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Surface |OT|

KamenSenshi

KamenSenshi

Junior Member
Never had any issues with mine. Normally 3-5 tabs open with at least one being youtube. Of course that's with having some game like taptiles or something plus OneNote running also as I tend to make lists for shopping or whatever to look at, and then its already synced on my phone when I'm in a store.
*This is just regular casual use, not including remote connection or work type use, which has been fine also.
 
E

eastmen

Banned
lilsting10 said:
Parents have ancient Vista 3GB laptops. Was gonna get them SurfaceRTs when I could afford them, but noticed it only has 2GB.

Though I'm guessing that the SurfaceRT (2GB memory) uses RAM in a much different/better way than a 3GB Vista Laptop would?

Can anyone comment based on their SurfaceRT usage on it's performance?
Click to expand...

windows 8 in general is less of a ram hog than vista was. I would say 2 gigs is fine since it is the arm platform. It seems to work fine , I've had 15 tabs open with no problems and some were graphicly intensive.

I think 2 RTs would work well for your parents unless they have some programs that wont run on arm.
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
eastmen said:
windows 8 in general is less of a ram hog than vista was. I would say 2 gigs is fine since it is the arm platform. It seems to work fine , I've had 15 tabs open with no problems and some were graphicly intensive.

I think 2 RTs would work well for your parents unless they have some programs that wont run on arm.
Click to expand...

Yeah, also consider that Windows 8/RT apps are automatically managed in memory by Windows, so when you need some RAM, it will suspend apps in memory that you aren't using.
 
W

Walshicus

Member
So Surface is going to be sold in John Lewis shops now? I'm getting married next year and we're running our Wedding List through them. Might just be able to score one through voucher gifts. For the house...
 
B

brotkasten

Member
eastmen said:
I've never had a problem with liking contacts on my arrive. I've used facebook for android for 3 years and it would kill the battery life of any phone I used it on for 3 years. Don't deny there wasn't huge deal last week when android finally got a decent facebook app.

And yet people continue to make those 3rd party apps and they continue to get downloaded and used . If the twitter app for android was actually good , people wouldn't need these alternatives.

It can take weeks even when its a first party doing the apps. Like I said just look at the facebook app finally becoming decent on android

Web browsing sucks in 16:9 ? Are you serious ? I'm sorry this is the end of me responding to you. 90% of all monitors for desktops and laptops are 16:9 but yet web browsing sucks in this format. Yup that's why computers have adopted it . To bad I can't just turn my tablet on its side and change its aspect ratio

I solved the verge problem by simply not visting the site. If I wanted to read pro apple crap 24/7 i'd go to apple.com .
Click to expand...

You won't see me denying anything, but just because the Android app sucked as well, it doesn't mean the WP version was better, like you said. And even though the performance of the Android app wasn't that good, thanks to the switch to HTML5, it was always pretty much feature complete on time, with things like timelines and face tagging.

Also, I never said 3rd party apps weren't necessary. They are absolutely essential for every platform. Just look at iOS after the maps disaster. But dismissing the need of official apps, because there are alternatives is just silly, for the exact reasons I mentioned.

Aside from simply being weird, the timing is a big deal because when Twitter switched to requiring OAuth, any third-party app that wasn't equipped for this simply stopped working, often without explanation. The change has been in the works for a long time now, so all major app developers had released versions of their products that handled the change without an issue, but users who hadn't updated their apps, including our own Henry Blodget, were confused and angry.

Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-09-02/tech/30018787_1_twitter-links-tco#ixzz2FK2010uO
Click to expand...

The developer of MetroRadio, Mustafa Taleb, notified us of the situation noting:

"The user can no longer login using the 3rd party applications. Message from Pandora's servers:"org.apache.xmlrpc.XmlRpcException: 000.000.000.000|0|INCOMPATIBLE_VERSION|Pandora does not support your client version."

Possible reason: They changed their encryption keys.

I am currently working on a fix and it should take me no longer than 2 days to update the app, and 5 to publish it."
Click to expand...

The problem stemmed to the fact that even when Daniel Baker had correctly linked his Facebook account to the People Hub of the Windows Phone to take advantage of the built in Facebook integration, there was content missing in What's New feed that was showing up on the Facebook website and the Official Facebook app on Windows Phone. Baker did some further research to figure out why this was the case and found evidence that the Facebook integration that Microsoft includes in the People Hub on Windows Phones is treated as a 3rd party app and therefore did not have permission to display some content that was visible on the Facebook website and Official Facebook apps (which are treated as 1st party apps and do not have the same restrictions).
Click to expand...
(regarding the People Hub in WP being treated as a mere 3rd party app)

It's always good to have an official solution you can fall back on. I'm not sure why we're discussing this.


And yes, web browsing sucks on a big 16:9 display, I'm dead serious and here is why:

DtkIg.png


r71cT.png


OmDV0.png


rUoCm.png


QHarn.png
Click to expand...

There is so much wasted space on the left and right that is never filled with content. Why? Because the web is not formatted in 16:9 and that's why that form factor sucks for web browsing. Simple as that. Switch your tablet to 9:16 and you still get less content or worse formatting than on a 16:10 or (yuck) 4:3 screen. I could put up that slide Apple used during the iPad mini unveiling, but you'd probably hate me even more for that. On smaller devices it's not an issue, since the content is formatted differently for smaller screens anyway. But that's not the case for big screens.

But, like I already said, it's not that bad on Windows 8/RT, thanks to the awesome snapping feature. You can actually make use of the wasted space by simply snapping another useful app in and get more content or do more with that screen estate. That is a pretty awesome solution to the problem, if you ask me.

Also, 16:9 in home computing only became the popular form factor, because it was cheaper for the display manufacturers to have only one production line. That way they can use the same line for TVs, monitors, notebooks and tablets. The advantage for the customer? No more bars when watching TV shows and YouTube videos. Wooo. Hooo. If it wasn't for that, I'd expect that high DPI displays would be pretty much the norm these days. To think that the resolution, DPI and screen estate is lower than what we had in 2007 is simply ridiculous. That's not how technology should work.

And to your last point, I can't really hardly blame you for that. The front page of the Verge and the main editors can come off as Apple biased, I agree with that. The podcast can be pretty annoying too. But brushing the amazing editorials off, because of "lol, apple", is just sad. There are more people on that site and they work hard to produce some pretty awesome content.

Wasteland: the 50-year battle to entomb our toxic nuclear remains
Cyborg America: inside the strange new world of basement body hackers
High and low: what RIM's failure is doing to the people of Waterloo
$20 billion of ambition: meet Masayoshi Son, Sprint suitor and SoftBank CEO
Making a game, traveling the world: the story of 'Incredipede'
Rapture of the nerds: will the Singularity turn us into gods or end the human race?
Reddit's road rules: trolling America's heartland, one startup at a time

Cyberpunk meets interactive fiction: the art of 'Cypher'
Terrorism as art: Mark Pauline's dangerous machines
Real steel: the broken robot necks and baby steps of RoboCup 2012
Noir to near-future: 'Looper' director Rian Johnson talks sci-fi, Twitter, and the fate of film
Beyond lies the wub: a history of dubstep
Apple vs. Samsung: inside a jury's nightmare

But again, I can't blame you for that, because it's clearly their fault. Stuff like that just doesn't get enough exposure on that site.
 
X

Xplatformer

Member
brotkasten said:
You won't see me denying anything, but just because the Android app sucked as well, it doesn't mean the WP version was better, like you said. And even though the performance of the Android app wasn't that good, thanks to the switch to HTML5, it was always pretty much feature complete on time, with things like timelines and face tagging.

Also, I never said 3rd party apps weren't necessary. They are absolutely essential for every platform. Just look at iOS after the maps disaster. But dismissing the need of official apps, because there are alternatives is just silly, for the exact reasons I mentioned.





(regarding the People Hub in WP being treated as a mere 3rd party app)

It's always good to have an official solution you can fall back on. I'm not sure why we're discussing this.


And yes, web browsing sucks on a big 16:9 display, I'm dead serious and here is why:



There is so much wasted space on the left and right that is never filled with content. Why? Because the web is not formatted in 16:9 and that's why that form factor sucks for web browsing. Simple as that. Switch your tablet to 9:16 and you still get less content or worse formatting than on a 16:10 or (yuck) 4:3 screen. I could put up that slide Apple used during the iPad mini unveiling, but you'd probably hate me even more for that. On smaller devices it's not an issue, since the content is formatted differently for smaller screens anyway. But that's not the case for big screens.

But, like I already said, it's not that bad on Windows 8/RT, thanks to the awesome snapping feature. You can actually make use of the wasted space by simply snapping another useful app in and get more content or do more with that sce.
Click to expand...

Ho dup.

So the web view on the Surface RT cant be zoomed so the sites fill all the screen?
 
M

mm04

Member
Where's my old 4x3 CRT monitor when I need it? I have been viewing webpages non-optimally for years, apparently! Just teasing.
 
Alx

Alx

Member
I'm fine with 9:16 for browsing the internet, especially for forums (I just noticed that setting the zoom option to 125% solved my problem with aliased fonts in portrait mode on NeoGaf, it's much better now).
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Alx said:
I'm fine with 9:16 for browsing the internet, especially for forums (I just noticed that setting the zoom option to 125% solved my problem with aliased fonts in portrait mode on NeoGaf, it's much better now).
Click to expand...

Somebody tell Kohler to add Surface IE as a mobile-acceptable browser. Mobile Gaf >>> Regular Gaf.
 
L

linkeurena

Member
Hi guys, since my iPad was stolen a couple of weeks ago I decided to get the surface, but since day one I've been having the mute issue that only happens with the touch cover. I'm not sure if I should exchange it or if it's a software issue. Any help would be appreciated.
 
E

Enco

Member
eurenainb4 said:
Hi guys, since my iPad was stolen a couple of weeks ago I decided to get the surface, but since day one I've been having the mute issue that only happens with the touch cover. I'm not sure if I should exchange it or if it's a software issue. Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Couldn't you use the apple tracking app? Log into iCloud and it should let you track it.

Sucks to hear.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
Xplatformer said:
Who says its not the optimal viewing solution? Larger text and images.
Click to expand...
I guess I can't really argue with that. In the end it's all just a preference and I don't force my views on others. I dislike 16:9 in general and explained why I think it's a huge step back. I use my iPad 99% of the time in portraid mode, which is really comfortable to hold and most of the content looks great in 3:4, aside from videos, of course. Due to my job, I had several tablets here and most of them were in 16:9 and holding them in portaid just didn't feel right, mostly because of the weigh distribution.

JaggedSac said:
gaf takes up the full screen. Who needs anything but gaf in their browser?
Click to expand...
It's funny you say that, because GAF is pretty much the only page I visit in a browser, aside from YouTube. The rest comes either from Google Reader or Flipboard. But seeing long posts stretched out on a widescreen display makes my head hurt. Text is not supposed to be read in long lines, but short colums.

Gareth Bale said:
Yeah 16:9 is perfect for Surface considering its multitasking capabilities. It wouldn't work otherwise.
Click to expand...
I actually agree with that. Microsoft took what they had and made the best out of it. It's way better than the lazy approach Google took.

mm04 said:
Where's my old 4x3 CRT monitor when I need it? I have been viewing webpages non-optimally for years, apparently! Just teasing.
Click to expand...
It's okay, for some people it takes longer to see the light. ;-)

But enough of the "Why 16:9 is bad and you should feel bad for liking it" talk. :lol I really didn't want to derail the thread with it.


PSGames said:
They should just give Metro IE the option to choose so that full Windows 8 tablets can take advantage of the mobile site as well.
Click to expand...
But Metro IE is also available on desktop PCs. How do you separate them?

e: Not that it should matter, now that ads are also displayed on mobile GAF.

Enco said:
Couldn't you use the apple tracking app? Log into iCloud and it should let you track it.

Sucks to hear.
Click to expand...

The Apple tracking app isn't even able to locate my iPad 4 that sits at home, let alone my iPad 3 that I lost earlier this year.
 
H

hwalker84

Member
Microsoft is dropping the ball hard when it comes to the Windows store. I'm satisfied with the few apps I have but whats killing me is no magazines. Hopefully ESPN integrates their magazine or releases a magazine app soon. I also need flixster for all those Ultraviolet digital copies.

Besides that I'm in love with my device.
 
L

linkeurena

Member
Enco said:
Couldn't you use the apple tracking app? Log into iCloud and it should let you track it.

Sucks to hear.
Click to expand...
I tried using that but didn't showed anything, but in the man bag they stole there was also a Motorola atrix and when they turned the phone it was in Tijuana, Mexico.
 
E

eastmen

Banned
worldrevolution said:
Where the fuck is my Prooooooooo.......
Click to expand...
Well considering we are less than a week from christmas I think we wont hear anything till ces. The rt was what 2 weeks before launch they took preorders.

Ces is the 8-11th. They can take preorders and still have 3 weeks before the end of january to actually ship them
 
I

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
eastmen said:
Well considering we are less than a week from christmas I think we wont hear anything till ces. The rt was what 2 weeks before launch they took preorders.

Ces is the 8-11th. They can take preorders and still have 3 weeks before the end of january to actually ship them
Click to expand...

I haven't even kept up with the RT since I had no interest in it. Is the only place to even get these things the MS store?
 
M

Malleymal

You now belong to FMT.
they have coupons that they give out now if you do their phone challenge.. before when the store first opened, they would just give you 25$ for losing some challenge and that was it, no questions asked. Now they are giving $25 off $75 purchases and the gift card actually expires like January 24th or something... I am thinking that is when the PRO will come out so people cant use those gift cards.
 
B

BigWeather

Member
Looking at getting a RT for my wife. She primarily wants it for surfing, reading books and magazines, dealing with e-mail, and the calendar. She already has a WP7 and was concerned about whether existing calendar entries could be seen by the RT and if the RT and WP7 could share calendar entries. Also is the e-mail app getting any better? Read some pretty bad stuff about it.
 
I

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
eastmen said:
I was speaking for myself. In NJ you should be reporting all online purchases on your taxes and pay for them then.

I believe you should be doing this all over the country, its called a use tax.
Click to expand...

Ah..for state use taxes. Yeah..but who actually reports that lol.
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
BigWeather said:
Looking at getting a RT for my wife. She primarily wants it for surfing, reading books and magazines, dealing with e-mail, and the calendar. She already has a WP7 and was concerned about whether existing calendar entries could be seen by the RT and if the RT and WP7 could share calendar entries. Also is the e-mail app getting any better? Read some pretty bad stuff about it.
Click to expand...

Yep, calendar syncs.

I haven't really used the emal application yet--so I can't really comment on it fully. I remember it being laggy at launch. Using it now: It still seems a little laggy, but it works fine. Much better than launch.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
Long and bitter post about the awful retail experience at Best Buy.

MbqGa.jpg

(Surface next to the cheaper iPad 2)

ZL5dw.jpg

(no account on the device, which makes the device useless, since no apps work)

FnZl9.jpg

(the keyboards)

It could be easy to say that it is all Best Buy’s fault. I disagree and put the whole blame on Microsoft’s sales and marketing divisions.

Their competitors have found a way to get their products professionally displayed on 3rd party stores and so should Microsoft. No excuses.

This reminds me of the Windows Phone 7 launch two years ago when lack of product, terrible displays and apathetic sales reps hindered the adoption of the new OS. The same problems are still plague the Surface tablet and to an extent Windows Phone 8.

I dare Microsoft executives from CEO Steve Ballmer, Chief Financial Marketing Officer Tami Reller, Microsoft Surface general Manager Panos Panay and corporate vice president at Microsoft in charge of Retail Sales and Marketing Steve Schueler among others, to go undercover boss at some of these 3rd party retail outlets and then make a statement if they find the experience acceptable. If they do, they then clearly deserve to lose the battle in the “post-PC” world.

I left the store about an hour later disappointed to say the least and never speaking to the so called “Microsoft specialist.” I wondered, if I, somebody with tech know-how and likes Microsoft’s products had such a terrible experience, what about the average consumer?

The consumer and sales and marketing divisions at Redmond need an immediately overhaul or else be fired and new blood put in. The company has great products. They just need someone who can present and sell them in a professional and desirable way to the end consumer.
Click to expand...
http://microsoft-news.com/my-disgraceful-microsoft-surface-experience-at-best-buy/

If I was working on the Surface team, I'd be pretty mad.
 
B

BigWeather

Member
lastflowers said:
Yep, calendar syncs.

I haven't really used the emal application yet--so I can't really comment on it fully. I remember it being laggy at launch. Using it now: It still seems a little laggy, but it works fine. Much better than launch.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Calendar sync is huge for her, glad to hear it works well, and that mail is a bit better.
 
E

Enco

Member
brotkasten said:
Long and bitter post about the awful retail experience at Best Buy.

http://i.imgur.com/MbqGa.jpg[/IM G]
(Surface next to the cheaper iPad 2)

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ZL5dw.jpg[/I MG]
(no account on the device, which makes the device useless, since no apps work)

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/FnZl9.jpg[/IMG ]
(the keyboards)


[url]http://microsoft-news.com/my-disgraceful-microsoft-surface-experience-at-best-buy/[/url]

If I was working on the Surface team, I'd be pretty mad.[/QUOTE]
Wow.

It looks like a piece of shit next to the iPad.

I'm interested in the surface but damn that's not flattering.
Click to expand...
 
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