Yesterday's method only set a cookie in your browser, asking Google to serve a different page layout to you. However, this will affect other Google pages in the wrong way. Googlepedia, for example, renders a very narrow search results page.

To go back, go to your browser preferences and look for the Cookies section—this is generally under Privacy or Security. Now you have three options.

• The brute way: Delete all the cookies.
• The less-brute way: Search for your Google cookies, and delete them all.
• The picky way: Search for your Google cookies and look for this

javascript:void(document.cookie="PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com");

and delete it.

Once you are done, go back to Google Search and enjoy the old. [How to Try the New Google Search]

1. Go to Google.com.
2. Once it loads, enter this code into your web browser's URL address field:

javascript:void(document.cookie="PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com");

There shouldn't be any http://google.com in front of that. Just that code.

3. Hit enter.
4. Reload or open a new Google.com page and you will have access to the new user interface.

It's fast and sweet, although the changes don't affect all the available sections. [Thanks Matt Karolian]

Like the Google Wave-inspired interface for Gmail, the new user interface is cleaner and bolder than the current version, offering more options to the user. It may still be far from deployment, however, but it's good to see some changes after so many years of same all same all.

Besides processing power, price and battery life improvements, our preferences for gadgets and the direction of those desires point towards three things: Richer displays, more seamless inputs and smaller packages—the first two being in direct conflict with the last. Looking at where we've been and where we are, I don't think we can keep pursuing these goals without going gadget prosthetic.

Now here's a trip: For the first time, this decade, design choices are being made to limit resolution in screens to show mercy to the human eye. Apple's recent iMac revision increased the desktop monitor's pixels per inch rating to about 110. That's the equivalent of a laptop levels of density, but on a big 27-inch screen, and it was so sharp, it hurt. Any desk jockey can tell you that as displays get sharper, the strain goes up. On mobiles, which are already the most pixel dense of the gadget kingdom, designers are frequently bashing into conflicting goals of fitting lots of pixels onto pocketable devices. Resolution-independent operating systems (that rely on vector-based graphics) are important but if we don't take displays inside the human body, gadgets can't get much smaller—there's no way for them to become as pixel rich as desktops while continuing to get smaller than they already are.

The the idea for hybridized HUDs featuring reality and computed interfaces has been around for ages. Science fiction has already dreamed up what it is we want to see in animations like Ghost in the Shell. But the recent explosion of augmented reality apps—powered by smartphones with directional compasses, internet connections, location awareness, cameras and the power to draw data driven overlays—are simply prototypes for real HUD and in-eye/mind displays. It's not a conceptual problem as much as it is a question of how.

Keyboards and buttons are easier to understand as a limitation, as we type on increasingly baby-finger sized keyboards on smartphones with appendages that look like hot dogs. Keyboards just need to go away. Towards that trend, software keyboards may be error prone but when used by the proficient, the typing is way faster and the devices are way smaller. Further away from traditional keyboards, Microsoft Research's projects point towards gesture and voice commands. I don't see how we could get full work days done that way, though, and there's the rub. There's not even a good concept for controlling a PC to the level we need to without keyboards and pointers now. Mind control is a joke.

In user-interface design, we've always trended towards the invisible. Instead of seams, we want the seamless. Instead of four clicks, any given major task is better with three. Maybe one day, none—the blink of an eye. Funny enough, the only mentally controlled gadgets these days are toys. And usually the low-end QVC valley where high-end tech ends up after dripping down from the peak of military or space program development to gadget fiends, and finally their kids. I would guess the sloppy capabilities of such toys, like the Mindflex Brainwave, make it inappropriate, unsafe and unusable for anything but hovering a ball in mid air.

It's funny looking back at attempts of strap-on computing. We always thought these clunky setups—"wearable" PCs velcro'd to our arms or slung over our backs—were the predecessors to in-body computing. I've long assumed that getting to prosthetic gadgets was an issue of micronization. "When we can fit a computer into the profile of a Bluetooth headset, people will use 'em," we thought. But it's clear to me that it's about the interface; the inputs and outputs.

Gadgets don't have much more room for revolutionary improvement unless we bypass our own natural limitations of fingers meant to peel bananas and eyes designed to spot prey and predators, and get these damn things we love and depend on so much routed directly into our brains.

This week, Gizmodo is exploring the enhanced human future in a segment we call This Cyborg Life. It's about what happens when we treat our body less as a sacred object and more as what it is: Nature's ultimate machine.

[Image from Stuart Moore]

It's still not clear if these screenshots are real, but if they are, I will be very grateful. If only not to make my eyes hurt every time I have to open Gmail. The actual user interface won't be much better, but at least it will feel a little bit clearer and organized. Bonus points: Google Wave may have found some real use, at last. [Engadget]

iStartedSomething has videos showing the prototype in action, and it looks like it's got quite some potential, whether genuinely useful for manipulating data or for just plain fun. I can't wait until displays like this come out so that I can control my computer by staring it down after some foolish hand waving. [iStartedSomething via Slashgear]

This video examines the benefits and limitations inherent in current mouse-based and window-oriented interfaces, the problems facing other potential solutions, and visualizes my proposal for a completely new way of interacting with desktop computers.

I recommend you watch the whole thing, because he makes some very good usability points—discussing the pros and cons of different UI approaches—before getting into his proposal—which looks beautiful and, more importantly, useful.

I like a lot of the things I see here. I like the way the applications are organized and accessed, combined a modal approach with a stream. I love how he solved the general menu vs application menu dilemma. What I don't like is the idea of having a control surface below the keyboard. I guess we are all used to it, through laptops and trackpads. And he is right that it may be a great way to transition to touch-interfaces for most users—because of that familiarity. However, I would like to see this implemented in a different form factor Both on the go—in the tablet—and in the desktop—in whatever new format the hardware manufacturers can come up with. [10/GUI via Unplggd]

I never tried the DirectTV HD DVR, but my experience with a Dish Networks DVR back in 2008 wasn't anything to write home about, either. What's the most over-the-top, least intuitive interface you've ever had the misfortune to use?

Here's a sampling of user interfaces across compact cameras from every major digital camera maker: Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, Casio, Olympus and Fujifilm. User interfaces matter in these cameras more than ever because they're increasingly the major way you drill down to change settings or switch modes—rather than manually cranking a dial, like on a pro DSLR. Some are pretty good (Canon, Samsung) while some are pretty bad (Casio).

The better ones tend to use a list or grid style, where everything is clearly laid out and easy to access, and more UIs seem to be trending toward the branching list model—when you highlight something, you can see its parameters underneath it. Fonts are rough on some but clearly polished on others. This is a make-or-break issue, since quick visibility is key when you shift from a button UI, or a visual one that only relies on icons.

Canon actually now has two sets of user interfaces: The old one you're used to if you've used Canon lately, and a totally new one that they're rolling out on two of their new cameras. It's slicker, with pop out animations and a more modern font, but I think a bit more confusing since it doesn't show you everything at once. It uses a list style for displaying settings. Once you get the hang of it, though, it's a solid UI.

Nikon has a few different UIs, but the style isn't even consistent within one camera. Oddly, its touchscreen camera shares its ugly UI with some of their other cameras, with few, if any tweaks to make it touch-friendly. It's only Nikon's second-gen touch camera, but its meh UI stands in contrast to the pretty capable one on their DSLRs.

Sony, too, uses the same UI on their touchscreens as they do on their non-touchscreen cameras. It works about as well in touch as it does on non-touch cameras—which is better than Nikon's I feel, since it uses a cross bar type of GUI that Sony's good at. Maybe slightly bigger buttons would help. Overall, Sony's is one of the nicer camera UIs—not terribly confusing.

Too much stuff happens on the back of their cameras, but Panasonic's touch UI seems 'specially designed for fingers, with big, finger-friendly options. (I didn't notice it on their other cams, so I think it was just for the touch FX580, but I could be wrong.) Their standard non-touch UI isn't too bad—I'd put it in the middle of the pack.

Olympus goes with a unique icon style, but it's pretty confusing in terms of trying to get to stuff quickly or navigate backwards and forwards, since you don't know what becomes before or after something in the hierarchy, conceptually speaking. That said, it looks better than the messy menu on the back of their latest DSLR.

Casio has the worst UI out of any camera I checked out. It's cluttered, tiny, ugly and every other sin in the book.

Basic, boring, not particularly helpful.

I mentioned how much I liked Samsung's list UI on the TL320 earlier. It's straightforward, easy to navigate and looks pretty good. When you highlight something, its sub-settings pop up as a list on the right, so you know what you'll be adjusting when you drill down a level. Their other UI isn't quite as good, but it's also fairly straightforward, if slightly more cluttered.

Here are all the touch UIs together. You'd think Panasonic's was the best, except it's wildly inconsistent about when you can touch a menu item and when you can't. So Sony wins by a nose. Weird, Sony winning a UI battle, I know. Nikon's touch interface is just too grotesque to be considered.

Camera UIs can definitely get better, and really need to, because it's clear that the feature-bloat train isn't going to slow down anytime soon. But it's a tricky balance: How do you simplify a user interface for quick, easy access to functions while containing the smorgasbord of new features crammed into every generation of cameras? Can you even make a truly usable touch camera? Uneasy questions without easy answers.

PMA is an annual show where we get to see tomorrow's digital cameras—the ones that'll be populating pockets and purses for the rest of the year.

The parentage of the so-called S-Class UI is even more mixed than previously thought; shades of TouchWiz are apparent, as are influences from Android, HTC's old TouchFlo cube and of course, the iPhone. The effect is confusing, but mostly pretty.

The cube has been touted as a central feature, and rightly so. It is highly responsive, and at such a distant zoom level provides an easy, quick view of your various home screens. The end result is not unlike the virtual desktop cube that many Linux distributions now include by default, but appears to perform well on the device. The same can't be said of the clunky gallery application and cluttered contact list, which don't move with the same immediacy as the cube and app launcher elements.

It's hard to get a sense of how well a UI works without actually using it, but the KM900 looks like it's shaping up to be a strange (albeit pretty) stew. [DN. WebTV via Engadget]

TASKBAR
The taskbar is our favorite new UI element of Windows 7. It's the biggest change from Windows past, and in our view, the best. But it might result in some confusion at first because it groups applications that are open and those that aren't into one big party—the theory is that it shouldn't matter if it's already running or not if you wanna open it. That might kinda remind you of OS X's Dock, but it works a bit differently and definitely still operates on the Windows paradigm. Combined with Aero Peek, which makes every window on the desktop transparent except the one you're highlighting at the moment, you can find any window nearly instantly, no matter how many windows your desktop is buried under.

Here's how it works: When you hold your cursor the icon of an open program in the taskbar (it'll have a hint of gloss it, while unopened apps are dull and non-glassy), a live preview thumbnail will pop up for every window it has open, and in applications coded for it, like Internet Explorer, a thumbnail of every open tab, too. When you hover over a thumbnail, it brings that window to the front, and makes everything else transparent, so you know it's the one you're looking for (or not). [More Taskbar details and images and why Windows 7 Taskbar beats Mac OS X's Dock]

Jump Lists
In applications coded to take advantage of the jump list, when you right-click an icon, you'll get a pop-up menu where you can quickly select common functions. In Internet Explorer, it shows your recent browsing history; in Windows Media Player, it'll let you play recent videos; and Windows Explorer will give you quick access to pinned and frequently used folders and files. Expect jump lists to be more useful as new apps are released for Windows 7 that build functions into the jumplist.

Aero Peek

Aero Peek, which we talked about above, is a big part of what makes the new taskbar so useful. When you highlight the thumbnail preview of an app window that you might wanna open, it makes every other open window transparent, so you get a clear view of the window you're looking at. Or, if you highlight a small button on the bottom right corner of the taskbar, every window will become see-through, for a quick peek at your desktop or gadgets, Windows 7's free-floating widgets (more on those below).

Pinning
Gone is the Quick Launch bar, where you used to store shortcut buttons to your favorite apps. Now they just hang out on the taskbar with open applications. When you "pin" something, like an app or folder, it's got a permanent spot on the taskbar for easy access. When the app is running or the folder is open, the icon has a glossy sheen over it. One quirk with folders: If you try to pin more than one to the taskbar, they're all collapsed into a single "Windows Explorer" icon. Also, if you pin a file to the taskbar, it's actually pinned to the icon of the program that opens it, so you'll have to right-click that icon to pop up the jump list (see below) and select it from there.

WINDOWS
Here's where we really get into what makes Windows 7's UI really special and so different from past Windows versions—the way you handle and manage windows, and by extension, applications. It'll change your life! Maybe! Okay, not really. But it will give you a warm feeling in your tummy. Or that could be the Mexican food you ate last night.

Aero Shake
Shake, rattle and roll, sucka. Aero Shake is the new UI thinger that's useless-but-neat. Grab whatever window you want to be the only one you see, and shake it. Everything else will be minimized. But then you have to have re-open all of 'em, so not that useful overall. Correction: Shaking again will revive all of the windows. Aero Peek, which we talk about above, is better.

Maximize/Minimize aka Aero Snap

Maybe it's just a side effect of splitting my time on a Mac, but I don't really maximize windows that much anymore, and I think the new Windows UI makes you less likely to do it, too, since it's easier to deal with having tons of windows open and scattered around your screen. But if you do wanna make a window of an open app or document swallow your entire monitor, just grab it and drag it to the top of the screen. You'll get a slick little animation indicating that when you let go of the mouse button, the window will blow up to cover your whole screen. To unmaximize, just grab the top of window and pull down—it'll instantly go back to its original size. Snazzy, no?

Also, on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, there's a sliver of button you should check out. When you hover over it, it'll make every open window go all transparent so you can see your desktop. Click the button, and everything will be minimized. [More Maximize and Minimize details and images]

Left/Right Alignment aka Aero Snap, Part Deux
Another Aero snap feature: Drag a window to the far left or right of your screen, and when your cursor touches the edge, it'll make that window take up exactly half of your screen. Nice, especially on widescreen monitors.

DESKTOP/BASICS
Really, Windows 7's isn't too different from the Windows you've known and loved (or loathed) for years. It just has a handful of new UI features scattered throughout that make it easier than ever to multitask with Windows, with the side effect of making it look modern and kinda neat, too. Here's a rundown of the new ooie GUI hotness and what it does.

Gadgets

Gadgets, widgets, whatever you want to call them, they're little mini-applications strewn across your desktop that do useful things like tell you how cold it is outside, in case your apartment is like mine, where you leave all the windows open because your radiator is crazy hot and you're almost fooled into thinking it's 70 degrees outside, but really it's like 20. In a former life (i.e., Vista) they were like little ducks in a row, sitting on the sidebar by default, but now they're free-floating on your desktop, where they're more useful. I just wish there were more useful gadgets to download—now that they don't suck, maybe you'll see them start to come out. [More Gadgets details and images]

Themes
Microsoft has made themes—the unified look across your PC, like the color of windows and your wallpaper—more prominent than ever in Windows 7, and much easier to save, download and swap out too, depending on your mood. Just right-click on your desktop and press personalize, then you can change them, or Microsoft will direct you to where you can download more. Or, if you wanna be more pro, check out Lifehacker's guide to Windows 7 themage.

Shortcuts
There's a slew of new keyboard hotkey shortcuts that use the Windows key, making it feel useful for the first time ever. (And I've been using Windows for like, ever.) Two you should memorize right now: Win+T cycles through apps on your taskbar for quick access to programs, and Win+G brings all of your gadgets to the front. Check the whole list here.

Windows Explorer Preview
The preview pane was actually in Windows Vista, but Microsoft made it hard to find. Not so in Windows 7. Just press the little button above. It shoots out to the side a preview image of whatever file you've got selected, like a picture, movie, or even yes, documents, so you don't have to open 'em to see what's inside. [More Windows Explorer Preview details and images]

As you can see, Toshiba not only has created a slim 9.9mm-thick smartphone with a generous 4.1-inch screen, but they seem to have redesigned the user interface completely to avoid the dreadful Windows Mobile's user interface too.

Of course, this is a canned demo and we will have to wait until we have it in our hands to see if the changes are just on the first level or deep into the user experience. [Pocket Lint]

I have a hard time believing that this one will become reality, since 3D-based user interfaces introduce more complexity than benefits for the user. However, this one—called Multidimensional Desktop—has awesome and completely useless eye-candy potential thanks to its physics-based rules.

This means that if you displace an icon, it may fall. While this may sound useless, there are other potentially-useful things that Apple is introducing in this multidimensional desktop. One of them is the fact that each surface in the 3D box will give icons different attributes: If you place an icon on one plane, it will show some information:

For example, on the bottom surface, icons and other system object representations can be displayed according to a large scale; on the side surface, icons and system object representations can be displayed according to small scale; on the back surface, icons and other system object representations can be displayed in a list format

While this may never become a reality—or maybe yes, given that Apple needs to push forward with something really new in future releases of Mac OS X and all the operating system services and infrastructure seems solid now—it's interesting to see Apple trying to evolve the classic 2D user interface into something new and potentially useful. [MacRumors]

Japan is the epicenter of Zen, a concept with deep religious roots and a mandate for simplicity of appearance and lifestyle. But when it comes to native gadgetry, Zen is only skin-deep. Japanese cell phones are sleek on the outside, but once you open the clamshell, the interface is a complete mess. While American-made phones are leaning more and more towards simple interfaces and clean design, Japanese gadgets continue to be plagued with feature overload and nightmarish interfaces that are totally impractical.

Maybe Zen is irredeemably uncool in Japan, like linsey-woolsey dresses and RAZRs in America. "In the west, we relate Zen to everyday life and design," says Garr Reynolds, an Osaka-based brand consultant who used to work for a US electronics company known for its strong user interfaces. "In Japan, it makes people think of ancient art."

But that still doesn't explain the super-complicated menus and the overload of hidden commands that only the most advanced cellphone users (aka schoolgirls and geeks) ever—if ever—use. Like all social phenomena that play out in the consumer market, there has to be some deeply ingrained psychosocial and political reasons for Japan's reluctance to adopt Zen as the next step in interface design.

On one of my more recent trips to Tokyo, I conferred with some tech and culture experts and picked their brains to try to figure out why. Mobile phones in Japan are a multi-gazillion dollar industry, so why aren't they coming out with the next super-phone? The answer, it seems, lies in some kinks and quirks in Japanese industry and personality. Here's a quick recap:

1. The politics of Japanese telecom: There are a lot of unnecessary politics in Japan's telecom industry. Back east, Sony Ericsson and Sharp are NTT DoCoMo's robot slaves. NTT does all the R&D, creates a software platform, and then tells the handset manufacturers what to make. "Operators set a road-map and provide their own services, like i-mode (NTT DoCoMo's wireless internet service)," says a spokesperson from Sony Ericsson. "We have to develop phones that match this." NTT is largely government-owned and has an unofficial and longstanding monopoly on Japan's telecom market; as long as they have free reign, this pattern is unlikely to change.

Local companies in turn spend so much time and energy trying to meet the rigorous demands of the domestic market that they do really badly worldwide. (Sharp, Japan's leading brand, is only eighth in the world and only sells one fortieth of what Nokia does worldwide.)

2. Just-in-case syndrome: Japanese technology is all about the spec sheet. In order to compete in the domestic consumer electronics market, it's more important for a product to have lots of half-assed features than just a few that work impeccably. A new cell phone handset has to have GPS, 3G, e-wallet capabilities, a music player, a TV antenna, RFID and a whole slew of other features, or it's considered old news. Nine times out of ten, consumers would rather have more, even though they don't know what 90% of the functions on their phones are for. Providers refuse to reverse the feature-adding process because they don't want to lose customers in a fiercely competitive, highly saturated market. It's a vicious cycle.

3. Software engineers get no love: "Software engineers in Japan make money like Indian engineers in India," says Chika Watanabe, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who blogs about technology in Japanese. So while DoCoMo owns all the rights and does project coordination, most of the real work is done by small, second- and third-tier anonymous companies. "I wouldn't be surprised if the software engineers at these companies made $30,000 a year."

Software manufacture is often outsourced to smaller companies that don't get a lot of say in what they're making. While the handsets get smaller and better-looking every month, screen savers still feature cutsey animated characters from a decade ago. "i-mode was first introduced in 1999, but the basic design hasn't changed at all," says Daiji Hirata, a senior advisor at Six Apart. To prove his point, he shows me an old-school graphic of little smiling 8-bit mushrooms dance across the screen of his DoCoMo handset. "They added a little bit of flash, but that was more for advertising, not for the interface."

4. An affinity towards excess packaging: Think of the Yahoo! Japan homepage, a Murakami painting, a scene from Pokemon, a Pachinko parlor, a Donki superstore—Japanese popular culture icons are often inundated with stuff. While Japan is, on one hand, truly a culture of efficiency (i.e. trains are hardly ever late, parties always end on time) it is also a place where overpackaging is considered totally normal. Try ordering a Coke at a McDonald's in Tokyo. They will put the cup in a small paper bag, fold over the corners, put the small paper bag in a small plastic bag, tape the top of the plastic bag shut, neatly place it at the center of the counter before handing it to you with both hands and thanking you for your purchase. That's the same number of steps that it takes me on my prepaid Softbank handset to check missed calls. You get the idea.

So don't be surprised if that cool-looking Japanese cell phone you bought at an Akihabara electronics shop has a menu that is impossible to navigate, totally gimpy applications and patchy connections to the celebrated one-seg TV. As with any culture, you just have to adapt to the local way of thinking. (Who cares if it takes you an hour to figure out how to text message your mom to say you'll be late for dinner? At least you don't have to worry about anything else, since your cell phone doubles as a train pass, a credit card, ID and house keys.)

Photo Credit: Koh Aoki

TAT exhibits a strange, almost-Android UI concept that, with its boxy Programs window, lends credibility to some early observations that Android looks a little bit like Windows 3.1. The PrintUI and BusinessUI are sexy typographical experiments, and Asia Cute is a sickly, Arial-drenched interpretation of the TouchFLO 3D concept. With any luck, we'll see Android devs working on skinning and revamping the interface with stuff like this pretty soon, but for now you can just watch the videos at TAT's site. [TAT - Thanks, Vanessa]

As you can see, there are so many new things to learn just to perform standard phone functions, and as Jesus warned, it's done inconsistently from music player to web browser to email to quick dial. As far as functionality goes, the manual didn't contain any surprises. I was annoyed not to see any mention of the camera or photo gallery, nor any kind of video playback, even though the phone is capable of all that. (I also didn't see any of the business-friendly features (VPN, for one) that I presumed were absent based on our initial flyover.) The good news is, they fixed the clock.

You can download the G1 User's Guide PDF here, but first, skim through the screen and product shots below, and tell us what you think. [T-Mobile G1 - Thanks Shiron!]

So here I was, all excited about Android. Not because the G1's physical design is especially attractive. In fact, it's a gray design with no soul. Not because of the user interface, which at first glance reminded me of a mash-up between the Nintendo DS and a '90s Windows desktop manager. No, I was excited because this is the first post-iPhone smartphone that could be a serious challenger to Apple's mounting dominance. Then I looked closely at this image and realized the G1 will not pose a threat to Apple at all.

The problem in this promotional mock-up image is obvious: The analog clock says it's 9:10 but the digital clock says it's 2:47.

I know. It seems like a dumb problem. But it is an obvious one. This is one of their main promotional images—which incidentally shows a T-Mobile G1 with a screen that seems to be broken, something which is bad enough on its own—and they failed to get it right. The problem with the clocks would have never escaped Apple's ferocious attention to detail, but it is not the image itself that's so troubling. It is what it symbolizes, what is missing at Android's most fundamental level: Attention to detail.

If you compare these images or look at the walkthrough video, you will see what I'm talking about: Each of them seem taken from a completely different device.

Typefaces boldly change from place to place, giving a sense of randomness to the whole interface. The same thing happens with color schemes—going from color over white, to color over black, to browns combined with greens and blues, to green over white—and the way the graphic elements are treated—with solid colors or with gradients. Even the shape of the widgets and sizes look arbitrary. Finally, the icons themselves—which get different treatment from flat to fake 3D—add to the overall confusion.

Perhaps the explanation for this apparent lack of overall coherence is Android's Design by Committee nature, something that seems to plague many of Google's applications and most open-source projects. Hence the question: How many Google engineers does it take to tell the time?

Besides adding confusion, the UI problems make the whole experience ugly. A gray phone with an ugly interface with no attention to detail is not going to win over the consumers' eyes and hearts—no matter how cool Android Market or how open Android platform could be.

Whether we like it or not, the cellphone is now such a personal part of our lives that the emotional connection between a piece of plastic and the owner plays a huge part in the purchase decision process. Enough to make people camp out for days in front of a store to get a product. The proof is that the iPhone still lacks several things that consumers want—in theory—but they can live without them because of how polished Apple's cellphone is, because the attention to all those details, from packaging to user interface.

Would normal consumers buy into the lack of details and the apparently incoherent mess of Android's user interface? Or would they pass and continue to be dazzled by devices like the iPhone, which provide with most of the features they need in a tight, very attractive package? At the end, the fact is that this attention to detail is precisely what separates the awesome from the hhhhmmm-hookai products. I hope that the community of talented developers and designers makes some kick ass skins for this phone. But for me right now, Android is an absolute no-no.

The chaps at Cnmo have managed to grab pictures showing an all black M8 MiniOne cellphone and UI, which we think looks particularly hot. Unfortunately, we're not sure if the images are official, as there isn't anything confirming their validity up at Meizu Forum, but if they are accurate, it's a step in the right direction. Anything that distances the M8 MiniOne from the difficult-to-shake iPhone roots has to be a move in the right direction, or at least we would think so. Grab a batch load of UI eye candy by hitting the link. [Cnmo via PMP Today]