Elegance is here

About a year ago, Stardock formed a new skinning team called Stardock Design. It brought in many of the top skin authors from around the world into a single place as full time skinners. It also provided a budget to be able to contract some of the part-time skinners as well. 

The work is starting to pay off. And this year you will begin seeing a significant increase in free skins coming from Stardock Design.  The idea is to help provide examples and help to other skinners as well as ensure that users have a steady supply of very high quality skins.

The first skin release of the year is Elegance. Designed by Alexandrie, the co-founder of Pixtudio who now works full-time at Stardock in Plymouth Michigan, Elegance is an attempt to provide an alternative to all the glass-style skins you've seen in recent months but one that is clean and...well elegant.  Having used it for awhile, I believe this is one of the best skins of all time. It combines high polish with high usability.

Subtlety is the rule

You can download it here:

[Download Elegance for WindowBlinds 6]

2007 was an incredible year for .dreams, or as some may know them....animated wallpapers.  We had the release of DeskScapes which enhanced DreamScene in Vista Ultimate to support the .dream format, dynamic .dreams, triggers .dreams, and more.

We also saw the release of DreamMaker in which users have taken their 2D and 3D creations and turned them into phenomenal .dreams which they shared with the community.  2008 will be even stronger with the release of DeskScapes 2.0 which will widen the user base of .dreams to include all versions of Vista that are Aero capable.

With that, here is the final "This Month in Dreams" for 2007, and look for more of this in 2008.

Now for the featured .dreams!

To use these .dreams you will be need Windows Vista Ultimate, and the free download of Stardock Deskscapes.  All the .dreams featured in this video can be found at the links below.

The new year is here, and I'm sure over the last couple of weeks you have seen several people posting their 2008 tech predictions. Not to be left out, I figured I should do my own list and get your opinions as well, and at the end of the year we can see how good we are.

Apple: I don't think many can argue that the iPhone was the top gadget of 2007, so what will 2008 bring for it? I think we will see a minor hardware update, possibly announced at Macworld this month, with the probable addition of 3G and very slight visual changes. There is not going to be a major revision until around the 2 year mark, as that is when the AT&T contracts will be up for renewal.

On the software side, Apple will release the SDK as promised and there will be some truly awesome 3rd party apps made available without the need to hack the iPhone. More news from Macworld will be the announcement of the iTunes rental store, which will launch with great hype, but will fall flat in just a few months.

Microsoft: 2007 was an interesting year for Microsoft, we seen the retail launch of Vista along with a heavy dose of criticism about it. SP1 will be released in a couple of months, and it won't help the criticism much, and it just might add to it. Some have predicted we will see the first betas of "Windows 7" this year, although I doubt this will happen. We will see some updates to Windows Home Server which has been horribly marketed, and hopefully will gain more attention as WHS is a great product.

Towards the end of the year, consumers will start hearing about the next Xbox edition. There won't be much as far as hardware or specifications, but I think Microsoft is going to start the hype early. Also on the Microsoft schedule will be Internet Explorer 8 which has gotten itself in the news lately. Not sure if this will make it out this year, but I think we will see some public previews made available.

Mobile Industry: 2008 will be the year of the iPhone clones. There have been a few attempts already, and most, if not all will not get any attention other than being recognized as cheap knock-offs of the iPhone. There will be some fantastic new phones released this year, but the iPhone will still be the most talked about. Smartphones in general will continue to rise in popularity, and 2008 will be another year where we will see wireless access expand at a rapid rate.

Web 2.0: We have seen a lot of "Web 2.0" this year. Sites such as Facebook, Flickr, Digg, Twiiter, etc. have exploded in popularity, and 2008 will be no different. 2008 will see quite a few acquisitions of some of these companies, and we will see some fade away, but a few new ones will appear to take their place. I was trying to think of some good ideas for sites like these, but came up blank so I'd like to hear what kind of "2.0" sites we will see this year.

Desktop Customization: It just wouldn't be right if I didn't speak a bit about desktop skinning for 2008. I'm going to write more about this later, but I believe 2008 is going to take off especially in the Windows Vista area. Stardock Deskscapes 2.0 will bring .dreams (animated wallpapers) to a much wider audience, and in turn we will see some great .dreams being created.

In the next couple of months, we are going to see many more skins being created, especially in the WindowBlinds area. SkinStudio 6 has made this process much easier, and with the tutorials being written more people will try their hand out at skinning. I'm not going to say too much else in this area, but I can assure you that 2008 will be a great year for skinning.

Well that is my top 5 list, and now it's your turn. Let me know your predictions, and what you think of mine either by leaving a comment or writing your own blog.

1. Apple is conquering the world
2. Google vs. Microsoft Live
3. DRM is losing ground
4. PC Makers need to improve experience
5. The Cloud is starting to take over

Last year was one of the most exciting years in tech I've ever seen. Not only did we see amazing new products come out such as some great new digital cameras from Canon and Nikon, but we also finally started seeing cell phones take usability more seriously, the launch of Windows Vista, cars starting to cater to techies in a big way and a lot more.

But were there any trends that we could see? If you'd asked me last year, I would have predicted that we'd be talking about Blu-Ray or HD-DVD as well as how next-generation consoles were taking over. But it turns out, last year saw some pretty unexpected trends begin to emerge.

Below are the 5 biggest trends we recognized last year as having far-reaching consequences.

Trend #1: Apple is conquering the world

A few years ago, Apple was a spent force. It took them until 2000 just to get a preemptively multitasking operating system on the market. Today, I could be convinced that Apple has a pretty decent shot of doing to Windows what Windows did to OS/2.  Apple has proven something that many companies have forgotten: execution matters. It's not who comes out with the most powerful gadget or even the most innovative product, it's who produces the product that does what it does the best. Pretty simple right? Apparently it's not since Apple is leaps and bounds above everyone else in understanding this concept.

Anyone who has used an iPhone can tell you that the iPhone isn't just a little bit better than other cell phones in terms of usability, it's massively better. The only thing that saved LG, Samsung and the rest last year was that the iPhone was exclusive to AT&T, was on the Edge Network, and didn't include GPS.  Imagine a scenario where the iPhone had 3G and GPS built in and was available from anyone and I think you would have been looking at total domination.

What's worse is that the cell phone makers still don't get it. The LG Voyager (which got a high rating at CNET surprisingly) is still awful compared to the iPhone in terms of usability.

Apple also released a new series of iPods.  The iPods weren't the first music players, but like the iPhone, they were so far superior to what else was out there that they took over. This year, I'd say that the iPod lead actually grew.  It makes one wonder just how clueless their competitors must be.  Spend some time with an iPod Touch and then wonder what the heck Microsoft was thinking with their latest Zune. 

Then you have the release of Leopard. It wasn't a perfectly smooth release but relative to Vista, it was a paradise. When people ask me whether they should get a Mac or a PC, it's getting a lot tougher to recommend the PC these days and I'm starting to wonder why I'm recommending a PC at this point.

At the rate things are going, one could imagine a world in which the Mac is the standard home computing platform, the iPhone is the standard mobile device for doing anything and everything one might realistically want to do, and AppleTV 2 (or whatever the next-gen one is) is how one deals with entertainment content in the home.

If you compete with Apple, you probably are afraid. But you're probably not afraid enough.

Trend #2: Google vs. Windows Live

The battle lines are drawn and right now only the geeks even care about these things. But as time goes on, these two services will start to matter to normal people too.

Here are the battle lines and philosophies:

Google is creating very rich and interesting web services that users can do everything from do spread sheets, blog, share images, etc.  It's all web based.

Windows Live is doing much the same thing except with more emphasis with desktop integration.

At this stage, I would say that Microsoft's philosophy is a bit better -- I don't want to use a website to do spread sheets. And Microsoft's organization is a bit better.  I find navigating the Google goodies to be more difficult.  Live is marginally better. Microsoft would be better off not copying off of Google so much.

But the battle for web-based user experience is something that's going to continue to grow, especially as the "cloud" takes over more (which we'll get to shortly).

vs.

And yet most people don't know this stuff exists. Which is probably a good thing as a lot of this stuff is not ready for prime time. 

Google still dominates in the search. Live Search still needs a lot of work. But the other tools in Live are pretty good. My biggest gripe is that they have their own distinct "look" to them that's kind of like Aero but...not Aero.  I'm sure the people who worked on Aero really appreciate having one of the teams go off in their own direction diluting the branding like that especially since it's only different for the sake of being different.

But there are some very interesting gems coming out of this battle.

For Windows Live they've got:

• Live Messenger is pretty good (though Yahoo's new client blows it away)
• Live Photo Gallery is an extremely nice and easy way to get your stuff onto the web (though they make it remarkably difficult to share these pictures).
• Live Writer is very awesome. Just wish it had more options in formatting.
• Live Search Maps is better in some ways than Google Earth.

On the other hand, Microsoft continues to not bother to make the most of the fact that 95% of the population has Windows on their desktop.  SkyDrive should install a drive in My Computer that works like a regular hard drive except puts its stuff onto sky drive. Maybe I just don't get Sky Drive but it's just not very useful right now.

Live Writer rocks!

For Google, you've got some really cool stuff too:

• Google Desktop Search is still the best in my opinion and Google search is still light years ahead of anyone else.
• Google Calendar is just awesome. Microsoft is starting to move forward on their own Live Calendar but it's just getting started. I'm really surprised Google hasn't created a Microsoft Project competitor. Imagine a Project.Google.com which integrated with Google Calendar to help groups coordinate better. I'm also surprised Microsoft hasn't done so either (Microsoft Project 2007 is still primitive).
• GMail absolutely blows away Hotmail.  I mean seriously, Hotmail doesn't have auto-fill on addresses.  Ironically, Live Mail looks better than Gmail now. And Gmail has incredibly spam filtering.
• Picasa is slightly better than Live Photo Gallery but it's hard to say since Live Photo Gallery's Windows app is nicer but with Picasa I can easily link to what I submit.

There's no doubt that both services are pretty good though. This is one area in which both competitors have sharp people on them.  I just can't quite understand Microsoft. I liked them better when they were bastards. The Microsoft that crushed OS/2 would have leverage the Windows platform a lot more. Live feels like it was written to appease Linux users or something.

Trend #3: DRM is losing ground

Admit it. You thought DRM was something you were going to just have to live with. I know I did.  I detest DRM beyond a minimal threshold (ironically, the DRM in iTunes doesn't bug me, it's largely transparent).  But this was the year where you could start to buy DRM-free music from both iTunes and Amazon.

I've written rants about DRM for years. The basic truth is that companies should be trying to prevent lost sales not end piracy. I don't like pirates. They're parasites. But some of the measures used to try to punish them are akin to using radical chemotherapy to get rid of tape worm. "Sure, you lost your hair and look like you're about to die, but we managed to cut down on the tape worms by 28%!"

DRM exists because non-technical executives think that putting draconian copy protection on their content will magically improve sales because it is complicated enough to keep them from pirating it.  The reality is, most people will buy something if they want it and its convenient.  If you make stealing even slightly more inconvenient than buying it, then you'll get the people who would have bought your products in the first place.  The pirates will still steal it but they weren't going to buy it in the first place.

This year it seems that increasing sales versus stopping all piracy finally began to click.  Most people are basically honest and if I download a song from iTunes or Amazon, I'm not going to deliberately share it with the world. Some will, but they would have done so anyway through other means.

Trend #4: PC Makers need to provide a better experience to compete

The Dells, HPs, Gateways, Toshibas and others of the world are probably (hopefully) looking at Apple and realizing that what happened with the iPhone in the cell phone market could very well begin to happen in the PC market.

Here's a question to ask yourself: If the iPhone had been available from every carrier, even with its limitations on 3G and GPS, what % of the market do you think it would have today?  Greater than say 5%?  If you said yes, that is the thing that PC makers need to be very concerned about because the PC experience right now is awful.

2007 was the year that the term "Craplets" started to become mainstream.  It was also the year Windows Vista was released which was supposed to improve the Windows experience.  And yet, Windows Vista shows that Microsoft still doesn't quite "get it".  Let me give you an example that tells the whole story: The Windows Sidebar, which is on by default, does not allow users to drag and drop short-cuts to it. You can only add "gadgets" of which there are no useful ones really out there.  When your default content includes a clock, you know that you're scraping for justification.

For the most part, Windows Vista does deliver a much better experience compared to XP. It was just released a bit too soon.

At the risk of saying "I told you so!" I wrote this article in August of 2006 "Microsoft: Push Vista Back!" in which I wrote:

What will happen if they ship Windows Vista if it comes out in 1Q2007? I predict it will be a disaster. Driver compatibility, rough edges in software working, weird and unpolished UI design, etc.  The acronymn UAC will come to haunt Microsoft and they will rue the day they didn't wait just a few more months to get driver compatibility together.

Microsoft isn't really the problem, it's the PC OEMs focus on bundling weird stuff that's poorly implemented.  PC makers do this because they generate money on what they preload.  But if they don't want to lose their lunch to Apple, they should make it a requirement that anything they include has to add value to the customer and improve the customer experience.  That means NO MORE SHAREWARE bundles or time out bundles or whatever.

PC makers also need to start looking to providing more-value add to their customers in terms of the experience. If Microsoft isn't able or willing to fill in some usability gap, then the PC maker should do so. 

Consider this: Remember the PCs that shipped with Windows XP in 2006? What were they like? Would you say they had a good experience?  Imagine if you were in charge, how would you have changed things? I bet a lot.  Of course, Apple is hoping the PC makers just continue to pre-load shareware and craplets and call it a day.

Trend #5: The Cloud is starting to take over

Most people still use their PCs as an independent machine that uses its Internet connection for web and email. But 2007 was the year that the cloud paradigm began to make its presence felt.

Basically the cloud is where our individual PC is no longer that important. Instead, our data and tool choices are important.  Google and Microsoft see this future pretty clearly which is why they're battling out. You could say they are battling it out for their share of the cloud.

But the trend is just starting. For the cloud to take over these 5 pieces have to be filled:

1. Your data will have to be accessible anywhere that has a network connection. This is why Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and countless others are battling for.
2. Your private data (the data you don't feel comfortable putting on public servers) has to be seamlessly available to you anywhere too. Nobody has provided a solution to this yet. The big guys seem to think that most people will be willing to put their key files on computers they don't have direct access to which I don't think will happen any time soon.
3. Your computing environment needs to be supremely portable. This is what U3 is doing.  Your apps and tools are put on a USB drive, you plug it in and you can then do on any computer what you would normally do on your home computer without having to install anything to a remote computer.
4. Distributed computing needs to come into existence. That is, the more hardware you have rights on, the more your computing capability should scale. No one has bothered to do this for the masses yet. 
5. PC virtualization needs to become mainstream.  Virtual PC and VMWare are both getting startling close to nailing this.  One can imagine a future in which your USB key using U3 tech simply carries around your virtual PC with it.  We just need USB keys with say 16 gig capacities which should happen in the next year or two.

But with items #1 and #3 starting to mature, the power users are already starting to jump into the cloud.

So there you go. The 5 most significant technology trends we saw for last year.  What they will mean for 2008 remains to be seen. But if the past is any predictor, and it's not, 2008 will be a wild ride.

It has been a great December, and the skins that have been coming in have just been phenomenal.  This will probably be the last "This Week in Skinning" for the year.  I wanted to take the time to thank everyone for their support, and to members of the community who recommend skins for featuring.  Every week I go through the galleries looking for some of the best skins submitted, and very often it's a difficult choice because there are just so many to choose from.

Looking back through these articles I was so impressed with some of the skins that have been featured this year, and I know the next year will be even better. 

Now for this weeks picks!

	SliderXP Drives for DesktopX by RomanDA / I.R. Brainiac   Another fantastic widget based on the Slider WB skin.  If you haven't checked these out yet, do it now.
	WS Rainbow Laser Light Show in Dreams by WS76  This very colorful .dream put a beautiful light show on your desktop.  Nice work.
	Simply Icons for ObectDock by Morecolors This pack of several icons has a really nice design, and I hope to see more of these.
	SnowFlake RL for Rainlendar by  nova28 This Rainlendar skin is obviously perfect for any holiday or winter desktop.  Great job.
	Christmas 2007 in Wallpapers by  sternengalaxy I really like this Christmas wallpaper, and it works well with the Snow .dream also.
	Slider XP for WindowBlinds by I.R. Brainiac The long awaited Slider XP is finally here, and this Master skin is one of the most creative I have ever seen.
	Sirus for WindowBlinds by MikeB314 Another fantastic Master skin this week from MikeB314.  It has substyles for both XP and Vista.  Definitely check this one out.
	Blitz for WindowBlinds by  navigatsio A very nice and dark WindowBlinds skin.  Great job!

A big thanks to all the skinners for their great works this past year.  Next year is going to be a great year for skinning, and I look forward to more superb creations from everyone.  See you next year!

Over the past couple of weeks I have shown some of the top holiday skins in the CursorXP (now CursorFX) gallery, and the ObjectDock gallery.  This years Holiday Skin Guide was posted, and you can find some wonderful holiday skins for your desktop without having to search too much.

Aside from wallpapers, one of the biggest contributions of holiday inspired skins goes to the DesktopX category.  Over the years many skinners have done some really creative things using DX, and many of them involved "decorating" your desktop.

So this week I wanted to highlight some of the really great and creative DesktopX objects/widgets that have been submitted from the last couple of years.

	Christmas Lights small by Island Dog  I have always enjoyed putting lights up at Christmas time, so I figured why not put them on the desktop as well.
	Christmas Snow Globe Weather by RomanDA  One of my personal favorites is this beautiful snow globe that displays the weather, and was made to match the Christmas suite.  There is also a matching countdown gadget as well.
	Realistic Animated Christmas Snowflakes by GreenReaper  This was mentioned on the front page today, but it definitely deserves a mention here as well.
	Bubble Lights by Amethystm00n  I always thought bubble lights were very cool, so I was pleased to see someone bring them to the desktop.
	Christmas Candles by buzzh58  These candles make another great addition to a holiday desktop.  Click the flames to light them and put them out.

Dreams are one of the newest galleries on WinCustomize, having launched at the end of January along side the announcement of DreamScene by Microsoft at CES 2007.  They are the prime example of the possibilities Vista presents in terms of customization and skinning.  Since the launch, it has been one of our most popular galleries, attracting countless new skinners and users looking to get the most out of their Vista Ultimate purchase.

What's impressive is that the success wasn't hindered by the limitation of requiring Vista Ultimate edition.  And with the impending release of DeskScapes 2.0, opening up animated wallpapers to virtually all Vista users, we expect the gallery to explode in popularity in 2008.

The first year for any skinning tool is always rough as artists struggle to learn the new medium and figure out what does and doesn't work, but despite that learning curve, we saw some outstanding Dreams this year.  And they just keep getting better and better.

Below are my picks for the best Dreams of 2007.

What are your picks for 2007 Dreams?

The time has come for the 2007 Holiday Skin Guide.  This years guide will give you links to the best holiday and Christmas themes, wallpapers, cursors, and much more for your desktop.  Holiday skins have been coming in for the past few weeks, and I have been very impressed with the submissions.

While I have listed many holiday inspired skins here, there are many more available in the galleries at WinCustomize.

CursorXP CP Christmas 4CXP Blue Christmas Time Christmas Tree's Christmas Cheer HFN Christmas Cur Santa Claus Simple Christmas

Bootskins Christmas Windows Christmas Tree Merry Christmas 2 Christmas Days Frosty Christmas Family Winter Solstice Winters night light

DesktopX Christmas Lights small Realistic Animated Christmas Snowflakes Christmas Time Weather Vertical Christmas Lights Christmas Tree dark Christmas Garland Christmas Lights - Icicles Bubble Lights Icicle Lights Christmas Snow Globe Weather Christmas Snow Globe Countdown Santa Sleigh Countdown Christmas Candles

Dreams Winter Snow Christmas Twinkling Winters here IconPackager CYY Christmas CP Christmas 4ICP Christmas Time Christmas Holidays

Logons Merry Christmas Frosty Christmas Christmas Capers 1 Christmas Time Christmas Holidays

LogonStudio Vista Christmas Ornaments A Christmas Scene Snowman's Christmas Merry Christmas 2007

ObjectDock Christmas Bag Merry Christmas Christmas Time Background Christmas Holidays Christmas PNG's Firefox Holidays IExplorer Holidays Hollyday 2006 Docks

Rainlendar Candy Cane Lane RL Christmas Time CP Christmas 4Rainy Holiday Cheer Winterlendar Winter Blue Hollyday

WindowBlinds Winter Wonderland Christmas Time White Christmas Christmas Holidays CP Christmas 4WB Winter Blue Hollyday 2006

Screensavers Santas Helpers XMas 3D 1.07 A Frosty Gift WinterTime

Wallpapers Santas Helpers Christmas Christmas Eve in the BerkShires Christmas Day Merry Christmas 2007 Winter Pond Winter Wonders Tin_Santa Xmas Fun Merry Christmas Multidisplay Christmas Days

CP Christmas 4Walls Christmas Time Christmas globe Holiday Spirit Happy Holidays Winter Pond WS

Ok, after just a day and a half of nominations, we have 115 total unique skins, and 13 skinners.  The requirement for a gallery to be voted on was that it have at least 5 skins nominated.  Before we get into the master list, here are the nominated skins that won't make it to a vote:

* The IconPackager list actually received 7 nominations, unfortunately 3 of them were sets from the 2006 GUI Champs, since they weren't 2007 items, they don't qualify.

Now... time for the bigger list... the list of nominated skins that will be appearing in polls over the next 2 weeks to determine which is truly the favorite for 2007!

And now, for the list of skinners nominated for Skinner of the Year 2007:

Voting will start on Monday, December 17th.

Just about at the halfway point in December and I'm happy to see all the holiday skins we have had coming in.  The '07 edition of the Holiday Skin Guide should be up next, but make sure to check the articles section for the holiday features I have been doing.

Today is the final day in the WinCustomize Charity/Subscription Drive, so you still have some time left to subscribe or get a master skin and help out.  Remember that they both make great gifts for someone.

Now for this weeks picks!

Windows INVI PRO Indigo Boot in Bootskins By Alperium This bootskin immediately caught my eye, and make a perfect replacement for the standard XP bootscreen.

Talc Cursor for CursorXP By Xiandi A very cool looking cursor, and it include 8 different colors to choose from.  Nice work!

Winter Snow in Dreams By Neil Banfield This Master Skin is one of the coolest I have seen (no pun intended).  Animated snow that piles up on the taskbar, and Neil has stated he will update the .dream to make the background selectable.

Santas Helpers in Wallpapers By tippytoenail Another festive wallpaper that makes a great addition to your holiday desktop.

Corkscrewed in Wallpapers By Richard Mohler Richard Mohler gives us another fantastic wallpaper with a beautiful color scheme.

Candy Cane Lane for WindowBlinds By jazzymjr Great to see more holiday WindowBlind skins, and don't forget to download some of the matching skins to go with this.

Thank you to all the skinners for their contributions this week.  Remember if you know of some holiday skins to have featured, drop me a  note with the link.  See you next week!