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New Surface Pro

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571–580 of 606 posts

Re: New Surface Pro

#571
post #484

Do people still use these¹ cameras seriously, or is Microsoft trying to out hipster Apple? [1] : https://c.s-microsoft.com/en-us/CMSImages/Surface_J_Overview...

Yes, it is very rare as it is highly expensive. These cameras use film sheets with a size of 4x5 or 8x10 inches (depending on how you process the film and scan it the total might be in the hundreds of dollars per image). The image quality however is unmatched by any digital equipment.

Scanning back solutions also exist (basically a scanner that you can attach to the camera) . These cost thousands of dollars each and may take a few minutes per image. You cannot use them for moving subjects. [1]

These factors make cameras like this a very rare sight indeed.

[0] http://www.dannyburk.com/drum_scanning.htm [1] http://www.betterlight.com/products4X5.html

Re: New Surface Pro

#572
post #41

One import thing with all Surface laptops that most people don't know: > Support is limited to the country you purchased the device in. Eg: - If you buy an Apple laptop, and need a repair, they'll fix it if it's in warranty, regardless of where you are. - If you buy a Microsoft laptop, and need a warranty repair done in a different country, Microsoft won't help you. I purchased a Surface Book (which I love) in a Micr…

If they ever changed the policy I could fly from Ireland to the US buy the I7/512GD SSD have a coffee and fly home all for the same price of buying it in Ireland. Currently a €584 difference in the price between the US and Ireland. Any tax minded people know if this is caused by Irish VAT or pricing structure?

Its even €60 cheaper in the UK, €50 cheaper in Germany.

Re: New Surface Pro

#573
post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is, specs often don't tell the whole story. Look at phones for example. The Pixel is still according to a lot of reviewers the best every day phone. You can find other phones with similar specs for half the price, but the hardware/software integration is what really makes a big difference. I'm not saying the extra 600$ is worth it in this case, we'll have to wait for reviews to know that, but generally you'…

I only use specs because it's sometimes tricky to describe qualitative things in a way that's easy to compare quickly. I was wondering if the pen/stylus input method really was worth the money over a traditional touchpad+keyboard.

Which model exactly and where did you buy your Xiaomi? Sounds interesting

Re: New Surface Pro

#574
post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK keyboard layout still has $ above 4, but it has £ above 3. In order to get #, you have to hit ⌥3. You can also hit ⌥2 to get €. I think a couple of keys like backslash and backtick are moved around as well.

> I think a couple of keys like backslash and backtick are moved around as well. Yes. US ISO layout is superior if you need to do any programming (or even just to write some Markdown), too bad it's not used more.

Inclined to disagree - depends on your keymap and software you use. If I were to add keyboard shortcuts to my program I'm sure as hell not gonna use a key that I can't get to on my keyboard.

On German keyboards it's even 'worse' though. Because ;, [ and ] are used for ä, ö and ü, [ and ] are Strg + ⇧ + 8 and Strg + ⇧ + 9. Same for { and }.

(Strg = Ctrl)

So any keyboard shortcut involving those and ⇧ or Ctrl is pretty much impossible.

Re: New Surface Pro

#575
post #561

SP3 user for ~3 years. Usecases: Web Dev in node/javascript/HTML/CSS, now using WSL. Notetaking in onenote + surface pen for general journaling, notes at meetups, notes from MOOCs, notes from self-language-study. Vague low-power gaming sometimes. Adobe Lightroom photo editing. Issues: Onenote is absolute fucking garbage at syncing. It is absolutely unusable when offline. It will throw unskippable error dialogs about…

I hear you. OneNote uses OneDrive which is a huge mess itself. Sync to Dropbox would help so much... there's even ticket for that on their uservoice. OneNote also sucks massively at searching in notes...

My #1 gripe about OneNote is that it can't be moved to the SD card on Android. It's manageable since you can decide which notebooks to keep on the device, but still annoying.

Re: New Surface Pro

#576
post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In theory my wifi's fast enough for copying data to/from my phone I could HotSync my Treo over Bluetooth 10 years ago and it was an effortless two-way sync with reasonably good conflict resolution. It amazes me that nothing quite gets that right these days.

Maybe something like that would be usable for text or sound, but transferring a video over bluetooth is paniful.

WiFi is clearly the correct solution in 2017. It's just sad how this has gotten harder for users as technology has otherwise improved.

Re: New Surface Pro

#577
post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mimics? At last check, none of Apple's laptops had full touch screens or supported a stylus. If you're talking about design or style, you might be able to argue that.

You are talking about features. Not the products themselves. Tablet. Laptop. Convertible (in-between). There usage and perception is the same. There is no defining feature that make them different. They go after the same market, that is the key. None of these products (Surface) really matter because Microsoft is just buying time and expertise with the Surface line. HoloLens will change everything, as soon as it drops…

I've used HoloLens and I don't think it will change anything for a very, very long time- and that is only if Microsoft stays committed to it enough for it to develop into a useful consumer device.

Re: New Surface Pro

#578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The [EU] legislation doesn't have a fixed period. Sure does: 2 years. http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guar...

You are right! It's the UK implementation of the law that's more fuzzy.

The uk implementation is 4/5 years depending on your region.

Re: New Surface Pro

#579
post #41

One import thing with all Surface laptops that most people don't know: > Support is limited to the country you purchased the device in. Eg: - If you buy an Apple laptop, and need a repair, they'll fix it if it's in warranty, regardless of where you are. - If you buy a Microsoft laptop, and need a warranty repair done in a different country, Microsoft won't help you. I purchased a Surface Book (which I love) in a Micr…

This was a HUGE issue for me. I purchased a surface 3 for my daughter before she when to China for a year of study. Halfway through the school year it started having phantom touch issues. Which can be frustrating to the point of tears... you are writing a paper, and suddenly the cursor is somewhere else magically and the input is going to the wrong paragraph or even worse, the wrong app. I was so impressed at first a…

The fact they they were willi to repair an issue which cropped up and was reported under warranty is in no way special. They are only fulfilling an obligation.

Re: New Surface Pro

#580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This used to be called "gray market" (grey?) items. Items that are imported not through official channels (for example camera lenses that are often for sale from the bigger dealers in NYC). There is no warranty, but the lenses are cheaper (due to currency values and the price the companies set it can be a little cheaper, but sometimes a lot cheaper). In the old days the prices in magazines for equipment where in 2 co…

Reading that page is just weird - how are US lenses different than other countries? Are other lenses made to substandard specs? In which case, what the fuck? In this case, I just hope they want to squeeze every last dollar out of their buyers, like Hollywood does with movies. Otherwise, regional/country-locked sales/warranties make little sense.

In some cases, they are different products. During times, when Airport cards were separate products, I got mine in the US. That was a mistake - I had to live with one channel less. Today, the Samsung Galaxy S-series phones are different in US and the rest of the world. There are many other examples.

In other cases, it is about squeezing every last dollar out of the buyers. Mostly those in UK and EU.

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