Windows Surface tablet

[josjor]

Originally Posted by jdiaz

The Surface and iPad Mini will be released the same week this month. I guess we'll see who wins.

Really? You have a doubt? Kool-Aid always wins over fizzy tap water.

[Mr. Fisherman]

Who bought an RT version?

[~DC~]

Originally Posted by Mr. Fisherman

Who bought an RT version?

I went to the Microsoft Pop-up store in one of our malls Sunday. I came away empty handed, but very impressed with the build qualty/Industrial Design.

I will probably treat myself to one as an xmas gift. I've been trying to decide betwen the RT and the full Win 8 version yet to come. For my use case, I suspect the RT will do what I need. I work from home so all my work related needs are met when I'm around the house. In cases where I'm out and get called to look at a server, I can reach everything through my Citrix environment. Citrix has released a Receiver client for RT which I installed on one of the store demo units. I didn't get a chance to configure and test it though due to the huge crowd.

They were selling vvery well, I stood and watched for ten minutes in which at least three were sold.

[tech4]

I spent few minutes with Surface tablet pc at Microsoft booth. I liked the keyboard and quality of the tablet. Usage wise seems the tablet works best if you know the swipe Gestures. Closing an app involves swiping gesture from top of screen to bottom, whole screen height of finger travel. On old windows systems with mouse its just clicking an X.
I guess to use Windows 8, we will have to learn the new Gestures and keyboard shortcuts.

[Doc.Snyder]

Got one last week.

Got specifically the RT one, since I own a Zenbook Prime and a PC.

I just want it as a media consumption device. The Integration between my Win 2008R2 Storage Server, Xbox (SmartGlass) and PC is awesome. Especially using your Surface as a remote touchpad for your xbox or the play to function for Music and Videos. Watching a Video on your Xbox in the Living Room? Open Smart Glass on your Surface and take the movie with you to the bedroom. Awesome.

Great Build qualityand design. Fast, easy to use. Does everything I want it to do right out of the box.
Included Office package is awesome. Touch keyboard works fine.
USB works fine for most keyboards or mice, usb2.0 and some 3.0 memory sticks. My USB 3.0 Sandisk 64gb extreme stick only works after rebooting.

MS LYNC at work works great, as well as Skype Integration which is fantastic.
Cool thing is that a lot of Win 8 tools are still on board - like Remote Desktop to manage servers, Command Prompts, Power Shell, the great new File Explorer, etc.

Mapping Network drives at work was no problem either.

Dont need App backwards compatibility on it.


Love it. Ipad is up for sale on ebay. :-D

[Doc.Snyder]

Oh - And As for 3/4G not available.... who really needs / uses it? THere's free wifi everywhere. At home, in cafes, at work, ... you can even tether it to your phone (even has settings not to download large updates via 'metered connections').

Some complain about the cameras. Who the hell takes pictures with a tablet ???
The cameras are perfectly fine for video conferences and the audio is really good.
And thats what the cameras are made for.

I dont need redundant technology on phone and tablet....

Maybe you can just plug in a usb 4g dongle if you need it ... ?

[mantan]

I am looking fwd to the Pro version. To me the RT ver makes no sense. Might as well get a Nexus 10. The Pro with win s/f comparability and 1080p screen is a good alternative to Ultrabooks. Waiting to see how MS prices that.

[Doc.Snyder]

I was thinking similarly.

But that has really changed.

Seriously. It's a gorgeous screen, it's quick, expandable, I can do everything I want with it.
There's more Win 8 in there than many think.

I really dont know why I would need legacy App support, or what I want to install.

Yes, it's that awesome.
Everybody at work wants one. The RT one. Not the Pro.

[~DC~]

I can see the appeal to having the full Windows 8 build on one of these, but really, if I am gonna need the full enchilada, I've probably got my laptop with me. The Surface Pro will have a cooling fan and probably much less run time on a full charge. For myself, I want something that I can use to sit on the couch and browse the web as well as have something on hand in the rare case that I'm out and get a support call.

Seriously, the attached keyboard with a touch panel is the killer app for me, try remoting into a server desktop and using Touch to navigate, it's a royal pain. The MS keyboard removes what for me, was the downfall of my previous tablet (which I gave to my grandkids). While I'll probably get the more normal keyboard, I was really surprised at how well the thiner keyboard worked. The touch panel is no worse than most laptops. The 'real' keyboard is actually thinner than what it appears in pictures I've seen and does not add much bulk to the device at all.

Prior to this device, I couldn't envision how any of the tablets on the market would ever replace my laptop. I can certainly see the advantage of Microsoft's vision for the tablet. For me this device goes far beyond being primarily a Media consumption device and closer, to something that can replace my laptop.

The primary argument from the people entrenched in either iPad or Android tablet ecosystems, is the lack of applications. This is going to always be the case with a new platform, and is the only reason I might lean towards the Surface Pro (x86) version. Even still, I am confident that the apps will be there pretty quickly. As Microsoft nudges their Windows app development community towards developing for the Windows 8 Style/Metro application environment, these same applications will work on the desktop, the tablet, and even the phone. It's going to rapidly mature into a pretty compeling ecosystem for software companies.

[Stinky]

So I'm looking for a tablet and I run across a Surface today. Looks good, like the snap on keyboard, but wait... What apps are available? I go home and poke around a bit and find out that to get to the app store, you have to be connected through a Windows 8 machine.

WTF?? Are you kidding me? You market a tablet with questionable app availability in a marketspace that demands it, and prospective customers can't even see what apps are available??? That's either pure arrogance or pure stupidity. Neither bodes well.

I can just see the marketing team sitting around saying "Well, our app selections sucks, but we've gotta launch. Hmmm... What to do? Hey, I know- we'll just hide that from the customer until they buy the device!" "Brilliant!" says the team leader. High-fives all around.

I think I'm about to own my first Android device.

[Doc.Snyder]

After a 2 weeks of use, I have to say: This thing is amazing.

Like I said before, I was unsure about Win RT or Win 8 Pro.

That thing rocks. It has completely replaced my laptop, although it has only half or third the processing power :-(

I am surprised how well it works in my work environment Including Email, File System access on our SAN, Remote desktop, using management tools.
At home it is amazing how well it integrates into my Home network (xbox, Storage server / nas, pc, Media center libraries).

Awesome. It's the best of 2 worlds. No limitations like a simple tablet like the iPad and still a breeze to use and to work on.

As for the App issues people talk about all the time.... It is an absolut non-issue. Most of the important stuff is there or is in development. A lot of stuff is already integrated like facebook, twitter, etc. integration (no dedicated app, yet).

[~DC~]

Originally Posted by Stinky

So I'm looking for a tablet and I run across a Surface today. Looks good, like the snap on keyboard, but wait... What apps are available? I go home and poke around a bit and find out that to get to the app store, you have to be connected through a Windows 8 machine.

WTF?? Are you kidding me? You market a tablet with questionable app availability in a marketspace that demands it, and prospective customers can't even see what apps are available??? That's either pure arrogance or pure stupidity. Neither bodes well.

I can just see the marketing team sitting around saying "Well, our app selections sucks, but we've gotta launch. Hmmm... What to do? Hey, I know- we'll just hide that from the customer until they buy the device!" "Brilliant!" says the team leader. High-fives all around.

I think I'm about to own my first Android device.

Nonsense, You get to the app store from the device itself, no Windows 8 machine required. I stood there in the mall and installed apps on the demo unit over wifi.

[Mercury264]

Originally Posted by ~DC~

Nonsense, You get to the app store from the device itself, no Windows 8 machine required. I stood there in the mall and installed apps on the demo unit over wifi.

I believe Stinky is talking about trying to see what apps are available from a non-W8 device BEFORE he buys the Surface.

[~DC~]

Originally Posted by Mercury264

I believe Stinky is talking about trying to see what apps are available from a non-W8 device BEFORE he buys the Surface.

Oh. I feel foolish now.

I didn't realize that was the case. Yes, that seems pretty stupid of them.
List of some apps.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/apps


I know that's not what you're looking for though. According to cnet, there are 13,000 apps available as of yesterday.

[koncha]

Originally Posted by ~DC~

Oh. I feel foolish now.

I didn't realize that was the case. Yes, that seems pretty stupid of them.
List of some apps.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/apps


I know that's not what you're looking for though. According to cnet, there are 13,000 apps available as of yesterday.

12,980 of those apps are different versions of Angry Birds.