Surface |OT|

Angelus Errare said:
He should be the face of MS product launches. He's the closest MS has to a Steve Jobs type.

With that said, the stage they're on isn't solid so it's obvious it wouldn't break. Still cool to watch though, he oozes confidence and doesn't come across as a suit.
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Comes off as the sham-wow guy.
 
Yeah he isn't jobs level but he is a great salesman. But more in a really good car salesman/shopping network type of way. Not a bad thing at all though.
 
Kinda off topic-- I've been using Windows 8 on a Sunsumng SLate 7 for a while now... my question is-- is the app store still kinda light, or is it filtered by device or OS sersion in some way? I doesn't seem like there's a lot there yet.

I was hoping for a big flood of apps around the Surface release.
 
Ignatz Mouse said:
Kinda off topic-- I've been using Windows 8 on a Sunsumng SLate 7 for a while now... my question is-- is the app store still kinda light, or is it filtered by device or OS sersion in some way? I doesn't seem like there's a lot there yet.

I was hoping for a big flood of apps around the Surface release.
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It's still light but about 500 apps are being added daily at this point.
 
commish said:
Yeah, I just called the Times Square store. They had very few 32s left, but a bunch of 64s. I'm headed over there right now, so I'll post an update in a bit.
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Let us know if it's still crowded. Last I heard there was still a line. Soooo tempted but argh not sure I want to make the trip from Staten Island today. What time does it close anyway?
 
Edmonton, Canada pop-up store did not receive ANY Surfaces (save for the demo units). They were still "pre-selling" them, though - along with "Microsoft Complete", their $99, 2 year accidental damage warranty. I bought one, to get the 1yr Xbox Music Pass, and the $50 apology gift card, but it's still pretty frustrating waiting early in the AM to get this device, only to be told that UPS dropped the ball and that "Microsoft has loaded a Cessna in Redmond to bring some Surfaces ASAP". I was the fourth person in line to get one here, but, even after paying, and 5 hours later, no one can give us a straight answer as to when we will actually get the device. Best I got was a shameful, "Optimistically, we may get them around closing time at West Edmonton Mall (which is 6pm - 3 hours from now)".

I mean, I love Microsoft, and I hate to say this, but that would never happen to Apple for their iPad launch. Why weren't these devices in stores days ago?

Hilarious, but still excited. I'll be waiting by the phone, as they said they will personally courier the device to wherever I am in the city as soon as they get them in.
 
Mine was delivered before 10:30am this morning. I've been carrying it around all day, going to meetings at work with it and such. It sure is a people magnet! Everyone wants to hold it, mess with it. Universally, people remark on the build quality, which is the first thing I noticed when unboxing it, and I'm sure the biggest plus in the Surface's column for initial impressions.

The touch screen is ultra responsive, and looks fantastic. Sure, it isn't ultra high rez, but it gets the job done and looks great doing it.

I've not downloaded too many apps, but the ones that I have work great.

The Touch Cover is fantastic, and even though I own tons of other tablets, this one feature is enough to keep me using the Surface, at least at work. It's so handy that it's integrated into the cover. I love how it snaps into place, and how the outside feels.

The kickstand is another feature that I'm going to have trouble living without, should I want to use other tablets. So handy, and so well-made. I know they made a bunch of ballyhoo over their time spent working on it, but the hype was justified, as it works as promised and looks great doing it.

Overall, I'm very impressed, probably more with the build quality of the hardware than the software at this point, as I haven't gotten enough time with the latter, and am certainly glad I bought it.
 
Couple notes about disk space and such:

Surface follows the same storage space trend as every other device and HDD on the planet. That means that the 32GB version has 32,000,000,000 bytes of storage.

32GB as calculated by Windows is actually 32 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 = 34,359,738,368 bytes

So the 32,000,000,000 = 29.8GB in File Explorer.

Then consider the fact that Surface supports reset/refresh. That means there's an image on a separate partition somewhere that enables you to do factory reset. That image is probably at least a few gigabytes in size.

Finally, something you guys with Surfaces have probably not done yet, and something that isn't advertised anywhere - Surface comes with a bunch of language packs preinstalled on it. That's how the first-run experience lets you choose between multiple language packs. The ones you don't use are automatically cleaned up the first time you reboot the Surface. So you might get back quite a bit of space by simply rebooting the Surface for the first time.



Again, if you have any questions please let me know and I'd be happy to answer some more.
 
dLMN8R said:
Couple notes about disk space and such:

Surface follows the same storage space trend as every other device and HDD on the planet. That means that the 32GB version has 32,000,000,000 bytes of storage.

32GB as calculated by Windows is actually 32 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 = 34,359,738,368 bytes

So the 32,000,000,000 = 29.8GB in File Explorer.

Then consider the fact that Surface supports reset/refresh. That means there's an image on a separate partition somewhere that enables you to do factory reset. That image is probably at least a few gigabytes in size.

Finally, something you guys with Surfaces have probably not done yet, and something that isn't advertised anywhere - Surface comes with a bunch of language packs preinstalled on it. That's how the first-run experience lets you choose between multiple language packs. The ones you don't use are automatically cleaned up the first time you reboot the Surface. So you might get back quite a bit of space by simply rebooting the Surface for the first time.



Again, if you have any questions please let me know and I'd be happy to answer some more.
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would the memory added through SD card would be treated exactly the same way as built-in memory for the purpose of installing and running apps?
 
so im back!...posting from it right now, touch cover is pretty awesome!... the tablet itself feels real good in your hands...build quality just like the zune...I was expecting a "hello from Seattle somewhere on here though.


any way to keep the browser in mobile mode just for gaf ?i think the mobile mode may be better to navigate.....


edit: btw I got the free xbox music for a year....digging it so far
 
Ignatz Mouse said:
Stolen...
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SCHUEY F1 said:
I'm going to start driving up Highway 2 and see if there is a truck full of Surface's in a ditch somewhere.
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Still no ETA on the Surfaces. There were over 100 people at that store in WEM, easy. Seemed very popular. I was fourth in line and ended up getting $150 in gift cards and a promise that they'd send an employee to deliver the Surface to me personally.

Either way, I find it funny that this wasn't sorted out a week ago.
 
MrGreencastle said:
Still no ETA on the Surfaces. There were over 100 people at that store in WEM, easy. Seemed very popular. I was fourth in line and ended up getting $150 in gift cards and a promise that they'd send an employee to deliver the Surface to me personally.

Either way, I find it funny that this wasn't sorted out a week ago.
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Jesus, I would be ok with that deal.
 
SCHUEY F1 said:
Jesus, I would be ok with that deal.
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Yeah, they seemed really down about it as it was completely out of their hands. MS execs were all over the place on the phone, too. The place was packed, and its only a pop up store.

They said that Redmond had already sent a Cessna with extra stock to Edmonton. I have a hard time believing that, but it is fun to, anyway.
 
MrGreencastle said:
Yeah, they seemed really down about it as it was completely out of their hands. MS execs were all over the place on the phone, too. The place was packed, and its only a pop up store.

They said that Redmond had already sent a Cessna with extra stock to Edmonton. I have a hard time believing that, but it is fun to, anyway.
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MS ODST's bringing Surface's to Edmonton.
 
aesop said:
It's really nice. There are some bugs (which is to be expected) but overall, I'm really enjoying it. Touch cover is really freaking awesome once you get used to it.

I really, really want an alternative to IE, though. Get on the ball, Mozilla.
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Microsoft does not allow alternate browsers on Windows RT. Buy a Surface Pro if you want Firefox.
 
Hopefully Google makes a version of Chrome for Windows RT like they did iOS. Just use the IE rendering engine, but wrapped in Chrome syncing goodness.

Might sound like blasphemy which is why I'm betting Google won't do it, but the IE rendering engine is plenty fast enough, and I'd love to have all my favorites and tabs synced like they are on iOS.

Gadfly said:
so you can't install apps on sd? a la my galaxy note? if so, bummer.
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nopes, you can't.

I won't condone this or tell you how to do it (since I don't know), but there might be a way you could use directory junctions between the download location of apps and your SD storage....though that might lead to very weird things.
 
Took this picture of my surface with my galaxy nexus, connected it to the usb port on the surface, imported the picture and uploaded it to the internet from the surface.

IMG_20121026_175938.jpg


Not bad. Not bad at all.

very impressed with this device so far.
 
dLMN8R said:
Hopefully Google makes a version of Chrome for Windows RT like they did iOS. Just use the IE rendering engine, but wrapped in Chrome syncing goodness.

Might sound like blasphemy which is why I'm betting Google won't do it, but the IE rendering engine is plenty fast enough, and I'd love to have all my favorites and tabs synced like they are on iOS.



nopes, you can't.

I won't condone this or tell you how to do it (since I don't know), but there might be a way you could use directory junctions between the download location of apps and your SD storage....though that might lead to very weird things.
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the resolution on tv when mini hdmi port is used?
 
dLMN8R said:
No, it's separate storage. You can easily select the SD card from the File Picker within any app, and there's a workaround to enable adding an SD card to the video/music/etc. library:

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows8/windows-8-tip-overcoming-library-limitations-144057
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A workaround to allow the SD card to integrate properly with the OS? That's absolutely unacceptable, and I'm starting to have my doubts about Windows tablets as a whole at this point.

What's the average consumer going to do when they can't download any more music and videos from the Xbox apps because the OS doesn't allow the card to be used as actual expandable storage?
 
NotTarts said:
A workaround to allow the SD card to integrate properly with the OS? That's absolutely unacceptable, and I'm starting to have my doubts about Windows tablets as a whole at this point.

What's the average consumer going to do when they can't download any more music and videos from the Xbox apps because the OS doesn't allow the card to be used as actual expandable storage?
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What is the average consumer going to do? The same thing the average consumer does when they run out of space on the iPad.

Remove stuff they don't want, replace it with stuff they do want.


You can still play stuff directly off the SD card, which is how most people use SD cards. That, or using it to take pictures from your camera and put it on a device, which is really easy to do with the Photos app.

The workaround is for people here, not something I'm suggesting for joe schmoe consumer.
 
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