Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

ignorethecode.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 162 posts

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#101

Post by doorhammer »

slantyyz wrote: post #81
doorhammer wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome. Yeah, I think I'm going to do just that today. I've got an ipad, which I love for a lot of things, but even with the various pens/stylii, the writing experience is pretty bad, for me.

The one gotcha, especially if you go for a heavily discounted Surface Pro 1, is battery life when compared to the likes of an iPad. If you can deal with that, the Surface Pros are fantastic devices.

I figured that might be the case. If I got one I'd go with the Surface Pro 2, more than likely.

I also plan on keeping the iPad around. lstamour mentioned this in another post, but weight-wise, I'm assuming I'll still prefer it for reading pdf's and such. That's actually the main reason I got an iPad to begin with. I wanted to be able to read tech books, pdf's, papers, etc on something electronic and iPad beat everything else I tried.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#102

Post by doorhammer »

eropple wrote: post #82
doorhammer wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The digital pen part is the one that keeps tempting me to check out the surface pro 2. I'm no artist, but having a digital notebook would be really nice. I want something that really comes close to the fidelity and feel of a notebook and a pen. For instance, when I'm sketching out a design or an idea, I like to jot down the ideas, connections, etc, and move them around. I like doodling random notes during meetings, a…

I bought one yesterday on the strength of the pen alone. It was an impulse buy and I may return it (14 day return, no-restock-fee), but it is really, really impressive and I'm digging it. It'll also let me build a touch version of my game on a system I can also build on, which is pretty handy. I wasn't looking forward to deploying to Android ten bajillion times. Also, oh my god is OneNote wonderful with that pen. It…

I'm going to go take a look at one now and see how I like it. I doubt I'll pick one up today, but who knows. I've impulse bought worse.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#103

Post by joe_the_user »

dangrossman wrote: post #5
bunderbunder wrote: post #2

's funny; one of the screenshots is used to call out the Charms bar as an example of great UI. For me - as a user of Windows 8 on a desktop - it has become something of an icon of just how poor Windows 8's UI is. On a tablet, you swipe it out from the left edge of the screen. Makes sense - so much sense that Apple copied the idea in iOS 7. On a PC, you bring out the charms bar by frustratedly wiggling your mouse agai…

Shooting the mouse into a corner is actually one of those gestures that is hardest to get wrong, which is why we've placed the window's close button up there for decades. Your mistake is aiming for the side instead of the top right corner of the screen; you can't overshoot it, so it never takes more than one physical gesture. You can also swipe from the right edge of your touchpad as if it were the screen.

I've read the article talking endlessly about the corners as the easiest place for users to reach and I can accept that they are correct on their own terms.

The problem is that on a laptop people are used to both visual and kinesthetic cues for their action. Just as much, any mouse "gesture" effect has to leverage our intuition about physical things... when a gesture in one place (a corner) causes something to happen elsewhere (a side), it feels unnatural and is going to keep feeling unnatural no matter how many fan boys wiggle noses and say "you're doing it wrong, this is really easy no matter hard you're claim to find it...".

Edit: The point is the bar appearing on the side cues the user to go to the side, regardless of their great dexterity at going to the corner if they happened to remember to do that (as the gp actually implies).

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#104

Post by 300bps »

pinaceae wrote: post #50
fumar wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last summer I participated in a startup accelerator in Chicago. My Macbook died in the first week! At the time, I didn't have the funds to purchase another Apple machine. Luckily, my girlfriend had recently purchased a Surface RT with the keyboard cover. I did not think that the tablet would be able to replace a laptop for "serious" work, but it did. There are a couple of things that allowed me to do this. First, a U…

you did all of that on a Surface RT? Impressive, because Excel and Powerpoint are unusably slow on RT. Source: We've developed a business app for Win 8, development was co-sponsered by MS and Intel. We have a very succesful iPad app in our vertical, it allowed large swaths of our customer base to switch to iPads for their fieldforce. MS themselves acknowledged that if you want to handle "large Excel" files, the RT is…

because Excel and Powerpoint are unusably slow on RT.

I guess if you're using pivot tables or vlookups on massive datasets you might have a point. But I use Excel every day on my Surface RT and it performs very well.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#105

Post by sliverstorm »

slantyyz wrote: post #88
eropple wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought one yesterday on the strength of the pen alone. It was an impulse buy and I may return it (14 day return, no-restock-fee), but it is really, really impressive and I'm digging it. It'll also let me build a touch version of my game on a system I can also build on, which is pretty handy. I wasn't looking forward to deploying to Android ten bajillion times. Also, oh my god is OneNote wonderful with that pen. It…

>> Mac laptop, Windows tablet, Android phone. My digital ecosystem is confused. Is it though? I know a lot of pundits like to use the phrase "Post-PC", but I think of it more like "Post-OS". I am in the exact same boat as you, except that I have a Nexus 7 in addition to my Surface Pro. Contrast that to 2010, when iOS was much more compelling at the tablet and phone level. Android, Windows Phone and Windows have prett…

OS matters way way less than it used to (Think of the bad old days, where Macs couldn't read Windows floppies), but it can still be a pain. For example, Google Music integrates best with Android. Microsoft OneDrive is most slick on Windows. iTunes runs like crap on anything other than OSX.

You can get away with any hodgepodge mix these days if you want, but it's still more convenient to match.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#106

Post by RexRollman »

slantyyz wrote: post #86
RexRollman wrote: post #31

I have been wanting to give another tablet a try after getting rid of my iPad. I liked the iPad hardware but the device was too hobbled in regards to file management (IMO). A couple of days ago, I played with a Surface 2 at my local Staples and was pretty impressed by it and its type cover. The touch interface, which isn't particularly nice on a desktop computer, was pretty cool on a tablet. I also liked that is has…

I would suggest you look at a Bay Trail (Atom) based W8 tablet instead of an ARM unit. The battery life is fantastic (and comparable to ARM), and you'll be able to run traditional desktop apps in a pinch.

I prefer the Surface to the Bay Trails I've seen so far and it has to be a least ten inches for my old eyes.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#107

Post by slantyyz »

RexRollman wrote: post #106
slantyyz wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest you look at a Bay Trail (Atom) based W8 tablet instead of an ARM unit. The battery life is fantastic (and comparable to ARM), and you'll be able to run traditional desktop apps in a pinch.

I prefer the Surface to the Bay Trails I've seen so far and it has to be a least ten inches for my old eyes.

IIRC, there are 11" Dell Venues that start with the Bay Trail and move up into the i# processors.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#108

Post by slantyyz »

sliverstorm wrote: post #105
slantyyz wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Mac laptop, Windows tablet, Android phone. My digital ecosystem is confused. Is it though? I know a lot of pundits like to use the phrase "Post-PC", but I think of it more like "Post-OS". I am in the exact same boat as you, except that I have a Nexus 7 in addition to my Surface Pro. Contrast that to 2010, when iOS was much more compelling at the tablet and phone level. Android, Windows Phone and Windows have prett…

OS matters way way less than it used to (Think of the bad old days, where Macs couldn't read Windows floppies), but it can still be a pain. For example, Google Music integrates best with Android. Microsoft OneDrive is most slick on Windows. iTunes runs like crap on anything other than OSX. You can get away with any hodgepodge mix these days if you want, but it's still more convenient to match.

>> iTunes runs like crap on anything other than OSX.

I know a lot of Mac users who would beg to differ.

I use Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive across all my devices, and I don't have many complaints at all. YMMV, of course. My use case is probably much simpler than yours.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#109

Post by dontmakemelaugh »

So yeah. Here's what me thinks...

I use Linux for like 5 years exclusively now. But I don't go around trying to argue how great it is or something. It is great for me, so much is clear. I'm just very happy that I am rid of all this proprietary BS.

Why do people write blog posts about such topics? I don't get it. It must be hugely boring to write them. And the shitstorm that ensues is probably even worse. Apple fanboys vs. MS fanboys vs. Google proponents vs. C64 veterans vs. Amiga shitheads vs. Atari nuts vs. Gravis Ultrasound!

My car is better than yours!

I've got only just a few years left (maybe) to dig around earth. I write quick stupid comments like this one to let you all know that you suck big time.

You should really think about it. Do you want to waste your time reading this crap? Isn't life more than that?

Ok, spock. Enough tricks played. Let them alone. Good night!

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#110

Post by LukasMathis »

dontmakemelaugh wrote: post #109

So yeah. Here's what me thinks... I use Linux for like 5 years exclusively now. But I don't go around trying to argue how great it is or something. It is great for me, so much is clear. I'm just very happy that I am rid of all this proprietary BS. Why do people write blog posts about such topics? I don't get it. It must be hugely boring to write them. And the shitstorm that ensues is probably even worse. Apple fanboy…

I've love to read your opinion on Linux.
Post reply on HN