Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface • Hacker News Board

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#61

Post by LukasMathis » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 7:06 PM UTC

glasshead969 wrote: post #58

LukasMathis wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, it only took me half a blog post to explain all of the new concepts Microsoft introduced in their completely novel approach to operating system user interfaces. I don't think that's evidence against its ease-of-use :-) As for games completely ruling the top 100 list of highest-grossing apps on any popular consumer platform: this is definitely not the case in the Mac App Store.

regarding games not being popular on Mac app store, i feel like Mac is not in any way close to the scale of windows,iOS and android in terms of main stream popularity, especially internationally.

Dunno, they're extremely popular in Switzerland, where I live. I think among consumers, Mac market share is quite high. It's different in businesses, but businesses don't buy that many games :-)

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#62

Post by LukasMathis » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 7:07 PM UTC

manilafolder wrote: post #54

satyrnein wrote: post #29

I definitely concur about the handwriting recognition being terrific, but the interface being terrible. I wrote a little prototype of how I thought it should work a few months ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhn6EdN3Vvw

Great demo. That's exactly how the handwriting UI should have been designed. I have one small suggestion, if you don't mind: How about making the input box increase in size (maybe double in size) so you don't have to write so small? The resizing wouldn't need to reflow the rest of the page; it could turn into a modal textbox in the same location as the original textbox. It would make it easier for children, the elder…

Another option would be to set the text caret inside the text box, but allow people to write anywhere, while the focus is on a text field. This is probably something where you'd have to do a ton of different prototypes, and see which one feels best.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#63

Post by radicalbyte » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 7:07 PM UTC

I really wanted a Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga: it's the ideal combination of notebook and tablet. At 12.5 inches it's just that little bit more usable than a Surface Pro.

In the end I bought a MBP13 because the TPY has a lead time of 6-12 weeks, and Lenovo are extremely bad at telling you this. So far I'm happy with the Apple, but I can see myself picking a TPY up at some point..

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#64

Post by marcosdumay » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 7:08 PM UTC

LukasMathis wrote: post #20

Ologn wrote: post #18

> Preventing apps from interacting with each other cuts down on complexity, but it also means that it is difficult or sometimes even impossible to use multiple apps in conjunction on the same task. Which is why Android has a full-range systems of Intents, BroadcastReceivers etc. to deal with this. The blog post talks about how the iPad does not solve his problems, but Android is only mentioned once in a footnote.

I thought the article already covered a wide range of topics, so I wanted to focus on comparing the iPad and the Surface. You're right, though, Android solves many of these problems, too.

It's a bit unusual to say "look, this niche system solves a problem that the one used by 1/3 of the people does not solve", while ignoring that the one used by the other 2/3 of the people solves it.

It's a honest comparison, it's just completely useless.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#65

Post by pedalpete » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 7:11 PM UTC

GSimon wrote: post #33

I think this year and the next few years should be promising for Windows in the Tablet/Phone market. They were behind in specs for a while but their products are improving and are getting harder to ignore. I recently ordered Lenovo's ThinkPad 8 and can't wait for it to arrive. I think this is the first good alternative to the Windows Surface (it's lighter, higher res, better battery, smaller bezel, usb 3.0, sd card s…

I'd love to see a ThinkPad 8 with a i5 or i7 processor. Small and powerful, would be my full time machine.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#66

Post by 9876543210 » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 7:12 PM UTC

LukasMathis wrote: post #16

kzahel wrote: post #13

It is a very thorough exposition. However, I have to ask, what does this "burrying" mean?

Wow, probably the quickest I ever went from start of essay to first spelling mistake. Thanks for catching it!

  I used the Newton was a productivity device. 
  I used the P800 was a productivity device.

I think the word "was" should be replaced with "as" in these sentences.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#67

Post by mnglkhn2 » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 7:12 PM UTC

Windows 8 is great once you learn two shortcuts: First, Win+Q for searching and starting any program you need. Second: Win+R to get to the Run window.

With these two you just move very fluidly to where you need to be on a Win 8 machine.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#68

Post by nacs » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 7:12 PM UTC

GSimon wrote: post #33

I think this year and the next few years should be promising for Windows in the Tablet/Phone market. They were behind in specs for a while but their products are improving and are getting harder to ignore. I recently ordered Lenovo's ThinkPad 8 and can't wait for it to arrive. I think this is the first good alternative to the Windows Surface (it's lighter, higher res, better battery, smaller bezel, usb 3.0, sd card s…

> I really think the tides will start to turn in favor of Windows' mobile devices if they continue to improve they way they have recently.

Well it's hard for them to get worse so I guess 'improve' is the only option.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#69

Post by LukasMathis » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 7:13 PM UTC

marcosdumay wrote: post #64

LukasMathis wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the article already covered a wide range of topics, so I wanted to focus on comparing the iPad and the Surface. You're right, though, Android solves many of these problems, too.

It's a bit unusual to say "look, this niche system solves a problem that the one used by 1/3 of the people does not solve", while ignoring that the one used by the other 2/3 of the people solves it. It's a honest comparison, it's just completely useless.

I'm sorry my article wasn't useful to you.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#70

Post by LukasMathis » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 7:14 PM UTC

nickbarnwell wrote: post #60

LukasMathis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tried, but it didn't find anything. Not sure if my handwriting is so terrible, or if there's something else going wrong here. [Update: maybe the Metro version of OneNote doesn't support all of the features of the desktop version?]

I don't believe the OneNote Metro app supports indexing handwritten notes. If you open the same notebook in the Win32 client and allow it to index and sync back to Sky/One/WhateverIt'sCalledThisWeekDrive you should be able to search through previously handwritten and Win32-client-OCRd notes in the Metro app.

Interesting. I'll try that.