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Surface |OT|

Acer exec warns Microsoft may eat 'hard rice' with its Surface tablet


Acer seems to be straddling a delicate position with respect to Microsoft right now. On the one hand, it's outwardly indifferent towards Surface RT and indeed the the whole Windows RT concept, which is why it's holding off on its own RT tablets for the time being. But if that's true, why are the company's top brass so eager for Microsoft to withdraw from the competition? President for Greater China, Linxian Lang, has just resorted to a food metaphor to emphasize the point, warning that Redmond will have to eat "hard rice" with Surface, and implying that it should stick to its more readily-chewed software diet. If you've seen our own Surface RT review, then you'll know our thoughts on the matter: Microsoft's tablet has been boiled and salted just right, which might be the real reason Acer is so averse to it.

:lol

Or you can start making awesome hardware like the Surface RT.
 
Acer exec warns Microsoft may eat 'hard rice' with its Surface tablet




:lol

Or you can start making awesome hardware like the Surface RT.

You know, all Microsoft has done with Surface is shine a flashlight in the OEM closet and revealed how complacent and uninspired their products have been.

This guy needs to look in the mirror and step up or shut up. We no longer live in a world where you can crap out hardware for MS based systems and expect to be successful.
 

Milchjon

Member
You know, all Microsoft has done with Surface is shine a flashlight in the OEM closet and revealed how complacent and uninspired their products have been.

This guy needs to look in the mirror and step up or shut up. We no longer live in a world where you can crap out hardware for MS based systems and expect to be successful.

That's the purpose of Surface.
 

Totakeke

Member
Now now, let's not talk about how RT is suddenly desirable and instead we should keep pointing how it doesn't make much sense.
 

Totakeke

Member
Tada.

rNggl.jpg


http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en...ers-and-online-storage/surface-disk-space-faq
 

numble

Member
I don't think Google services are free for OEMs.

They don't need to use Google services, and Google highlights different manufacturers (giving them a boost in sales) through the Nexus program. The 3 Nexus devices released this year come from LG, Samsung, and Asus.
 

mm04

Member
My iPad loving sister and nephew both want Surfaces to replace their iPads after I let them both use it for a few hours on the weekend at a family shindig. Miraculously, neither of them focused on the apps that the Surface was missing, but rather the lack of features an iPad has in comparison. True multi-tasking and the inclusion of Office was a big thing for them.
 

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
What did Jamie and Adam not like about it?
they probably said its confusing, which it is. I wouldn't reccommend a rt device to anyone to be honest. With the issues and confusion of x86 vs ARM and the very little gain in price and battery life i don't see a reason for people to pick them up over the new atom ones.
 
they probably said its confusing, which it is. I wouldn't reccommend a rt device to anyone to be honest. With the issues and confusion of x86 vs ARM and the very little gain in price and battery life i don't see a reason for people to pick them up over the new atom ones.

Here's the thing.

If a person...
1) likes the build quality of the hardware
2) likes the Metro interface
3) has the apps they need on the platform to justify the purchase

...then what is confusing about the product?
 

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
Here's the thing.

If a person...
1) likes the build quality of the hardware
2) likes the Metro interface
3) has the apps they need on the platform to justify the purchase

...then what is confusing about the product?
desktop that you can't install applications on.
 
desktop that you can't install applications on.

It's a locked desktop environment that's included for Office compatibility. I'm hoping that if a customer is spending $500 for a tablet they do a little bit of homework on what they are paying for.

Still not understanding how it's confusing. The device can only be purchased from Microsoft, and I'm pretty sure Microsoft employees are letting users know this is Windows RT, not Windows 8 on the device.
 

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
It's a locked desktop environment that's included for Office compatibility. I'm hoping that if a customer is spending $500 for a tablet they do a little bit of homework on what they are paying for.

Still not understanding how it's confusing.
lol you give people too much credit.
 

derFeef

Member
I actually thought about that the other day. Let's say a person who always used an iPad, does not own a Windows machine and is not that familiar with the system (those people exist, right?) really likes the Surface for it's hardware, or features, or just the look of the OS. Would it still be confusing for that person what a Desktop is, what the RT part of it is, etc.?
 
Branchfire (for Aji Annotate) messaged me back. Development for Windows is being considered but they have nothing to announce.

Cool.

Another reason Windows RT may be a better option for users. Security.

"Windows RT apps: More secure by default
With Windows RT, all nondefault apps must be downloaded from the Windows Store (similar to Apple's App Store). This has huge security implications. Windows Store applications are all Metro-style applications. They all use the Windows RT API and contain significant security improvements by default.

Windows RT apps can only be written in programming languages that contain today's expected default security settings; buggier, older programming languages need not apply. This also means that Windows RT apps contain all the Windows anti-buffer-overflow memory improvements introduced in Windows Vista and improved in each Windows version since. These include Data Execution Prevention (DEP), Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), SafeSEH, sacrificial canary values, and more. What is different is these memory protections are improved -- and required.

In previous versions of Windows, you could define exceptions. Not so with Metro-style apps -- the only types of applications allowed to run on Windows RT. Want to run a legacy app? You're out of luck with Windows RT."
Link

I actually don't have any problem whatsoever not being able to run legacy Windows apps on my tablet. Well, other than Office. :)
 

derFeef

Member
So listening to this podcast.
It has no apps, it crashes, it drops wifi, without touchcover it is useless, no apps, no facebook apps, and no apps. Chromebook is better.
 

KoukiFC

Neo Member
So listening to this podcast.
It has no apps, it crashes, it drops wifi, without touchcover it is useless, no apps, no facebook apps, and no apps. Chromebook is better.

Mine hasn't dropped wifi. I am actually surprised at how fast it connects to my wifi. I can use the web right away when I turn it on.
 
I guess everyone saw this already?

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/5/3603652/microsoft-surface-windows-rt-disk-space

We were wondering about this in screen shots of HDD space we've seen before, but not it appears to be confirmed that the RT OS all by itself takes up 16GB of the available disk space.

32 giggers lose half of their space, 64 giggers lose 1/4. Before MicroSD add-ons, of course.

I'm pretty sure we thought it wasn't possible that those screens were true. Guess they were. Pretty big deal considering Windows' waste line will expand over time with all the Windows Update backup files n' such.

edit: I see that graphic from MS' website adds the final confirmation indeed.
 

Everdred

Member
So listening to this podcast.
It has no apps, it crashes, it drops wifi, without touchcover it is useless, no apps, no facebook apps, and no apps. Chromebook is better.
You are a terrible person.

It's a new platform, of course apps are currently limited. Though, I have an app for everything I want. Mine has never dropped wifi. Not even once. I own a touch cover but I only use it about 5% of the time. Hardly worthless without. Facebook app will come but the People app works great for facebook, or you know, use the website.
 

EriCKY

Neo Member
mine drops wifi a lot.

this thing needs more software updates (and an AIM client ugh) but Microsoft doesn't seem to be pushing them out too fast
 
It's a locked desktop environment that's included for Office compatibility. I'm hoping that if a customer is spending $500 for a tablet they do a little bit of homework on what they are paying for.

Still not understanding how it's confusing. The device can only be purchased from Microsoft, and I'm pretty sure Microsoft employees are letting users know this is Windows RT, not Windows 8 on the device.

The Windows 8 marketing blast you are seeing all over TV, the internet and in stores does not really differentiate the difference between tablet and desktop versions, or if there even is a difference at all.
 
okay, so i'm loving touch cover already. this thing is so much better to type on than an on screen keyboard. i'm having no issues with missed keys (thanks to the audio confirmation) and as a touch typist it's really easy for me to see if I've lost my home keys. it's not as nice to type on as my mechanical keyboard, obviously, but i'm pretty happy with my typing speed so far!
 

commish

Jason Kidd murdered my dog in cold blood!
okay, so i'm loving touch cover already. this thing is so much better to type on than an on screen keyboard. i'm having no issues with missed keys (thanks to the audio confirmation) and as a touch typist it's really easy for me to see if I've lost my home keys. it's not as nice to type on as my mechanical keyboard, obviously, but i'm pretty happy with my typing speed so far!

I'm still trying to decide between type and touch. I have type now, but I secretly covet the touch.
 
Mine hasn't dropped wifi. I am actually surprised at how fast it connects to my wifi. I can use the web right away when I turn it on.

So listening to this podcast.
It has no apps, it crashes, it drops wifi, without touchcover it is useless, no apps, no facebook apps, and no apps. Chromebook is better.

It drops WiFi is a peculiar one since the Surface has a dual antenna design that makes it's wifi reception above average. It's also using new software tech that allows it to not only stay connected in various low-power scenarios but also re-establish connections at much higher speeds then most devices. These features were demoed many times.

I've seen some Store apps crash but have yet to see Windows 8 itself behave in an unstable manner. I wonder if they got a bad unit.

It seems people enamored with the existing ecosystems have some biases they need to sort out. I doubt their problem really stems from the relatively low app count.
 
mine drops wifi a lot.

this thing needs more software updates (and an AIM client ugh) but Microsoft doesn't seem to be pushing them out too fast


Please forgive me if this sounds condescending because I read your post wrong... I'm only trying to help. Microsoft doesn't make all the software in the Windows Store. I believe each developer is responsible for updating their own software.
 
So when they announced price I said I wasn't going to get one.

I now have one and am very pleased with the purchase so far.

So far I am preferring the type cover by a large margin but will give the touch cover a chance to see if it stick.

Compare to my ipad 2 I do like surface much better.

Edit: I typed the above post with the touch cover and the grammar is bad LOL.

I will say when I browse neogaf on iPad I never post because I can't stand typing anything more than a few words on it. However, with surface posting is a breeze (minus the bad grammar mistakes).
 
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