Switching from iPad to Surface RT - have you done the same?

[evilrob]

I'm thinking about ditching all my Apple gear and moving back to Microsoft.

I will be replacing my iPhone with a Windows Phone for phone duties, my iPad with a Surface RT for tablet duties and my Apple TV with an Xbox 360 to get some sort of link between phone and tablet to TV (I assume this is possible via Xbox Glass or something), as well as play GTA V (obviously).

I would like to hear from others who have switched from iPad to Surface RT, how they found the transition and any gotchas I need to prepare for. I'd be very interested to hear if anyone has been able to use LogMeIn via the web-based service after having whitelisted it? Also, any recommendations for Windows RT text editors would be very welcome - I assume Sublime Text isn't out for it yet! :grincry:

Requirements: Intermediate e-mail/web browsing, films, light work (code edits, possibly LogMeIn if possible), music, need to be able to stream to TV

I'm not heavily invested in terms of apps or licensed media - I prefer to rent movies ad hoc (currently via iTunes, but Xbox Video seems OK, otherwise there's always Netflix), and I mostly stream music (currently via Spotify, but am open to trying Xbox Music if people recommend that over Spotify; not sure how well Spotify works on RT - I know there isn't a native app but I would hope that the web interface works OK so any experiences in this area would also be welcome).

I currently use Gmail for my email/contacts/calendar, but was planning on switching to Outlook.com to ensure everything plays nice (or at least better than Gmail) with RT. I assume this will be even better when 8.1 lands with the full Outlook client.

 

[DBDev]

I haven't tried LogMelm, but it should probably work. You don't have to worry about whitelisting anymore, because MS has enabled flash on all pages in an update. For the text editor, you have MS Word included :smile:To stream to your tv you can use dlna if your tv supports that. I have used the web client for spotify, and it works if you run it on the desktop IE, but it's not so good, so I recommend you to try Xbox Music instead. I'll do that when my spotify premium expires :grin:

 

[evilrob]

Thanks for the tips.

When I said 'text editor' - I meant for coding, not word processing! Word isn't really what I need in this case, unfortunately, good though it is.

 

[allos autos]

If LogMeIn uses a web-based interface, then it should work fine. As the previous poster said, MS enabled a whitelist-free Flash experience (yay!). If it doesn't work as well as you would like, you could always install the SkyDrive program (not the app, the actual program) on the desktop/laptop computer that you want to access, and then access it from the SkyDrive site. For more info, check out Fetch files on your PC - Microsoft Windows Help.

As far as text editors go, if you can't use Word 2013 (which comes with your Surface RT), then both "Notepad RT" and "Notepad Classic" are worth a look.

 

[allos autos]

Do you mean a text editor like this? Notepad RT app for Windows in the Windows Store

 

[evilrob]

NotepadRT looks like exactly what I need - thanks!

 

[allos autos]

NotepadRT looks like exactly what I need - thanks!

You're welcome! I'm glad I could help ease the transition. Let me know if you need more reassurance.

 

[erasure25]

Just keep both! I keep my iPad at home near the sofa to play games with friends or quick browsing. I take my Surface with me everywhere (to work, etc.) for getting stuff done, like writing reports, spreadsheets...

 

[ohgood]

I'm curious, what is a link to the TV used for from the phone besides games, it movies?

 

[evilrob]

I'm curious, what is a link to the TV used for from the phone besides games, it movies?

On iOS, in certain applications (not system-wide) you can mirror what's happening on your phone/tablet screen onto the TV wirelessly via an Apple TV - whether that's showing photos, YouTube videos, games, films - anything you might want to show someone/some people on a bigger screen.

 

[m3kk]

I'm curious, what is a link to the TV used for from the phone besides games, it movies?

I use it like this : go to a site I want to look at etc then press share to Xbox. Maybe a free streaming website etc..

I would LOVE the way iphone-atv works ! Just plain screen mirror over WiFi! Would be really awesome! please smartglass, do something similar!

 

[Kellzea]

Just got an rt. Its awesome.

Hardest thing is remembering its not a laptop lol. Tale the keyboard off and its a magic tablet, put it on and its an office machine.

 

[azcruz]

Thanks for the tips.

When I said 'text editor' - I meant for coding, not word processing! Word isn't really what I need in this case, unfortunately, good though it is.

I use Code Writer.

Sent from my LT25i using Tapatalk 4

 

[evilrob]

I use Code Writer.

Cheers - how does this compare with NotepadRT? Or did you strike gold with Code Writer and not tried any others?

 

[azcruz]

I didn't try anything else. I was looking for vi when I found this.

Sent from my LT25i using Tapatalk 4

 

[evilrob]

I didn't try anything else. I was looking for vi when I found this.

This may or may not be of interest to you:
Vim for liberated WinRT - xda-developers

 

[azcruz]

I use Lemmy, Vim, WinVI on x86 platform, and that suffice when I'm on my Acer. Thanks for the link.

 

[Leahtt]

I use Code Writer.

Sent from my LT25i using Tapatalk 4

I'm an iPad 3 owner who is looking to go to a Windows tablet, but not sure which one yet.
I use Textastic for both writing html and css, so am interested in Code Writer, but what do you use for ftp?

Have a Mac Book Pro supplied for editing booklets, pamphlets etc. and wondering if the RT and Word would handle an A5 sized booklet of 60 pages with lots of photos, with up to eight in colour?

Thanks
Donkey & Mule Society of New Zealand (Inc.) Donkey & Mule Protection Trust

 

[ag1986]

RT won't, go Surface Pro or wait for the new Haswell units.

 

[dylk]

Using surface rt with 8.1, amazing device. People underrate it on here. Everyone in person lives the thing.