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The MS Surface Pro

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Re: The MS Surface Pro

#41

Post by 10char »

omaranto wrote: post #31
10char wrote: post #3

I'm still a bit disappointed that Apple has yet to add a Wacom layer to their devices. It's so unquestionably better at doing writing, sketching, and note-taking than crudely smudging your fingers. iPads still fail pretty hard at being useful during math class. I had an old-style swivel tablet (Windows Vista?), and it was a fantastic device to take notes on, invaluable for classwork. OneNote + pen-input really seemed…

"iPads still fail pretty hard at being useful during math class." I know a couple of people who take notes on their iPads during math talks, they use what Gabe called an ?eraser tip? capacitive touch stylus and an app that shows you your actual size notes above and has a zoned in box at the bottom where you wrote big. I've tried a similar setup on my Nexus 7 and found it pretty comfortable, I imagine on the larger iP…

Bigger problem is that I can't rest my hand on the screen while writing like I would on an actual notebook. There are some apps that try to filter it out but (in my anecdotal experience) they still miss enough to make it not worth the effort.

Writing towards the bottom might alleviate that but it's still like a hack around the fact that natural handwriting on capacitive screens is difficult.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#43

Post by habosa »

iamdave wrote: post #35
habosa wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, although I feel there is a large barrier to entry to entering the review business since you need to buy a lot of expensive things to review them.

Not always. I have a friend who runs a pretty popular Android blog, routinely mentions that at times, it's as easy as asking for a review product and it's yours.

Check out my profile and shoot me an email, I'd love to maybe give this a shot.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#44

Post by gamblor956 »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #39
rubbingalcohol wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People at Starbucks with tablets are usually too busy posing to get any real work done.

So the keyboard covers/cases and the typing, those people are just pretending right?

Highly location dependent. In some coffee shops, the people using tablets or laptops are probably working or studying. In many others, the people are there to be seen or to give off the appearance of working.

I live in LA and work near Beverly Hills, and so the vast majority of the people that I see in coffee shops are just posing.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#45

Post by DannoHung »

shuzchen wrote: post #8
10char wrote: post #3

I'm still a bit disappointed that Apple has yet to add a Wacom layer to their devices. It's so unquestionably better at doing writing, sketching, and note-taking than crudely smudging your fingers. iPads still fail pretty hard at being useful during math class. I had an old-style swivel tablet (Windows Vista?), and it was a fantastic device to take notes on, invaluable for classwork. OneNote + pen-input really seemed…

Yeah, I had a tablet computer back before Apple redefined what tablet meant. It was a Fujitsu machine and OneNote with a wacom pen was definitely a really nice way to take notes in class. However, while I am excited by the machines that are coming out nowadays (surface pro, thinkpad helix to name a few) that will give me both the tablet and laptop experience, I'm dismayed that they're going the way of apple in terms…

I had one too but could never make the note taking process any easier than with just a pen and paper.

My best success with tablet note taking is an app I have that records talks and drawing and plays the drawing back along with the audio.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#46

Post by mkeung »

10char wrote: post #41
omaranto wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"iPads still fail pretty hard at being useful during math class." I know a couple of people who take notes on their iPads during math talks, they use what Gabe called an ?eraser tip? capacitive touch stylus and an app that shows you your actual size notes above and has a zoned in box at the bottom where you wrote big. I've tried a similar setup on my Nexus 7 and found it pretty comfortable, I imagine on the larger iP…

Bigger problem is that I can't rest my hand on the screen while writing like I would on an actual notebook. There are some apps that try to filter it out but (in my anecdotal experience) they still miss enough to make it not worth the effort. Writing towards the bottom might alleviate that but it's still like a hack around the fact that natural handwriting on capacitive screens is difficult.

I have a thin glove I wear...looks odd but I can rest my hand all I want

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#47

Post by phaus »

gfunk911 wrote: post #5

Interesting. We now have an actual niche/use case where the Surface Pro could be a compelling leader, and not just "totally decent." Artists. Also, doesn't an apple-style commercial where somebody gets an email with a word doc attached, edits it, and emails it back with changes while on the train or something seem obvious....

This use case has been around for at least several years, but it's a niche market. I'm not a professional, but to me drawing is what I consider a serious hobby, so a few years ago I bought an Asus EP121 Slate.

Almost everyone likes to doodle from time to time, so I'm hoping that Microsoft's push for tablets with actual digitizers in them catches on. So far, the devices aren't exactly where I'd like them to be, but there's definitely some progress being made. Ideally, I'd like to see Apple (the company that claims to be for creative types) implement a true Wacom digitizer into the iPad. Drawing with a capacitive stylus is like cutting off the tips of your fingers and trying to type. Every attempt at a pressure sensitive workaround for the iPad has thus far been absolutely horrible. If Apple just got over their dislike of the stylus, and implemented a proper digitizer into the iPad, probably every artist in the country would buy one to play around with.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#48

Post by phaus »

seanx wrote: post #30
jmspring wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the better summary is -- "great to hear a device review from outside the echo chamber". I'd like to see other non-tech specific reviews of Surface Pro (and similar hardware). All too often, we focus on what is most relevant to our own particular use cases. Looking at possible Win8 laptops, I'm wanting something comparable to my MBA -- decent SSD storage and ram for development (8gig) -- a few options there, b…

Sony Duo 11. I have one as my primary dev machine and it works pretty well + I can play Civ 5 on the plane.

Is there anything that you are less than satisfied with about it? I was close to getting one, but when I heard the stylus was the S-Trig (significantly inferior to the Wacom for artistic purposes) I just got an iPad 4 to hold me over for a couple of years. It looked really awesome, but 1300 bucks is quite a bit of money for me.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#49

Post by jessriedel »

vxNsr wrote: post #37
omaranto wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"iPads still fail pretty hard at being useful during math class." I know a couple of people who take notes on their iPads during math talks, they use what Gabe called an ?eraser tip? capacitive touch stylus and an app that shows you your actual size notes above and has a zoned in box at the bottom where you wrote big. I've tried a similar setup on my Nexus 7 and found it pretty comfortable, I imagine on the larger iP…

I imagine the issue is brush lag. because it's not a built-in digitizer it down't work as quickly as the surface, there have been a number of tests corroborating this, Gabe actually alludes to this in his review when he says "There was no brush lag at all and the pressure sensitivity worked perfectly." there is essentially no brush sensitivity with an ipad (though I doubt you really need it in math notes) and from my…

I mildly disagree about the brush sensitivity for mathematics. I write a lot of math notes in the margins of academic papers, and single line thickness on a display is annoying and makes the math less readable.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#50

Post by wsc981 »

joshschreuder wrote: post #28
dhruvmittal wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's been incredibly anti-stylus in the past, if I recall correctly. Didn't Jobs say something along the lines of "if your tablet uses a stylus, you're doing it wrong" at the genesis of the iPad? Although we've seen that isn't necessarily the case, I can't see Apple eating their words in this case. Especially not with the success and visibility of Samsung's Note line.

"It's like we said on the iPad, if you see a stylus, they blew it." http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/jobs-if-you-see-a-stylus-... See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YY3MSaUqMg

Of course we had to see this quote into context. Before the iPad was released most tablets pretty much required a styles to be useful. Reason was the used pretty much the same Windows UI as on the desktop (with the small close-boxes on windows for example). Those tablets could pretty much only be used with a stylus. Before Apple released the iPad there pretty much weren't any tablets that could be used completely without a stylus.
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