Microsoft vs Apple Part 9: iPad Mini w Retina vs Dell Venue 8 Pro

By Rich Woods

Over the holiday season, we saw a few new flagship tablets ship from all of the major manufacturers, and although Dell isn’t exactly Microsoft, the Surface Mini isn’t here yet and although there are three 8″ Windows tablets, if you walk into a Microsoft store it is clear that the flagship model is the Dell Venue 8 Pro.

Apple finally gave us a retina display for the iPad Mini. Let’s be clear. This is not a review for either product. This is a comparison. If you do want to read my review of the product by itself, click on one of the links above.

We can start with the form factor because this is where the Dell really stands out. The iPad Mini feels a bit wide in the hand. While they both have roughly an 8″ screen (the iPad Mini is 7.9″), the iPad Mini has a 4:3 aspect ratio and the Dell Venue 8 Pro has a 16:9 aspect ratio making is fit into the hand just a little better. One handed holding is a very important feature for a mini tablet.

Unfortunately for the Dell Venue 8 Pro, the iPad Mini trumps it in almost all other categories. The iPad Mini has a better display. It has Apple’s famous retina display and the Dell is 1280×800. As I’ve pointed out in other posts, the pixels have gotten so small that it really doesn’t matter anymore. The Nokia Windows Phones are only 720p (except the Lumia 1520) but the colors are just beautiful.

The Dell Venue 8 Pro requires accessories to run properly, as do most Windows tablets. Unfortunately for this one, there are some flaws in the touchscreen that can make it very frustrating to not have a keyboard and the stylus has been out of stock since Christmas. Apple’s tablets are standalone products. Coming right out of the box they are ready to be used for whatever you want.

These two tablets really have two different use cases. The Dell Venue 8 Pro is a tablet that you could theoretically do anything on, although given the size of it, do you really want to? It runs full Windows 8.1, but I still have not installed any desktop applications on it and the 32 GB SSD keeps me from going crazy installing whatever software I want to install. The iPad is still the iPad. It’s a personal TV, a gaming system, an e-reader, or just an overall consumption device.

The mini tablet is designed for somebody that is on the go. It’s something that you will carry in your pocket. Most likely, you will not be working from it. You will be utilizing the features that I listed above that the iPad does and has been doing. The Windows store still doesn’t have the kind of apps the Apple’s AppStore has, although I still remain hopeful that Microsoft is utilizing its Xbox division to give us some great tablet based games like they did with Halo: Spartan Assault.

Speaking of Halo: Spartan Assault, there is still no update about when they will release an update that actually works correctly on the Dell Venue 8 Pro. Both tablets pass the “Temple Run Test” with flying colors. The game does not run “choppy”, like it does with the Surface RT and the graphics are just stunning. The only difference between Temple Run for Windows and iOS is that it is portrait mode on iOS and landscape mode on Windows. Landscape mode is pretty cool since you have more of a view of what is going on in the game so I would say the Dell beats the iPad Mini on the Temple Run Test.

Finally: the price. The Dell Venue 8 Pro starts at $299 for the 32 GB model, which is fairly expensive for an 8″ tablet considering the price of the Android mini tablets. On the other hand, the iPad Mini with retina is a whopping $399 for the 16 GB model. If you want more storage, it’s $499 for 32 GB, $599 for 64 GB, and $699 for 128 GB. Add another $130 for cellular data. For that kind of money, you can get a Surface Pro with 128 GB or storage for $599. If you want to talk about a full Windows experience on a tablet, that’s your deal.

I would not recommend a 16 GB tablet to anyone, especially if you’re upgrading from another iPad and you plan on importing your iCloud backup from your old iPad.

Dollar for dollar, the Dell Venue 8 Pro is the better tablet. Especially because it’s not that hard to find it on sale somewhere for anywhere between $229-$249. If you have loads of disposable income, go with the iPad Mini with Retina. It’s a fine device.

If you want to read previous chapters of the Microsoft vs. Apple posts, they are divided into two volumes: part one was from when I first started writing this blog and those include the following posts:

• Surface Pro vs 11″ MacBook Air
• iOS 7 Beta 2 vs Windows 8.1 RT Preview
• Surface RT vs iPad
• Windows 8.1 on a Non-Touchscreen vs Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
• Windows Phone vs iPhone
• Interlude: Zune HD vs. Second Generation iPod Touch
• Conclusion

After some time passed, new software and new hardware was released and I realized it was time for a second volume that includes:

• Windows 8.1 Pro vs Mavericks
• Windows 8.1 RT vs iOS 7
• Windows Phone 8 vs iOS 7

 

I want to hear your feedback. What can we do to make this site better? What do you think of this post? If you have a tech question, I have the solution. Having trouble with your PC, smart phone, or tablet? Just need advice on which one to buy? Your tech guy is here standing by. Drop me a line on Twitter @rwoods716 or on Facebook at “For the Love of Tech” or you can even e-mail me at rwoods716@gmail.com. No tech question is too big or too small. I want to answer it.

Microsoft vs. Apple: Part 1, Surface Pro vs. 11” MacBook Air

by Richard Woods

 

In this first installment we’re going to put the two latest products from Microsoft and Apple right against each other. Those two are the Surface Pro and the new 11″ MacBook Air. Both are sporting an Intel Core i5 processor in their base models, but that’s just about all that they have in common. For the purpose of this evaluation, we will be primarily be reviewing the 128 GB Surface Pro and the base model of the new MacBook Air, which both have a retail price of $999.

Let’s start with the most important thing. The thing that makes a computer a computer. The CPU, or central processing unit. The Surface Pro ships with a third generation Intel Core i5 processor in both of its models, while the base model of the new MacBook Air has a fourth generation Intel Core i5 in the base model and for an additional price can be upgraded to a Core i7. In my opinion, there really isn’t that much of a difference as far as performance goes between the third and fourth generation Intel processors. The main difference is the battery life.

Ah, the battery life. The one infamous flaw in the Surface Pro and the one selling point in the MacBook Air. The Surface Pro only gets about four hours while the MacBook Air rocks nine straight hours of battery life. Those extra few hours of battery life really come in handy at the end of the day if you are like me and don’t have the chance to charge your devices all the time. That point goes to the MacBook Air.

Both machines have a solid state hard drive. The Surface comes in 64 and 128 GB for prices of $899 and $999, respectively while the MacBook ranges from 128 GB to 512 GB but starts at $999 so the hard drive space is a draw. Both machines have 4 GB of RAM but the MacBook gives you the option to get 8 GB for a few extra dollars. Since we’re looking at the $999 model of each we’re going to call that a draw as well, but since we’re looking at specs, let’s look at the display. The Surface Pro has a 10.81″ 1920×1080 10 point multi touch display while the MacBook Air has an 11.6″ 1366×768 non-touchscreen display. That point definitely goes to the Surface.

It’s a tie game so far but there’s so much more to talk about. Let’s dive in a little deeper. The MacBook Air is super thin. Keyboard and monitor combined, it’s thinner than the Surface without the keyboard attachment. It’s also very light. They both weigh in at just over two pounds and as far as laptops go, the MacBook Air is really a premium model. It has the front facing FaceTime camera while the Surface has a front and a rear 720p camera. After all, the Surface is a tablet.

It is a tablet, right? It is, except it’s a tablet that you can run any Windows application that you want on, and that’s the selling feature of the Surface Pro that knocks it out of the park. You can use it to play games or watch movies on Netflix as you would on an iPad, or you can use it to code an app in Visual Studio or create a Web Site in Adobe DreamWeaver, which is a feature never before seen in a tablet. The stylus that comes with the Surface is really cool and gives the touch screen experience some real depth. It clips onto the charging port and really takes the place of the mouse. Even though the MacBook is a little thinner and lighter, the point for form is definitely going to have to go to the Surface Pro.

This leaves the final question. Windows 8 or Mac OS X 10.8 Snow Leopard. First let me say that Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks is available in Beta and by the time I publish this so will Windows 8.1 preview, but for now we’re talking about the OS that the systems ship with. Mac OS is great. Right out of the box you will sign in with your Apple ID and it will sync your contacts, e-mail, and messages with your iPad and iPhone just like Windows 8 will sync with your other Windows devices. The Mac AppStore makes it nice and easy to shop for software while the Windows store isn’t quite there yet.

Let’s take a minute to talk about Windows 8. I know. There’s no more Start Menu. Don’t worry. You will get used to using your new pc in this new way and you will probably even like it after you get used to it. I had to use a Windows 7 machine a few days ago and found that going back to using a Start Menu was a bit frustrating. That being said, operating systems is a draw. They both sync to their respective devices in their own ecosystems very well.

So which is the better machine? It’s close but I have to give it to the Surface Pro. The MacBook Air is an amazing machine but why isn’t Apple making touchscreen laptops yet? The Surface Pro is a freakin tablet that does everything that a high end laptop does! You just can’t beat that.

That being said, it might be worth waiting until the next generation model of the Surface Pro is released because if they take this machine and put a fourth generation Core i5 under the hood instead of the current third gen processor that’s there, that would solve the battery issue with it. Also, Microsoft is rumored to be working on a keyboard that will give the battery some extra juice. There are clearly two connectors on the bottom that aren’t there on the RT model.

So far, it’s Microsoft 1, Apple 0, but we’re not done yet. Come on back for when I compare the iPad to the Surface RT; however, iOS 7 beta 2 was released today which means we finally have iOS 7 for the iPad and tomorrow Windows 8.1 preview is going to be available so come on back tomorrow and we’re gonna stand them up back to back and see which one’s taller. So stay tuned. Microsoft won this battle, but they haven’t won the war yet. . .

Apple vs. Microsoft: A User Review

by Richard Woods

 

Apple has long been known to have their own “ecosystem”; however, Microsoft is quickly coming around with their own. But how many people really get to experience both of these ecosystems to an extent that they can put them up against each other side by side? I do and I will.

Originally, I was planning for this to be a 5-part series. It would consist of an Introduction, a comparison of the Microsoft Surface Pro and the new 11″ MacBook Air, a comparison of the Surface RT and the iPad with Retina, a comparison of the Nokia Lumia 920 and the iPhone 5, and of course a conclusion to the experiment. Then I thought to myself, why stop there? I just happen to have a second generation iPod Touch lying around as well as a Zune HD. Let’s throw those against the wall and see which one sticks. Other ideas started to come to mind as well. Windows 8 vs. Mac OS X 10.8 Snow Leopard, Windows 8.1 Beta vs. Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks Beta, Windows Phone 8.1 Beta vs. iOS 7 Beta, Windows RT 8.1 Beta vs. iOS 7 Beta for iPad, and who knows where it might take us!

So this project is going to be an ongoing installment. You guys keep reading and I’ll keep writing. Maybe I’ll even throw up a few short videos. Maybe we’ll throw a Nexus and Android 4.2.2 into the mix at some point? Only time will tell.

Stay tuned, there is certainly more to come. . .

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.