Appalcarp's Blog

Vast Splendors of Tennessee, a Man, and Nature

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Apr-13 - Microsoft Surface Pro update
Apr-13 - Funniest video(s) I have heard in years
Feb-12 - Microsoft Blunderbus Strikes Again!
Dec-25 - Full Prelim Microsoft Surface Review
Dec-25 - Also, too, Surface

Microsoft Surface Pro update

I got my Surface Pro and love it! Nice to have full Windows, a stylus, and equivalent retina display. I hear the are coming out with a 7 in later this year. Will they learn from the last marketing glitch? No telling. I like being able to do either Metro or Desktop, but REALLY want my start button there on the desktop. I got the full Office suite and you had best get a 128GB.

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Sat, Apr 13 2013

Funniest video(s) I have heard in years

Posted by Gary (GARY479)

http://youtu.be/xf9LhPQTfBY

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Tue, Feb 12 2013

Microsoft Blunderbus Strikes Again!

Posted by Gary (GARY479)

So I pre-shop Best Buy, I was told that the Surface Pro is 'on sale tomorrow.' I eagerly come to the store at 9:55a and was told that Microsoft in its launch program had only given them three to sell and they were 'presold' on reserve. I told them I thought that was horse manure. Why would the stupids at Microsoft fail to supply inventory or have a launch of a machine that did not exist for most people? Absolute stupidity. So several good corporate customers and myself left the store in disgust! What drives such corporate stupidity? Unknown. In further research online at the Microsoft Store site, it is 'sold out!' The 64 GB machine is a complete bust. Windows 8, not including Office, will take all but 28 GB or so leaving you high and dry on memory. The word from here is 'buyer beware!' The 128 GB machine will leave you about 90 GB. Decent. However, the stupids did not make many of those and are completely unavailable either online or at Best Buy or Staples where they are supposedly being supplied. Must be ghost machines because I have not seen any nor could I order one at any outlet. Oh, I get it, it is a 'virtual machine?' Just not quite reality...

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Tue, Dec 25 2012

Full Prelim Microsoft Surface Review

Posted by Gary (GARY479)

I bought this Surface as a kind of hybrid between my iPad2 and my Win7 home laptop simply because I need MS Office (on the fly between work and home) with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on a tablet. I love my pad for normal emails and such as well as those hidden object games. It is vastly superior and has other great apps as well, but as an office machine, the Windows conflicts require too many workarounds, hence, needed something different. You MUST get the 64 as after getting home, the 32 after all updates and just Windows RT itself with no data left me with only 8GB, yes you read it correctly. MS should be taken to task over this, it is false advertising to say you get a 32 GB when you do not. It was swiftly returned for the 64 which left me with about 40GB after updates and I have used a couple in addition. I installed an 8GB microSD chip in the slot and got a 32GB RT-compatible flashdrive. I say that because my old Toshiba 8GB would not work, but hey, 8 for 32 trade on sale?, cool! It has had problems on other computers as well so not a real surprise. Something probably about the password protocol RT does not like.

Hardware: Love it! Great look and feel and the 16:9 res is great. Great for office documents and some wider websites. The SD chip location, though, is bothersome as it is on the side and the USB felt a bit different but worked fine. I found I preferred the included 64's keyboard rather than the click-key types which I returned with the 32. It works great and looks to be durable and minor splashes should not affect it since there are no spaces for liquid to penetrate. I loved its flatness as well as easy disembarkation. Better than my Apple keyboard for the Pad. Turn and flip is just wonderful! I like the internal keyboard, would love to have the hyphen on the front and use an inch or so less screen real estate. This one ups Apple by having the apostrophe’s on the front as I use a LOT of contractions, quotes, colons, and possessives. Sound not loud enough.

Software: RT is great as you can go to the standard UI. Or you can stick to the Start menu system. I miss my start button on the standard UI. Questions:

Why can you not search the Windows store for apps greater than ‘top 100'? Who says they are top? Why is there no way to list top-rated? Sad, the Apple Store recently upgraded is far superior. I had to Google for an app I needed. Why is an app so hard to move around, delete, or even resize the icon to just the smaller square. Why do I have to get apps that do what Windows does with right-click already? (Such as zipping files up) LOVED the Adera game, where is the rest? ;) Where is Windows Media player on the toolbar, does it exist in there or do I have to buy an app?! Apple’s iPod much better. Websites play normally and well such as network shows and YouTube so video playback is nice.

Conclusion: Hardware blows Apple away and software is blown away by Apple. Pyrrhic victory. Apple gets one, MS gets one, who will break the tie? Some things might be my familiarity.
MS got sucker-punched with iPhone and Pad. MS weighed back in with hardware design, cute colors and interfaces and such and is just bigger and fatter so can absorb like a Sumo wrestler. Will the up-and-comer upstage him or fail? Stay tuned.

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Tue, Dec 25 2012

Also, too, Surface

Posted by Gary (GARY479)

And Microsoft should be sued up the yingyang yangtze for promoting a 32GIG machine that after updates, winds up with 8! I immediately took it back for a 64 and after updates, wound up with 40 or so. I added an 8GB microSD card as well in the provided slot.

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Tue, Dec 25 2012

Microsoft Surface? Drag or Delight?

Posted by Gary (GARY479)

Update: I am finding that I quite like the Surface. (YouTube RT app is fantastic!) The Xbox games are fantastic! (Adera) Would like a stylus-type pen thrown in, though but I have an iPad for that stuff and there is talk of a pogo pressure-sensitive bluetooth stylus that will work with at least 16 apps to start with including MySketch. I already have a regular laptop that runs 7 quite well, so do not really need a full Windows. It was bit of a bugtussle to get it the way I wanted and for what I want it for (getting something to work but iSilo saved the day who already has an app for it that uses the old .pdb formatted files. Having Office right there is just perfect as I can do productive or fun tasks either one. Would be nice to have Dropbox ready with an app as well, but I hear they are working on it. I only ever use Word, PowerPoint, or Excel for the most part. SkyDrive is nice with 7GB of totally FREE storage. The RT 'did' block a virus that wasn't prepared for it, so that was great. Had to glean and clean my home machine but RT stood up with the unique app interface. I simply reloaded the mail with a different password. I think now that this machine has a real niche to fill which is why I bought it, as a hybrid 'between' the Apple and Microsoft worlds. The office uses Office Pro 2010 so it is just fine and this Office 2013 on the RT reads everything just like it should. I have seen nothing of a problematic nature (yet). Doesn't mean I will not. I returned the 32GB machine as I found that I only had 8GB after an Office and Windows RT 'upgrade.' I took it back and got the 64GB finally winding up with about 40 GB left. I added the 8GB microSD card and BestBuy has some 32GB flash drives from PNY that work just great! On sale for $12 or so, great deal!

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