Windows Phone & Ipad

ALpHa.Q.RoUgH

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thanks for the very detailed post. You answered mainly all of my concerns. Okay so mainly for as a Windows companion and for school productivity, the RT is fine. I was thinking PRO, but I don't know any legacy apps I would need to run or would need for the extra cost. The games I mainly miss are the Adult Swim games (Don't know of your familiar with them) and some of my old games I had on my old Ipod Touch.

The fact that the RT lasts 10 Hours and can work flawlessly with my Windows Phone is what enticed me in the first place and didnt know if it would help me for school like with PDF files and with wirelessly printing. I know for example on my Windows Phone if you get an attachment in an email it won't open due to some restrictions.

My other issue was that it was WIFI only and unlike the Ipad which has the option of 3G and Wifi and the Playbook which add the tethering app or whatever it was called, there is no way to quickly connect files either to my phone or to Skydrive and other programs without being in a WIFI area. I know WIFI should be available at school however depending where you are service can get a bit sketchy.
 

Kooosh

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There are no apps the surface is missing because most apps are just watered down versions of their web properties.
Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

Had to laugh at this. You serious? This is classic in denial excuse-making if you ask me.
 

narv

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I'm definitely thinking about getting a Surface, but one question. Should I wait for pro or just cop the RT version?

That depends what you want to use it for? The pro can run the legacy apps and has the pressure sensitive Wacom pen... but also "half" the battery life (so the reviews say but since no one has really touched one... who can really say?).. if you let us know what you want out of the tablet experience, we can help with picking a device.. I have the surface RT and I do not regret the purchase in the slightest.. I love the thing and it's perfect for what I do / need it for.

Had to laugh at this. You serious? This is classic in denial excuse-making if you ask me.
I agree that the surface is missing apps... but as I pointed out above.. it kinda just came out... and it does have QUITE a lot of apps.. with more big name ones having been announced already that are set to come out "soon".. But the win 8 does have a large number of apps, you can't deny that. and they aren't all crappy ones (they all have crappy apps.. that is OS independent).
 

narv

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thanks for the very detailed post. You answered mainly all of my concerns. Okay so mainly for as a Windows companion and for school productivity, the RT is fine. I was thinking PRO, but I don't know any legacy apps I would need to run or would need for the extra cost. The games I mainly miss are the Adult Swim games (Don't know of your familiar with them) and some of my old games I had on my old Ipod Touch.

The fact that the RT lasts 10 Hours and can work flawlessly with my Windows Phone is what enticed me in the first place and didnt know if it would help me for school like with PDF files and with wirelessly printing. I know for example on my Windows Phone if you get an attachment in an email it won't open due to some restrictions.

My other issue was that it was WIFI only and unlike the Ipad which has the option of 3G and Wifi and the Playbook which add the tethering app or whatever it was called, there is no way to quickly connect files either to my phone or to Skydrive and other programs without being in a WIFI area. I know WIFI should be available at school however depending where you are service can get a bit sketchy.

Sorry Im not familiar with those games. You know it wouldn't hurt to also send them a quick email seeing if they have any plans to port those games in the future.. If they say "yeah, we are looking into it" then you'll know that eventually you'll get them :p I have done that with pretty much all the apps I used on my old iphone to see if they would be coming over. I chose to pick the OS over the apps the OS offers but I don't expect everyone to think like me so I can't say that is what you have to do.

What is kind of cool, since you mentioned PDFs. Word 2013 can actually open, edit, and save PDFs. There is a reader App for them that uses the bookmarks, view them, etc etc if you need that too. I don't deal with PDFs too often in the first place so I cannot personally comment on the experience. Again this is something you could stop by bestbuy and find a random PDF online and try and open it on their surface tablet and see what you can do with it. I doubt they have any features to write on the PDFs or what not unfortunately but that may come in time, depends on if you need that. Windows Phone BTW you can download the PDF reader app and you'll be able to open PDF files on your phone. It doesn't have a ton of features.. basically you can view PDFs with it.. but it defaults itself to open PDFs on your phone, that is what I have on my lumia 920.

yes.. wifi only can be a concern if you don't have a phone plan that offers tethering. I don't seem to have a problem much since most places I take my surface, have wifi. My school had it, my job has it, (my house.. ), starbucks.. I can't pull it out in the car (since I don't have tethering on my plan either) even as a passenger. So that is a consideration to keep in mind if you find you really need to use the tablet often in places that don't have reliable wifi connections.

As for connecting to your phone or to skydrive without wifi.. yes.. you can't "quickly" do it... phone obviously you can connect via USB port on the surface and do it that way relatively easy (albeit probably not "quick"). Or if you know what you'll need before hand (say you're going to class) you can download the slides or papers and then save your notes to your desktop and sync when you get back home.
 

narv

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I was planning on using it for school and entertainment uses.

Kind of like how I answered the OP who wishes for the same usage, the RT can do a lot but it depends on what you need. If for school you just need to use excel, onenote, powerpoint, and word... and maybe the calculator app.. then the RT is perfect.. it's small, has a kickstand and keyboard.. and a front facing camera if you want to record the lecture at the same time that you write up notes (assuming you're typing and not using a writing style approach with onenote) to watch the lecture later while reviewing your notes.

But if you need programs like autocad, photoshop, maya/3dsmax, matlab, or anything engineering / CS based then I would probably recommend waiting on the surface pro if you wish to stay with that line, or go for one of the laptop/tablet hybrids if you need one before the semester starts (since the pro release date isn't released yet). However.. as I said above too.. if you happen to have windows 8 on your desktop as well as the surface tablet, it is VERY easy to setup remote desktop and use your home computer in a touch interface on your tablet while in class (if you need to do a program or use something that the RT doesn't have / can't support).

I would recommend it and I wish I had the surface when I was in school.
 

Kooosh

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I agree that the surface is missing apps... but as I pointed out above.. it kinda just came out... and it does have QUITE a lot of apps.. with more big name ones having been announced already that are set to come out "soon".. But the win 8 does have a large number of apps, you can't deny that. and they aren't all crappy ones (they all have crappy apps.. that is OS independent).

I never denied anything. I'm mostly satisfied with my app selection. And yeah, of course things are going to continue to improve.

Suggesting there isn't really an app gap because W8/WP8 has a browser is what I found amusing. :)
 

ALpHa.Q.RoUgH

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Yes I might do that, and about the PDF, I have that exact app on my phone as well and it defaults all PDF's to opening with that program. Didn't know of it was the same on the tablet. As far as emails, I believe I received either a word file from a fellow classmate or a PowerPoint from a classmate and it wouldn't saying something along the lines that Windows couldn't open that attachment. I was pretty bummed but didn't know if it was just limited to the phones.

I don't have a tethering plan (AT&T) as they get very expensive and I'm grandfathered in with unlimited so I'll make due, but I guess your options make sense as well as far as syncing before and after class when I get home or using Skydrive to save.

I thank you for your great answers, you probably answered better than what I would of received at the Microsoft Store because when I initially went and played with a surface, they seemed pretty clueless on what it's able to do. However, since it can do my major concerns then I most likely will pick one up and get attached. Compared to the other tablets, the Surface seems underpowered compared to like the Yoga & the Vivo Tab.
 

inteller

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Had to laugh at this. You serious? This is classic in denial excuse-making if you ask me.

no, show many ANY app that fully replicates the web property it is based off of. There are none. I'd clamor for a FB app, but NONE of the facebook apps can manage all of the various nitty gritty settings the website can. NONE. There are actually plenty of twitter apps that are better than the official twitter apps but none still can do everything you can on the website. About a month ago I was upset these apps weren't there, but after playing with those apps on other platforms, I'm really not missing anything a good standards compliant website can't do in IE10.
 

narv

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Yes I might do that, and about the PDF, I have that exact app on my phone as well and it defaults all PDF's to opening with that program. Didn't know of it was the same on the tablet. As far as emails, I believe I received either a word file from a fellow classmate or a PowerPoint from a classmate and it wouldn't saying something along the lines that Windows couldn't open that attachment. I was pretty bummed but didn't know if it was just limited to the phones.

I don't have a tethering plan (AT&T) as they get very expensive and I'm grandfathered in with unlimited so I'll make due, but I guess your options make sense as well as far as syncing before and after class when I get home or using Skydrive to save.

I thank you for your great answers, you probably answered better than what I would of received at the Microsoft Store because when I initially went and played with a surface, they seemed pretty clueless on what it's able to do. However, since it can do my major concerns then I most likely will pick one up and get attached. Compared to the other tablets, the Surface seems underpowered compared to like the Yoga & the Vivo Tab.

Hmm.. strange about not being able to open the documents then. They seemed to work on mine. Perhaps they had a formatting or something that wasn't supported or used too old of a version? like a office 97 versioned file that the phone version can't handle? Hard to say without really looking into it more.

I have the same plan as you (grandfathered in with unlimited) so I can understand your situation completely :)

You are very welcome. I cannot say as when I got mine at the MS Store they seemed very knowledgable but I live in Orlando FL so I don't know about where you are hehe. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask them and plenty of people who are willing to help. Check out the surface RT forum on here too for more information (since this is the wp8 forum and the surface people, while probably do check here too, may be more focused down there).

Best of luck with whatever device you decide on :)
 

inteller

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Yes I might do that, and about the PDF, I have that exact app on my phone as well and it defaults all PDF's to opening with that program. Didn't know of it was the same on the tablet. As far as emails, I believe I received either a word file from a fellow classmate or a PowerPoint from a classmate and it wouldn't saying something along the lines that Windows couldn't open that attachment. I was pretty bummed but didn't know if it was just limited to the phones.

I don't have a tethering plan (AT&T) as they get very expensive and I'm grandfathered in with unlimited so I'll make due, but I guess your options make sense as well as far as syncing before and after class when I get home or using Skydrive to save.

I thank you for your great answers, you probably answered better than what I would of received at the Microsoft Store because when I initially went and played with a surface, they seemed pretty clueless on what it's able to do. However, since it can do my major concerns then I most likely will pick one up and get attached. Compared to the other tablets, the Surface seems underpowered compared to like the Yoga & the Vivo Tab.

listen, you need to get informed. All of the "i don't know" questions you've been asking can be answered with about 15 minutes of research at Microsoft and elsewhere. you seem to want your answers hand delivered or spoon fed and any consumer with backbone is going to do that legwork themselves. the answers to almost all of your questions are yes, and that's without really researching much.
 

ALpHa.Q.RoUgH

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listen, you need to get informed. All of the "i don't know" questions you've been asking can be answered with about 15 minutes of research at Microsoft and elsewhere. you seem to want your answers hand delivered or spoon fed and any consumer with backbone is going to do that legwork themselves. the answers to almost all of your questions are yes, and that's without really researching much.


I had did some research, but I was misinformed and/or confused about some of the details. Came to ask people who might be a little more knowledgeable than a Best Buy or even a Microsoft store.

Excuse me fine sir, sorry for invading your internet. You can carry-on.
 

irvin792

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I had did some research, but I was misinformed and/or confused about some of the details. Came to ask people who might be a little more knowledgeable than a Best Buy or even a Microsoft store.

Excuse me fine sir, sorry for invading your internet. You can carry-on.
I'm just being a jokey sarcastic butt don't mind me, I mean no real harm :)
 

inteller

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By this point I don't think you are going to find uninformed MS Store people, at least not the manager. Some of the questions you ask aren't even Surface questions, but universal Windows truths for the past 10 years. If you have used Windows in the last 10 years you will understand from an OS perspective that Windows RT can do everything Windows 8 can except run legacy apps.
 

bgros

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Win 8 RT tablets like Surface and the Dell XPS 10 are simular to iPads in that they are content creation devices. Win 8 RT tablets do however have Offiice integrated. Win 8 Pro tablets like the Dell Latitude 10 and Surface Pro are Tablet PCs running Win 8 Pro. They run 5 MILLION LEGACY Windows applications that have been developed over the last 20 years as well as Win 8 Metro apps. They can be managed and secured by corporate unlike Android or iPad tablets. For Corporate IT Win 8 Pro tablets are the solution that they want and need.
 

spaulagain

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By this point I don't think you are going to find uninformed MS Store people, at least not the manager. Some of the questions you ask aren't even Surface questions, but universal Windows truths for the past 10 years. If you have used Windows in the last 10 years you will understand from an OS perspective that Windows RT can do everything Windows 8 can except run legacy apps.


And other things like join a domain and AD management for businesses. But some of those technologies are changing and may not be a requirements for tablets in businesses.

RT isn't just lack of legacy support though. Keep that mind while try to decide. However, it is still far more powerful than iOS6 on the iPad.
 

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