Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mind if I ask what Thinkpad? And are you happy with it?
Highest end X1 Carbon, and yeah I absolutely love it.
Fantastic machines, even better Linuxed-up :-)
Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before
171–180 of 329 posts
Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before
#172I'm one of the people that switched from a MacBook Pro to the new Surface Book. The ENTIRE experience was dreadful for me. The day I went into the Microsoft store to purchase it (Black Friday), their credit card system was down, so I had to wait around for nearly 2 hours until they finally figured things out. That wouldn't typically upset me, but my brother-in-law went through something similar just 2 weeks prior. As…
Trackpads are one of the main things that other companies just can't get right, even on premium devices. Given how long ago Apple 'solved' trackpads, I'm amazed that the rest of the industry hasn't caught up.
The thing that bugs me is that companies are mindlessly copying Apple.
PC makers are basically copying Apple's implementation of trackpads without consideration to the execution. They spend a lot of time copying the superficial features of the Apple track pads, but no time on the actual functionality of the trackpads.
Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two days ago, immediately after several programs crashed and shortly before the entire OS locked up, I managed to capture this: http://i.imgur.com/ecCPlcs.png That is Crash Reporter crashing. The following is the last screenshot I was able to take before the system stopped being able to write files: http://i.imgur.com/IK7j98P.png Sierra has been an absolute nightmare in every respect that I have been forced to reboot…
+1 to this. I purchased a brand new touchbar 2016 MacBook Pro. At a cost of 2800 dollars to me. I've had the following problems: 1) They wrote a driver that blew out my speaker and I had to wait 5 weeks for a replacement. http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/11/30/apple-updates-boot... 2) There is graphical tearing and glitching everywhere. http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/02/new-macbook-pro-graphics... 3) The OS rest…
I considered all these issues and just ordered the new XPS 13 Dev Edition. I'm a bit nervous about making the change (and the rest of my ecosystem is macOS/iOS), but kinda excited.
Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before
#174I am a Surface convert after Apple discontinued OS support and updates for my still powerful, healthy, relatively new Macbook. Surface is much more flexible and provides a greater degree of customization. It is the perfect hybrid between and tablet and a laptop device. I'm just as comfortable using it as a consumption device on the couch as I am using it as a production device on a desk. It really feels like Apple ha…
What do you mean by "attitude towards customers"? This has always been a selling point for me. Especially if I have an issue with a device, I can get it solved quickly without being made to feel stupid by a CSR.
Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just installed Windows 10. My start menu by default was full of stuff I will never ever use. After deleting/uninstalling apps (where it would allow me) the OS decides to install Candy Crush and other games I never asked for. Unacceptable.
Microsoft deserves every bit of ridicule lobbed its way for adding advertising to it's start menu in Win10. That being said they aren't the only offender, my iPhone has a folder of apps called Apple Trash filled with Apple's collection of worthless default apps that can't be removed from iOS.
If you're on iOS 10 you can 'remove' (more akin to the 'disable' function on Android) them. However, this also kills functionality associated with that app. You can't say 'hey Siri what song am I hearing' if you have removed the Music app.
Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before
#176It feels like Apple the PC is neglected for Apple the phone/tablet. If I'm looking for a mobile device, I'm looking at Apple. But for laptop and desktop, their offerings don't seem as great. The cloud approach is making it less necessary to keep the PC within the Apple ecosystem. iOS devices already don't have expandable storage, and most data ends up being on iCloud or other internet services.
If you're doing full-cloud then a chromebook is the best value.
Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before
#177I'm one of the people that switched from a MacBook Pro to the new Surface Book. The ENTIRE experience was dreadful for me. The day I went into the Microsoft store to purchase it (Black Friday), their credit card system was down, so I had to wait around for nearly 2 hours until they finally figured things out. That wouldn't typically upset me, but my brother-in-law went through something similar just 2 weeks prior. As…
Sounds like you were looking for excuse to go back to Apple.
Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before
#178I borrowed an i7 Surface Book to work on a project, and couldn't imagine making it my primary laptop. The worst part was having friends constantly share tips for making Windows approximate a *nix environment... I'd need to rethink everything from a Windows click-menu-checkbox perspective to make it work.
Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe that Apple has patented a lot of what makes their touchpads so great, which makes it difficult for competitors to make an equivalent.
I don't think that's the reason why. Track pads are just another part of Apple's obsession with UX. They invest millions (literally) into track pad placement, feel, and ability knowing that users care about it and they'll make it up with volume. It's hard to justify UX spend.
Indeed. They purchased FingerWorks[1], a maker of obscure touchpad-based keyboards, in order to get their touchpad experts.
Most other companies would just integrate Synaptic's reference design and call it a day.
Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before
#180Just to chime in. Since the displeased are always loud. I got my maxed out TouchBar MBP 15" about two weeks ago and I'm really happy with it. It replaces a Mid-2010 MBP 17". It's light, fast and has a gorgeous screen. After a week, I even prefer the new thin keyboard versus the old. My external keyboard feels like trudging through mud. No trouble hitting the ESC-key on the touch bar. The context awareness of it is ac…
Similar boat, my 13" (not maxed out) touch bar MBP arrived last week.
The touch bar works really well. I didn't anticipate this, but it's really slippery. Feels almost like it's coated in teflon. Your finger just glides on it, moreso than the trackpad. Wouldn't have occurred to me, but the slightly rougher surface gives your finger a better feel for trackpad movement. On the touchbar, it's very wide and 1-dimensional, and the low friction is perfect.
The screen is impressive. DCI-P3 does great reds, and better greens than sRGB (but not quite as saturated green as Adobe RGB's). It's also very bright. I rarely feel like I have to set it for maximum brightness, even when I'm plugged in.
Keyboard is great. It took me maybe a few hours to get used to it, and I like it better than the previous MBP keyboards.
Being able to plug in the power cord on either side isn't the biggest deal, but it's nice to have. When your outlet is on the right side, you just plug it straight in. No more looping the cord around and into the far side.
My previous laptop is a 13" MBA (2011), and the new MBP is both smaller and faster.
Honestly, I don't use external devices that much, and when I do, I'm at my desk 99% of the time. USB-C is no big deal to me. Right now I'm still carrying USB-A cables because that's what my power bank is, so carry a one USB-A to USB-C cable that I can use to connect my iOS things to the laptop, or in case I need to connect to someone else's external drive or something. My personal flash drive has both types of connector.
Probably won't be getting any of the fancy thunderbolt screens, but I may invest in a thunderbolt docking station to get power, ethernet, and my existing displayport screen all running on one cable. Awaiting reviews on any of those, and need to confirm that they handle DisplayPort multi-stream transport for 4K@60Hz.