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Introducing Surface Laptop

blogs.windows.com

451–460 of 613 posts

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#451

The bad news is they're targeting students. Who wants to see his children being locked into MS Windows software by school? Besides, we just found out Windows 10 has almost complete control over your system and calls home, now sending your kids private data as a bonus! I would never accept my kids using a device like this on school. Schools are just ignorant and stupid if they make a deal for these laptops with MS. Sc…

You say "locked in" like they can't use another computer. (For example, getting a Raspberry Pi to hack on, if they're so inclined.)

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#452
post #234

Do any of you have children at a school using Google Chromebooks and Google Drive? Calling Windows S a Chromebook competitor completely misses the point. Chromebooks are instant on, and your profile/data is 100% cloud based. You can grab any Chromebook from the rack in the back of the classroom, open it up, log in and immediately get to work on your report or whatever. I got an original Chromebook from Google I/O yea…

Until you loose internet connectivity (happens from time to time), or go abroad and don't want to pay high fees for net access. Or when Google decides that you broke some of their rules (frequently happens in AdSense) and blocks all of your accounts.

Or someone smashes your machine with a hammer, or there's a nuclear war...

All kinds of things can go wrong. I'm not really sure what your point is.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#453
I'm underwhelmed - but that's probably because I'm not the targeted user. 4GB of RAM... a youtube video, a chat window, facebook, google docs and then it will be out of memory? Also no nvidia card for graphics acceleration (VR, gaming, machine learning). Also I'm sure many kids will find a way to hack it and install steam and other good apps.

I just hope it's an entrée before Microsoft introduces the next generation of surface books.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#454

Do any of you have children at a school using Google Chromebooks and Google Drive? Calling Windows S a Chromebook competitor completely misses the point. Chromebooks are instant on, and your profile/data is 100% cloud based. You can grab any Chromebook from the rack in the back of the classroom, open it up, log in and immediately get to work on your report or whatever. I got an original Chromebook from Google I/O yea…

I use them at work for mobile users. Perfect for most uses out of the can, and can connect to VDI.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#455
Shame no 32GB option. The worst thing about Apple not offering it is that it has taken pressure off competitors. Laptops supporting 32GB are quite rare beasts as a result.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true - have to disagree. The touchpad on a mac is not mechanical - you get a uniform "click" no matter where you press. For PC laptops, the touchpads are still mechanical and work almost as if on a hinge. The hinge is at the top of the pad so clicking near there sometimes is impossible.

are you talking about Surface Book's touchpad specifically or PC touchpads in general ? Also, when did touchpad on the mac stopped being mechanical? My experience is with pre retina MacBook Pro.

They stopped being mechanical in the Early 2015 models, now they use force touch, which mimics a click using vibration.

It allows you to click anywhere on the touchpad with feedback (it feels like an actual click), which is pretty awesome, but you get used to it quick and it makes it hard to switch back and forth between a regular touchpad and a force touchpad.

You should go to an apple store and check it out.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#457
post #452
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until you loose internet connectivity (happens from time to time), or go abroad and don't want to pay high fees for net access. Or when Google decides that you broke some of their rules (frequently happens in AdSense) and blocks all of your accounts.

Or someone smashes your machine with a hammer, or there's a nuclear war... All kinds of things can go wrong. I'm not really sure what your point is.

> Or... or...

The point, I guess, would be that losing internet connection for these reasons is not an issue.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#458
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But we should worry about google building advertising profiles on children, as they have been doing.

Very true, I was thinking of Chromebooks purely from a utility standpoint, but if parts of Google's plan is to build profiles on children starting from when they're young, that is actually especially nefarious. I'm worried most of all that Google will use some sort of sentiment analysis or other machine learning tool to classify kids based on academic ability and build a sort of "cognitive profile" on children as the…

This is really disturbing. Pretty much the literal definition of "hook em wile they're young. I am starting to think we need a standard oil style breakup of google/amazon/fb.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole Windows, AD, O365 etc. experience is a PITA. I know there are all sorts of technological legacy and legacy business reasons for that, but let's face it: in the current form, the Windows model can't compare to something integrated like a Chromebook. It's not about who is 'better' or technically more capable, it's about what works for users, and Windows isn't it. Most of the time it is just what 'happens to b…

I would love to see that day. Maybe do away with most of the over engineered concepts as well.

Or, you could use Linux. Today.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you worry about this? Do you believe targeted ads are more harmful to your child than non-targeted?

If ads were the only issue I'd be pretty happy and willing to give advertisers all my information. Trouble is companies and law enforcement frequently abuse information, and even when they don't, they get hacked by other people who do.

I wouldn't be "happy" to give them all my info. I'd like to be able to share my screen with the person standing next to me, "look at this thing I've found", without worrying some advertiser is going to reveal any personal detail they'd like to infer about me through which advert they pop on my screen.

Especially if we're talking about children and young adults, where even "you watch that tv show?" can be a source for social discomfort.

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