#FF00AA

This looks like an interesting interface for tablets (though I have doubts about power efficiency, since it will rely a lot on HTML), but a lousy one for mouse-and-keyboard interactions. Evidently, Microsoft is banking for a future where all computers have touch-screens, and I guess they must be thinking that the only reason why Apple hasn’t implemented such a future yet is laziness. (Or they just don’t care if it’s a good thing at all for actual users, and are just looking at the buzz it’ll generate.)

There are many things I like in the Windows Phone 7 interface, but it appears that Windows 8 is also going to inherit two of its drawbacks: First, the home screen is not designed to give quickly access to a large number of installed apps (which is arguably less of a problem on a phone than on a computer). Second, it seems to me that, if you’re trying to design an app that fits with the rest of the system, you have a lot less freedom — both visually and in actual UX design — than in iOS, or in the previous iteration of Windows. But, on that front, only the experience of more daring developers will tell.