News Microsoft's Surface hits trouble

[Anfield]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

No. Apple took Samsung to court over standard iOS features. Features that (like it or not) were written down in a patent that was granted to Apple.

You misunderstood me completely.

I compared that random guy taking microsoft to court over something everyone does to apple taking samsung to court over something everyone does (every android phone has "bounceback" for example), I made no comment in either direction about the validity of the patent / claim about capacity, just about them picking one company to sue over something everyone does.

Where I said android standard feature it was meant in the following way: every android based device has that feature. Which has squat to do with Apple having a patent on it or not and if the patent should be valid or not.

Essentially a rewording of my post so you may understand it a bit better: Both that guy suing microsoft and apple suing samsung sued the "wrong" way.
Apple should have sued google instead, that guy should not sue microsoft but try to get a more general change as in try to force everyone to advertise available capacity.

[rollo]

Suing google would never work, as apple was not suing over core andriod features but stuff Samsung added in its touch wiz stuff.

Microsoft are the main people draining andriod phone makers cash, they make more per andriod phone sold than any other company outside of Samsung.

And Microsoft never sued google for the cash just went after the weaker links who could not afford huge court battles.

Google if it hopes to keep pushing andriod on an actual smartphone not these andriod enabled devices that would never browse the web. Needs to take a more active roll in defending its key companies before Microsoft and apple force bankrupt a few of them.

Just like how Microsoft will likely be forced to prop up Nokia next year.

Big year for the phone and tablet industry, somebody but Samsung / apple needs to show some profits or come end of 2013 smartphone tablet war will be done and dusted. I'd imagine Samsung and apple are pretty happy with there current positions in both sectors.

Dou't Nokia, htc,Sony, Motorola or rim feel to secure at the moment. Of the companies listed everyone lost 100mil + a far cry from the 30-40billion apple and Samsung have made.

[faugusztin]

Originally Posted by rollo

Suing google would never work, as apple was not suing over core andriod features but stuff Samsung added in its touch wiz stuff.

Then please explain me the inclusion of Samsung Galaxy Nexus, as it has 0 (read zero) non-Google Android features.

[rollo]

Last time I checked that case that sales ban was thrown outta court for the Samsung galaxy nexus

[faugusztin]

Originally Posted by rollo

Last time I checked that case that sales ban was thrown outta court for the Samsung galaxy nexus

Yes, sales ban was lifted. But it is still part of the lawsuit.

[impar]

Greetings!

http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/storage

[impar]

Greetings!

Microsoft Silicon Valley offices raided with only iPads stolen

The thieves made away with five iPads worth more than $3,000 (£1,865) from Microsoft's research and development centre in Mountain View, California, over Christmas.
Microsoft's flagship collection of smartphones and tablet computers remained untouched in the raid, according to Mountain View police who spoke to The Register.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...s-stolen-apple

[GoodBytes]

Now that is a fanboy.

[impar]

Greetings!

Surface owners report Windows and app update issues

According to the various reports, it would seem that Surface RT owners have had Windows Update refuse to successfully load or search for updates. It is believed a reboot sometimes fixes the issue, but occasionally the Windows updates stop working again. Other users are reporting problem with the standard app updates; this makes us believe that the problem could be part of the same issue, but we aren’t Microsoft and we have no definite answer on what exactly the problem is.

http://www.neowin.net/news/surface-o...-update-issues

[Nexxo]

No problems on my Surface RT.

The only thing I've noticed that it will not install/update Apps from the App store (they stay "pending") if a previously released OS update has not yet been installed. Simply install it first, and then the Apps follow suit.

[impar]

Greetings!

Microsoft to patch Windows RT next month to fix app update woes

Microsoft is preparing a patch for Windows RT that will eliminate problems users have encountered with app updates, according to a new report.

http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft...pp-update-woes

[impar]

Greetings!

Update: 128GB Surface Pro Only Has 83GB Free for Users; 64GB Version Left with 23GB
Windows 8 Pro and Microsoft's pre-installed apps take a big bite out of available storage

For a refresher, the Surface Pro will be available in the U.S. and Canada starting on February 9 at $899 and $999 for the 64GB and 128GB models respectively.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=29778

[Phoenixdancer]

if you buy a laptop with a set sized hard drive you don't see people moaning that 35gb is taken from windows 8 install do you?

its the same for the surface pro.. its a laptop with the ability to be a tablet.

I dont care what uneducated people complain about, if you are looking to buy a WINDOWS device, you should already know that windows is a hefty OS and takes up space, if you did not know this then go buy an iPad and prance around like a sheep.

[fdbh96]

Originally Posted by Phoenixdancer

if you buy a laptop with a set sized hard drive you don't see people moaning that 35gb is taken from windows 8 install do you?

its the same for the surface pro.. its a laptop with the ability to be a tablet.

I dont care what uneducated people complain about, if you are looking to buy a WINDOWS device, you should already know that windows is a hefty OS and takes up space, if you did not know this then go buy an iPad and prance around like a sheep.

Its a bit different, as for a start you only get 64/128gb to start with anyway.

You say that you don't know what uneducated people are talking about, these are exactly the people who will moan, and rightly so. The 64GB one shouldn't be sold as that as there is no way to recover that space, and will clarify the difference between say a 64gb ipad (roughly 63GB) and a 64GB surface.

[GoodBytes]

My laptop came with a 160GB 5400 RPM HDD 4 years ago. It was a 2000$ machine. You don't see me complaining. Now I have a 128GB SSD in it. And, I have plenty of free space.

Here is my installed programs, beside Windows 8
-> Office 2010
-> Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate
-> Flash CS3 (the authoring platform)
-> Dreamweaver
-> Microsoft WebMatrix
-> PhotoShop CS3
-> PaintShop Pro 7
-> Gimp
-> Microsoft Mathematics
-> Zune
-> MySQL WorkBench
-> OneNote 2013
-> Project 2013
-> Visio 2013
-> Windows Media Center add-on
-> And the usual software: Firefox, VLC, FileZilla, CCleaner, etc.
-> About 850MB of Modern UI apps (31 apps)
-> 2.5GB of projects
-> 1.2GB of personal data (music, document, video, etc.)

No tweak or hacks. Everything default. I have 52GB free. Plenty of space for more music, videos, and games.

[Nexxo]

And for those who worry that is not enough: Windows 8 allows you to move the 8Gb recovery partition to a USB key or SD card at a few clicks. Shove a 128Gb SD card in its slot and you can store up to 30 films or 20000 music tracks without even touching the SDD.

This is a non-issue for anyone who is even halfway competent at using computers.

[impar]

Greetings!

Originally Posted by Phoenixdancer

if you buy a laptop with a set sized hard drive you don't see people moaning that 35gb is taken from windows 8 install do you?

Why should they? The free amount is still in the 100s of GBs.

Originally Posted by GoodBytes

My laptop came with a 160GB 5400 RPM HDD 4 years ago. It was a 2000$ machine.

How did you bought a 2K laptop with 160GB HDD 4 years ago!? That was the norm for laptops from 2004. Was it used?

Originally Posted by Nexxo

And for those who worry that is not enough: Windows 8 allows you to move the 8Gb recovery partition to a USB key or SD card at a few clicks.

So why doesnt Microsoft just offer a SD card with that data?
The space used by OS will just increase with more OS updates.

[Anfield]

Nexxo don't forget that it is a tablet we are talking about, sure anyone with some technical knowledge knows that it is nothing more than a closed laptop with the screen attached the other way round and hinges removed, but society appears to apply completely different standards to those "new" mobile devices like smartphones and tablets anyway, despite them all getting more and more similar to each other as well as blurring the line to "traditional" computing.

[Nexxo]

Originally Posted by impar

So why doesnt Microsoft just offer a SD card with that data?
The space used by OS will just increase with more OS updates.

Why does Apple not offer a dock with my iPhone? Why does HP not offer a USB cable with their printer? Because manufactuers will include nothing in the box that they don't absolutely have to --they pass the cost on to the customer.

This is nothing new. Laptops have almost always required you to burn your own recovery disks/CD-ROM from a partition on the laptop (you then delete the partition if you want) rather than just including a quid's worth of media. This is exactly the same. You can move your recovery partition to a USB stick or SD card with a few clicks. You can handle a few clicks, can't you?

And updates take up a tiny ammount of space, often just overwriting the files that they replace.

[Nexxo]

Originally Posted by Anfield

Nexxo don't forget that it is a tablet we are talking about, sure anyone with some technical knowledge knows that it is nothing more than a closed laptop with the screen attached the other way round and hinges removed, but society appears to apply completely different standards to those "new" mobile devices like smartphones and tablets anyway, despite them all getting more and more similar to each other as well as blurring the line to "traditional" computing.

People who use tablets generally don't like to use computers. They're complicated. Tablets are very user-friendly. In trade-off they can be a bit restricted in their capabilities.

As technology progresses, tablets will become more powerful and do things that full-fat computers can do now. Microsoft is developing its OS for that day, right now. But in the meantime if you want to have proper PC power, you will be stuck with its limitations: hot chips, shorter battery life, increased storage needs for the OS.

The Surface RT is primarily a tablet with laptop features. It is not a laptop PC, so you shouldn't expect the same things as you do of a laptop PC. That doesn't mean it has only cons; it has considerable pros as well. But they are tablet pros, not laptop PC pros.

The Surface Pro is primarily a laptop with tablet features. It is not a tablet, so you shouldn't expect the same things as you do of an iPad. That doesn't mean it has only cons; it has considerable pros as well. But they are laptop PC pros, not tablet pros.

Most tablet users don't appreciate this because they don't like to use computers. So their expectations of a PC may be the same as of an iPad. You and I know that they are different and each have their own pros and cons, but they don't. What really pisses me off, however, is that the IT "experts" who write in computer mags criticising the Surfaces are making the same mistake (and often contradict themselves as they compare the two devices), and they should know better.

One day soon the technology will converge so that there is no real difference in capabilities and features between a tablet and a PC. By that time, Microsoft will have a polished OS that will be perfectly balanced for such devices.