Microsoft Surface goes on sale to cheering crowds

Microsoft’s Surface debuted to crowds of early adopters across the U.S. Friday, as the Windows RT-powered tablet went on sale.

About 100 people waited outside Boston’s Microsoft Store to buy the Surface tablet, which runs a new version of Windows.

Unlike previous versions of the operating system, Windows RT runs on an ARM processor, typically found in mobile devices, instead of an x86 processor, which is used in traditional desktops and laptops. One of the major drawbacks of Windows RT is that it won’t run any old software. All applications will need to be downloaded from the Windows Store, but that didn’t deter some Boston customers.

“It has Microsoft Office, which is the most important reason I’m upgrading from my iPad,” said Joshua Jasper, a veterinary hospital manager who was waiting to buy the tablet. “My biggest concern is app selection, but I know that will grow over time.”

Customers try out the Surface at a Microsoft store in Palo Alto, Calif.

IDC analyst Bob O’Donnell shared Jasper’s concerns. “When I looked in the Windows Store I thought, ‘Wow, there’s not much there,’” said O’Donnell. “There were a lot of cheesy phone-like games in the store, but of course Office is huge,” he said.

“My biggest concern is that people are going to get these tablets, realize their limitations and then return them in droves,” he said. He said that the biggest challenge for Microsoft is explaining the difference between Windows 8 and Windows RT to consumers “because they are very different.”

O’Donnell predicts about 10 percent of buyers in the PC and tablet markets want a PC-tablet hybrid.

A sign in the window lets Palo Alto customers
know that the Surface has landed.

Across the country in Palo Alto, Calif., the surface attracted a line of about 100 people outside the Microsoft Store in the Stanford Shopping Center, the closest Microsoft-run full-time retail outlet to San Francisco. The line began forming about six hours before the store’s opening.

First in line was Matthew Dien, who said he made a two-hour journey from Sacramento to be among the first on the U.S. West Coast to buy the tablet computer.

“I’m very excited about it,” he said. “It’s Microsoft’s very first hardware and they are coming up against Apple. I’ve always liked Windows products and so I was very excited when I heard they were coming out with hardware.”

Dien left the store about 30 minutes after it opened with a new Surface in his hands.

Most of those in line appeared to be waiting for the Surface and not Windows 8, which also went on sale Friday. There’s less buzz for the new operating system, likely because many would-be users can download copies from Microsoft.

Microsoft offered a sweetener to those willing to queue: a yearlong subscription to the Xbox Music Pass worth $100 for the first 100 customers who made a purchase.

Back at the Microsoft Store in Boston, about two dozen Surface tablets were available to try out. The interface was fluid and responsive for the most part. The screen was bright and vibrant and text was very easy to read. Some of the apps took longer to launch than expected, though. For example, it took the Xbox Games app about 10 seconds to fully load.

One of the accessories available for Surface is a keyboard that doubles as a cover. It costs $100 when purchased along with the tablet. It will likely take some getting used to as there’s no tactile feedback when a key is pressed. The cover is surprisingly thin and clips securely onto the tablet. There were no wires or pairing needed for the keyboard to work.

The first customer in line at the Boston store wanted to buy the Surface because he thinks Microsoft’s ecosystem is broader than Apple’s.

“I had a MacBook Pro for a while, but I switched back to Microsoft,” said Mounir Koussa. “I can have a desktop, a laptop, a phone, a tablet and [the Zune] music service all in one.”

O’Donnell said that there will be “huge sales and lots of confusion” in the tablet market in the coming months. He thinks that Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD and Google’s Nexus 7 have good chances at capturing some of the market, but he believes that Apple will continue to dominate.

The Surface has a 10.6-inch display and weighs 1.5 pounds (680 grams). It starts at $499 with 32GB of storage.

Source: pcworld.com

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Microsoft's Windows 8 event webcast: What we need to see and hear

If you're looking for a way to describe Windows 8 to your less tech-literate friends and family, you might direct them to Microsoft's website Thursday morning, 11:15 am Eastern time. The company will be webcasting the first hour of a nearly day-long event celebrating—and hopefully explaining—its new operating system and Surface RT tablet.

Members of the press received invites to the event in early October. Bearing little more than an embedded image, the message read, "You're invited to celebrate Windows 8, including a Microsoft Surface reception."

Hmmm. Nothing about the invite suggests a real news-gathering opportunity. Nothing suggests a grand product unveiling a la what we've come to expect from an Apple or Google shindig. And let's not forget that Windows 8 has been public since the middle of August as a "release to manufacturing" build, and various members of the technology press (myself included) spent a day at Microsoft's corporate headquarters last week, learning more than we could possibly absorb about the new Surface RT tablet.

So what can Microsoft possibly show us Thursday morning that we don't already know? I will argue with almost metaphysical certainty that you won't see Mr. Ballmer pull a rabbit out of his hat in the form of new, yet-to-be-announced, Microsoft-branded hardware.

Certainly, that kind of dramatic reveal would be welcome, if only to reward so many people who are making travel arrangements and juggling their schedules to attend an event that has all the trappings of a pure PR blitz. (Note: I won't be attending, but another PCWorld editor will.)

Surface RT: Mighty pretty,
but not completely simple to use.

And a grand product unveiling would serve Microsoft well in its efforts to become just as publicly dramatic and showy as Apple, which has perfected the highly choreographed, "we've got a secret to tell" product announcement format. But Thursday morning is not the time to confuse the public with yet a third Microsoft product that defies easy explanation to mainstream consumers.

Windows 8 is not a simple, turnkey operating system that a typical, non-nerd computer user can start using with complete authority without any training. Surface RT is not a computer—err, tablet... no make that computer!—that perfectly explains itself the very first time you start using it. So Microsoft needs to use its Thursday morning shindig to get the world up to speed on its existing products. To successfully complete this mission, it will need to touch the following bases.

Show us the difference between Windows 8 and Windows RT

Windows 8 is the new operating system that will run on desktop PCs, Ultrabooks, hybrids, all-in-ones and almost all tablets—basically any hardware stuffed with x86 silicon. Windows RT is the system that runs on low-cost, ARM processor-based tablets, of which only a small handful have been announced.

I don't expect that RT devices will sell very well, but because Surface RT is loaded with Windows RT, and because Surface RT is currently the subject of a massive marketing blitz, Thursday's webcast-viewing public needs a clear explanation of what Windows RT can and cannot do.

For example, Windows RT can't run traditional Windows apps, like Photoshop and PC games. And Windows RT won't necessarily run all "modern" Windows 8 apps sold in the Windows Store. And machines running Windows RT will contain a weird, empty ghost world called the "desktop" that will seem to be there for a reason, but is actually just there because removing it, or hiding it, or covering it in pretty decorations, was apparently too much trouble.

This is the desktop in Surface RT. Looks familiar, but don't get too comfy.

Windows RT: It needs some words of explanation—and even support. Yes, Microsoft should go all in and tell us why Windows RT is better than Windows 8!

Show us some gestures

Windows 8 and Windows RT are packed with marvelous, powerful, almost addictive touch gestures. All these actions make the operating systems a joy to use—and I don't even like the word joy; it's not a word I use casually. But the new gestures are not intuitive, and I have yet to test a new Windows device (including Surface RT) that includes a full primer on how to navigate this exciting new operating system with taps and finger swipes.

So make a stir about system navigation, Microsoft. Don't make the mistake of thinking a certain degree of freshman orientation isn't necessary—because evidence suggests otherwise. The world is very familiar with typical Windows desktop behaviors, but Windows 8 touch behaviors flip everything upside down.

In other words: Let's see a video with fewer people dancing, and more people tapping, squeezing and swiping. If Microsoft doesn't quickly get people up to speed on how the new Windows touch actions work, it will have a much greater headache than simply worrying about its lack of traction in the mobile hardware space.

Show us some apps

I write this less than 48 hours away from the official launch of Windows 8, yet Microsoft's Windows Store, the only location to parse and purchase the new Windows 8 apps, has that desolate, picked-over vibe of a Halloween party supply store on November 1. There's not much on store shelves, and what is available is all sort of jenky.

As I write this, there are no official apps for Facebook, CNN, YouTube or IMDB. There's no official Twitter app, and the third-party Twitter clients the Store does include are crap. There are no apps for Hulu, Dropbox or ESPN. And there are no big-name, high-profile gaming apps, save Cut the Rope.

The apps situation looks dire, but when I discuss the Thursday Windows 8 event with my high-tech media cohorts, we all agree that Microsoft will probably use the opportunity to unveil key additions to the Windows Store. The conventional wisdom is that many high-profile apps are being saved for launch day, and that Microsoft will borrow a page from Apple's playbook, and wheel out key app developers for an on-stage dog and pony show.

Plus, the company needs something new and special and fancy and shiny to show at Thursday's event. Some big-name software partnership announcements would be helpful in delivering just that kind of sizzle.

Source: pcworld.com

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Review: Asus Vivo Tab RT has thoughtful design, but brings a mixed tablet experience

Asus comes to the Windows tablet party with a strong tablet pedigree, which is just one of many reasons I looked forward to seeing the Vivo Tab RT. The company already has shown a talent for innovative design with its Transformer Pad series of Android tablets. The Vivo Tab RT ($599 for a 32GB unit bundled with a keyboard dock; $699 for a 64GB model, also with a dock) handles many tasks well. But as a tablet—one of the first running Windows RT to reach my desk—it falls short of its Apple iPad and Google Android competition.

The clamshell-style keyboard dock is integral
to the Vivo Tab's mojo.

The Vivo Tab reflects the evolution of theTransformer Pad Infinity TF700, right down to its keyboard dock, which turns the tablet into a clamshell-style mini-laptop. That clamshell-style dock approach has proved to be a winner in the Transformer Pad tablets released over the past year and a half. The dock provides multiple benefits: You get the flexibility of having a keyboard that you can detach at will; the dock adds only a modest amount of weight (1.3 pounds) to the device; and you'll get an extra battery and USB port in the bargain. The dock functions as a compact, cohesive package that's a breeze to maneuver into and out of a bag and to tote through TSA checkpoints.

Design and features

The Vivo Tab RT takes many design cues from its Android predecessor, the Infinity; but some hardware tweaks and design accents—including rounded edges on the glass—make this model very much its own tablet.

The tablet weighs just 1.19 pounds, and measures 10.35 by 6.73 by 0.33 inches. That's slightly narrower and lighter than the Infinity, which measures 10.4 by 7.1 by 0.3 inches and weighs 1.31 pounds. By way of comparison, Apple's newest iPad measures 9.5 by 7.3 by 0.4 inches, and weighs 1.44 pounds. The Asus tablet felt well-balanced and comfortable in my hand; I particularly liked holding it vertically for reading; its slightly narrower width made holding it in portrait mode seem especially natural.

The Vivo Tab RT's
ridged back makes
the tablet easy to hold.

The tablet has a metal back, with a ridged texture in its top quarter. I found that this texture made the tablet uncommonly easy to hold in one hand, without fear of its slipping through my fingers. (All of the descriptions here assume that the user is holding it in landscape orientation.) In this ridged upper area, you'll find an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with flash, and an NFC tap point. The tablet's headphone jack sits right above the volume rocker in the upper right corner, and its Micro-HDMI port hides beneath a flap in the upper left corner. Beneath that element sits the MicroSDXC card slot, which can accommodate up to 128GB of flash storage. The power button, situated along the top edge, is annoyingly slim, which makes it difficult to press.

The tablet has true stereo speakers for left and right audio porting out the rear. This feature constitutes a huge improvement on the audio available from the Infinity, and it sounded noticeably better and more usable in my casual tests.

Unlike on the Infinity, the docking port/power connector sits off-center on the Vivo Tab RT, nested inside one of the dock latches. It's a clever design, but I found the positioning of the power connector awkward and out-of-balance. The Vivo Tab RT also has a docking station release slider situated along the lower left, which made releasing the tablet simpler. (The Infinity lacked this feature.)

The keyboard's keys felt less comfortable to type
on than the ones on previous Asus
keyboard docks did.

Still, overall, I'm less enthusiastic about this particular docking station than with the ones on previous Asus tablets. This Vivo Tab RT's docking station retains the extra battery inside and the hinged, clamshell design, but it lacks the convenience of an SD Card slot, like the one on the Infinity's dock. On the Infinity, I often used the SD Card slot with my camera's SD Card. I also missed the Infinity dock's larger keys; the Vivo Tab RT's keys are about a 1/16 inch shorter, and that made a big difference in my typing comfort and accuracy. As you'd expect, the keyboard is customized for Windows RT.

Performance

The Vivo Tab RT has a 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor (1.4GHz in single-core use) and has 2GB of system memory, as with all Tegra 3-based Windows RT tablets (including Microsoft's Surface). Nvidia says that the Tegra 3 supports Microsoft's Connected Standby mode under Windows RT, so you can read email, view calendar entries, and check news headlines, with minimal impact on battery life.

Overall, my experience using the tablet to perform various tasks was positive, and the Vivo Tab RT seemed zippy and responsive. I did encounter a few instances of laggy behavior (some apps opened slowly, and in-book navigation was slow on the preloaded Amazon Kindle app), but those drawbacks were the exception, not the rule. Even the built-in Photos app speedily navigated my usual complement of high-resolution photos in the library; however, like many Android tablets, this Microsoft-based tablet doesn't appear to render the image correctly in the Photos app if you zoom into your picture.

The 10.1-inch, 1366-by-768-pixel Super IPS+ display looked good, with pleasing colors and an optically bonded display that helped improve the viewing angle and minimize glare. I did note that on-screen images had a slightly greenish cast (when compared side-by-side with the same images on the Infinity and the Apple iPad screens), most obviously with skin tones. Microsoft enables auto-brightness by default, but the display improved when I disabled that feature and adjusted the brightness manually. The Vivo Tab RT's text rendering isn't as smooth as that on the Infinity, though: The tablet's pixel density of 155 pixels per inch is a fraction of the iPad's 264 ppi, but it's slightly better than the Microsoft Surface's 148 ppi and the average 10.1-inch Android tablet's 149 ppi.

At this writing, the only cross-platform tablet tests we could perform were Web browser-based: Peacekeeper, SunSpider, WebVizBench, and our own custom-designed Web page load test. These tests provide limited insight into the Vivo Tab's performance, but at least they offer a starting point.

On these browser benchmarks, the Vivo Tab RT's performance was generally good. It was fastest of all comers on SunSpider, taking just 1.03 seconds to complete the same JavaScript test that the iPad needed 1.78 seconds to complete. It notched a score of 374 on the HTML5-centric Peacekeeper, well behind the iPad's 516, but ahead of the other tablets tested. The Vivo Tab RT also came in second on WebVizBench, another HTML5 test. However, the Vivo Tab lagged inexplicably (and dramatically) on our page load test, taking 23 seconds to complete a loading task that the Galaxy Note 10.1 performed in just 8 seconds; Asus is investigating why we the Vivo Tab RT exhibited this behavior.

Asus did say that it expected additional firmware updates for the keyboard, camera, and trackpad, as well as possible GPU and OS firmware updates closer to the Windows 8 and RT launches at the end of the week. We'll keep an eye on the device and update performance scores accordingly. Also unavailable at this writing, but expected by Windows' launch is the Nvidia Tegra Zone with RT-optimized games. We'll update this review with additional benchmarks, gaming impressions, and battery performance when those details become available.

Inside the Windows RT OS

The Microsoft Windows RT interface closely resembles what you'll see on full-bore Windows 8. At startup you'll see the Modern UI (formerly known as “Metro), with its bright and colorful live tiles. As a tablet interface, Windows RT can be smooth and fluid—and that's what I experienced on the Vivo Tab RT.

One big benefit of Windows RT's Windows 8 roots is its support for true multitasking, native drivers for peripherals like printers and game controllers, the Charms bar, and features like snap view, which lets you use two apps side-by-side with one app snapped to the left quarter of the screen and the other to the remaining three-quarters. When I had a MicroSD card or USB drive plugged in, I loved being able to start copying content in parallel, without having to wait for one folder to complete it's copy before the other folder started (a failing of Android tablets I've used).

The Modern UI interface looked alive and organic in a way that Apple can't touch, and that Google barely approaches. I loved this interface's clean lines and style, and appreciated its new standard features such as semantic zoom.

That said, I didn't always find the layout of Microsoft's design convenient to use. For example, the back button always appears at the top left of the display—far from where your fingers are likely to be in many use scenarios. I sometimes accidentally invoked the Charm bar when I intended to swipe inward; this happened frequently when I swiped right-to-left to page through books in the preinstalled Amazon Kindle app.

Windows RT is jam-packed with included apps, most of which live under the Modern UI interface (a few are buried under the Desktop mode). Most of the usual suspects are here: Internet Explorer 10, Maps, Messaging, SkyDrive, News reader, and more. One of the biggest omissions was the absence of a dedicated music player. The included Music app is really just a shameless, in-your-face conduit to Xbox Music, rather than a dedicated app for playing music. I'm sure that some developer will come up with a better music playback app, but a solid music player is a basic feature that I've come to expect on a modern tablet.

More disturbingly, I often felt frustrated by limits to Windows RT's usability. I assessed the Vivo Tab RT against competitors such as Apple's iPad and Asus's own Transformer Pad Infinity. Given its shared DNA with the Transformer tablets, the latter comparison seems particularly relevant. Overall, I found that both Apple's iOS and Google's Android 4.xprovided a more visually cohesive experience than Microsoft's Windows RT.

Since Windows RT was designed for ARM-based processors, you can't run standard x86 apps on the tablet. It has a Desktop mode, but this feature is a stopgap for navigating files and accessing some settings, functions, and apps. I found myself in Desktop mode often—to access a file I had downloaded,for example, or to copy files from one place to another. The more I used the tablet, the more I realized how integral Desktop mode was, and not just for the benefit of the included version of Office Home & Student 2014 RT.

I thoroughly appreciated Windows Explorer's presence—and I was thrilled to have full control over my tablet's files and folders, just as I'm accustomed to have it on my PC. But the interface change was jarring; I often longed for a more Modern UI-variant of the venerable Windows Explorer. Oddly, the Files navigation—the closest Windows RT comes to a file manager—doesn't have its own tile. Furthermore, you can get to it only by passing through the search option on the Charms menu. Once in Files, you can't simply double-tap a file or press it to open it; rather, you must tap the file to select it, and then move your hand to the lower bottom right corner to tap it open. I noticed similar tap-a-thon-lie interface inefficiencies elsewhere, such as in the Xbox Music app's music player.

I also was confounded by the OS's unpredictable behavior. For example, I couldn't use the included charging cable to connect via USB to a PC and mount the Vivo Tab as a drive on my laptop. I do that all the time with Google Android tablets to move content from one to another; but with Vivo Tab RT, you have to use the cloud or a sneakernet alternative such as a USB flash drive or a MicroSD card (or you have to set up a home group manually via wireless networking).

Another peculiarity I ran into was that Windows RT sometimes had different responses for the same action. For example, when connected to the keyboard dock, Windows prompted me to specify what I'd like to do with the USB drive, and it did so in Modern UI. However, when I used the same flash drive with Asus's USB-to-dock-connector adapter, the drive opened up in the desktop interface; and before it did so, the desktop app popped up a classic Windows box asking for permission to run some Microsoft-authored app that I'd never heard of. I proceeded, but I couldn't help thinking this was precisely the kind of inexplicable computer behavior that drove consumers to enthusiastically embrace the dead-simple alternative offered by Apple's iOS.

Asus includes a handful of its own apps, most of which I found useful. If you register, you'll get 8GB of Asus WebStorage for the lifetime of the tablet. Also preloaded are SuperNote, MyLibrary (an e-reader powered by Txtr), MyDictionary, and Asus Camera.

Bottom line

Tablets are all about the experience of software married to hardware. The Asus Vivo Tab's solid hardware provides the makings of a good experience, and Windows RT is a good foundation for that experience. But Windows RT's many software quirks and omissions may limit the Vivo Tab's audience to dedicated PC users who've recently purchased a Windows 8 laptop or desktop, and want to extend their new Modern UI software purchases across both systems. The inclusion of Office Home & Student 2014 RT gives the Vivi Tab RT an edge, but that edge would have been greater still with a better keyboard dock.

Source: pcworld.com

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What's the difference between Windows RT and Windows 8?

Microsoft hasn't clearly explained Windows RT, so here's what you need to know.

To the naked eye, Windows RT looks just like Windows 8. But it's not. There are huge differences that could cause a lot of confusion for the people who buy Microsoft's Surface tablet that's launching on October 26th. Most people have no clue what Windows RT is, and that's Microsoft's fault for not making it clearer. Let's take a look at what we do know.

Microsoft is launching its new, highly anticipated operating system, Windows 8, to the world on October 26th. On that same date, it will sell its first tablet--one running Windows RT, not Windows 8. (The Surface with Windows 8 is coming three months later.) Confusing, right?

Well, even Microsoft store reps seems to be confused, according to The Verge. When writer Sean Hollister asked eight representatives about the difference between Windows 8 and RT, half of the responses were pretty unhelpful, if not downright wrong. One rep said "They're pretty much the same thing, there is no real huge difference beside the RT is more touch friendly." Now Microsoft says that it is training its reps on the differences between the two operating systems.

Windows expert Paul Thurrott points out this glaring problem too, noting that he's received hundreds of emails with questions that indicate people are confused about Windows RT and Windows 8.

Microsoft does have a section called "Help Me Choose" on its Surface website that outlines key differences, but I think the biggest one is buried beneath the two bullet lists, and its language is confusing.

Microsoft says: "Although you can install apps directly from the Windows Store, you can't install apps on the desktop on Windows RT." What they mean to say is: Windows RT will not run any desktop applications other than the ones bundled with it. Desktop or legacy applications like Adobe Photoshop or even Microsoft Outlook won't run on Windows RT. You can't install programs on Windows RT other than the tablet-optimized apps found in the Windows App Store.

Windows RT does come bundled with Office Home & Student 2013 RT, but note that this doesn't include Outlook. Some other features not included in Windows RT are Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, and domain joining (which kind of kills it for enterprise users).

Because of this, you should think of Windows RT as the tablet, stripped down version of Windows 8.Windows RT tablets are more like the iPad--mobile devices, rather than the full-fledged computers they look like.

For more details on Windows RT vs. Windows 8, see Paul Thurrott's article on how to choose between themor my basic writeup of the difference between the two Surface tablets here.

Windows 8 tablets and laptops will be more capable, but they'll also be more expensive. The Surface with Windows RT is really competitively priced at $499 for the 32GB model and might be more energy efficient because it is powered by an Nvidia ARM processor rather than the Intel processor. So you might still want Windows RT--as long as you know what you're in for.

Source: itworld.com

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