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Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

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Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#81

Post by slantyyz »

doorhammer wrote: post #41
LukasMathis wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not as good as pen on paper, but the closest I've ever seen. You should probably go to a store and play with one to see if it suits you. I bought my Surface after I did that.

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.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#82

Post by eropple »

doorhammer wrote: post #34
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…

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 is so good.

Mac laptop, Windows tablet, Android phone. My digital ecosystem is confused.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#83

Post by mynameisvlad »

smegel wrote: post #76

Blah blah blah Surface is good for bland office related productivity tasks. Yeah we've heard it all before. Microsoft shills are truly the worst shills.

Maybe you've heard it all before because it actually is good for productivity tasks. Did you ever think of that?

Not everyone is a shill.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#84

Post by slantyyz »

LukasMathis wrote: post #40
AndrewGaspar wrote: post #35

"The way I want handwriting recognition to work is to take notes by jotting them down inside an app like OneNote, and have Windows recognize that automatically, behind the scenes, optionally without replacing my handwritten notes with printed text. Then, I want to be able to search my handwritten notes using full-text search." OneNote actually already does this! Try searching in OneNote for things you've written in p…

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?]

You need the full version of OneNote for the recognition.

It's vastly superior, but on the plus side, if you're using OneDrive or Office 365, you can edit existing notes either one depending on your needs for a given situation.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#85

Post by nacs »

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.

> Your mistake is aiming for the side instead of the top right corner of the screen

His mistake or just UI design so bad even a techie can't figure it out?

The amount of "you're doing it wrong" when it comes to addressing Windows 8/Surface UI issues is mind boggling.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#86

Post by slantyyz »

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.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#87

Post by LukasMathis »

slantyyz wrote: post #80
LukasMathis wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not as good as pen on paper, but the closest I've ever seen. You should probably go to a store and play with one to see if it suits you. I bought my Surface after I did that.

>> Not as good as pen on paper, but the closest I've ever seen. Agree 100%. The only catch is that the pen tracking can go a little wonky near the edges. There is, however, a fix: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2171198 If you don't need handwriting recognition (I don't personally, but it is nice to have), I've found that Stylus Labs Write to be better than the App Store's version of OneNote ( http:/…

I've used a Cintiq for years, and it has the exact same issue with tracking the pen near the edges. If anything, it's worse than the Surface. So it never occurred to me that there might be a solution. Thank you for the link!

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#88

Post by slantyyz »

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…

>> 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 pretty much caught up, and I love how all this competition has created consumer choice. I can pick the device that best suits my use case for computing, tablet and phone.

In 2010, I was all-in on OSX, iPad and iPhone. Today, just like you, I'm using three OSes. Moving data between the devices is painless. In my mind, there's really no need to go all in with a single company's ecosystem any more.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#89

Post by pnathan »

IMO: Neither iOS or Android really nail what a touchscreen could be. The Surface Pro seems to be the closest real step in this area.

But I'll pass on buying it - it's spendy and I don't have any other Windows tech to interop with it.

Re: Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

#90

Post by slantyyz »

LukasMathis wrote: post #87
slantyyz wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Not as good as pen on paper, but the closest I've ever seen. Agree 100%. The only catch is that the pen tracking can go a little wonky near the edges. There is, however, a fix: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2171198 If you don't need handwriting recognition (I don't personally, but it is nice to have), I've found that Stylus Labs Write to be better than the App Store's version of OneNote ( http:/…

I've used a Cintiq for years, and it has the exact same issue with tracking the pen near the edges. If anything, it's worse than the Surface. So it never occurred to me that there might be a solution. Thank you for the link!

When you calibrate, you also need to make sure you hold the pen vertically. Even after the more detailed calibration, you'll get a few minor issues, but it's way better than the 8 point calibration.

Landscape vs Portrait will also cause issues, because the angle of the pen is different, and causes tracking issues. It's imperfect, but I still love how good the pen is on the Surface compared to all the tablets that don't have a Wacom digitizer.

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