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[Gaspode_T]

Anyone find a good twitter app yet?

I like certain things about Rowi, Tweetro, MetroTwit, they are all decent in their own ways. I like the column handling of MetroTwit

I am kind of frustrated there is no perfect Twitter client anywhere, you would think it would be easier to nail the basics...even the Vita Twitter client is pretty good for the basics (the second you open a link you walk into trouble with the Vita browser though)

 

[ralexand]

So why is it taking so long to add ie10 support to this site. Is it really difficult to add additional browser support?

 

[Particle Physicist]

So what is in the pro version that isn't in this one?

 

[Mairu]

I like certain things about Rowi, Tweetro, MetroTwit, they are all decent in their own ways. I like the column handling of MetroTwit

I am kind of frustrated there is no perfect Twitter client anywhere, you would think it would be easier to nail the basics...even the Vita Twitter client is pretty good for the basics (the second you open a link you walk into trouble with the Vita browser though)

Metrotwit seems unusable to me as it doesn't seem to load tweets from before the app was opened, at least on the timeline tab. I can't remember why I uninstalled tweetro but I'll try Rowi out.

 

[Jayayess1190]

So what is in the pro version that isn't in this one?

An Intel processor.

 

[Particle Physicist]

An Intel processor.

So it's just a better processor? Everything else is exactly the same?

 

[kms_md]

After some discussion with Surface technical support, it seems that my Type Pad is defective (will not reconnect after detaching or any other action that disables the physical keyboard - requires a reboot to become usable again). Will try for an exchange tomorrow - others on the surface support site have had similar problems.

 

[f0lken]

So what is in the pro version that isn't in this one?

corei5
4gb RAM
touch pen support and stylus
USB 3.0
1080p screen
full Windows 8

 

[strata8]

So what is in the pro version that isn't in this one?

There's a full spec sheet in the OP.

 

[Diseased Yak]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but is anyone else having issues with the default Mail app? I added my Gmail into it, and it updated and downloaded my current emails. That was 2 days ago. Nothing new has shown up, despite there being many changes to both new and existing emails. I have poked around in the settings and such, but can't for the life of my figure out what's up.

 

[Particle Physicist]

There's a full spec sheet in the OP.

OP? Whats that!??

Spoiler

thanks! i'm a little slow tonight

 

[lastflowers]

OP? Whats that!??

Spoiler

thanks! i'm a little slow tonight

The biggest thing to note is that the pro can run desktop apps, and the version out now runs WinRT.

 

[The_Inquisitor]

I'm genuinely wondering if the surface pro may be the laptop/tablet-esque computer I have been waiting for. If my company would allow me to use it, it could easily replace my bulky ass work laptop for most tasks.

I can't believe I am going to say this, but if the mainstream will take a hard look at this device Microsoft may have a shot here.

 

[SeaOfMadness]

He reminds me of a salesman demoing a shamwow in a shopping mall. Very engaging, well practiced, hurling lots of chat at you very fast. Which is not really a bad thing I guess. But that's my feelings on the matter.

The difference is he's NOT a salesman, he led the team that built it. 3 years of blood sweat and tears will do that to you.

 

[D'ultimate]

Couple questions.

Would it be possible to tether this tablet to a capable phone?

I'm also curious, with a tablet this size and the browser's capabilities of having quite a few tabs open at once, loading pages in the background as well as the tablets ability to split screen task, why is there a need for a FB or Twitter app? Just load the page in the browser and check it periodically. No?

 

[Snaku]

The biggest thing to note is that the pro can run steam

Fixed.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

So why is it taking so long to add ie10 support to this site. Is it really difficult to add additional browser support?

Low priority, I imagine.

 

[PSGames]

Ok I sold my old Acer w500 with Windows 8 installed for a Surface. Loving it so far but the graphics are severely lacking compared to the 2 year old Acer w500 tablet with AMD GPU. Hydro Thunder for instance stutters like crazy and has a really low frame rate. As much as I love the feel of the device and the keyboard I might just return this for one with a better GPU. I don't see this cutting it for very long. Especially as more graphic intensive apps/games are released.

 

[Justin]

I'm genuinely wondering if the surface pro may be the laptop/tablet-esque computer I have been waiting for. If my company would allow me to use it, it could easily replace my bulky ass work laptop for most tasks.

I can't believe I am going to say this, but if the mainstream will take a hard look at this device Microsoft may have a shot here.

I am also excited for the Pro to use at work. I work in the EMS field and the ability to use it as a labtop at my desk and to put it into tablet mode and connect to my citrix apps and use virtual desktop to access all our clinical data as I run around the building and the field sounds amazing.

 

[hwalker84]

Anyone find a good twitter app yet?

I'm liking Rowi so far. I can't seem to get it to show other people's tweets though. I wonder how Gleek is thats my favorite on WP7

 

[Mairu]

I'm liking Rowi so far. I can't seem to get it to show other people's tweets though. I wonder how Gleek is thats my favorite on WP7

wat

What does it show then, just your own? MetroTwit would be fine if it just actually updated past tweets... it's pretty useless if I have to leave it on for it to show any tweets that are posted.

 

[dLMN8R]

Just posted in the apps thread, but really awesome specifically for Surface too. This simple thing is actually really awesome:

http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/70e5e6af-017c-47e4-923b-db71bd9110ba

It has 9 different tools that you can use, and you can configure them in whatever way you want to show 6 at a time. You can show multiple copies of the same tool, or 6 different tools:

Where it really comes in handy though is with the native Windows 8 multitasking:

So you can have any other Windows 8 app open, and then choose any two of the tools to use at the same time.



Really really simple, really clever, and hopefully it'll be expanded even further!

 

[yn-neko hates a cat]

Alrighty, so got it up and running. Worked pretty easy.

I used this link, which I think is a bit better than my original one.

But essentially you download a remote monitoring tool for ARM onto the Surface. Then in visual studio you set it up for a remote monitor machine, hit the debug with Remote Device as your target.

On the Surface it will have some security prompts and you'll need to get a developer license/confirm. Then it will just run. All works pretty smoothly.

Here are some screenshots taken from my Surface of my app:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=829D25E3557FA2B8!413&authkey=!ABFmBBxnOvdmEzw

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=829D25E3557FA2B8!412&authkey=!AOsJKhzHuz7334E

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=829D25E3557FA2B8!414&authkey=!AF9-3Lfy956C300

Sorry about the links, couldn't figure out how to get the IMG thingy to work with SkyDrive. :/

Thank you so much for this This is exactly what I was hoping to see. This was one of my hold-outs about ARM-based devices after hearing about the locked-down nature of it. It's good to know I can natively test my app from the debugger without a lot of hassle.

 

[Mairu]

Just posted in the apps thread, but really awesome specifically for Surface too. This simple thing is actually really awesome:

http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/70e5e6af-017c-47e4-923b-db71bd9110ba

It has 9 different tools that you can use, and you can configure them in whatever way you want to show 6 at a time. You can show multiple copies of the same tool, or 6 different tools:

Where it really comes in handy though is with the native Windows 8 multitasking:

So you can have any other Windows 8 app open, and then choose any two of the tools to use at the same time.



Really really simple, really clever, and hopefully it'll be expanded even further!

This thing needs a Twitter 'tool' and an RSS tool

 

[ralexand]

Couple questions.

Would it be possible to tether this tablet to a capable phone?

I'm also curious, with a tablet this size and the browser's capabilities of having quite a few tabs open at once, loading pages in the background as well as the tablets ability to split screen task, why is there a need for a FB or Twitter app? Just load the page in the browser and check it periodically. No?

Snapped view is pretty compelling for scenarios like that and web pages don't support snapped view.

 

[ralexand]

Low priority, I imagine.

Shouldn't be giving that its the default browser for the upgrade to the os used by most people on this forum.

 

[clav]

What is the point of the RT?

Windows on ARM

I expect to see cheap workstations that sip on electricity.

 

[ralexand]

Point of rt, smaller form factor, longer battery life, cost, and overall competition for Intel.

 

[strata8]

Point of rt, smaller form factor, longer battery life, cost, and overall competition for Intel.

Not many people seem to realise this. Without RT, Intel essentially has a monopoly on every single Windows device.

 

[f0lken]

It only works in the desktop browser and I can't try it because I don't have a Surface but I tought some people would be interested

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=33407950#post33407950

 

[DukeTogo1300]

Just posted in the apps thread, but really awesome specifically for Surface too. This simple thing is actually really awesome:

http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/70e5e6af-017c-47e4-923b-db71bd9110ba

It has 9 different tools that you can use, and you can configure them in whatever way you want to show 6 at a time. You can show multiple copies of the same tool, or 6 different tools:

Where it really comes in handy though is with the native Windows 8 multitasking:

So you can have any other Windows 8 app open, and then choose any two of the tools to use at the same time.



Really really simple, really clever, and hopefully it'll be expanded even further!

The ability to display a few live tiles in the multitask panel would also be nice, some being more helpful than others of course.

 

[DagsJT]

This can't play MKV's natively, right? No third-party app or anything?

 

[MCD]

This can't play MKV's natively, right? No third-party app or anything?

PowerDVD mobile played some MKVs on my x86 PC but I did not install any codec packs on it so I am assuming it was all native.

10bit MKVs had no video just audio and I didn't see an option to switch subtitles nor audio languages.

This was the trial version BTW.

 

[Nero3000]

Credit card company declined payment. Order got cancelled, now have to wait three weeks for shipment.

At least i can use that £50 off voucher they sent.

 

[hwalker84]

wat

What does it show then, just your own? MetroTwit would be fine if it just actually updated past tweets... it's pretty useless if I have to leave it on for it to show any tweets that are posted.

For example: Cliffb was in Pittsburgh I was trying to click on his tweetss and couldn't. I had to scroll down my timeline there didn't seam to be a way to isolate someone elses tweets.

 

[kazinova]

So the only physical location selling these are MS stores, correct? I wish they'd pop one up here in Columbus...

Cleveland has one off of i-271...

 

[LukasTaves]

Just posted in the apps thread, but really awesome specifically for Surface too. This simple thing is actually really awesome:

http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/70e5e6af-017c-47e4-923b-db71bd9110ba

It has 9 different tools that you can use, and you can configure them in whatever way you want to show 6 at a time. You can show multiple copies of the same tool, or 6 different tools:

Where it really comes in handy though is with the native Windows 8 multitasking:

So you can have any other Windows 8 app open, and then choose any two of the tools to use at the same time.



Really really simple, really clever, and hopefully it'll be expanded even further!

This makes me whish w8 allowed one app to be a plugin for the other... That way the developers of this application could open it up and other apps could provide their own tools for it.

 

[LukasTaves]

This can't play MKV's natively, right? No third-party app or anything?

It's up for each app, but the apps who support can use hardware acceleration for it.

A few pages back someone said that installing shark's W8 codecs allowed him to view mkvs on the video app... I got no such luck, but you should give it a try

 

[brotkasten]

iFixit teardown.

The display's LTL106AL01-002 label indicates Samsung as the manufacturer. Its sister panel, the LTL106AL01-001, appears to be 1280 x 800 resolution. We didn't test the Surface's display before taking it apart, and we trust Microsoft not to lie...
But maybe someone can do a quicky double-check on the display resolution, just for giggles?

Prominent ICs on the bottom of the motherboard:

• NVIDIA 1.4 GHz Tegra 3 Processor
• Samsung KLMBG4GE4A 32 GB NAND Flash
• Micron 2RE22 D9QBJ 2 GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Texas Instruments TPS659110 power management IC
• Marvell 88W8797-BMP2 wireless MIMO SoC
• Wolfson 8962E low power audio codec
• Cypress Semiconductor CY8C20466A capacitive touchscreen controller

Microsoft Surface Repairability: 4 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair).

• Several components are modular and replaceable without requiring desoldering.
• You can remove the battery pretty easily -- once you've suffered through the opening procedure.
• It's pretty difficult to remove the rear panel and gain access to the device.
• It is impossible to remove the keyboard connector without first removing the display from the frame.
• LCD and glass are fused together and strongly adhered to the case, increasing cost of replacement.
• You'll have to use a heat gun and lots of patience to gain access to the glass and LCD.

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Teardown/11275/1

 

[Totakeke]

Same audio DAC as Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Touch... doesn't look too good, gonna go check some impressions on that.

 

[MThanded]

One of my friends got a Surface. I have been following his facebook statuses about it. He seems to have a lot of crashes and slowdown. The netflix app specifically seems to have a lot of problems for him.

 

[venne]

One of my friends got a Surface. I have been following his facebook statuses about it. He seems to have a lot of crashes and slowdown. The netflix app specifically seems to have a lot of problems for him.

Netflix runs like shit on my desktop.

 

[JaggedSac]

One of my friends got a Surface. I have been following his facebook statuses about it. He seems to have a lot of crashes and slowdown. The netflix app specifically seems to have a lot of problems for him.

I have one, and it can be a little buggy. Especially when moving between landscape and portrait. Some apps are very slow to handle the transition, and the Kindle App on multiple occasions became completely unresponsive. This coupled with the fact that it is quite sensitive to the rotation, it can be quite annoying.

The capacitive home button sometimes stops working for me, have to use the charm start button.

It cannot find my Homegroup for some reason.


A side complaint, I do not particular care for the way that closing apps from the app list left bar works. In fact sometimes it just refuses to work and just opens the app. I know, I know, I shouldnt have to worry about it, but I swear it is not nearly aggressive enough at reclaiming RAM.


To any MS employees out there, how are applications handled from a multi-user perspective? I was setting up my fiancee's profile on the Surface and went to put the apps I downloaded from my profile onto her start screen. None of the ones I dl'ed showed up on the all apps menu, so I just went to re-download them. It appeared to not have to actually download them though as it seemed to be instantaneously installed. Not only that, but the apps that came with the device that I upgraded on my profile, also needed to be upgraded on hers. What exactly is the functionality of applications for multiple profiles? Is there a blog post that describes this? I don't want to criticize MS until I know for sure that it isn't being handled in a way that, at least to me, is incredibly wasteful in terms of space usage and convenience.


All this being said, I love the little device. Very nice bit of kit. Gonna start app development today. Got a couple ideas knocking around.

 

[hwalker84]

One of my friends got a Surface. I have been following his facebook statuses about it. He seems to have a lot of crashes and slowdown. The netflix app specifically seems to have a lot of problems for him.

I'm not a Netflix user so I can't comment on that particular app. The rest of the device was been rock solid. Once I had to reboot because the marketplace kept crashing when trying to download Rowi.

 

[KorrZ]

Has anyone in Canada gotten an update to their Surface order status yet? Mine has been sitting at:

Pre-Order your order will ship in 1-2 weeks


For over 2 weeks now. Seeing as it's supposed to be released tomorrow, I'm a little bit concerned.

 

[mm04]

One of my friends got a Surface. I have been following his facebook statuses about it. He seems to have a lot of crashes and slowdown. The netflix app specifically seems to have a lot of problems for him.

I haven't had any issues like that. I was even demoing to my family by having the Netflix app streaming a movie and running TuneIn Radio docked and undocked at the same time. Watching things via streaming through Netflix, IE10 (HBOGO, Amazon Instant Video, CW) is what I've been using it the most for.

I personally love the thing. For background, I'm typically a power user. I have a gaming rig, a work-issued laptop and a smartphone. I wanted something that could bridge the gap between my laptop and phone, and the Surface fits my needs. Mostly consumption, but the ability to read/modify docs/spreadsheets for work, without having to show my presence on the office network. I did not want to wait for the Pro because then it becomes more work and less play for more money.

 

[Green Embers]

A side complaint, I do not particular care for the way that closing apps from the app list left bar works. In fact sometimes it just refuses to work and just opens the app. I know, I know, I shouldnt have to worry about it, but I swear it is not nearly aggressive enough at reclaiming RAM.

Why not after you are finished with the app just drag down from the top and close it that way? That is my preferred way of closing with touch.

 

[Haklong]

One of my friends got a Surface. I have been following his facebook statuses about it. He seems to have a lot of crashes and slowdown. The netflix app specifically seems to have a lot of problems for him.

I have been using this thing non stop since I purchased it and had no crashes or problems with the Netflix app. Even the apps open fast enough for me. Only problem is with some of the games. Cut the rope runs poorly on surface. And the people hub could pull down data faster. Hopefully they can fix that via an update.

Edit: Some of the apps on surface did run more poorly when I first for it. It got better after I downloaded all of the updates and did a reboot.

 

[commish]

Why not after you are finished with the app just drag down from the top and close it that way? That is my preferred way of closing with touch.

This is absolutely my favorite gesture on any touch device ever. LOVE IT.

 

[Doffen]

Some pictures I took of my Surface (64GB):