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Wired's Review of the Microsoft Surface

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Re: Wired's Review of the Microsoft Surface

#41

Post by ygra »

coffeeaddicted wrote: post #39
purplelobster wrote: post #17

I don't get the whole "not enough apps in the app store" critique. What are they expecting? The tablet is not even out yet and they expect a million apps or what? Obviously this is a problem with a new operating system... It's a valid critique in a way but there is nothing Microsoft can do short of hiring ten thousand developers to just make apps for it before launch.

They could have allowed running native applications. Not really sure how they expect to sell the Surface RT when it's competing with the Surface Pro. Except maybe the price of the Pro will be far out (I haven't found a price so far for Pro, it's not yet known?). Also if they had supported XNA for that thing formerly known as Metro they would at least have more games now. I'm rather puzzled why they don't support one…

Probably time and other resource constraints. I'm pretty sure their wishlist of things they would have liked to have finished by launch date is quite long :-)

Re: Wired's Review of the Microsoft Surface

#42

Post by mogrim »

throwaway64 wrote: post #25
hnriot wrote: post #15

Wow, looks awesome and for business, the ability to use Microsoft office is the "killer app", as much as I dislike ppt and word and wheel they are the staples of most companies so the lack if office on iPad is hurting it for business users and this will be just what they are looking for. I am glad to see a new player (although msft are well experienced at touch computers) and excited to get my hands on one. They hit…

unfortunately, these devices have no AD integration, or other Enterprise deployment stuff that typically makes windows appealing to businesses.

Not sure how much of that is a problem - how many meetings do I go to that have iPad users busily taking notes? AFAIK they're not integrating directly into the enterprise network, as long as they've got access to mail they're happy. If you could get a decent version of Office on there...

(Not that I completely disagree - AD integration would certainly be a massive additional advantage, I just don't think it's critical).

Re: Wired's Review of the Microsoft Surface

#43

Post by buro9 »

NZ_Matt wrote: post #40
buro9 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OneNote on Windows RT could be the killer app that makes me want one. I want a sketchpad, handwriting recognition, the ability to insert audio clips and videos and images, OCR for text in those images... in fact let me take a photo, paste it in and then extract the text in the photo... quick text tools with basic formatting... and all of this should be searchable, shareable, integrated. That's OneNote. On the desktop…

Well the good news is that you are mistaken, Surface RT comes with both the desktop version of OneNote and OneNoteMX. http://office.microsoft.com/en-nz/home-and-student/office-ho...

The reviews I've seen say that there are far fewer features. If you've ever tried OneNote on Android you'd know that in the worst case this could be just turning it into a basic note-taking program.

I want to be wrong, but nothing on the Microsoft site (or anywhere else I've seen) shows me a side-by-side compare of the features of OneNote for every platform and version.

What I've read is that OneNote is available for Surface, but it's a feature limited version. No real details on what features are limited or missing.

Re: Wired's Review of the Microsoft Surface

#44

Post by NZ_Matt »

buro9 wrote: post #43
NZ_Matt wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the good news is that you are mistaken, Surface RT comes with both the desktop version of OneNote and OneNoteMX. http://office.microsoft.com/en-nz/home-and-student/office-ho...

The reviews I've seen say that there are far fewer features. If you've ever tried OneNote on Android you'd know that in the worst case this could be just turning it into a basic note-taking program. I want to be wrong, but nothing on the Microsoft site (or anywhere else I've seen) shows me a side-by-side compare of the features of OneNote for every platform and version. What I've read is that OneNote is available for…

Everything that I've read claims that the differences between Office 2013 and Office RT are negligible. The full desktop version is definitely included, it's the metro version that lacks features.

Re: Wired's Review of the Microsoft Surface

#45

Post by brc »

hessenwolf wrote: post #37
brc wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, I still struggle with my ipad keyboard after months of use. It frustrates the life out of me, because the keys shift depending on context.

The keys shift depending on the context? Would you mind expanding? (guy who touch types, with a bazillion typos, on a samsung galaxy s)

For example when you're typing in an email field, the @ symbols appears in the main key set. Not sure what it replaces , but something disappears.

Re: Wired's Review of the Microsoft Surface

#46

Post by ChrisLTD »

purplelobster wrote: post #17

I don't get the whole "not enough apps in the app store" critique. What are they expecting? The tablet is not even out yet and they expect a million apps or what? Obviously this is a problem with a new operating system... It's a valid critique in a way but there is nothing Microsoft can do short of hiring ten thousand developers to just make apps for it before launch.

If you're a prospective buyer, knowing the availability of popular software is valuable knowledge.

I, for one, would not want to buy a $500+ tablet based on its potential for running good software.

Re: Wired's Review of the Microsoft Surface

#47

Post by hfs »

hessenwolf wrote: post #37
brc wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, I still struggle with my ipad keyboard after months of use. It frustrates the life out of me, because the keys shift depending on context.

The keys shift depending on the context? Would you mind expanding? (guy who touch types, with a bazillion typos, on a samsung galaxy s)

Same thing as on Android phones - you get different characters in some places depending on what type of input you're in. If you're in a URL box, you'll get forward slashes and colons. An e-mail, you'll get @.

Re: Wired's Review of the Microsoft Surface

#48

Post by hfs »

purplelobster wrote: post #17

I don't get the whole "not enough apps in the app store" critique. What are they expecting? The tablet is not even out yet and they expect a million apps or what? Obviously this is a problem with a new operating system... It's a valid critique in a way but there is nothing Microsoft can do short of hiring ten thousand developers to just make apps for it before launch.

Windows Mobile has been out for years. No one has wanted to develop for it because the platform is just plain not good.

Re: Wired's Review of the Microsoft Surface

#49

Post by freehunter »

coffeeaddicted wrote: post #39
purplelobster wrote: post #17

I don't get the whole "not enough apps in the app store" critique. What are they expecting? The tablet is not even out yet and they expect a million apps or what? Obviously this is a problem with a new operating system... It's a valid critique in a way but there is nothing Microsoft can do short of hiring ten thousand developers to just make apps for it before launch.

They could have allowed running native applications. Not really sure how they expect to sell the Surface RT when it's competing with the Surface Pro. Except maybe the price of the Pro will be far out (I haven't found a price so far for Pro, it's not yet known?). Also if they had supported XNA for that thing formerly known as Metro they would at least have more games now. I'm rather puzzled why they don't support one…

What native applications are there for Windows on ARM?

Re: Wired's Review of the Microsoft Surface

#50

Post by wlesieutre »

NZ_Matt wrote: post #44
buro9 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reviews I've seen say that there are far fewer features. If you've ever tried OneNote on Android you'd know that in the worst case this could be just turning it into a basic note-taking program. I want to be wrong, but nothing on the Microsoft site (or anywhere else I've seen) shows me a side-by-side compare of the features of OneNote for every platform and version. What I've read is that OneNote is available for…

Everything that I've read claims that the differences between Office 2013 and Office RT are negligible. The full desktop version is definitely included, it's the metro version that lacks features.

Windows RT doesn't have desktop apps, they'll only be supported in Windows 8 on x86/64 processors. ARM tablets like this version of Surface are Metro only.
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