Live

U.S. pollster Gallup conducted a survey in 152 countries to compare how people feel about their lives. Singapore ranks as the world’s most emotionless society, behind Georgia, Lithuania, and Russia. Singaporeans are unlikely to report feelings of anger, physical pain, or other negative emotions. They’re not laughing a lot, either. “If you measure Singapore by the traditional indicators, they look like one of the best-run countries in the world,” says Jon Clifton, a Gallup partner in Washington. “But if you look at everything that makes life worth living, they’re not doing so well.”

Some of Gallup’s questions are straightforward. Evaluate your life on a scale of zero to 10: ­Danes are the most satisfied and people from Togo in West Africa are the least. No surprises, too, when Gallup asked people to say whether life would be better or worse five years from now. The award for most pessimistic goes to the inhabitants of Greece, ground zero of the euro debt crisis. Last year, the people most likely to report feeling stress, anger, sadness, worry, or pain were Iraqis. The most emotional nation? The Philippines.

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Republic Wireless Now Offering $19/Month Unlimited Smartphone Service to All

Prepaid wireless carrier Republic Wireless has been offering its $ 19 per month, unlimited everything, prepaid smartphone plan since about this time last year. At the time, though, there were a few catches; you had to buy a very low-end smartphone from them, you had to use its Hybrid Calling technology for most of your calls, and you could only get in if you were lucky enough to be accepted to an exclusive “beta wave.”

Since then, Republic Wireless has upgraded to the slightly more modern Motorola Defy XT as its flagship smartphone model, and has changed to allow unlimited calling, texting, and data over Sprint’s nationwide network, for the same $ 19/month price. Now the North Carolina-based startup is dropping its last restriction; the doors are open for anyone to preorder up to four Defy XT phones, “and they’ll begin shipping in mid-December.”

​The phone

The Motorola Defy XT is designed to be dustproof and waterproof, with rubber bumpers covering each port and an unlocking switch keeping the back cover sealed. Its specs are decidedly last year’s; powered by a 1 GHz, single-core processor, it often shows Kindle Fire-style lag when swiping between home screens on its 3.7 inch display. It runs 2010′s Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with no OS upgrades announced, and it doesn’t have much room to store games and apps, although it comes with a 2 GB microSD card.

​The service

Republic Wireless’ low monthly fee is partly made possible by its Hybrid Calling technology, which is basically an app that loads on startup and lets you make calls and send texts over Wi-Fi. Call quality is generally good, although it depends on how good your Wi-Fi connection is and how many people are streaming video over it while you’re trying to make your call. You can switch off Hybrid Calling by disabling Wi-Fi, if you want to make calls over Sprint’s network instead; this happens automatically if your Wi-Fi signal drops, which has the effect of hanging up your call.

​The support

“Here at Republic,” its Support page explains, “we believe in helping each other out as much as possible.” What this translates to is that there’s no number to call for questions or tech support. Instead, customers are directed to a community wiki and forums, for answers to their issues. If all else fails, you can contact Republic using an online form, and receive a response within 24 hours.

​The price

It costs close to $ 300 to begin using Republic Wireless’ service; $ 249 for the phone, a $ 10 startup fee, and $ 19 for your first monthly fee, before any applicable taxes. That $ 19 is charged once your phone ships, and if Republic’s difficulty keeping up with orders for its first beta waves is any indication, just because the phones “begin shipping in mid-December” doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s when you’ll get yours.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
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Singer Fiona Apple cancels tour dates to be with ailing dog

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Grammy award-winning singer Fiona Apple said in a handwritten letter posted on her website on Tuesday that she has canceled upcoming tour dates in North and South America to be with her ailing dog.

Apple, who vowed to make up the concerts, called off three shows in Brazil between November 27 and 30, a Buenos Aires festival appearance on December 1-2 and a December 9 performance in Mexico City, according to her record label, Epic.

The “Criminal” singer and pianist said her 13-year-old pit bull Janet has been suffering from a tumor in her chest among other ailments and appears to be dying.

“She’s my best friend and my mother and my daughter, my benefactor and she’s the one who taught me what love is,” Apple wrote in the four-page letter she penned last week but did not release until Tuesday. “I can’t come to South America. Not now.”

Apple, 35, said that she wants to appreciate the final days with her dog. “I will not be the woman who puts her career ahead of love and friendship,” Apple wrote.

The singer-songwriter, who is touring in support of “The Idler Wheel … ” album, was arrested in September in Texas and charged with felony drug possession for having four grams of hashish, a form of cannabis.

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey; editing by Patricia Reaney and Todd Eastham)

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Pharmacy owners had no hand in meningitis outbreak: lawyers

BOSTON (Reuters) – Lawyers for New England Compounding Center‘s owners told a federal judge on Tuesday there is no evidence that any of them directly participated in the events that led to a deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak.

“Due process should not be washed away in a sea of newspaper articles and conjecture,” defense attorney Alan Winchester said.

Winchester made his remarks during a two-hour courtroom battle in Boston, where defense lawyers for the family that owns the specialty pharmacy sought to put distance between their clients and an outbreak that has killed 34 and injured nearly 500 people.

Barry Cadden, part owner and NECC‘s chief pharmacist, had not compounded any drugs at the pharmacy for several years before the meningitis outbreak, defense lawyer Bruce Singal said. Cadden’s wife, Lisa Cadden, also a part owner, has not worked as a pharmacist for seven years, Singal told the court.

The defense lawyers also argued to block a motion by meningitis victims to freeze the assets of NECC and its owners. U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor took the matter under advisement and suggested a ruling could come by next week.

But Thomas Sobol, a lawyer for plaintiffs, disagreed with the assertions of the defense lawyers. He said Lisa Cadden, for example, cannot claim to be a soccer mom and then be one of the key people answering the questions of investigators about NECC’s operations.

“This woman shouldn’t be entitled to sell her house, her cars and dissipate her assets,” Sobol argued. He wants the judge to freeze the assets of NECC and its owners so they are not concealed or put under the protection of bankruptcy or a receivership.

Sobol said his motion would not preclude the Caddens or the other owners of NECC to buy a Thanksgiving turkey or gas for their cars. But he did ask the judge not to let the Caddens sell their luxury home in Rhode Island and then put the money in an account in the Cayman Islands.

Defense lawyers said there is no evidence that NECC’s owners have tried to conceal anything regarding their assets.

Defense lawyer Daniel Rabinovitz said there’s nothing to show that Greg Conigliaro, the recycling entrepreneur and co-owner who helped his brother-in-law, Barry Cadden, launch NECC, participated in any conduct related to the outbreak. U.S. authorities say NECC shipped thousands of vials of fungus-tainted methylprednisolone acetate to medical facilities throughout the United States.

At one point during the hearing, Judge Saylor talked about how a passive shareholder cannot be held liable for even the most outrageous acts of a corporation.

Singal suggested the outbreak was an isolated incident and told the judge how NECC had been compounding methylprednisolone acetate, which is typically used to ease back pain, for a number of years without incident. He said half a million vials had been shipped without incident over a period of several years.

But Sobol said that was not true, because authorities investigated an incident involving NECC and the drug several years ago.

“My clients are under legal siege,” Singal said, referring to the number of government agencies investigating NECC. “Almost anybody you can think of, except for NASA, has showed up so far.”

(Reporting By Tim McLaughlin; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Dan Grebler)

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Energy tariff plan to be outlined

20 November 2012 Last updated at 03:00 ET

The government will detail later how it intends to force energy firms to offer customers the lowest suitable tariff.

Energy Secretary Ed Davey will set out plans for fulfilling the PM’s pledge last month to bring in legislation.

He will say that companies will have to reduce the number of tariffs to four each for gas and electricity, in a bid to cut the confusing array on offer.

However, Labour said the cheapest deal in an uncompetitive market will still not be a good deal.

David Cameron’s pledge appeared to be a surprise to the energy department at the time.

Automatic switch

In an appearance before Parliament’s energy select committee, Mr Davey is expected to say that firms will offer just four core tariffs for both gas and electricity – a fixed price for a fixed term and a standard variable rate, with two others based on different criteria such as payment method or whether renewable energy is a factor.

Under the plans, companies would be forced to switch customers automatically to the lowest suitable tariff unless they objected.

BBC deputy political editor James Landale says Downing Street insists this means Mr Cameron will have fulfilled his promise.

“But the real test will be whether people actually see smaller bills at a time when energy prices are rising,” our correspondent adds.

Energy regulator Ofgem had been looking into pricing for some time, and published its proposals just days after Mr Cameron’s pledge, but it did not go as far as the government intends to.

Ofgem’s proposals included banning complex multi-tier tariffs, new personalised information to help consumers find their best deal, and ensuring customers default to the cheapest option at the end of a fixed-term contract.

Currently most people buy their gas and electricity from just six big suppliers, although there are smaller suppliers, amid a vast selection of tariffs.

Last month business groups warned that forcing companies to give customers the cheapest tariffs could damage competition in the market.

Renewable targets

The structure of the charges can vary depending on payment method (by direct debit, pre-payment meter, or credit transfer such as cheque), on whether it is an internet-only tariff, which part of the country the customer lives in, if the deal involves a fixed price, when the deal was launched, how long it lasts, and so on.

Commenting ahead of the government’s expected announcement, Labour’s Caroline Flint MP, accused ministers of a “complete breakdown in energy and climate change policy”.

The shadow energy secretary said: “David Cameron’s promises to get tough with the energy giants and to lead the greenest government are lying in tatters.

“Over a month ago David Cameron promised to force the energy companies to put all customers on the cheapest tariff, but since then millions of families have seen their bills go up.”

She warned that “the cheapest deal in an uncompetitive market will still not be a good deal”.

“Unless David Cameron stands up to vested interests in the energy market and creates a tough new watchdog with powers to force energy companies to pass on price cuts his warm words will be cold comfort to people worried about paying their fuel bill this winter,” she said.

Meanwhile, MPs have urged Mr Cameron to end uncertainty for investors and set clear targets for clean energy in 2030.

The Environmental Audit Committee says firms will only invest enough in new renewables if the 2030 target is fixed in the forthcoming Energy Bill.

But Chancellor George Osborne rejects the target – and BBC News understands he is now being backed by the prime minister.

The coalition is seeking a compromise to allow the Liberal Democrats to retain pride in their flagship Bill.

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U.S. fiscal impact of great concern to Canada: Canada’s Harper

TORONTO (Reuters) – Any fiscal problems that would significantly slow the U.S. economy would be of great concern to Canada, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday.

The United States needed a credible medium-term fiscal plan, Harper said at a business forum in Ottawa, adding that he was following the U.S. fiscal debate with “great interest.”

(Reporting by Solarina Ho)

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HTC “happy” with Apple settlement, slams media estimates

TOKYO (Reuters) – Taiwan’s HTC Corp is happy with its patent settlement with Apple Inc, but regards media reports on details of the licensing agreement as “outrageous”, chief executive Peter Chou told reporters on Tuesday.

HTC and Apple announced a global patent settlement and a 10-year licensing agreement this month after a bruising patent war between the two smartphone makers.

The companies did not disclose details of the settlement or the licensing agreement, but HTC said it will not change its fourth-quarter guidance.

Responding to a question about media reports that HTC will pay Apple $ 6 to $ 8 per Android phone as part of the patent settlement, Chou said it was an outrageous estimate.

“I think that these estimates are baseless and very, very wrong. It is a outrageous number, but I’m not going to comment anything on a specific number. I believe we have a very, very happy settlement and a good ending,” said Chou at a KDDI Corp product launch in Tokyo.

Apple sued the Taiwanese handset maker in 2010, its first major legal salvo against a manufacturer using Google’s Android operating system. Since the suit, a patent war has engulfed competitors including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Google’s Motorola Mobility unit.

(Reporting by Mari Saito; Editing by Michael Watson and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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