Should you really have to explain user interface features to the kids?

[mithriltabby]

Last night, I upgraded my Nexus One to Android 2.3.3, aka “Gingerbread”. (I was lazy and waited for the automatic over-the-air update.) The update went without a hitch, but one of the features is just a bit retro: when you hit the power button to send the phone to sleep, the screen shrinks horizontally to a single white line and then goes black, just like a very old cathode ray tube television set. Okay, it’s amusingly retro to those of us who are old enough to remember televisions that did that, but is that really the way to show off your cutting edge technology?

(While as a matter of personal style, I’ve been known to use sounds from the original Star Trek series as alerts, I wouldn’t recommend that as a default.)

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of retro in computer terminology: desktop, cut-and-paste, bookmarks, tabs ...

A good pre-computer example of retro terminology is the term "album" to describe CDs or even LPs. The term really only makes sense in the context of multi-disk albums of 78s.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I found that the red alert signal from Trek was an excellent reminder for appointments. RxM tended to hate it though, since it did make one jump. I really need to get a new stock of ringtones.

[the-weregamer.livejournal.com]

Heh, reminds me of the opening of Neuromancer. "The sky was the color of a television tuned between channels."