Metro

Today a collection of screenshots, showcasing redesigns within key Windows 8.1 applications, were leaked online. The shots showcase changes in the Windows Store and Xbox Music, along with brand new apps including a calendar, alarm clock, and voice recorder.

The newly leaked store design showcases an application “shelf” with more upfront descriptions. The new UI introduces more text to the interface and while it is still inspired by Microsoft’s modern design, it doesn’t have the close-feeling connection to the Windows Start screen that it previously had.

File under fun. Like most of you, we spend a lot of time staring at some screens throughout the day. Typically our Windows Phone device and computer are the ones that get the most action. You love the look and feel of Windows Phone and get that same familiarity in Windows 8. But what about in the wild web? You don’t have much control over how a site looks. Or do you?

If you want to make your web browsing experience on the desktop a little more like Windows Phone check out the following extensions for Chrome. Yes, Chrome, mostly because Internet Explorer doesn’t support add-ons/extensions at the moment like Chrome does. We’ll be making Reddit and the general web a little more “Metro”.

With the arrival of the new Facebook beta app for Windows Phone 8 this week, the discussion immediately focused on two aspects (1) functionality (2) design. The first one is one of those “in motion” issues that all betas face, meaning some functions may yet have been added (especially when combined with the ever changing feature set of the Facebook ecosystem). The second though ranges from personal opinion to a higher discussion of Design Principles.

More specifically, the question of whether the new Facebook app is “Metro” enough (or whatever you want to call the Modern UI Design Principles that runs through Windows Phone) has become one of the hot topics amongst commenters.

It was barely over 24 hours ago that we reported issues with the Metro newspaper app and its inability to pull content down from their servers. At that time we reached out to the developers and received word that an update was coming to fix it. Well, here we are and a fix has already been pushed out to the Marketplace and is ready for you.

If you’re from the UK you’re probably fairly familiar with Metro, but for those of us on the other side of the pond it’s your typical news outlet – with the latest headlines in news, sports, culture and more. It's a nice Windows Phone app for all our friends in the UK.

We had previously reported on Ben Rudolph kicking off the newest campaign to convince non Windows Phone users there is another way…

The new website brings the existing videos into one place and even uses live tiles to allow you to select each video. Ben takes on Android and even turns around a potential iPhone 5 customer, if anyone can, Ben can. They need one Ben Rudolph in every mobile phone store, who could say no?

Nextgen Reader for Windows 8 now available in the Microsoft Store

Windows Phone always leant itself to reading and apps designed around reading due to its foundation being built on those Metro design principles for typography and layout.

Nextgen Reader has been a popular favourite with us at wpcentral and with readers alike. We just had a note today from the developers to say they have rescued Windows 8 users by launching their app in the store.

Windows Phone brought with it Metro, the design principles that have gone on to reach every aspect of Microsoft’s product line up. For those who have a keen interest in Metro and UX (user experience) in general you may have been following the excellent series by Arturo Toledo that explores all things Metro.

Arturo is a former senior user experience designer at Microsoft, the series has been fascinating and well worth a look.

Yes folks it’s finally here, the week that will see Microsoft launch Windows 8, spearheading its massive 2012 product launch schedule. It’s keystone of the ‘Three Screens & Cloud’ play and this is where we see how it’s all going to shake out.

The pre-orders for Surface have started and even run dry in some regions, invites to the various launch events have gone out and now it’s time to put all the cards on the table. With such a wide ranging spruce-up of the entire product line from Xbox to Windows Phone, we’re in for a wild ride. Windows 8 will be at the centre of these launches, not just because it’s Windows but because with it we will see a whole host of services light up to enable the entire eco system.

One of the bigger stories to catch fire today was the idea that Microsoft were to start denying Windows 8 app certification to developers who use ‘Metro’ in their app's name. 

The story originated from documentation found on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) that was quite crystal clear on the matter stating such apps will “…fail certification and won't be listed in the Windows Store”.

That wording has now been removed.

We are now getting confirmation through various channels that the wording found today in that documentation had not been added recently, meaning there has been no change in policy. Instead what we are looking at is documentation that had not been updated to reflect the official Windows 8 app certification requirements.

Yup, it was in error.