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[Alx]

They have a point about the textbooks. Why not a cheaper device for those though? Nexus? Kindle? Why that much waste?

Yes I would think an e-reader would be much more appropriate. Cheaper, lighter, better battery life, better suited for text reading...

Too many people in education have stars in their eyes for Apple, and once they have their minds set on something, it's hard to change that.

That's unfortunately true. It still baffles me to see how many academics are using their research budget to buy Mac laptops that they can't/don't even use to code... Such a waste.

 

[MCD]

http://blog.surface.com/b/surface/a...including-resellers-isvs-and-accessories.aspx

Business accessories.

 

[Zoe]

What was that promotion and how come I've never heard about it?

There was this $199 promotion that ended yesterday: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsof...rs-and-students-schools-and-universities.aspx

Then there's this thing where if you get your school to use Bing Rewards, the points can be cashed in for RT: http://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2013/08/21/bfs.aspx

Can't find information on the other promotion though... I think it was tied to the curriculum program that they're trying to build.

 

[twdnewh_k]

Is the original RT worth it at $350?

 

[Funky Papa]

So this showed up.

Pretty, probably thin, almost assuredly worthless.

Spoiler

And that will be my WRT troll for today.

 

[Thrakier]

I tried SNES8x with a 360 controller - could it be that it's laggy as fuck?

 

[t-ramp]

Well, I just ordered a refurbished 64GB RT with touch cover from eBay for $280. Hope I don't regret this.

 

[AlteredBeast]

Well, I just ordered a refurbished 64GB RT with touch cover from eBay for $280. Hope I don't regret this.

That sounds like an amazing deal. Let me know how the touch cover works! I played with one with a type cover a few days ago and was REALLY impressed. Windows RT > every other tablet interface I have seen, and that was just in like 15 minutes of playing with it.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

That sounds like an amazing deal. Let me know how the touch cover works! I played with one with a type cover a few days ago and was REALLY impressed. Windows RT > every other tablet interface I have seen, and that was just in like 15 minutes of playing with it.

I think the touch cover works pretty well (just takes some getting used to) and the new touch covers look even better.

 

[AlteredBeast]

I think the touch cover works pretty well (just takes some getting used to) and the new touch covers look even better.

I am not too sold on them from the LOOKS of them, but looks can be deceiving. I have not seen one yet, but would love to try it out. Might have to take a trip to Best Buy or something and see if they have one on display.

 

[Milchjon]

Long version of those students trying to come up with blade concepts for Surface 2

 

[t-ramp]

That sounds like an amazing deal. Let me know how the touch cover works! I played with one with a type cover a few days ago and was REALLY impressed. Windows RT > every other tablet interface I have seen, and that was just in like 15 minutes of playing with it.

Will do. I spent a few minutes at Best Buy the other day before I ordered the refurbished RT on eBay, just taking a quick look at the display models. I thought the Touch Cover keyboard required a bit more pressure than I expected, which I'm thinking might just be due to how it's been used.

Also, how much lag is there when using Remote Desktop on the same WiFi network? I'm curious about how useful that could be to enhance the RT's capabilities.

 

[AlteredBeast]

Will do. I spent a few minutes at Best Buy the other day before I ordered the refurbished RT on eBay, just taking a quick look at the display models. I thought the Touch Cover keyboard required a bit more pressure than I expected, which I'm thinking might just be due to how it's been used.

Also, how much lag is there when using Remote Desktop on the same WiFi network? I'm curious about how useful that could be to enhance the RT's capabilities.

Was it a Touch Cover 2 or 1, though? I heard they improved the new one considerably...

 

[runningjoke]

My Pro died last night It turned itself off, and when I pressed the power button it showed the low battery icon, but the power cable was plugged in the whole time. Fortunately I just made backups.

This wasn't a common thing with Pros updated to 8.1, right?

 

[t-ramp]

My Pro died last night It turned itself off, and when I pressed the power button it showed the low battery icon, but the power cable was plugged in the whole time. Fortunately I just made backups.

This wasn't a common thing with Pros updated to 8.1, right?

Did you notice if it was discharging before that? Any chance the power supply itself is dead?

I'm liking my Surface, but the low screen resolution is definitely noticeable and the Touch Cover is only okay. I tried Remote Desktop with my desktop PC yesterday, though, which might come in handy at some point for using Photoshop or something.

 

[Rommel]

My Pro died last night It turned itself off, and when I pressed the power button it showed the low battery icon, but the power cable was plugged in the whole time. Fortunately I just made backups.

This wasn't a common thing with Pros updated to 8.1, right?

I have no problem with 8.1. I've had the charger replaced by Microsoft once when it went bad. They were very quick to send a replacement. Just contact customer service since you should still be under warranty.

 

[runningjoke]

The light on the cable was still on so I thought it was powered. Anyway last night I plugged it in upside down and it started working again.

 

[KoukiFC]

I just got a Pro 64GB thanks to the price drop and I offloaded the recovery to a flash drive to save some space.

The problem is the recovery space saved was made into a separate hard drive instead of adding 7GB to the C drive. Does anyone know how to put that 7GB into the C drive and not into a separate partition?

 

[Magwik]

So the Surface RT will be $200 on Black Friday at Best Buy and the MS Store. Is it worth it for that price?

 

[SonofdonCD]

My heart is set on the Asus Transformer Book T100, but for those who wouldn't mind the original 32 GB Surface, Micro Center will have them for $179.99 WITH Touch Cover keyboard. Great deal, especially if you don't care about full Windows on your tablet.

http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/microsoft_surfaceRT.aspx

 

[Xplatformer]

My Surface RT2 died one month after my purchase from Best Buy. Took it back...they made an exception to take it back after 31 days....AND SURFACE 2 UNITS AT ALL BEST BUY IN THE LOS ANGELES/LONG BEACH AREA ARE SOLD OUT!!!!!

And they have no idea when they will have more units.


I left with an iPad Retina Mini with a $50 cover.

I understand that Microsoft didn't want to be stuck with extra inventory of the 2, but fuck damn. I liked my Surface RT2 a shit ton more than I do this mini (which is an ok tablet...just not imo as enjoyable to use as my Surface. fricken Microsoft build quality. ).

 

[Xplatformer]

So the Surface RT will be $200 on Black Friday at Best Buy and the MS Store. Is it worth it for that price?

I can only speak for myself...and I'm basing this on the Surface RT2, not the RT.

Depending on what you're doing...HELL YES it's worth it. I have the new iPad Mini and even though the ecosystem is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than Windows RT....I preferred doing stuff on my RT2. A lot. Live tiles + IE 11...just works on a tablet.

Don't let the RT detractors tell you otherwise. It's a great tablet OS with just enough available apps for you to feel content while you wait for more applications to arrive.


I say that...but let me qualify something.

There are two apps that I've discovered on iOS that might make my experience on iOS an enjoyable one.

1) iBank...from what I can tell, the UI and feature set is better than any personal finance app available for Windows RT.

2) Shadowrun...

Other than those two apps, there is nothing I could foresee needing on the Surface RT that isn't available today.

 

[Dipper145]

My mom got a surface RT this morning for christmas, it charged fine at first. Now the magnetic charger won't connect to the charging area. It magnetically attaches everywhere else along that magnetic area on the bottom, but seems to be repelled where its supposed to connect to charge. I tried googling the problem, but it just came up with a bunch of surface rt reviews.

Any ideas what could have caused this?


EDIT: Alright I figured it out, turns out I'm just not that smart, I didn't really look at the device enough to realize it charges on the side and not the bottom, where I guess the keyboard accessory connects. OOPS! At least it'll be charged for my mom tomorrow morning.

 

[biRdy]

My mom got a surface RT this morning for christmas, it charged fine at first. Now the magnetic charger won't connect to the charging area. It magnetically attaches everywhere else along that magnetic area on the bottom, but seems to be repelled where its supposed to connect to charge. I tried googling the problem, but it just came up with a bunch of surface rt reviews.

Any ideas what could have caused this?


EDIT: Alright I figured it out, turns out I'm just not that smart, I didn't really look at the device enough to realize it charges on the side and not the bottom, where I guess the keyboard accessory connects. OOPS! At least it'll be charged for my mom tomorrow morning.

Good thing that was the case lol, must have gave you guys quite a scare.

Just got a Surface Pro 2, but I'll have to wait on the type cover as they seem to be sold out everywhere.

 

[SRTtoZ]

I know this is out of nowhere but I ordered a Surface RT 32gb with Touch Cover for $210 from an MS refurb seller on ebay and I think its a really cool device, this coming from an iPad Air user. Got it today, it wasnt even 'refurb', it was basically brand new, no scratches or fingerprints, all original boxes sealed etc.

The most annoying part so far was how I had to install a zillion updates and it took forever, but hey, once you get that out of the way you're pretty much set. The build quality on this thing is great, it feels great in your hands, I love the built in stand, I love the way the touch cover snaps into place with magnets, it just screams quality. The screen, seriously, if you told me it was 1080p I would have believed you. I'm not sure what type of technology is going on in there but it looks fabulous for a 720p screen. Retina quality? Not quite, but still, the best 720p tablet screen ive ever seen. Flash!! It feels amazing to have flash on a tablet. Hmm, what else, I'm quite new to the windows 8 metro feel (I still use win7 on my PC) but its pretty cool, the multitasking feature is great, I had netflix running and at the same time I was browsing gaf on IE, pretty cool stuff, way better than the laggy ass snap feature on the XB1. Anyway those are my first impressions of it, from someone who is very hard to please when it comes to new technology, I'm actually starting to eye a Pro 2... Hmmm.

Oh, I'm gonna give the surface to my sister as I don't really need 2 tablets but I still enjoyed it quite a bit and it gets too much negative attention IMO.

 

[dLMN8R]

One thing about updates - you really don't need to worry about installing them all manually (which does indeed take forever). Windows installs updates in a completely different way from iOS and Android, including Windows RT. In the first few days of using the device, everything will automatically download and install silently in the background, and once that's done it'll be a relatively quick reboot. If you instead manually install updates and reboot, the reboot portion will take a lot longer than if the device had time to take care of most of it in the background beforehand.

There are definitely a lot of performance improvements and bug fixes in those updates, but nothing super-critical that is absolutely necessary to have before using it for a few days.

 

[SRTtoZ]

Thanks for the info. Another question which you may or may not know, or maybe someone else can answer. I bought my iPad air a week ago, and I have a 15 day period in which I can return it for a full refund from BB, and I notice the 128gb Pro is on sale for 599, so I was wondering if 1) do you think its worth it as a tablet for that price? and 2) does anyone know if BB has some sort of limit on returns? If I ended up not liking it as much as my iPad, would I be able to just reutrn it again back for my Air? Crazy I know but the more I use this the more I'm sort of falling for it, and its weird because I'm the farthest thing from a Microsoft fan. The pro seems cool because of the better screen and the fact that I can install stream on it and play some older games on the go while having quadruple the storage of my Air.

 

[I'm an expert]

Once they dropped the Pro's price in October it absolutely became the best priced hybrid out there. The Pro 1/2 are basically the best piece of tech out there period, but it really depends on what you want to do with them and how much you want to get out of them. If you want a desktop experience and have a bunch of accessories already like mice, keyboards, externals, a hub, etc. then you really just need the Pro. If not, the price obviously goes up and up as you customize your experience. If you plan to use it as a portable work machine, you'll probably get by without much but a type cover. If you only plan to use it as an iPad like browsing tablet, then the Pro is not really worth it, or rather it's kind of wasted.

Take note, if you really want this to be a game machine, splurge for the 2. You say you'd only play some old games, but you'll most likely eventually crack and push the limits. The 1 is fast but it's going to chug on games even 2-3 years old on anything above low. And the battery life issue is resolved in 2, where with the 1 you will always keep your charger with you during the day if you're on the move.

Great piece of tech, completely different experience than an Apple product. I recommend coming to the Surface 2 thread where the convo is much more current among all Surface owners.

 

[SRTtoZ]

Once they dropped the Pro's price in October it absolutely became the best priced hybrid out there. The Pro 1/2 are basically the best piece of tech out there period, but it really depends on what you want to do with them and how much you want to get out of them. If you want a desktop experience and have a bunch of accessories already like mice, keyboards, externals, a hub, etc. then you really just need the Pro. If not, the price obviously goes up and up as you customize your experience. If you plan to use it as a portable work machine, you'll probably get by without much but a type cover. If you only plan to use it as an iPad like browsing tablet, then the Pro is not really worth it, or rather it's kind of wasted.

Take note, if you really want this to be a game machine, splurge for the 2. You say you'd only play some old games, but you'll most likely eventually crack and push the limits. The 1 is fast but it's going to chug on games even 2-3 years old on anything above low. And the battery life issue is resolved in 2, where with the 1 you will always keep your charger with you during the day if you're on the move.

Great piece of tech, completely different experience than an Apple product. I recommend coming to the Surface 2 thread where the convo is much more current among all Surface owners.

I had no idea there was a surface 2 thread, will head over. Thanks for the info, right now I'm thinking about going with a surface pro/2 and maybe an iPad mini to get my fix of all.

 

[Snarfington]

On my Surface RT on 8.1, I'm suddenly unable to change my lock screen picture or set a passcode/picture password. Just hangs, never confirms and I end up having to close Settings in order to load it up again. Looked all over Google and can't seem to find anything useful.

Does anyone have any ideas or am I stuck having to refresh/wipe?

 

[dysonEA]

So I bit and bought a 64GB Surface RT for $209 refurb. I have an iPad (4th gen, 16GB). Did I make a sound decision? Mainly want it for work purposes.

 

[Walshicus]

So I bit and bought a 64GB Surface RT for $209 refurb. I have an iPad (4th gen, 16GB). Did I make a sound decision? Mainly want it for work purposes.

I got a 32gb Surface 2 for pretty much the same reason. At what, £160? I don't think that's a bad price.

 

[Xplatformer]

My second Surface got the same boot sequence error that resulted i me getting a new one.


I'M DONE WITH MICROSOFT TABLETS.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

So...I don't have much hope for this, but figured I'd ask. Is there any way to get these 2 things to work on my Surface RT1 ?

• Wacom pen
• Manga Studio Debut 4

 

[Windu]

So...I don't have much hope for this, but figured I'd ask. Is there any way to get these 2 things to work on my Surface RT1 ?

• Wacom pen
• Manga Studio Debut 4

No

 

[kazinova]

Any interest in a Surface event thread today?

 

[hwalker84]

Nah just post in here unless they drop some bombs.

 

[deadbluesky]

Any interest in a Surface event thread today?

There is a thread already: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=813892

 

[Fox1304]

Anyone here installed OSX on their surface Pro ?
I'm an app developer, and would love to access all of the mandatory Apple ecosystem on this device.