I love sitting next to folks with iPads.

[machistmo]

Competition. I remember when MS was investing 750 million in Apple to keep them floating so they could point to them and say " See Justice Department, we have direct competition" And now. Well. Both Companies are still Cash machines and I agree that to count anyone out would be silly at this point. Apple has a UGE lead and brand loyalty that will be hard to chip away for MS. People are also heavily invested into that ECOSystem. My neighbor had QVC on this afternoon and at the bottom of the Screen in the left corner it said...

ORDER on MOBILE:

iPhone or iPad
Android or Blackberry

NO Windows Mobile. In fact a few years ago we looked at different ecosystems for our company and did some serious research, 3 months or so worth. When the project to decide on a mobile platform started, Windows Phone had almost 8% of the market and by the time we were ready to decide that share had fallen to just over 2%. Windows Mobile has a long road with little or no turning in front of it. I don't mean to trash MS here, but wow have they have *Expletive Deleted* up by the numbers in just about every way you can in the last few years.

 

[machistmo]

They are different.
Each provide different pros and cons for different life situations.
That is why both exist.
The best one is the one you choose at that moment.
This comparison for "which is better" is fruitless.

But comparisons of specs are very helpful - especially for deciding which to consume.
View attachment 1970

GIN
Really? Has anyone shared this with MS and the rest of the world? Analysts and everyone else see's them all as tablets. I get what you are saying, but I think we all know the Surface and SP exist as a direct response the success of the iPad. Its got PANIC LOOK AT APPLE MAKING BILLIONS written all over it.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Did you get his phone number? Sounds like a connection to me...

It seems to me that iPads are taking over the world. I recently went to buy a car and almost EVERY dealership I visited had the iPad in service in one form or another. Everything from selling me the car on the iPad to searching dealer inventory to find the car I was searching for right there where we stood... So While this is a laptop and its neat, it still runs Windows 8, which is getting better, but honestly will I think be forgotten in the annals of Windows ME and Vista.. The iPad for whatever it WONT do, and that's a lot, it DOES what it DOES VERY WELL. I work with a guy that HATES the iPad but loves the one his wife has because as he puts it "I think we have had it two years and its never been turned off or had one problem that she had to ask me about". It's hard to argue with that statement.

People love them and therefore they are infiltrating into places that you would not have guessed they would pop up. I don't think having a brand affinity gets us anywhere and we al have them to some degree. As I get older I realize that I have them less and to a lesser degree and I am forced to admit the obvious. Glad you love your SP and all that but honestly this 10 inch screen makes me a little batty sometimes and until recently I had perfect vision and still see like a hawk.

This SP2 I am typing this on has only recently started behaving in anything that I would call a serviceable fashion. Until the last firmware update the unit would not even sleep properly to say nothing of waking from sleep, which it just would not do... Its battery life is impressive for the power it offers but I don't find that I avail myself of that power unless I am using it on a large display and so then on power anyway... In fact, this thing stays docked most of the time and I use the iPad to tote in the garage for consumption or the odd how-to video on changing my weed-eaters head to a non-factory model. I don't think that either solution is better than the other, but I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone else that feels this way.... The world is finding ways to make the iPad productive... Wow reading this - I sound like an i-Diot, but I assure you I am not... Its just how it is. Apple is eating everyone's lunch and it isn't because of what the iPad wont do, because that list is pretty long. Its because what it does do - IT DOES REALLY WELL. They were also first to get it right and so people are invested in it and yadda yadda yadda... iTunes is TERRIBLE, I think anyone will admit that, but people put up with that because they LOVE the hardware and the simple to use OS. They count on it to work and it does... They count on it to last a whole day playing movies and videos and it does... They count on it to go to sleep and save the battery and wake up instantly and do what they want and it does...

I like my SP2 a lot but I am in IT and have uses that most of the world does not... Not saying there are not upsides to the SP2 but man I don't know.. Its pretty hard to trash the iPad.. Whatever it does not do, it does what it DOES do pretty damned well and for most, that's all they want....

Great post dude. I think a big part of it is simply that Apple is cool. Computing has never been cool... it's a hobby for geeks, at least that's how many people saw it, back in the era when Microsoft truly were the kings. Now Apple has turned that around, people are proud to be seen with an iPad or iPhone, whereas Microsoft is still seen as a provider of work stuff, i.e. boring stuff.

Don't get me wrong it's definitely turning slightly, but will it ever turn completely? I don't know. They really need to hit a home run with Windows 9. I reckon they should change the name completely... the general public just don't love Windows to the same degree.

 

[Deckyon]

the general public just don't love Windows to the same degree.

I think it is more that they have been given an OS that "just works" even though it is sandboxed. Perception is a big deal now, especially when device and company loyalty is so fickle. People change their minds at the drop of a hat, and are very vocal when something doesn't do what they expect it to do, even though they had the wrong, or uneducated expectations. Just because you saw a picture on the internet of a clothes iron cooking a grilled cheese sandwich, that doesn't mean the iron was designed as a cooking appliance.

People's expectations and perceptions need to be changed. That is what Apple accomplished.

All that being said, I still love and use my iPad (a lot) and my MBP is still my main machine, but the Surface Pro 2 has a permanent home in my gear bag now.

 

[Dim-Ize]

I'm not posting to downplay Apple in this post. Rather, I'm simply building on what others posted earlier that has lead to a recent purchase, the PTV3000 from Netgear.

While jnjroach has far more experience in comparing the Screenbeam to the PTV3000 (leaning slightly to the Screenbeam), I could only find the PTV at BestBuy this weekend so I picked it up to try.

I simply loaded the latest firmware on the PTV (version 2.4.38 as of this writing). That was it. No other loads onto my SP2 running 8.1 with the latest update from MS. It worked flawlessly with the Surface Pro 2 and my (sheepish admission) BlackBerry OS10 device. Both streaming sources displayed at 1080P.

Then my son wanted to fire up Asphalt 8 with a USB XBox 360 controller in it. We were about 8 feet from the TV with the SP on the bed (flat) and the XBox controller in his hands. He played without any noticeable lag by watching the TV. I was actually very, very surprised. I knew displaying a PowerPoint or streaming a video would be fine - but, didn't think a game like that would even be possible.

The fact that it is open - meaning I'm not locked in to a content provider allowed me to choose Netflix, YouTube, native file formats from SSD, MicroSD, USB, cloud, Amazon store, etc. all to the TV with excellent quality and sound.

While I'm sure this can be done on other platforms, the versatility and ease of use kinda gave me a brief tech buzz. I didn't invent the stuff, but using it and imagining the brilliant minds that are bringing this to market made me smile.

If the SP3 maintains its heavy lifting while having the form factor and battery life of the Surface 2... day one purchase for me.

The only disadvantage I have with my SP2 is it does have limits on batter life and gets a tad heavy when used as a tablet only. But, given its limitations - I think it is fantastic and I'm very thankful to own it.

 

[jnjroach]

I use the PTV3000 almost every day on the Living Room TV, the lag only comes into play if you are looking at both screens or typing (and with the latest Firmware the lag is much less). Either is a good choice

 

[fonzman78]

I use the PTV3000 almost every day on the Living Room TV, the lag only comes into play if you are looking at both screens or typing (and with the latest Firmware the lag is much less). Either is a good choice

Yep, I also have the PTV3000. I got it about a month or so ago and have used it at home and when traveling. Makes for a nice option to watch movies on the hotel TV rather than on the small Surface screen. It was easy to setup and works great. I did run into a stutter issue last time so I may need to update the PTV3000 firmware.

Even better was when I was on a cruise in Feb. I brought the PTV3000 to watch movies. It turns out the Samsung TV was Miracast compatible and I didn't need to use the PTV3000. My Surface just recognized the Samsung TV and I was able to project to it. Now that was cool!!

 

[CrippsCorner]

I think it is more that they have been given an OS that "just works" even though it is sandboxed. Perception is a big deal now, especially when device and company loyalty is so fickle. People change their minds at the drop of a hat, and are very vocal when something doesn't do what they expect it to do, even though they had the wrong, or uneducated expectations. Just because you saw a picture on the internet of a clothes iron cooking a grilled cheese sandwich, that doesn't mean the iron was designed as a cooking appliance.

People's expectations and perceptions need to be changed. That is what Apple accomplished.

All that being said, I still love and use my iPad (a lot) and my MBP is still my main machine, but the Surface Pro 2 has a permanent home in my gear bag now.

True, and I don't think that being 'sand boxed' is a bad thing in the sense of iOS. It has in the past, but it no longer prohibits me from doing anything I want to on a smartphone.

 

[Deckyon]

Actually, being SandBoxed is a good thing when it comes to most of the general users out there. You have to really work to mess up an iPad. The key is all of the apps that are available. Largest AppStore out there with apps that can do damn near anything. If RT had as many apps, even as many as the Google Play store, I think the OS would have been better received.

I am not speaking of jailbreaking - that is usually the first step in bricking a device. I have never jailbroken any of my iOS devices - I never needed to. Really, most of what I have seen people do with jailbroken devices is use themes to make the device look like something else. StarDock for iOS, basically. Then, every time there is a new release, it may/may not break the jailbreak. Makes my head spin. I have had to "fix" jailbroken devices and they are a PITA.

 

[CrippsCorner]

I did actually jailbreak my first iPhone, because I wanted to be able to tether my connection. This wasn't really a fault of Apple though, it was my provider that blocked its usage... however luckily now they've opened it up.

This article I read this morning made me annoyed at Apple though...

The plot to kill the password | The Verge

While FIDO has some powerful supporters, there’s one name that’s noticeably absent: Apple. The iPhone 5S’ Touch ID is still the most usable mobile fingerprint scanner we’ve seen, and it’s kept its distance from FIDO. The company behind the hardware, AuthenTec, dropped out of the consortium as soon as it was acquired by Apple, and since then, Apple and FIDO have developed their tech separately. While FIDO has kept their spec open, Apple has taken the opposite approach, keeping Touch ID closed off even from iOS developers. The current version of Touch ID can only be used to unlock the phone and log into iTunes, and it’s unclear how or when it will open up further. It’s a walled garden, and with the full force of the iPhone behind it, it could be a serious roadblock to FIDO’s plans.

 

[macmee]

Sat next to an iPad user today.

He was playing GTA on his iPad, and asked to see how it looked on the Surface Pro 2 to compare.

I go to turn on the tablet, doesn't power on until 15 seconds later as it BSODs when booting from sleep.

Tablet final turns on, touch screen is spazzing out, thinks I'm tapping everywhere when I'm not. I reboot device.

I go to open up the game, the game crashes.

I google search the error, find an answer on yahoo answers and scrolling down the page does not work.

iPad user smiles, tells me I should have gotten an iPad instead.

At this point I can really only agree...

 

[al2fast]

Sat next to an iPad user today.

He was playing GTA on his iPad, and asked to see how it looked on the Surface Pro 2 to compare.

I go to turn on the tablet, doesn't power on until 15 seconds later as it BSODs when booting from sleep.

Tablet final turns on, touch screen is spazzing out, thinks I'm tapping everywhere when I'm not. I reboot device.

I go to open up the game, the game crashes.

I google search the error, find an answer on yahoo answers and scrolling down the page does not work.

iPad user smiles, tells me I should have gotten an iPad instead.

At this point I can really only agree...

Dude you are cursed or something. I use mine daily with no issues, I don't game on it either. Always turns on, never seen a blue screen on it, it wouldnt install one update once and had to do a refresh which worked, but was lame. My old ipad never gave me grief either, locked up once before i jailbroke it. I like my macbook pro and I like my Ubuntu box as my home server and tinker machine. My wife thinks the macbook pro is dumb and the Ubuntu machine useless and surface over priced and too small and she thinks her kindle fire hd is the greatest thing in the world next to her hp laptop with windows 7.

I'm convinced if anyone else here or myself had half the issues you did that we'd have gotten out of the surface game a long time ago. <removed insult - Mod>.

On a flight a few weeks ago the guy next to me couldn't take his eyes off of my surface, it was like my surface was a hot chick with a nipple sticking out that she didn't know about. He watched me finish up some excel work while i had the split screen up (well just 2 windows side by side in the desktop) with word on the other side writing the document that outlined the excel work , while using the type keyboard. Finished up and fired up a movie. He then grabbed his ipad and began watching something, the hot chick put her nipple back.

I got nothing against ipads or apple, the tablet for me is a surface pro.