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Windows 8 Metro Theme Created For Rooted Android Tablets

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the all-the-good-none-of-the-evil dept.

MikeatWired writes "Now here's a cool one for you tablet users that like to tweak the appearance of your UI! XDA member BroBot175 has created a Metro UI theme for all tablets running Honeycomb or ICS! The theme is a fully functioning replica of Windows 8 that allows you to create your own tiles, and organize them however you want."

13 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. in b4 lawsuit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Microsoft will probably not like this one bit.

    1. Re:in b4 lawsuit by game+kid · · Score: 5, Funny

      Indeed. They'll say "People actually want to copy Metro?"

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      You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
    2. Re:in b4 lawsuit by realityimpaired · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As a tablet or smartphone UI, actually it's pretty good. I still prefer Android, but I can understand why people would like Metro. A lot of the texting, e-mail, etc. widgets that people use on Android would not be necessary on Metro, because of the way it presents the tile for an app. (basically, no icons, everything is a widget).

      As a desktop UI, you have to ask what the hell they were smoking. Something designed for touchscreen input on a 4" device does *not* scale to a 24" screen with a keyboard/mouse. While it's usable, it would be very counter-productive to anybody who's comfortable with the mouse, because they would have to scroll through pages of tiles to find the one they want. I don't think it's going to be the unmitigated disaster that everybody says it's going to be, but I do think that "how to turn Metro off" will replace porn as the number 1 Google search for a while after it launches.

    3. Re:in b4 lawsuit by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Funny

      Fool! Don't you know how much hatred of the users the user unfriendly division put into that design? Why poo flinging monkeys being personally sent to each individual home couldn't show THAT level of uncaring!

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      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    4. Re:in b4 lawsuit by lilfields · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Capital letters, exclamation points, and anti-Microsoft... this is very insightful!" - Some mod reading your post.

  2. Cool? by 1u3hr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Now here's a cool one

    Mimicking Windows is cool? Not from where I'm sitting.

  3. What problem does this solve? by tftp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This whole tile madness is driven by commercial reasons. Since MS can't make a phone to be as capable as the desktop, they want to dumb the desktop down to the level of the phone. Then, they think, if everyone is trained to love the bomb ^W the Metro interface there will be more software for Windows phones, and more money for MS.

    A tile (as shown) is nothing but a small application window that can't be arbitrarily resized, and that has no Z ordering. The demo on the linked page is totally confusing - my Galaxy Tab has exactly the same stock configuration of installed applications; the only difference is that all application icons are of the same size (so more fit on each screen.) I'm not sure what was gained by doing this.

  4. Not "fully" functioning; missing the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Rather than being active as they are in WP7/WP8, the tiles here are just shortcuts. That essentially makes this a metro-looking Android launcher, which isn't really exciting, nor front page-worthy.

  5. Euwww! by miffo.swe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The last thing in the world i would want on any phone is Metro. To be frank, it sucks. The UI is clunky, unusable, inflexible and really just a try in making something diffrerent, not better.

    The nerd in me says, cool a testament of just how flexible Android is, but why the worst UI in the world?

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    1. Re:Euwww! by dave420 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's actually very usable. You might not like it, but please remember your likes and dislikes are not necessarily representative of those of others.

  6. Re:Ummm.... by miffo.swe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Unity is actually quite nice on a mobile phone. Its on a Desktop it sucks. The same cant be said about Metro because that baby sucks anywhere.

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  7. I got no clue by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 3, Informative

    Metro to me seems idiotic but the one thing that is very noticeable is that whoever drew its design has no love for full color drawing, it is very monochromatic if such a thing exist in color. White icons/text on single color boxes. All very stark and (to my eye) unclear. Mind you, with a lot of icon based interfaces (android, iOS and some PC setups) unclear icons can be just as confusing. As near as I can figure this is politicians logic. Something must be done, this is something, therefor it must be done.

    Unclear sea of icons is confusing and something must be done, metro is something, therefor it will fix everything.

    It is a new shiny, therefor it is the second coming. Until the next one.

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    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  8. Cool? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You mean fool or tool

    Making Android look like Windoof is about as "cool" as sprinkling dry dogshit on your cappuccino.

    Next we show you how to make your Ferrari look like a Hyundai. Oh. wow.