Windows Tablets aren't ready for Students Yet

[Ridlah]

I just bought a Surface RT the other day with the intention of using for college. My main reason for getting this tablet aside from its ms office applications was getting ebooks. Ebooks are about half the price for the actual textbook and I thought a tablet would be a great idea. It turns out that Windows tablets aren't ready for ebooks yet. So far every college textbook has not appeared available on the Kindle app by amazon. It turns out that the publisher has to publish their books for every device, and so far the only devices that can display the ebooks are the iPad, Android, and kindle tablets. Barns and Noble told me that textbooks are only sold on their own branded tablets. For people with windows pro tablets you can always use the desktop application, which isn't touch friendly, meaning you will have to use a mouse and probably a keyboard, which professors usually don't allow if there only exception is a tablet. My guess is that the next edition of every textbook released, so publishers can make more money, Windows 8 users will find the books available. But for now I don't believe that MS office is useful on a touch screen device when you have to carry expensive textbooks to.

 

[gsquared]

Seems you didn't do your homework before getting the device. Smells like bad habits in here.

 

[Ridlah]

Yeah i admit to lack of research on that I just thought I could alert others who are looking to buy a surface for the same reason

 

[rdubmu]

It is true thou, MS should really push for students. After HS and College you want those people buying your computers.







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[Ruined]

I just bought a Surface RT the other day with the intention of using for college. My main reason for getting this tablet aside from its ms office applications was getting ebooks. Ebooks are about half the price for the actual textbook and I thought a tablet would be a great idea. It turns out that Windows tablets aren't ready for ebooks yet. So far every college textbook has not appeared available on the Kindle app by amazon. It turns out that the publisher has to publish their books for every device, and so far the only devices that can display the ebooks are the iPad, Android, and kindle tablets. Barns and Noble told me that textbooks are only sold on their own branded tablets. For people with windows pro tablets you can always use the desktop application, which isn't touch friendly, meaning you will have to use a mouse and probably a keyboard, which professors usually don't allow if there only exception is a tablet. My guess is that the next edition of every textbook released, so publishers can make more money, Windows 8 users will find the books available. But for now I don't believe that MS office is useful on a touch screen device when you have to carry expensive textbooks to.

If you went with a Windows 8 tablet with Intel Atom Z2760, you'd get similar performance and battery life to the Surface RT without the limitations of RT. So not all Windows tablets have these limitations, just the one you bought did.

I recommend the HP Envy X2 especially.

 

[Reflexx]

If you went with a Windows 8 tablet with Intel Atom Z2760, you'd get similar performance and battery life to the Surface RT without the limitations of RT. So not all Windows tablets have these limitations, just the one you bought did.

I recommend the HP Envy X2 especially.

...and without MS Office.

...and he still won't have touch-friendly eBooks.

 

[Laura Knotek]

...and without MS Office.

...and he still won't have touch-friendly eBooks.

Pretty good discount on Office 365 University, though. Plus the subscription is cheap for four years. https://www.officeforstudents.com/

 

[ninjaap]

Pretty good discount on Office 365 University, though. Plus the subscription is cheap for four years. https://www.officeforstudents.com/

How much is it? I cant see the price since I don't have an email I can use.

EDIT: Nevermind. I followed the links

 

[Laura Knotek]

How much is it? I cant see the price since I don't have an email I can use.

EDIT: Nevermind. I followed the links

$79.99 for a 4-year subscription. Microsoft Office University Suite | Online Subscription - Office.com

 

[GSOgymrat]

It turns out that the publisher has to publish their books for every device, and so far the only devices that can display the ebooks are the iPad, Android, and kindle tablets. Barns and Noble told me that textbooks are only sold on their own branded tablets.

I had no idea this was the case. I assumed if Barnes and Noble had a textbook in their Nook store it would work on any Nook app. I'm not currently a student but if I returned to school I would need to know this.

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

As a student with a windows 8 tablet I 100% disagree with your post Ridlah. I will say that you are right about one thing and that is textbooks, but you can't usually get most textbooks through kindle or Nook on other devices either, as I can get almost none of mine period (I'm an engineering student FYI). I will say for other things, like running matlab, programming, and office my HP envy X2 is fantastic. If I needed to buy e-textbooks I would download an x86 app. Personally though, I have all of my textbooks on my tablet, but I did it by torrenting them. Textbook companies can earn my money once they decide that 80$ for a 5-month rental of a textbook is not a fair price and that I can either 1) download it through bittorrent, 2) purchase the international version of the textbooks for around 20-60$, or 3) worst case scenario- buy the book for around 150$ or less used.

 

[Ridlah]

Thanks for your comment, I was able to find the textbooks through the kindle app available on iPad and Android tablets from family members who owned these tablets, the Nook only allows you to get textbooks on their own branded tablets. Your method seems nice but sadly won't work for windows rt tablets like my own.

 

[link68759]

...so you're saying that the surface RT is bad for students because you don't know how files work? Or because a retailer COMPLETELY unrelated to the platform doesn't have your textbook?

First, eBook is not restricted to platform. Buy your eBook, get the file, put it on your RT and find an app in the store to open it.

Your post is the equivalent of "I can't find some music I like in the store, so this platform is bad for people who listen to music"
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[jhguth]

...and without MS Office.

...and he still won't have touch-friendly eBooks.

atom tablets run full windows and can run MS Office and any legacy eBook program you want. the legacy eBook program won't be particularly touch friendly, so just use the stylus or bring a mouse. OneNote is absolutely fantastic for students, I carried a Lenovo x60t through college and went completely paperless and it was fantastic.

 

[Paul May]

I bought a surface rt because the college I go to went completely 100% to etext book with which the price is built into tuition which is kinda nice not to have to mess with getting books. The rt did not work for me because of the lack of legacy support and vitalsource bookshelf only does iPad and android apps yet, and they use a legacy download to allow you access to the school WiFi. So I returned the rt and got the pro and have to say it is the best decision I could have made. With working in OneNote and the bookshelf my battery lasts the whole 5 hrs of class. The bookshelf legacy app works fine by touch for me, but I understand that not everyone will be using the same program. As someone else stated OneNote is exceptional. I have gone paperless too with no book to carry and my backpack is so light with just the pro in there. I couldn't be happier.

 

[Ridlah]

Thanks for all your comments everyone, I found kno to be useful so far on the rt it only lets you rent books but with the edition changes every few years the books won't be that useful