| Today's top tech stories: Are you ready for the major redesigns coming to the world's most ubiquitous technology products? Microsoft Corp. is altering the location of its operating system's iconic, decades-old start menu for the new Windows 11. Internet browsers such as Apple Inc.'s Safari and Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox are undergoing radical makeovers. Even Alphabet Inc. is overhauling its Gmail platform to integrate with Google's productivity services. But don't worry! You don't have to upgrade if you hate the redesigns. For better or worse, right now all these big changes are optional. Discretionary design has been cushioning—if not crippling—software rollouts since the early days of Web 2.0. It seems every time a technology company introduces a novel interface, critics immediately label it "controversial" and demand reversion. But "controversial," is sometimes just another way to describe a design that's modernized to a degree that unaccustomed consumers reflexively loathe at first blush. In lots of cases, what's "controversial" is actually much better. By giving in and allowing some users to stick with a retrograde experience, software makers may be hobbling their own innovations. We already know that listening to the public can backfire. Steve Jobs often cited a sentiment attributed to Henry Ford: If the automobile pioneer had asked customers what they wanted, they would've requested a faster horse. The same is usually true for hardware and software invention. The most innovative products often disregard what's considered popular or state of the art in favor of more efficient designs, even if they initially confuse consumers. Apple's first iPhone, for example, famously eschewed the physical keyboards and stylus pens common of other mobile devices of the aughts. That form factor became standard. Now, instead of going big, companies want it both ways: For the riskiest software redesigns, developers frequently offer a "classic" mode as an alternative to adopting a newer interface. It's a safe approach, allowing startups and tech giants to test out next-generation products while keeping the original design as a back-up option to avoid alienating their user base. Facebook Inc. took this measure for its latest rebuild, collecting feedback throughout the process until the company was ready to make the new iteration permanent. Google, inversely, launched a unique "Instant" search engine a decade ago—which returned results immediately with each letter typed—only to go back to its classic design after the new one failed to catch on. This approach has its downsides. For one, maintaining two versions of the same product requires a lot of overhead and legacy coding, as a Firefox developer recently noted when asked why Mozilla can't provide the older version of its browser forever. More significantly, not fully committing to a redesign can result in products with split personalities. Microsoft, for instance, has coddled users for years by offering myriad OS customizations to assuage those allergic to change. Paul Thurrott, the longtime Microsoft reviewer, once called Windows a "Frankenstein's monster mix of old and new." Such will-they-won't-they updates can slow products from progressing to the future (see: Reddit). So it's refreshing to see a company commit to a paradigm shift. The recent revamps of Amazon.com Inc.'s Fire TV and Spotify might've felt unfamiliar upfront, but the companies claimed they were necessary to help consumers navigate their ballooning content libraries. There was no going back, and now I no longer want to. As a reluctant user of both, they essentially forced me to see the wisdom of their new solutions. Perhaps the most serious drawback to making redesigns optional is that we end up with more risk-averse product development, to the point where rival services start to look the same. Apple is receiving endless complaints for moving the address bar and hiding buttons in its new mobile Safari browser, and just last week decided to make the redesign optional—that is, the company is allowing users to opt for an older layout that looks like, well, basically every other browser on the market.
There is reasonable criticism about this "controversial" redesign. But Apple not committing to a new, potentially better approach because of an early backlash from beta testers? That should be the real controversy. —Austin Carr in Los Angeles Following China's aggressive crackdown on its technology industry, western investors are faced with huge uncertainty over the future of U.S.-listed Chinese tech stocks. The SEC is asking for more information from Chinese firms seeking to go public. And the moves have sparked a $1 trillion reckoning. Fintech companies are ushering in a new era of buy-now-pay-later shopping, a trend poised to accelerate as Apple gets into lending. The EU fined Amazon a record $888 million over data-privacy violations. Activision Blizzard workers raised their voices in a walkout last week. Did the company hear them? The case for fewer Apple charging cables. | 
★↠∺〖@NetFlix!〗 2020 Este cuerpo me sienta de muerte PelÃcula Completa En LÃnea released 2020. story: Tras intercambiar su cuerpo con un as...
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