Best Buy Demos/Right click issues

[TexasTiger]

Hello all. I've been waiting for the Surface for a long time, and I expect to pull the trigger soon.

I ventured out to a Best Buy in Austin that had the Surface, the VivoTab RT, and a non functional ATIV to actually try things out. I left mostly frustrated as hell and am starting to research how I can use all of my Microsoft services with Jelly Bean... I've watched some video reviews and searched the boards, and don't see people having the problems I had today.

As I was playing around with the Surface, I accidentally rebooted it about 60 seconds in. It took over 20 minutes to restart, because BB apparently refreshes the image of some tablets each reboot. No problem, off to the VivoTab RT. Except this Tab apparently had some sort of finger tracking issue with "ghost fingers" making it damn near impossible for me to do anything besides hit the Windows button. With two out of three Win8 RT tabs out of commission, I tried to change default search, maps, etc. on an Android tab to Bing with no luck.

When the Surface finally came back to life, I started trying to open IE from Metro in InPrivate mode. I found no way to do this, so I switched to desktop mode (Q1: Can you pin InPrivate mode directly to the Metro start screen?). Here I discovered right clicking is *completely* hit or miss. Sometimes I could right click and pull up the appropriate context menu (where I found "Open in InPrivate"), and other times nothing would happen, but I would see what appeared to be the edge of a dialog box near the bottom of the screen, that I was unable to touch or drag. I switch to portrait orientation of desktop, same result. Completely unreliable; long press and hold, short press and hold, there seemed to be no feedback as to if I'd held the right click long enough or not, so it was a guessing game that I tired of quickly.

The sales guy kept mentioning that the software builds BB put on the Win8 hardware was pretty wonky, and maybe that was why stuff didn't seem to function right. I ventured back to the VivoTab and figured that rebooting it and turning from landscape and portrait and back was like shaking up an etch a sketch, giving me just enough time to be able to poke at the screen accurately before the ghost fingers make the interface unusable. Jumping straight into desktop mode, I discovered the exact same problem with right clicking that I had on the Surface. (Q2: Without resorting to using the trackpad, am I just doing something wrong, and there's some easy way to right click? A gesture I don't know of?)

While playing with the Androids (Asus, too) I naturally found no evidence that any functionality was missing based on a "BB build" (the excuse given for the apparent Surface and VivoTab malfunctions).

I desperately *want* to love the Surface (and even the VivoTab). I want to be able to overlook that I'll never be able to use Chrome, and probably never a stable Firefox or Maxthon or Opera on RT. I want to overlook that United Airlines will probably never publish an app, and I'll have to pin a web page to my start menu just like I do on my Lumia 920, and that apps I use on my WP8 aren't available for W8 RT. But this kind of stuff will drive my tablet choice straight into arms of the evil empire (GOOGLE) or the evil empire that acts like they take their privacy policies seriously (Apple.)

Please tell me I'm nuts.

 

[Sin]

Sorry you experience at Best Buy was less than ideal, but that is unfortunately not surprising with BestBuy. There is a lot of reasons they are not doing so well and it's a shame. In the Metro IE, I don't know of any way to open an link from a web page in InPrivate, but you can copy the link, then open a new InPrivate tab (swipe down from the top, tap the '...', and then 'New InPrivate tab'), and paste the address. Not sure on pinning the InPrivate mode to the start as I have never tried. As for the right click with touch, you need to tap and hold until you see a square pop up under you finger, and then release.

 

[bosamar]

The problem with Best Buy is its not a controlled environment with employees taking care of the PCs, tablets, etc throughout the day. Most of their display machines have been heavily abused. Our local BB couldn't even find the admin password! lol

 

[J515OP]

I highly recommend trying Staples if you can. They have a more dedicated Surface display and frankly the traffic is less and they do less strange things than Best Buy. it will probably be a much better test location.

As mentioned long press is the equivalent of Right Click when touching the screen.

You can Pin InPrivate Browsing to Start. Swipe from the top down as mentioned by Sin. Touch the three dots and select new InPrivate tab. Then on the bottom of the screen touch the pin and confirm Pin to Start. Just that easy.

JP

 

[TexasTiger]

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to head out to Staples in a few minutes to check it out. Hopefully they have a type cover out as well...

 

[TeknoBlast]

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to head out to Staples in a few minutes to check it out. Hopefully they have a type cover out as well...

i went to my local Staples the other day just to see what their display looks like, wasnt impressed, but it was better than what Best Buy had. My Staples did have both the type and touch cover displayed, so that was nice.

 

[TexasTiger]

The experience at Staples was orders of magnitude better than the Best Buy in the same shopping center, at least as far as the Surface was concerned. Both keyboards were available, and I was duly impressed with how magnificently thin the Type keyboard was. (Just wish it came in Cyan!)

The Surface worked. Or, worked like it was supposed to. And your gesture help was invaluable. While I have had a Win8 Touchscreen in the Kitchen and non touch Win8 as my primary box, having a mouse within reach of either machine has been a huge crutch.

I'd be stunned if the Best Buy in Austin (Barbara Jordan location) has ever sold, or will ever sell, a single Surface. Guinness sends folks out to make sure pints of the loveliness are served through clean lines, from fresh kegs, and are poured properly. I think MS needs to give the same treatment to Surface retailers. Either hold them to a high standard, or democratize it and sell it everywhere. Having to hunt for a device and ending up at a place like Best Buy is like nuking buying desire from orbit.

 

[Sin]

Glad you at least were able to try a working Surface at Staples. Best Buy could be great, but unfortunately that seems out of the question.

 

[brauntex]

Texas Tiger,
You have full blown Microsoft Store in the Domain shopping center.
Check out the Surface there, the MS staff can address all your questions.

 

[TexasTiger]

Yes, I've been trying to avoid having to go to the MS stores. In both Houston and Austin, they're placed in exactly the place that is impossible to get to through traffic on a weekday. It's been one of those "been meaning to go" things since the Surface was released. However, I had originally wanted to hit a multi-tab outlet so I could fondle all the slabs within minutes of each other for comparison's sake. I was pretty sure the MS stores wouldn't carry the Vivotab, and for sure none of the Google stuff.

 

[R0bR]

You won't get the Android tablets obviously but the Microsoft Store does carry other non Microsoft tablets. My local MS Store had the Asus, Acer and Samsung tablets.