Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Teases New Outlook.com Dark Mode (theverge.com)
Microsoft is planning to introduce a dark mode to its Outlook.com web mail service. "While the software giant introduced a temporary dark mode for Halloween last year, Microsoft has been working on a new dark mode for Outlook.com for the past few months," reports The Verge. "Microsoft has started teasing that the new dark mode will be available soon." From the report: "One reason for the delay is our insistence that we deliver the best Dark Mode of any leading email client (you'll understand when you see it, I guarantee)," explains an Outlook.com team member in a feedback post. "The sneak preview you saw last year at Halloween was a prototype that required a lot more work to be ready for prime time." Microsoft says it has redesigned the colors and code "multiple times," and it's in the final stretch of introducing the new theme in Outlook.com.
Honestly, this is the least important thing Slashdot could have posted about. Besides, use an native client and you can theme it however you like.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Is adding a theme to your website news now?
Honestly...
There is an important take away here. It has taken Microsoft 9 months to get to the point where something trivial that was mostly complete in October of last year is now ready to be announced as still not ready. The amazing thing is that anyone uses their shit products anymore.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
e.g.
File Explorer still has a decades-old bug meaning it cannot handle long file paths, that it itself creates, and does not use the flag Microsoft introduced to allow programs to handle long file paths.
Because Microsoft's programmer is busy changing application colours ?
Please give generously to our appeal to fund another programmer for Microsoft.
Totally agreed. What a boring as shit post... in a long line of many boring as shit posts. How much did the last owners pay for Slashdot? They paid that much and still have editors who post this drivel. Go to alexa.com and watch how much their ratings have dived.
The real story here: How do these people manage to keep their jobs?
I only come here out of reflex. There are much better tech news sources out there. Much, much better!
How about not logging me off twice a day (if not more often) on Office365?
"Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
But it is welcome, nonetheless. It will be nice not feeling like my tired eyes are staring at a fluorescent bulb when I check my work email.
Our lives can once again be filled with joy instead of bright grays!
Finally we can achieve the dreams of our grandfathers and never again be condemned to suffer dark fonts on light backgrounds.
FFS just F**K off with this spam
Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
Ok, if this is news that matters, then the software development industry has officially jumped the shark.
Why is this news? I'm not quite understanding this. Are they going to hold a press conference when they release it?
For too long we have been victimized by overly-bright color schemes when we use email. NO MORE!
Our lives can once again be filled with joy instead of bright grays!
Finally we can achieve the dreams of our grandfathers and never again be condemned to suffer dark fonts on light backgrounds.
As someone who started off with green text on a black background (or amber if you were fancy) the arrival of the paper white screen with black text was seen as an OMG!!!! I want one moment. So I'd humbly suggest you review your history about what style of screen your grandfather dreamed of.
Now git* off my lawn
(*and I am sure git has some arcane switch which will do this for you)
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
What about a "just f__king work without giving me grief" mode?
Is a new theme really that important? I rather see Outlook finally quote emails properly and stop stuffing the signature in the middle of messages. Every other email client can do this except Outlook. Almost makes it useless. I wish there would be other email clients that work with Exchange.
How about not logging me off twice a day (if not more often) on Office365?
Not a problem with LibreOffice. Come on in the water's nice. No log ins required nor any subscription fees.
The press? Microsoft still has monks hand-copying manuscripts.
Have gnu, will travel.
A large team of Microsoft's cleverest wizards have spent the last two years working on an invention that is going to change the world, and if you don't learn about this innovation and offer it to your clients or bosses, you can expect the "oh, you're over 40?" treatment for the rest of your career.
Though our patent expert has not yet reported on his particular finding, insiders are saying Microsoft's finest hackers have learned how to change color. That is, your screen is able to show many more colors than you're probably used to see, and by using a technique where the numbers behind the pixels are lower than they usually are (how low? stay tuned!) they're able to change how things appear, without the numbers being so low as to cause an imbalance.
We contacted lead Microsoft researcher, Fucky McFuckface, and asked, "Fuckface, how dark is it going to be?"
"That's McFuckface."
"Pardon me."
"Anyway, I'm not yet authorized to say exactly how dark it is, but our engineers were able to come up with some pretty low numbers for the pixel's color values."
"So then at least this much is confirmed, that you changed the numbers on the colors rather than the alpha channel?"
"Well, I don't want to give away too many secrets, but I think that cat is out of the bag. Yes, the colors are darker because we used some lower numbers for the pixel values. In the colors. It's kind of technical to explain but I think if you see it, you'll at least somewhat intuitively grasp what must be happening under the hood, even if it's not quite apparent exactly how we did it."
"What impact do you think this will have on future technology?"
"Oh, this is absolutely transformative. I think that over the next ten years, most software engineers are going to have to learn how to type in low numbers when specifying colors."
"You mean, everyone will be expected to? Anyone and everyone?"
"Well, I think the market will expect it, yes, so successful startups will certainly be attempting to get a piece of the action. We will, of course, protect our IP."
"Thank you, Fucky."
Everyone, keep your eye on this story. Whatever screenshots that you're seeing today, I would be hesitant to begin reverse engineering what colors they used, as that might not end up exactly what consumers end up experiencing. You don't want to put man-months of expensive tech labor #2f2f2fing everything and then find out your shitty 1.0 product doesn't even do the #1f1f1f or #3f3f3f that hyperconnected always-on-the-go modern consumers expect.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
There's a lot of rage about this being a news post on Slashdot. I kinda understand because a color scheme isn't typically impressive, but when it's Microsoft or Apple responding to the assertion that their super-white motifs are blindingly bright and need to be toned down, I consider it significant.
When I saw the image, I was at least moderately excited. I prefer a dark background instead of a flashlight being shoved in my face. I only wish I could do the same with the entire MS Office suite.
"Oh, don't worry," said Microsoft. "By 'dark mode' we meant the physical look, not data protection privacy. Never fear, your emails are still scanned by us and affiliates, pictures looked at, and sold off to buyers, including the government!"
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Is this tech news? Yesterday's hot news was that Apple was releasing the iPhone in 3 (or 5) new colors. Today's news is that Microsoft has reskinned a website to use darker colors.
I guess that it is news, but I struggle to really care. Has tech really become this boring?
... paint job.
Apple's New iPhones Will Come In a Plethora of New Colors, Says Report
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
To make their current offerings usable again, much bigger changes are needed than swapping the colors.
1. Stop overwriting user preferences at each update.
2. Do not, under any circumstances, remove software without consulting the user. If software is incompatible with a system update, don't install the update without express user consent.
3. Stop making idiotic assumptions. If I install a language pack for Office, that doesn't mean you should change the user interface language or the language of the Start menu items. Installing a language pack usually means I just want the ability to use the spell checker and dictionary for that language.
4. While we're on the subject: installing a language pack should not require the removal and reinstallation of the entire Office suite.
5. If you insist on frequent OS updates that require restarts, it is unacceptable to lose state. After an update, I expect to see my desktop in exactly the state it was in: all open applications, and all open documents (including unsaved ones) from before the update should reappear. This is a feature you should really copy from Mac OS.
6. OneDrive must not have the same priority as user processes. OneDrive plus Windows Explorer should not take up 50% CPU on a new, fast laptop. Files should never be inaccessible because Onedrive is syncing. At the first sign of user activity, Onedrive should wait.
At first glance I though, oh wow, Microsoft finally getting serious about privacy. Then I saw it was just another desktop theme. Figures.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
For too long we have been victimized by overly-bright color schemes when we use email. NO MORE!
Our lives can once again be filled with joy instead of bright grays!
Finally we can achieve the dreams of our grandfathers and never again be condemned to suffer dark fonts on light backgrounds.
Snide comment aside one of my favourite features introduced in Office 2010 was the ability to change the theme to give a bit of contrast between the UI and the content. Incidentally MS made this frigging essential when they went with their low contrast "modern" UI garbage where you can no longer tell where your word document ends and the background starts.
Not that I care I read my email using a program. Not a website, or webapp, or an app, but an actual program that comes with an installer... and a dark theme since 2010.
"... Microsoft fired all of their testers a few years ago?"
Op-Ed: Microsoft layoff e-mail typifies inhuman corporate insensitivity (July 17, 2014)
Microsoft job cuts far worse than rumored, could reach 18,000 (July 17, 2014)
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC." (August 4, 2015)
7 ways Windows 10 pushes ads at you.... (March 3, 2016)
Microsoft again forced upgrades on Win10 machines specifically set to block updates (March 12, 2018)
Those 5 articles are part of a longer history of abuse and other extremely poor management by Microsoft:
Microsoft Is Filled With Abusive Managers And Overworked Employees, Says Tell-All Book (May 23, 2012)
'It's like, how much more black could this be and the answer is none. None more black.' Spinal Tap 1970's or Microsoft 2018?!!
Can we have this for GOOG's map stuff?
As a professional driver (at night!) I would really like there to be a night mode at the touch of a button, rather than just when it's deemed by GOOG to be permissible to have the map dark and navigation is actively turned on.
Honestly, it's not like grey pixels cost more than white ones!
Do not meddle in the affairs of geeks for they are subtle and quick to anger
Why LibreOffice over OpenOffice? (Serious question, I never knew which to choose, so I just flipped a coin.)
Because LibreOffice is being actively developed and OpenOffice not so much. Basically Sun (later Oracle) didn't put serious effort into the project for a while and it forked into LibreOffice. If you have to pick one generally LibreOffice is the one you want to use.
How about search being able to search. I never had this problem with Lotus Notes or a real mail client like Evolution or Thunderbird.
So are we supposed to know what Dark Mode is, and why should I care anyway. Outlook already sucks...can it get any worse by making it dark?