Welcome to the world's first true glimpse into the reality of the new skinning application known as Hyperdesk, here exclusively on DeviantART and brought to you by ^mrrste

Introduction

For those who do not know, The Skins Factory [link] will soon be launching a new application to the world called Hyperdesk. If you don't know who The Skins Factory are, then wakey wakey, but I doubt this is the case

Hyperdesk will be a new way to customise your PC using what will be known as Hypersuites. A Hypersuite will consist of an msstyle based skin, Icons, Wallpapers, Media player skin/controller and a widget. All can be changed at once with the click of a button.

I was recently and exclusively given the privilege of trying out this new program by Jeff. Jeff ie Jeff Schader is the Founder and CEO of The Skins Factory and he sent me the new Sony Ericsson Onyx Series Hypersuite to play with. As I am the first person outside of his company to get my hands on this, you better believe I grabbed the opportunity

I will not be showing you guys anything other than what has already been shown of it because it is to remain a surprise and I will honour that.

However, below is the teaser of the Sony Ericsson Onyx Series Hypersuite that I have tried

The Hyper Hype

There has been a lot written about this new program. Many have dismissed it before it has even been released, stating that the method in which it skins is unstable and problematic but many are awaiting, with open arms, something that has the potential to have a big impact inside and outside of the skinning community.

So who is right? I will attempt to address the optimists and pessimists from an un-biased point of view. My words and opinions are not those of DeviantART, but of my own, a customisation enthusiast. I am not here to
big it up and I am not here to slam it. Only you as a user can truly decide.

The Hyper Reality

No one truly expected anything other than quality work from The Skins Factory, especially on the graphics side of things, and you won't be disappointed.

The Interface

After the initial install, reboot and launch, I was presented with a very sexy and easy to operate interface. It actually reminds me of a flash based interface on websites. From here you select the skin variant (as this particular skin comes in 6 different colours), the wallpaper (again, 6 to choose from) etc.

It's just a case of click, select and apply. It's that easy. Usually the experience comes after you apply a skin, but the interface here definitely adds to the experience. Before you even apply the suite, you feel like you are about to get something special.

The Skin

It looks and feels exactly how you would expect an msstyle based skin would on XP. However, the skin is very well made both graphically and functionally that it does not scream out that it's msstyle based. You can tell a lot of work went into making this usable as well as visually impressive. It works very well and so far I have not seen any issues you can get when it comes to skinning certain applications. Usually some programs need to be excluded from being skinned, so far, this is not the case.

One thing I do like is that it works totally fine with Styler Toolbar, meaning you can customise your experience a little more.


The Icons

To be honest, the icons are my favourite part of this suite. Yes the skin is impressive, but the icons are little works of art in their own right. The bigger they are the better they look. The detail and work in
these icons is amazing. Even at the average desktop size they do not loose quality. I really can't find fault with them except that I would like to see more but you do get a good number anyway


The Media Player

This is what The Skins Factory do best. This particular media player is not in the same league as their Alienware or Batman skins say, but it is still a very sleek and well designed skin. I am not a big fan of WMP anyway but they definitely make me manage to forget that


The Wallpaper

There is 6 wallpapers in total to choose from. Each one to match the colour variants of the theme. They match the theme perfectly. They are not over the top in detail but compliment the theme very well. I prefer
a more simplistic wallpaper anyway so I was more than happy with these.


The Extras

With this particular theme you get an additional 6 variants of the already included wallpapers. They are not a huge change from the standard ones but I actually prefer these. You also get all of the Icons in .png format so you can use them how you wish ie in a dock etc.

The Conclusion

You will notice that I did not go into great depth describing every little detail and you may have been left with questions. The reason I did this is because the ultimate experience is to be a surprise. Only teaser's have been shown and I didn't want to spoil this but you should have got a feel for what to expect.

Overall I was impressed. I can't say I expected not to be, especially from the awesome teaser's The Skins have shown. However, I left msstyles behind years ago for Windowblinds by Stardock and I have never looked back. Using msstyles again just reminded me why I did. They simply cannot compare in quality and features that Windowblinds gives you but that does not mean that msstyles, or this product are ultimately bad. Both have their good and bad points and both have their own fan base. Many people will always choose msstyles over windowblinds and that is more than evident from the thousands of msstyles out there.

Does this mean I won't use Hyperdesk? No way. I can appreciate quality when I see it and just because these are msstyles does not mean you won't see it either. They may lack all the bells and whistles that you get with something like windowblinds but if they are done just right then it really does not matter. The Skins Factory have managed to make their skins to this "just right" standard for Hyperdesk. You forget it's an msstyle and just appreciate it for what it is, a well made, great looking and nice experience when using it.

When Vista support is added you better believe I'll use Hyperdesk as well as Windowblinds. I have seen skins that have not been shown or that anyone else knows about outside of TSF. I know some future plans for Hyperdesk that are "Top Secret". I have seen what their website will look like. It's all certainly going to bring something impressive to the community. I would be foolish not to want to use Hyperdesk just because it uses a format I am personally not a fan of. It's the skins I'm concerned with. If this was a new company coming out with this product, I may not expect it to do as well, but because you know TSF are going to give you quality every time, you know it will do well.

Hyperdesk is not going to turn people msstyles lovers, no more than Stardock can make people Windowblind lovers or Linux make people Gnome lovers. They all offer something that appeals to an individual personally and this is what it is all about. Only you, the user, can truly decide what is right for you. It is another skinning solution I will use for sure because I am a fan of TSF work but it will never be the only skinning solution I use.


I hope you have taken something from this and you now look more forward to getting your hands on Hyperdesk more than ever. Quality, design and usability are what you will get. Don't expect less from The Skins Factory as this other teaser shows all too well