research and playing with different units. Youtube has some neat videos about notetaking on tablets and on 'one note'. Thanks for the all the info. I will be near a microsoft store at the end of the month and play with a surface. I will let you know what I think in a few weeks.
The only reason I'm waiting for the pro is to be able to run Basecamp. The RT sounds great for travel but the ability to use BC on the road is a real plus. Any work a rounds to use your Garmin on an RT?? I'll wait for the pro to see it but an 11" ultrabook with win8 is probably how I'll go.
Stop trying to pimp Android, pimp. Nobody wants your Ginger Beans and Jelly Bread here. Take it to a different thread; a thread filled with hipster contrarians and fat, old people with delusions of trendy fadness. (And, NO, Android does not redline nor do esigs with my client's RFx systems. At least not consistently enough to rely upon.) This is one more. Ugh. Basecamp. WTF haven't they come up with an app yet?
Interesting link: http://www.displaymate.com/Surface_RT_ShootOut_1.htm The Surface table is indeed in many aspects superior to the ipad display. Especially the power consumption is awesome with only 2.3 watt (ipad 7w, galaxy 4.8). The Surface RT has the lowest Reflectance we have measured for all of the Tablets in our Display Shoot-Outs. The iPad 3 reflects 33 percent more Ambient Light than the Surface RT and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 reflects 41 percent more. The iPad 3 has 52 percent brighter Mirror Reflections than the Surface RT and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has 62 percent more. All of the Tablets have comparable Brightness and Contrast Ratios, but Contrast Ratio is only relevant for low ambient light. The Surface RT has the Best Contrast Rating for High Ambient Light for all of the Tablets in our Display Shoot-Outs. The Surface RT is significantly more Power Efficient than both the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the new iPad 3. This is consistent with its much longer Running Time on Battery, below. The Surface RT has the second longest Battery Running Time at Maximum Brightness for any Tablet we have tested. Since the display consumes the most device power, the Running Times at lower Brightness settings will be longer.
I don't know if it's my bifocals, my oldish monitor, I forgot my drugs, or I took too many drugs, but this post looks weirdly 3D to me, like the red is on top and the blue/white are in back. And it's a post about display color, contrast, life, etc. Oh the irony.
Putting red and blue together like that hurts anyone's eyes. Doc and Jos can you take out the color formatting?
Not that you've had the surface for a few weeks, are you happy with it, Bored with it? What is your typical use for the tablet?
I can't wait to play with a surface w/ keyboard. My Dell XPS laptop is 5 years old, and is getting on in years. The inverter went on it for the screen, so I have one ordered. I am currently working in a tech-centric job, and have been playing with Windows 8 a lot. At first I hated it, but the more I use it, and the more I get used to it, it does have some really cool features. The though of being able to have win8 on my desktop, and then fire up a tablet and have my settings all the same, and the start panel laid out the same is really appealing to me. Plus, between Skydrive, Google Drive, and Google Play Music, I don't need the storage capacity that I once did. The thought of a dual function device (tablet and laptop) is also extremely appealing. I have an HP netbook (with slackware linux currently running), and for all of my use on it, I would be happier with a tablet. The thought of being able to dock a keyboard to a tablet is just even better. Plus, with my android phone and Foxfi, I have a wifi hotspot anywhere I go, without extra fees. Veerrry cool. The Surface is a strong contender for my next tech purchase, that's for sure. With a quadcore 1.2ghz processor, it is probably comparable or a bit quicker than the Core2Duo 2.0 in my laptop, and definitely faster than the 1.6ghz atom in my netbook. I used to think a tablet would be a waste of time for me, but now that I realize that I use a laptop for web surfing, listening to music with headphones, emailing, and some text documents, I have come to the realization that a tablet does all of that, as long as I have the option of a keyboard for longer emails and word docs. Plus, the form factor will be great for traveling.
Micrsoft store today, it was empty of customers, the sales geeks let me play with a surface and though I was impressed by the stoutness of build, the display seemed slow and there was quite a bit of waiting do for apps to start. I am not sure if it is capable of doing what I want; taking pictures of various electronic devices and making stylus written notes about them on the pic's themselves and in writing space below and then later converting that handwriting to text and manipulating that text. I know I am not asking for much. Stopped by the apple store right afterwards, it was mobbed, apple sure seems to have something going on. I picked up a galaxy tab with stylus from costco, if I can't it do what I want in 90 days, I get to take it back for a full refund.
just went and looked at one, can not load firefox on the RT and they want $100 extra for the keyboard cover, either sticking with my HP touchpad or buying an Ipad (the horror)
App load times is something I've seen others write about, In the few minutes I played with one of these, I didn't see anything to complain about. I wonder, are you expecting desktop speeds out of this thing, or are you compating to a similar device?
ipad, just the simple fact of rotating the device there seemed to be a lag. And loading seemed time consuming then taking pictures sort of complicated. Maybe what I need to sit down with it for a couple of hours and learn the process.
After playing with some more win8 devices, I have decided there is no way in hell I am going to buy one of those pieces of crap, and will be getting an Asus Transformer Infinity instead. My God are they glitchy as hell.
I did the same thing and I am using the heck out of my Galixy Tab 2 7 inch. If it had more memory it would be great. Being able to tether it to my phone has even made it better. Downloaded local maps in Google Maps and have Crafty Coders Dualsportmaps app... Just need a waterproof case and a ram mount Even connected bluetooth headset to listem to streaming music. It has been pretty impressive.
I think one thing to keep in mind, is that Microsoft has an alternative vision of the tablet. Where in many ways, the iPad and Android tablet's are essentially blown-up cell phones, the Windows RT experience is an attempt at further bridging the gap between the 'small' mobile device experience and the larger desktop/laptop. The obvious advantage with Apple's approach, is the application availability as well as the lesser hardware requirements. With the MS approach, the operating system is 'heavier' supporting a huge library of USB device drivers, the MS Office environment, larger display screen, and etc. Both approaches are certainly valid, and your own personal use case probably determines which device you're going to be happiest with. In my case, I had an Andriod tablet and an iPad, neither were complete answers to my questions so I gave them away. The Surface seems to come much closer to what I need. I've not taken the plunge yet, but so far have not seen anything that turns me away. Windows RT is certainly not a mature product and there is a lot of room for improvement, but I think MS will be there for the long haul and I expect rapid improvement.
