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Geek Culture / What with this "apps" trend?

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DJ Almix
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Posted: 30th Sep 2011 07:18
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Is anyone else really confused and saddened that PC's have now taken on this app trend when it comes to applications for computers? It seems more phone-ish to me, what are your thoughts?


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Kevin Picone
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Posted: 30th Sep 2011 09:37
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Personally, I feel that desk top computer interfaces have become pretty counter intuitive over the years. For a technology that's so well established to be so ...erm... well... clumsy at times, defeats the purpose. It just alienates people.


Hmm, I wonder what's coming in 2011?
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Fallout
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Posted: 30th Sep 2011 09:41
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I'm not a fan, but I think it's a passing fad for PCs. PCs aren't fashionable pick-up and use devices, and I think it's those devices that need that kind of store. Average Joe needs instant convenient spoon fed software on his iPad. PC users don't, imo.

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Van B
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Posted: 30th Sep 2011 11:18
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I think it might do some good. I mean cheap or free software on the PC has dipped in quality, now that the big guys like Google are in that 'market'. Apps might give smaller teams or individuals the chance to enter the market again, instead of using the same software that we already know about, we might go looking for the software we need. Also, it might encourage people to make decent GUI's and maybe spend a little money on visuals.

My point is that most of the free software is ugly as sin, and often not intuitive or enjoyable to use. For example, a lot of people have a use for a sound file editory, but its the sort of program that people just wouldn't pay a lot of money for, if anything. There are free programs like Wavosaurus, powerful and feature packed but you have to know what your doing. General users might use an app store to find a wave editor that is easy to use, rather than trudging the net, with it's malware and broken promises.

App stores are often very cheap as well, look at some of the software packages you can get from the Mac store for £5 or less... choices like that for the PC would make me sign on. We keep reading about how PC gaming is on it's last legs, yet we are expected to pay through the bloomin nose, it's about time we saw some bargains. Good PC peripherals cost a lot of money, good PC software costs a lot of money, and even when we download our games from Steam we are paying over the odds. Last game I bought was Dead Island, £30 for a download game, no disc, no box, no point expecting the price to come down. Hmmmmm, pay £30 to download a PC game, or pay £30 for a 360 version that I could sell in 2 months and get half my money back. Buy Portal2 for PS3 and get the PC version free. If PC gaming dies, Valve better organise the funeral. When the retail experience is exactly the same as pirating, then it better get cheaper really damn quick.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 30th Sep 2011 17:15
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It's a new way of marketing computer software to the 'average Joe' and as said is actually good for independent developers. I think it's actually a good approach - a simple yet effective way of distributing pieces of software. How the new interfaces for tablets and phones have been done are more intuitive and easier for those less computer savvy people out there to get used to and it alienates fewer people. Windows 8 seems to be jumping on that bandwagon and the latest versions MacOS and Ubuntu have jumped in (though I know earlier editions of Ubuntu have had their 'app store', but the latest has an updated interface for the OS).

For the individual developer it means you can market your product to one of these 'app stores' instead of relying on your own website and if you're charging only a small amount there's gonna be people who'll pay £1.99 to just give it a go...admittedly I've done it on my iPod, "it's only a couple of quid, it looks interesting, I'll download that". And I do browse through the App store to see if there's anything cool or interesting to download. The actual App Stores are very user friendly too.

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Fallout
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Posted: 30th Sep 2011 18:46 Edited at: 30th Sep 2011 18:47
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As someone who has experience of selling on app stores, the apparent benefit of having a single point of sale where everyone can view your app is a double edged sword. You cannot possibly get decent exposure, because of the massive amount of competition.

It's like being in a stadium with 20,000 other people and expecting the viewers on tele to spot you waving. The only way anyone ever sees someone in the crowd on tele is because the director chooses chooses someone and gets the camera man to film them.

This is how app store work. Tens or hundreds of thousands of apps, all in one place, jockeying for exposure, with their ultimate success defined by the people who run the app store and whether they choose to highlight the app or not.

This goes for an established store though. If it's brand new, and you get in there early while the competition is low, you can get onto the charts early with a good product, and hopefully ride the wave of being at the top as it grows.

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The Wilderbeast
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Posted: 30th Sep 2011 22:40
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I have to say the thing which pisses me off most is implementing mobile UI features which have no place on a desktop. Take for instance the reverse scrolling in Mac OS X Lion. Sure, if you had a touchpad then it makes sense, but using a scrollwheel it just feels plain wrong!


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Rich Dersheimer
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Posted: 1st Oct 2011 00:35
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Quote: "It's like being in a stadium with 20,000 other people and expecting the viewers on tele to spot you waving."


But if 20,000 people are in the stadium, and the big, bright, jumbo-tron screen shows your product, twenty-thousand people just saw your product.

What's my point? Err, maybe one of the reasons PC games cost more is that the publisher markets, advertises, and promotes the games.

How aggressive can indy developers get with marketing their product when it's in an app store? What are the options? Send promotional material to magazine or website reviewers? Build up some hype or buzz? Start a viral campaign?

If your indy game is mentioned favorably at, say, Penny Arcade, your sales could skyrocket.

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Rich Dersheimer
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Posted: 1st Oct 2011 00:39
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Quote: "Take for instance the reverse scrolling in Mac OS X Lion"


I totally agree! And that's the first thing I changed. I changed it to normal scrolling. There's a setting somewhere...

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 1st Oct 2011 00:49
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Yeah I imagine it's great on a MacBook (brother's got a MacBook Air and it's really cool with the touchpad) or if you've got a Magic Trackpad for standard Macs, but for a bog standard mouse it doesn't sound like it's ideal, but at least you can change it. Normally I don't like using trackpads, at my desk I use a normal mouse and with my Laptop and because it's a ThinkPad I get a nipple mouse which I use 95% of the time when away from my desk, the whole 'gestures' thing you can have with trackpads and how Lion has improved on that in borrowing from Apple's mobile devices would make the use of a trackpad a lot more convenient.

I also suspect Apple won't be the only one doing it either, Windows 8 seems very 'mobile device' inspired.

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The Wilderbeast
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Posted: 4th Oct 2011 09:56
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Ahaha 'a nipple mouse'. I'm getting an X61 ThinkPad which I'm planning on dumping Linux on so I won't be using the mouse much (if at all) as everything I need it for can be done through shortcuts or terminal. But out of interest, what's the pointer like? I haven't used one in years :S


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Van B
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Posted: 4th Oct 2011 10:33
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I prefer nipple mice to track pads, they are actually really accurate - I wouldn't try and do artwork with one, but they are a very effective replacement for a mouse. I've only used T31's so the chances are that it's even better nowadays.

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Fallout
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Posted: 4th Oct 2011 10:38 Edited at: 4th Oct 2011 10:39
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@Van - seconded! I had one on my old IBM thinkpad. I never used the track pad. I loved my nipple. I do think it can eventually knacker your finger through RSI type problems, but it's so nice to not have to move your hand at all and just use subtle movements of your finger.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 4th Oct 2011 12:07
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Quote: "Ahaha 'a nipple mouse'. I'm getting an X61 ThinkPad which I'm planning on dumping Linux on so I won't be using the mouse much (if at all) as everything I need it for can be done through shortcuts or terminal. But out of interest, what's the pointer like? I haven't used one in years :S"


Nice one, see I'm just a cheapskate and bought an SL510. As for the nipple mouse, it's quite effective and as VanB says, they're really accurate and I like how they're designed on your keyboard, as it's right in the middle of your keyboard, so your fingers are never far away from the mouse and there's an extra set of mouse buttons beneath the space bar and a scroller making it very ergonomic. I find it really inconvenient now to move my hands away from the keyboard to use a trackpad, so my trackpad is never shown any love. Bear in mind, if you're too heavy handed with the nipple mouse it can get a little stuck, but then if you adjust your mouse sensitivity to how you prefer it, you won't be abusing it anyway.

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