The Surface RT is Alive and Well, Despite the $900 Million Loss

By Richard Woods

Well, Microsoft’s earnings call came in on Thursday afternoon and it seems that the news wasn’t so good. Over the course of Friday, Microsoft’s (MSFT) stock plummeted a whopping $4.04, which is more than 10%. The problem is that the people that control the stock market don’t always understand technology or even the technology business. The general consensus seems to be that the Surface RT is a failure. Well I’m going to tell you why it’s not.

Since the release of the Surface RT back in November, it has received harsh reviews about how you can’t run any Windows software that’s not available in the Windows store. More recently, Microsoft has been selling these things at ridiculously low prices at various events (most notably for $99 at TechEd), then they started offering the keyboard attachment for free (a $119-129 value) then they marked down the price by $150 to a retail price of $349.

$349 is a great price for something that comes with a full version of Microsoft Office 2013, which is a pricey piece of software on its own. It would appear that Microsoft is trying to give this thing away to anyone that will take it.

Well, it’s true. Is that so bad of a thing though? Microsoft is facing the facts that they were late to the mobile game. They have to get market share however they can. We have to remember that the new Microsoft is not just a devices company but also a services company. An 8.9″ Kindle HD only costs around $269. An iPad 2 retails for $369. With the reviews that the Surface RT is getting they have to get these things into the hands of consumers.

The other issue is that it seems that the Surface RT was marked as a $900 million loss for Microsoft. In all fairness though, most businesses lose money in their first year and Microsoft is only 9 months into the tablet business. I understand that $900 million is no small number, but for a company like Microsoft that’s about how much I would think that it would cost to get into an already saturated tablet market.

Someone came to me the other day and asked me which tablet she should purchase for the business she was starting. She said she didn’t have a lot of money because it was a new business. The Surface RT was the first thing that came to mind as it seems that it is the most logical product for a startup business.

Others may want to wait for the next generation of Surface products. The next iteration of the Surface Pro will undoubtedly have all day battery life since it will have the fourth generation Intel processor and the next generation of the Surface RT will most likely bring Windows RT and Windows Phone closer together, making it a more iPad-like product, which is what everyone seems to want.

The more people that they can get to use the Surface RT the more they will sell their other products and services. We can’t forget that Windows isn’t just a desktop operating system anymore. It is a fully functional ecosystem that gives you a seamlessly integrated experience between your computer, your tablet, and your smart phone.

Windows 8 is new but people will learn to use it. It’s the next generation of Windows and Windows is the default operating system when you buy a computer. The tablet market is dominated by Android and the iPad at the moment, but when the Surface RT crosses your desk you may realize just how much more convenient it is that your tablet runs the same way that your laptop or desktop does. You may even consider going out and getting a Windows Phone.

Do people remember that when the first generation of the iPad came out everyone thought that the tablet was a fad that would never replace your smart phone or your laptop, so why could you ever really need one? Well the first generation became obsolete the day that iOS 6 came out and you couldn’t install it on the first iPad but here we are yet another year later and the second generation of the iPad is still being supported with iOS 7. In fact, even though the newest iPad model is the fourth generation, the iPad 2 is still for sale by Apple.

It is entirely possible that they are clearing out extra inventory and we should be getting closer and closer to the announcement of the next generation of Surface devices, but I think that it’s jumping the gun a little bit to assume that the reason that they are pushing these things out so hard is because the Surface RT is such a massive failure, because it’s not.

The Surface brand will come to thrive in the months and years to come. The second generation models are coming soon and they will fix any complaints that consumers have about the first generation models. In the meantime, Microsoft will continue to do whatever they have to do to get them in the hands of consumers. So expect a loss for now, because the tablet market is a war, not a battle.

Microsoft Drops the Price of the Surface RT by $20 (not a misprint)

By Richard Woods

There’s a brand new price for the Surface RT and that’s $350. Microsoft, along with the rest of the known universe is promoting it as a $150 markdown. Sounds like a great deal right? Well it’s not. In fact it’s hardly true.

The original price of the Surface RT is as follows: $499 for the 32 GB tablet, $599 for the 64 GB tablet or the 32 GB tablet bundled with a black touch keyboard, and if you wanted to buy a different color keyboard that was $119 and the type keyboard was $129.

Then for the last couple months there was a new deal. $499 for the 32 GB model, $599 for the 64 GB model, and the touch or type cover came as a FREE bonus. So now at $350, the keyboard is no longer included in the package so let’s call this $150 price drop what it actually is, a $20 price drop.

After all, a Surface RT loses about half of its functionality without a keyboard. As a standalone tablet, it’s not the most attractive product so you’re going to need that $119-129 keyboard that now is sold separately.

But these price cuts don’t just happen. Nine times out of ten in the tech market if you see a product get marked down this much there is a new model right around the corner and with Windows 8.1 products coming soon, my advice is still to wait. I love my Surface RT (and my Surface Pro), in fact I’m writing this on one right now, but if I was in the market for a new Windows RT tablet, I’d be waiting for Windows RT 8.1.

Microsoft vs. Apple: A User Review, Conclusion

By Richard Woods

The score ended up at 3-2 with Microsoft edging out Apple in the end when I found that the Windows Phone was a better experience than the iPhone. I paired up the Surface Pro and the 11″ MacBook Air and despite the incredible battery life of the MacBook Air a tablet that contains a Core i5 like the Surface Pro is a truly innovative machine even though it only gets about 4 hours of battery life. After all, the next iteration of it will have the fourth generation Intel Processor and will have that long battery life. Windows RT 8.1 Preview is a much better user experience than iOS 7 Beta 2 but in Apple’s defense they haven’t actually offered it to the public yet.

On the other hand, I gave the point to Mac OS X Snow Leopard over Windows 8.1 Preview because it’s a full operating system. Windows 8.1 Preview does work incredibly well and I’m pretty convinced that if I tried Mavericks and paired it with Windows 8.1 Preview Microsoft would have gotten the point. The one spot where Apple really shined was with the iPad over the Surface RT. The RT has so much to offer but the iPad just has everything you need. It is perfectly designed for gaming, a portable television, productivity, and music.

So the new Windows ecosystem is then topped off with the coming Xbox One which will be an all in one entertainment center that will integrate very nicely with your computer, tablet, and Windows Phone. But we’ll return to that in a moment.

Let’s take a look at history. Years ago, if you bought a pc, it was a Mac or an “IBM Compatible”. Macs were made by Apple and then there were IBM computers. Anyone else that wanted to make a computer had to make them the way that IBM did because Apple locked down their technology, as they still do. IBM Compatibles ran DOS in the early days, and later they ran Windows. Since there was competition among these pcs, you were able to get the same thing that you could get from an Apple computer for a cheaper price eventually causing Windows computers to dominate the market throughout the late 80s and 90s.

In 2002, Apple released the iPod. It was the first thing that put Apple on the map in years. I remember thinking, “This company still exists?” It was a revolutionary way of listening to music and the Apple logo started appearing in more places. In 2007, the iPhone was released and that changed everything. Apple was the company that was changing the world and if you went out to buy a pc, why not buy one that works just like your phone works? Throughout the beginning of the 21^st century, Apple gained market share from every end of the technology market and the Microsoft brand became stale.

But this is a new Microsoft and a new Windows in a new age. There are no more Start Menus or Program Managers. The Apple ecosystem and the Microsoft ecosystem would appear almost identical from afar. Both sync your data and settings through a cloud service offering a smooth transition from pc to tablet to smart phone but as I mentioned in part 2 (Windows RT 8.1 Preview vs. iOS 7 Beta 2), iOS 7 feels like a fresh coat of paint on something old while Windows 8.1 feels like something new, fresh, and exciting.

Instead of clicking a box to close an app now you swipe or drag down from the top of the screen. To switch between apps you swipe in from the left. Swipe up from the bottom and you get a menu and if you swipe from the right you get the infamous charms. Many people don’t like it. They miss the old design but the old design doesn’t work very well with a touch screen.

With a little bit of imagination however you might realize how well it would work with a Kinect. If your computer monitor were mounted on the wall, it would be very simple to use a Kinect to wave your hand through the air and close your apps or switch between apps. This would be where the Xbox One gets very exciting since Kinect is bundled in with every Xbox out there and it’s supposed to be the all in one solution. I can imagine streaming Madden to my Xbox One and drawing my own plays on my Surface tablet. Playing against friends that aren’t even in the same location that I am. The Kinect allows you to move like you are playing a real football game.

It’s a real game of football. Only played in a virtual world but every other aspect of it is the same.

This is the direction that Microsoft is heading. Things are happening all around Microsoft as it is and it’s not about to slow down. Apple still hasn’t released a touch screen laptop and the new Mavericks OS doesn’t appear to be “touch-centric” so I don’t expect to see one within the next year. They had a chance to roll one out when they released the new MacBook Air but didn’t in favor of promoting the all day battery life which is amazing.

So when the Surface Pro was made, why did they use the third generation Core i5 instead of waiting for the Haswell processor? After all, 4 hours is not a lot of battery life for a tablet especially when a new generation of processors is right around the corner. But the Surface RT was not receiving the welcome that Microsoft was hoping for. If Microsoft pushed back the Pro another six months so that they could use a fourth generation processor and give us all day battery life, the Surface brand would be dead and Windows 8 wouldn’t be moving at the same pace that it is. It was necessary to give us the Surface Pro, even if Haswell wasn’t ready yet. Perhaps if they had used an Intel Atom processor instead of an nVidia Tegra 3 and Windows 8 instead of Windows RT but we will never know. The Surface 2 will be here soon enough.

The ultimate decision between Apple’s or Microsoft’s ecosystem is a matter of opinion. One may be more comfortable in either one. But the last thing I want to say is that they do the same thing and they sync the same way. From pc to tablet to phone. Microsoft still holds the majority of market share in pcs and as people get used to Windows 8 people may go to upgrade their smart phone and decide that they want one that works like their pc does. After all, in 2007 people bought MacBooks because they wanted a pc that worked the same as their phone did.

Microsoft is adopting the same strategy that they did that dominated the market in the 80s and 90s. They are creating a system that is essentially the same as Apple’s and it is available at a lower price because competitors are able to build Windows machines. You don’t have to get the Microsoft Surface Pro or RT. You can get a machine that’s made by ASUS, Acer, Lenovo, or even Samsung. Apple will always be Apple and if you ask me, it’s overpriced. So as someone who spent time in both ecosystems, I declare. . .

Microsoft wins!!!

Microsoft vs. Apple: Part 5, Windows Phone vs. iPhone

by Richard Woods

Just in case you haven’t been following along at my blog at rwoods716.wordpress.com, it’s a tie ballgame between Microsoft and Apple at 2-2. The Surface Pro beat the new MacBook Air due to the tablet form factor and the touch screen but the iPad beat the Surface RT because of the number of apps available, the 4:3 aspect ratio, the games, and the entertainment value. The Windows RT 8.1 Preview overpowered the iOS 7 beta 2 build due to sheer functionality but Windows 8.1 on a non touch screen fell to Mac OS X 10.8 Snow Leopard only due to the fact that Snow Leopard is a more mature operating system.

Next we’re going to compare the Windows Phone to the iPhone. More specifically the Nokia Lumia 920 and the iPhone 4S, because of the $99 price point of each. When I wrote about iOS 7 beta 2, I was comparing it to the Windows RT 8.1 Preview so the iOS 7 that I was writing about was on an iPad. For the purposes of this evaluation, we’re going to look at an iPhone 4S running iOS 7 and giving it a little imagination and saying that it’s fully functional.

Where do I even start? The camera? Why not? Both of these phones have amazing 8 megapixel cameras. In fact, the iPhone 5 and 4S and the Lumia 920 and 928 are known for having the best cameras in the smart phone market. The Pureview lens on the Nokia Lumia 920 allows you to take a much sharper picture than the iPhone when you are shaking the phone, which gives a slight edge to the Lumia. So I give the point to Microsoft for the camera.

Siri vs. the voice assistant on the Windows Phone. Does the voice assistant on the Windows Phone have a name? I wouldn’t know. I didn’t even know that it existed until I bought the phone. Previously, I had my iPhone connected to my car via Bluetooth and Siri was an excellent way to safely use my phone while driving. If someone sent me a text, I could hold down the home button, ask Siri to read me my message and she would read me my message through my car speakers. If I wanted to respond, I could hold down my home button on my iPhone and tell Siri to send a text and dictate the message through the microphone in my car.

Like I said, I didn’t even know that my Lumia had a voice assistant when I first got it until someone sent me a text while I was driving and the podcast that I was listening to was interrupted. I was told that someone had sent me a text and was asked if I wanted the message read to me. When I said “read it”, the message was read to me and then I was given a list of options of which I chose to respond. I then dictated my response to the message and told it to send it. The phone never even came out of my pocket.

For a digital voice assistant, the point definitely goes to Microsoft. It makes the Windows Phone that much safer to use when you don’t have to press that home button to activate it. For this reason, I would recommend a Windows Phone to any parent who is buying a smart phone for their teenager who is learning to drive.

Let’s take a moment to compare the apps. Apple brags about its 900,000 apps and Windows Phone only has around 100,000-150,000 but there are some really cool apps on this Lumia. The “City Lens” app allows you to hold up your camera and through augmented reality find local businesses or restaurants or shops. There’s even a “Job Lens” app that does the same thing so you can even find businesses around you with job openings! It’s really amazing. Both platforms have Office now, although you need a 365 membership if you want to use it on an iPhone.

The difference between Apple’s apps and Microsoft’s apps is that most of Microsoft’s apps are available across platforms while Apple’s apps are only available on iOS. If you were to compare Apple’s FaceTime to Microsoft’s Skype for video chatting, the one thing that you would notice is that you can only FaceTime between iPads, iPhones, and Macs, but you can Skype between virtually any smart phone, tablet, laptop, and desktop running just about any OS. Other useful apps by Microsoft like OneNote, SkyDrive, and PhotoSynth are also available on both platforms. In fact, if you still have an iPhone 4, Apple’s native camera app won’t let you take panoramic pictures but if you download Microsoft’s PhotoSynth app from the AppStore, Microsoft makes it possible to take a panoramic photo with an iPhone 4! For those reasons, the point for apps goes to Windows Phone.

I’ll admit. I was scared to switch. When you are invested in Apple’s ecosystem, it’s not that easy to switch. All of your music comes from iTunes, all of your books come from iBooks, and all of your Apps come from the AppStore. Once I did switch, I never looked back. This Nokia Lumia really does support an astronomical amount of features. At a shutout score of 3-0, Windows Phone blows away the iPhone giving Microsoft the lead in the Microsoft vs. Apple comparison at 3-2.

“The New Windows” just keeps getting better and better and one thing that Microsoft hasn’t talked a whole lot about was what the Windows Phone 8.1 update will be like but I am super excited about it.

For part 6 we’re going to do a blast from the past for those that aren’t using the latest pieces of technology like I’ve been reviewing. I’m going to compare a second generation iPod Touch to a Zune HD. Stay tuned. There’s more to come.

Microsoft vs. Apple: Part 3, Surface RT vs. iPad

by Richard Woods

Welcome to part 3 of the ongoing mission to compare the Apple and Microsoft ecosystems and solve the age old question of which is better. Let’s recap. We’ve decided that the Microsoft Surface Pro edges out its Apple counterpart, the all new MacBook Air (despite having a battery that lasts twice as long) due to the touch screen and the ability to use it as a tablet. Then, we decided that Windows RT 8.1 preview was a better operating system than iOS 7 beta 2 if simply due to the lack of functionality in iOS 7 beta 2, but let’s face it. iOS 7 feels like a fresh coat of paint on something old and Windows 8.1 feels like a continuation on something new and exciting. So Microsoft is winning 2-0 so far.

So today we will compare the Surface RT to the iPad. The main drawback of the Surface RT is that you can’t run standard Windows software unless you get it from the Windows Store. You would think, “I bought this and it said Windows 7 or better, why can’t I install it on my RT?” Microsoft didn’t do a great job communicating that when they released this machine. In my opinion the mistake was in calling it Windows. No one complained when the iPad was released that they couldn’t run their Mac OS software on their iPad. That’s because they called it iOS. It’s a completely different OS. That point goes to Apple.

There are some great features to the RT though. Snap a touch or type keyboard on it and type up all your documents and spreadsheets or make a PowerPoint presentation using the preinstalled MS Office 2013. It’s got SD card expansion which you will probably never even have to use since it also has a USB port, which comes in handy for a mouse or a flash drive and so much more. These are all features that the iPad just doesn’t have. With an iPad, you can of course get a stand and a Bluetooth keyboard, but it still won’t support a mouse pointer. That point goes to Microsoft.

As far as price goes, there are two models of the Surface RT. The 32 GB model goes for $499 and the 64 GB goes for $599. The iPad comes in different models ranging from $329.99 for the wi-fi only iPad mini to $799 for the 128 GB model with retina display. For the purpose of comparison, we will compare the $499 model of each. For $499, you get an iPad with a retina display, wi-fi only, and 16 GB of storage. So for the price, you get better storage with the Surface but you get a better display with the iPad. We’re going to call that one a draw.

The Surface has a 16:9 aspect ratio while the iPad has a 4:3 which makes it look a little weird in portrait mode, but you can really tell when you hold either one of these that the Surface was meant to be held in landscape mode and the iPad was meant to be held in portrait mode. The difference is that the iPad clearly switches to landscape mode much more seamlessly. For form factor, the point goes to Apple.

The one thing that most don’t realize about the Surface that is really important is that you get automatic firmware updates monthly. When I first got mine in November, if the device was asleep and I tapped the Windows icon under the screen, the tablet wouldn’t wake up right away. Just about a month ago a firmware update came out that fixed that problem. So with the Surface RT, mechanical defects can actually fix themselves. The only updates that come to the iPad are the iOS updates which don’t come often at all. The point for updates goes to Microsoft.

The place where the iPad really shines is the apps. Yes, as Apple has always said, whatever it is, there’s an app for it. The AppStore has over 900,000 apps with 300,000 of them exclusively for the iPad vs. about 100,000 for Windows RT. Another thing is that if an iPhone app exists and an iPad app doesn’t, the iPad will allow you to buy the iPhone app and use it on the iPad. Unfortunately, apps for Windows Phone aren’t able to be ported to the Surface tablet. You get Windows store only apps with Surface. The Windows Store seems to feel a lot like the Android market did about two years ago before it became the Google Play Store. The apps point goes to Apple. And that is a very important point.

Let’s take a second to talk about games and entertainment, because that’s what a tablet is really for, right? Not only are there more games on the iPad, but they run better too. Many are linked to the Game Center where you can challenge friends and compete for high scores. Surface has a similar game structure with Xbox Live, but it’s really not quite as focused on the Surface and it’s more focused on the console. As far as entertainment goes, you have iTunes on the iPad as well as iBooks (the only e-reader that will allow you to scroll vertically through a book. Try reading a book this way. You will never want to turn a page again). Games and entertainment goes to Apple as well.

So, I really have to say that while the Surface RT is a fantastic first generation tablet for Microsoft it still has a ways to go before it catches up to the iPad. If you’re looking for a tablet to do work on, you’re probably better off with a Surface Pro, unless your work is limited to word processing, spreadsheets, PowerPoint, and internet web apps in which case the RT might be right up your ally.

The iPad wins this battle making the tally Microsoft 2, Apple 1.

Next up was going to be Windows Phone vs. the iPhone, which is a comparison that I’m really looking forward to doing. But there seems to be this myth going around that Windows 8 on a non touch screen is just this blasphemous thing. So, with all of this hype around Windows 8.1, the next installment of the Microsoft vs. Apple comparison will be Windows 8.1 on a non-touch screen vs Mac OS X 10.8. So come on back. You keep reading, I’ll keep writing!

Microsoft vs. Apple: Part 2, iOS 7 Beta 2 vs. Windows RT 8.1 Preview

by Richard Woods

Since part one of this series was a comparison of the Surface Pro and the new MacBook Air, part two was originally going to be a comparison of the iPad and the Surface RT, but there is just so much stuff going on right now! iOS 7 beta 2 was just released and it is finally available for the iPad and the day after that we got the preview release of Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1, so we’re going to wait to compare the physical hardware of the iPad and the Surface RT and focus on these new operating system updates.

Let’s start with iOS 7. Everyone has at least seen a screen shot of it by now and either seems to love it or hate it. Everything is different, and yet the same. They’ve redesigned the look and feel of iOS, but the functionality remains the same. It’s still the standard grid of icons that it was in iOS 6 but with a fresh coat of paint. That being said, on the iPad it looks – to borrow a word from Apple – beautiful. The colors are vibrant and the design is sharp.

Now let’s take a look at Windows 8.1. Obviously it’s not going to be as much of a redesign as iOS 7 was to iOS 6, but there are certainly more noticeable changes to the user interface than any service pack or minor upgrade to a Windows operating system before it. There is a so-called “Start Button”, which is really not much more than yet another way to get to the Start Screen (there is already a key on the keyboard and a button right below the screen). If you right click on this new Start Button, you do get a host of different tools to choose from which turns your Start Menu into something of a Control Panel menu. I find that the only people that actually miss the old Start Menu are those that installed a program like Start8 on their Windows 8 machine and didn’t take the time to learn the new interface of Windows 8 because at this point, whenever I go back to using Windows 7 for whatever reason, I actually find the Start Menu to be a little annoying, but I digress.

There are a lot of great new features in Windows 8.1. One of those being search. Now when you use the search charm, it gives you an all in one search. When you type something into search and click search, it will search Bing, your News App, the Windows Store and of course your computer. Another feature that everyone seems to have wanted is the ability to boot straight to the desktop. For some reason, people felt that it was too time consuming to click “Desktop” when it loaded to the Start Screen.

A curious change that I found was that they took away the messaging app. We’ve known that this was coming for some time, of course but why now? My Facebook and Twitter is integrated to the People app and it seemed logical that my Facebook messages be integrated into Messages. If they were going to take it away, why did they include it at all in Windows 8?

So let’s put the two side by side. Previously, in the metro apps for Windows RT you could split the screen into 1:2 or 2:1 with two apps on your screen at the same time. That was good especially since on iOS you can only show one app at a time. In Windows RT 8.1, it still only allows you to display two apps at a time, but it allows you to resize them, adding to the flexibility.

The Windows 8.1 Preview comes with Outlook RT, which is a little strange because I really can’t see why there is a need for two Mail apps. iOS 7 comes with the standard mail app and gives you the option to get a different one from the AppStore if you so choose.

Both the Windows update and the iOS update come with redesigns to the store, but while the Windows store seems to be trying to catch up to the AppStore, the AppStore seems to be moving forward. The Windows Store added sections like “Top Paid” and “Top Free”, sections that have long been a part of the AppStore, while the AppStore created a section called “Near Me” which could forge the potential for local businesses to create their own apps.

Also, the Windows 8.1 Preview release is clearly much more ready for public use than iOS 7 is. In iOS 7, even some of Apple’s own apps don’t work, such as the Podcasts app. If you want to sit back and enjoy the new features of either of these new operating systems, iOS 7 is not for you. When I put it on my iPhone, my first thought was, if I wanted a phone this full of glitches, I would have gotten an Android. Obviously Apple has a long way to go before they release the full version of this.

It’s really great to see new features from both sides, but I really have to say that there really seems to be some great stuff happening around Microsoft lately. The Windows 8 revolution and the Xbox One, Microsoft emerging into the tablet market, and overall, just seeing Microsoft start to emerge as an ecosystem of itself as Apple has always been known to be. A few weeks ago, I wrote a post called “Microsoft: The Smart Bet” and I still hold that statement to be true. iOS 7 feels like a fresh coat of paint on iOS 6, but Windows 8.1 feels like a train that is continuing to move forward.

So I’m going to have to give this one to Microsoft as well just due to the fact that iOS 7 is really not ready for use and Windows RT 8.1 is. That makes it Microsoft 2, Apple 0. But this is an ongoing series and there is more to come. Next we’re gonna put the Surface RT right up against an iPad and see which one stands taller, so make sure to check back for more!

Windows 8.1 Makes a Common Sense Use to NFC!

So today Microsoft rolled out some more features that will be coming to Windows 8.1, and if you read my previous posts, you’d see that I’ve already declared Windows 8.1 to be “The World’s Most Advanced Operating System” and yes, that is a play on the headline from Apples web site on it’s iOS page.

We’ve all seen the Samsung commercials where the Galaxy user taps his phone against another Galaxy touting the device’s ability to share a picture or a playlist just by tapping the phones together. Of course this method is fairly useless and most Galaxy users will admit that they almost never use this feature if they’ve ever used it at all.

This technology is called Near Field Communication or NFC and Microsoft has found a business use for it that’s actually practical. With the new Windows 8.1 update, you will be able to tap your Windows device against an NFC printer and print whatever you need to. No special printer will be necessary. Just attach an NFC tag to the printer you already have. This will be especially useful if you have a network of printers.

So let’s take a moment to compare Windows 8.1 to its competition. It will now support “Active Desktop” which is something Android does but Mac OS and iOS does not. It will have NFC support, which isn’t natively supported in iOS and is only supported in some Android devices. IE11 promises to support 3-D images and be the “first touch based web browser” making it a more advanced browser than Safari. Chrome still has voice search which is a feature that Bing has yet to roll out but let’s not forget that there is more to come from Microsoft regarding Windows 8.1.

Windows 8.1: The World’s Most Advanced Operating System

by Richard Woods

 

When I thought of what I was going to call this, a number of titles crossed my mind. Among those was “Microsoft, Start Your Buttons”, because the “return of the Start Button” seems to be the main headline surrounding Windows 8.1 along with the ability to boot straight to the desktop. I found it interesting that the two biggest headlines around Windows’ biggest update since its release are the two features that add the least functionality to the OS. There’s already a Start Button on everyone’s keyboard and if your PC or tablet is new enough, there’s one right below the screen. Let’s not forget about the charms. Booting to the desktop is fairly pointless when it’s so easy to get there from the Start Screen.

The feature of Windows 8.1 that I found most impressive is one that no one seems to be talking about and it’s a feature that’s only found so far on the Android OS and has been there for years. They call it Active Desktop. It’s the ability to have a moving image as your background on your screen. In Microsoft’s own words: “Windows 8.1 offers more colors and backgrounds for the Start Screen – including ones with motion.”

This is a feature that is not available for iOS nor on Mac OS. Also, Mac OS is clearly not optimized for a touch screen. So, next time you read the headline on Apple’s web site that reads iOS: The World’s Most Advanced Operating System, you may just want to question it.

Although this is just a cosmetic change like the Start Button and “boot to desktop”, this is a more important one because it’s showing that Apple is falling further behind. Another feature of Windows 8.1 that’s important is the unveiling of Internet Explorer 11, which promises to be the world’s first touch based web browser. A feature like this one does more than just make the screen look better, but it will add much needed functionality to the web browsing experience.

Right now if you compare the major browsers – those being IE10, Safari, and Chrome – Safari is undoubtedly the worst at handling a touch screen, even on iOS. Take a simple concept like tapping a hyperlink with your index finger, for example. In Chrome on an Android device, you would tap the link and if the device is unclear at all about the link you meant to click it will magnify the link and the surrounding links to make it easier for you to click. With the new Windows 8 touch screen devices, the stylus makes it all easier to navigate; however, in Safari many times you will find yourself having to click the back button because you clicked the wrong link. It can get tedious.

These are only a few of the features coming to Windows. As you can see at the screenshot at the top of the screen, we will be able to split the screen in more ratios than the current 1:2 or 2:1 ratio that’s currently available on Windows 8, but perhaps more importantly is the integration of Bing into search. As Windows 8/8.1 continues to build momentum, the integration of Bing will bring Bing along for the ride with Windows which should finally make it the competitor with Google that they always wanted it to be.

Windows 8.1 clearly is going to have the functional advantage over iOS 6, Mac OS X, and Android 4.2. With the introduction of the new Xbox One, Microsoft clearly has some big things in the works. Microsoft is building momentum and they are building it fast and as I pointed out in an earlier post, Microsoft is the smart bet.

Microsoft: The Smart Bet

Windows 8 has been on the shelves for a whole six months so and here’s a shocker: it turns out that people don’t like being forced to relearn how to use their computers after using the same method for the last twenty years. Everything was fine the way that it was. You turned on your pc, clicked the Start button, hovered the mouse over programs, and clicked on whatever program you wanted to open. And it worked right? Sure, and why fix it if it’s not broken. There are a few answers to that.

The first is that the world is fast approaching an age where the pc is a thing of the past. More and more users are using devices like tablets and smart phones to do most of their computing and because of this, pc sales are down. People ask me a lot what kind of computer they should get and I always ask the same question: “What do you intend to use it for?” The answer is almost always the same. Listen to music, watch movies, and surf the internet. These are three basic needs of the average consumer and they are three things that you can do very easily and efficiently on even the cheapest of computers; however, neither a smart phone nor a tablet is going to completely replace a laptop, desktop, or at least some type of device that has a physical keyboard.

Which brings me to my second point. Users are getting more and more used to being able to touch the screen when they use their computer. Who hasn’t at one point walked into an Apple store and touched the screen on a MacBook expecting it to do something. Unfortunately, with Windows 7 touch screens wouldn’t have worked very well. So recognizing that the future of computers is in touch screens, Windows was redesigned for a better touch screen experience.

Microsoft no longer being the huge tech leader that it once was took a lot of criticism for the new design of Windows. Unfortunately for those that don’t like change, Windows 8 is here to stay. One way or the other, we are going to be brought into the new way of using computers. We are all going to learn to swipe down to close programs and swipe in from the left to switch between programs and swipe in from the right to see the “charms”. Now that we’ve talked about the past and the present, let’s look to the future.

There’s much more to the new design of Windows 8 than a better touch screen interface. With such devices such as the Kinect soon we will be able to have a huge screen hanging on the wall and a keyboard sitting in our laps and we won’t even have to touch the screen. A simple wave of the hand will tell the computer to close the app you’re in or switch between apps. Amazingly, now Windows 8 is starting to sound really cool and futuristic. While that may be how your home computer is controlled, that might not be so practical for the office. Instead, in your office you might have a desk that’s made of glass with a touch screen computer behind it. No more need for your computer to take up any physical space in your office at all with a system like that running. None of these things would have been possible with an operating system like Windows 7.

Next let’s take a minute to discuss Windows Phone 8. Just recently, it passed Blackberry in market share with 3% behind iOS and Android. 3% doesn’t sound like a lot and admittedly, it’s not. But as I said earlier, like it or not, Windows 8 is coming and we are all going to learn to use it and it will become the standard for computing. There is no turning back now for Microsoft. Microsoft is definitely getting noticed with the ads that it has been creating around its Windows products. More and more people are going into their local cell phone store to see the Windows Phone that they’ve been hearing about and they just may be more likely to choose the smart phone that works just like their computer does so that 3% number is going to rise and rapidly. Admittedly, the Windows Phone App Store doesn’t have nearly as many apps as the Apple AppStore or the Google Play Store, but it’s certainly no worse than the Android Market looked only two short years ago.

Another thing to point out is that Microsoft has 7% of the tablet market. That’s a huge increase from the 0% it was at this time last year. The Surface RT was the first Microsoft tablet to be released and it’s a fine product. Everyone seems to be criticizing a Windows device that can’t run Windows applications but no one seemed to be too upset when the iPad came out and they couldn’t run their Mac OS software. Perhaps Microsoft’s mistake in Windows RT was in calling it Windows, which created the expectation to be able to run all Windows software. No worries though, because as I stated above the main thing that the average consumer seems to want to do with a computer is listen to music, watch movies, and surf the internet and the Surface RT does all of that very well. So for a price point of $499 you get a 32 GB SSD, Microsoft Office, you can attach a keyboard to it, and there are thousands of games to choose from that sync with your Xbox Live account.

Of course if you do need to run all Windows software on a Windows tablet, there is the Surface Pro which has amazing features. With an i5 processor, it’s the first tablet that can completely take the place of your laptop or desktop. Windows 8 Pro is available on all types of devices from tablets that turn into laptops to laptops that turn into tablets. There is something on the market for every kind of user.

Microsoft’s development style has always been iterative in nature, starting with the earliest memorable versions of Windows. Windows 3.0 didn’t work very well but the 3.11 update had huge success and that’s where many of the older generation had their first experience with Windows. Windows 95 wasn’t a hit. It was the first Start menu and people were afraid of change as they are now. It also had a lot of bugs in the program and this was before automatic updates came along. Of course Windows 98 fixed all that and Microsoft had its next hit. Bring us to the last decade and the turn of the millennium when Windows 2000 was released and it was a flop. Microsoft wanted to switch us all from a DOS based system to an NT based system and the transition wasn’t so quick and painless as you’d expect. Windows XP was the answer. Windows XP was released in 2002 and there are still computers here twelve years later that still use it. The next version of Windows was the infamous Windows Vista, which is one that everyone likes to poke fun of as the worst thing ever, but as the smarter ones will tell you, “without Windows Vista, there wouldn’t have been a Windows 7”. And we all know how popular Windows 7 ended up being.

Microsoft always releases a product they take the user’s response and create the product that we will all love. So expect nothing but good things from Microsoft. Microsoft certainly seems to be the company that the future is coming from. We haven’t heard from Apple in six months, Samsung is just making products with a bunch of flashy new features, and Google seems to be the only other company that’s looking into the future. So bet on Microsoft. It’s a smart move.

Where the hell is Apple?

By Richard Woods

 

Apple has a reputation for being very secretive as to what they are working on. That’s why people love to spread rumors about what they are doing. If you search the internet, you could find hundreds of images of what the next iPhone will look like, even though it’s all speculation until Apple makes an official announcement, and we haven’t heard an official announcement from Apple since they announced the iPad Mini and the fourth generation iPad back in November. So here we are six months later and Apple is clearly falling behind their competitors and we haven’t heard a thing about what they’re working on. Well Apple’s big yearly event WWDC – which stands for World Wide Developer’s Conference – is coming next month and all eyes are on Apple. So what are we going to see?

First we have to look at Apple’s history. Typically, we get a new phone every year between July and September which ships with a new version of iOS. The iPad was a yearly refresh as well until last year when they came out with the third generation model in March, the fourth generation model in November, and surprisingly decided to discontinue the third generation model and continue to make the second generation model as a low end model. When they did this, many people that bought the third gen iPad were upset because their product was rendered obsolete so quickly. So based on Apple’s history, I would not expect to see a new iPhone or full size iPad in what remains of the first half of this year.

Next we should look at what Apple has to do to catch up with the rest of the technology industry. Touch screens are rapidly becoming the standard in the pc industry. Google has even introduced a touch screen ChromeBook called the Pixel. Windows 8 is designed with the idea of a touch screen in mind and it assumes that touch screen is the future of the industry. Touch screen computers are coming in all shapes and sizes from tablets that turn into laptops to laptops that turn into tablets and everything in between. Microsoft has released the Surface RT and the Surface Pro which are the first tablets that run Microsoft Office and they have attachable keyboards.

Apple currently doesn’t make any kind of touch screen computers aside from the iPad and who hasn’t at some point tapped the screen of a MacBook expecting something to happen? One thing that we know about Apple is that they don’t do anything unless they can do it perfectly and Mac OS isn’t quite yet designed for touch screens. But the key word in World Wide Developer’s Conference is “Developer”, meaning they won’t necessarily be announcing any amazing new products but they will be appealing to developer’s and telling them what they need to know to keep making great software for Apple products. Everyone knows that there will be a preview of the new operating system that will come to iPhone and iPad, iOS 7. My suspicion is that we will also see a brand new Mac OS that’s a little more like Windows 8 in that it will be designed for touch screens and pave the way for touch screen computers that will come in the fall.

So no word in six months and all we’re gonna get is a couple of OS refreshes? Not necessarily. The next thing we have to look at is what everyone is expecting from Apple. Since the retina display was released with the iPhone 4 and gradually made its way around Apple’s universe everyone wants every Apple product to have one. The brand new iPad Mini still doesn’t have a retina display and the MacBook Air still doesn’t have it. So two new completely redesigned operating systems, an iPad Mini with Retina, and a MacBook Air with Retina can make for an impressive keynote, but “Apple impressive”? I’m not so sure.

We want something new. Something innovative. We want the new iPod announcement, the new iPhone announcement, the iPad announcement…we want the Steve Jobs special. Many people have talked about the possibility of an iWatch and for some reason, I’ve never heard the words “iWatch” and “FaceTime” in the same sentence. Why not? Video calling through a wristwatch? Definitely a product that I would buy. It’s also something that they would need apps for, so it’s very likely something that they would announce at a developer’s conference.

The rumor of an Apple TV (a physical set top box) has been around for a few years now, but that’s hardly an exciting product. What will an Apple TV do that every other TV doesn’t do at this point. Apple is a computer company and they are currently losing market share in every aspect of the computer industry. It makes no sense to create a product in a market they are not in when they clearly need to keep their focus on the market that they are in.

One last thing that I wanted to talk about is the possibility of a game console. iOS is known as one of the best touch screen gaming platforms out there and we know that there will be a few Android powered gaming consoles coming soon and Microsoft just announced their new Xbox One console. Can you imagine playing Madden on your iPlay and being able to design your own plays on your iPad while you play the games on your TV? But this doesn’t seem to be something that we will see at a developer’s conference as it is more of a consumer product.

So what will we see from WWDC next month? The new iOS 7 is a guarantee and a matching redesigned Mac OS is likely to come with it. An iPad Mini with Retina will likely be there to replace the existing iPad Mini at its $329 price point. The existing iPad Mini is likely to drop from $329 to $229 to compete with the high end smaller Android tablets. The Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD both retail for around $199 depending on the size of the hard drive. And one more thing…the all-new iWatch with video chatting capabilities.