Category: Windows

Microsoft Surface… Surfaces?

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:windows-category ]Well the wait is over (kind of) and we now know more about Microsoft’s Surface tablet.

Rumors of a $299 price point have turned out to be incorrect but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.  Surface is a premium tablet, not a low-end one.  It’s designed to show what a Windows 8 tablet can be and as such can have a $499 starting point.  In fact this still comes in under an iPad in reality as it has twice the storage for the same cost.

Something I think is still missing are some more accessories, no charging stand, no funky covers that aren’t keyboards, no cases, etc.  They may be coming closer to launch but it would have been nice to see pre-orders for something else then the video cables and an extra charger 😉

Pre-orders opened last week and I’ve put mine in, I’ll be looking forward to the October 26th deliver!

Now all I have to hope is that, unlike with the TouchPad, Microsoft doesn’t discontinue the Surface within 4 weeks and cut the price to $99 😉

Microsoft Surface

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:hardware-category ]Two interesting items came out last week about Microsoft’s Surface line.

First off, the holiday Microsoft stores will be opening on Oct 26th, just in time for the Windows 8 launch and presumably the Surface RT tables to go on sale.  This makes my life a little bit easier as I won’t have the drive to the US or wait until the new Microsoft store opens in my area.

The second interesting thing that came up was the rumor (which seems to be confirmed by multiple sources now) that Microsoft will be building their own phone sometime in the new year.

First off I’m not waiting for an MS phone, I’ve pretty much decided now that I’ll be picking up a Lumia 920 as soon as I can as my primary phone.  While it is a bit larger/heavier than I would like, the inductive charging has won me over.

So why is MS making its own phone?

I think the answer is simple.  Microsoft has finally realized that depending upon partners to make designs that will compete with the top end phones isn’t working.  As great as the Nokia and HTC phones look, they seem like mid range phones really instead of high-end ones.  Now some might say the 920 is top of the line, which is true for the feature set, but it really is a big and heavy phone in comparison to the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S III.  Samsung Ativ S is a slim/light phone but with a huge display and no LTE.  Likewise it just seems too much like a re-purposed Android device.

So the obvious answer is for Microsoft to make their own phone.  A phone that will be comparable to the specs of the iPhone and GSIII while adding a design flare that clearly differentiates it from anything else out there.  MS has done it with the Surface tablets and the phone seems like a logical extension.

Microsoft could once again sell it primarily in their physical stores and not trample all over their partners while having a showcase phone to use in its advertising and marketing campaigns.

Time will tell for sure but here’s a though… The PC industry is pretty conservative in its design too, could a Surface PC and laptop push PC makers to compete not just in the mass market but for a designer market as well?

 

Windows Phone 8 SDK

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:mobile-category ]So Microsoft has finally decided to launch the Windows Phone 8 SDK, but in an unusual way.

First this is just a “preview” of the SDK.  Which means it’s still in flux, which seems odd at this late of date in the cycle.  Normally if we were going to see an October release, Microsoft would have RTM’d the software months ahead of time (like it did with Windows 8) to give partners and developers time to get ready for the launch.

The preview is only going to be open to existing developers with at least one app in the Marketplace, and even then to a limited number of people.  I will certainly be in line to get a copy, but with only one app in the Marketplace I doubt I’ll be high on the list to get it.

So this means I’ll have to wait, until the release of WP8 to get my hands on it, which seems strange, but I guess MS is running up to the last minute on this one to get everything done.

Hopefully that doesn’t result in a low quality product.

Another very odd thing about the announcement is that it occurred just hours after the Nokia/Microsoft press conference for the new Lumias. Microsoft took the stage twice during the conference, wouldn’t have been great for the to make the announcement live instead of in a blog post?

I wonder if they felt some pressure to release something due to the SDK leak a few weeks ago?

Don’t know for sure but I’ll be interested to see how things unfold over the next several weeks.

Samsung, HTC, Nokia and Windows Phone 8

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:mobile-category ]Ok, so Samsung has stolen a bit of Nokia’s thunder and announced their first Windows Phone 8 device a week before Nokia’s big event on Sept. 5th.  But is that a bad thing?  Heck no.  The more the merrier at the Windows Phone 8 party and the fact that Samsung felt the HAD to announce something before Nokia is a great sign that they want to complete in the Windows Phone 8 arena.

So first things first.  What the heck is with the name?  ATIV S?  I’ve read a dozen stories about it and I still had to go back and look it up because I couldn’t remember it.  Come on Samsung, you name your Android devices with easy to remember words like Galaxy, why no marketing love for Windows Phone 8?

Secondly, it does look like a great phone.  My first thought though was about the Windows button.  In the first few pictures I saw it kind of looked like it was raised up.  But subsequent images seem to have in recessed.  Either way I’m not sure a mix of physical and capacitive buttons on the front make sense.

HTC still hasn’t announced anything official, but a leaked image of an upcoming WP8 device certainly sets a different tone for their hardware than their WP7 devices.  I don’t think I like the colour, but otherwise it would be great to see HTC make a bold design statement like this.

And then there was Nokia.  The amount of leaks about the press conference is epic.  From everything we know it looks like they will be announcing the 820 and 920.  However just today a juicy tidbit was rumored as well, wireless charging!  And standards based none the less!  This has been on my wish list for years now and if the 920 does support it then it will most certainly be my next phone.

The same article mentions that the PureView will not be the 41 megapixel monster, but a more standard 8mp.  Not an issue for me.  Camera phones are fast and convenient, not for professional level photography.

But what else might Nokia have up its sleeve.  I think it’s entirely possible that they will announce a Windows RT tablet as well.  Nokia has said they want in the table game and Windows is the most obvious choice for them.  Could we see the 820/920/tablet all be available on Oct.26, the official launch day of Windows 8?

Here’s looking forward to a great September 5!

A week with Windows 8

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:windows-category ]So now that I’ve lived with Windows 8 for a while, what do I think?

In general, I think Microsoft has done an excellent job of integrating the new UI in to the existing Windows UI.  It does feel like the new UI is more of the focus, but that’s to be expected in the first release.  I believe they do have some more work to do on getting the right balance between them.

One of the things that most people bring up is the lack of a start button on the desktop.  I too have found this to be missing, luckily someone has already come to the rescue! Classic Shell gives you a start menu and can even drop you directly to the desktop on logon if you like.  I haven’t gone that far yet but having the start button back is kind of nice.

One annoyance I have run in to is when I RDP to a Windows 8 client, the edge controls (charms and scrolling the start menu) either don’t work (scrolling) or are much harder to hit.  In some cases you get to the point where you can’t use them.  For example I had RDP’d using the Metro RDP app in to another Windows 8 box.  Going to the right hand corner to get access to the computer settings fails because that charm is overlayed with the lcoal PC’s charm.  It’s no uncommon to if you have ever RDP’d to a remote system and then RDP’d again to another system, both in full screen mode.  The two RDP controls at the top overlay one another.

In general I’m quite happy with Windows 8.  I think once people actually use it a bit they grumblings will settle down.

I did have a conversation with a friend (also a computer geek) and his concern was that Metro wasn’t ready to take over from the desktop.  As Microsoft has said that this is coexistence, not replacement, this surprised me.  I suspect MS will have to do a better job of explaining that both user interfaces are here to say.

This weekend I may take the plunge on my primary PC.  Still debating it only because I have some development tools on it that may not be compatible.  Stay tuned next week to see if I throw caution to the wind!