I was shocked when I saw a desktop operating system for a touchscreen. All I can ever think of is Steve-O's comments about touch surfaces wanting to be flat. (IIRC, it was in the original iPad announcement, but I might be mistaken.) Boy was he right! I recently bought a little BT keyboard cover for my iPad mini (way cheep like <$20) and it is almost wholly useless. It's the worst of both worlds. If you need a laptop, get a laptop (love my MBA); if you want a desktop, get a desktop, get a desktop. Human psychology and interaction is *way* more important than saving a few bucks.
Even at Apple new prices, these optimized devices for completing tasks is the way to go. You buy the tool for the job, not bastardize tools to be all in ones. With the integration of OSX and iOS coming, I don't see MS being anyhow relevant in making tools for anyone.
The Surface Pro 3 is a really good gadget for those wanting a touch panel in a full spec'd machine. My specific needs was a touch tablet that could handle Abelton Live, my workflow has greatly improved because of it. Since I'm still basically living in my bed, working with a touch system has been almost a God send and I can't believe I waited this long. The iPad is a great music creation system but it's apps are still no where near as in depth or as powerful as Logic or Abelton, and regardless of how good people say multitasking is in iPad it has a long way to go before I can give up a full featured desktop OS, mostly Apple needs to allow more programs to run in the background. Mouse and keyboard, I use one make for all of my devices, a Microsoft Wedge, I didn't even bother purchasing the snap on keyboard. It works great with my iPad, MacBook Air, Nexus 10, ThinkPad Tablet 8 and of course the Surface. When at home I connect the Surface to my TV via Miracast and while I'm watching TV or playing movies on one monitor I continue working on the Surface and since I'm my bed I absolutely love that the Surface's back stand can be adjusted to almost every angle. As far as Windows 8 is concerned, well I expressed my feelings on that above, it's a different way of doing things but I am just as productive on it then if I were using my MacBook Air and in the end that's all I care about.
The mail client doesn't support gmail (more of a policy decision, I guess).
Yes it does, that would be just silly if it didn't. It also supports AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Exchange Server and custom IMAP settings, so pretty much every service there is can be utilized in the Windows 8 Email client, RTFM. I'm personally running 6 accounts, two of which are Gmail.
The mail client doesn't support gmail (more of a policy decision, I guess).
Yes it does, that would be just silly if it didn't. It also supports AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Exchange Server and custom IMAP settings, so pretty much every service there is can be utilized in the Windows 8 Email client, RTFM. I'm personally running 6 accounts, two of which are Gmail.
Would you buy a large iPad if it came out? Or is that a big meh to you?
I recently bought a little BT keyboard cover for my iPad mini (way cheep like <$20) and it is almost wholly useless.
I use the Apple Wireless keyboard with my iPad (standard size) and find it works well for text-y things. I don't do that all that often but when I do, I like it.
Comments
I was shocked when I saw a desktop operating system for a touchscreen. All I can ever think of is Steve-O's comments about touch surfaces wanting to be flat. (IIRC, it was in the original iPad announcement, but I might be mistaken.) Boy was he right! I recently bought a little BT keyboard cover for my iPad mini (way cheep like <$20) and it is almost wholly useless. It's the worst of both worlds. If you need a laptop, get a laptop (love my MBA); if you want a desktop, get a desktop, get a desktop. Human psychology and interaction is *way* more important than saving a few bucks.
Even at Apple new prices, these optimized devices for completing tasks is the way to go. You buy the tool for the job, not bastardize tools to be all in ones. With the integration of OSX and iOS coming, I don't see MS being anyhow relevant in making tools for anyone.
The Surface Pro 3 is a really good gadget for those wanting a touch panel in a full spec'd machine. My specific needs was a touch tablet that could handle Abelton Live, my workflow has greatly improved because of it. Since I'm still basically living in my bed, working with a touch system has been almost a God send and I can't believe I waited this long. The iPad is a great music creation system but it's apps are still no where near as in depth or as powerful as Logic or Abelton, and regardless of how good people say multitasking is in iPad it has a long way to go before I can give up a full featured desktop OS, mostly Apple needs to allow more programs to run in the background. Mouse and keyboard, I use one make for all of my devices, a Microsoft Wedge, I didn't even bother purchasing the snap on keyboard. It works great with my iPad, MacBook Air, Nexus 10, ThinkPad Tablet 8 and of course the Surface. When at home I connect the Surface to my TV via Miracast and while I'm watching TV or playing movies on one monitor I continue working on the Surface and since I'm my bed I absolutely love that the Surface's back stand can be adjusted to almost every angle. As far as Windows 8 is concerned, well I expressed my feelings on that above, it's a different way of doing things but I am just as productive on it then if I were using my MacBook Air and in the end that's all I care about.
The mail client doesn't support gmail (more of a policy decision, I guess).
Yes it does, that would be just silly if it didn't. It also supports AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Exchange Server and custom IMAP settings, so pretty much every service there is can be utilized in the Windows 8 Email client, RTFM. I'm personally running 6 accounts, two of which are Gmail.
Would you buy a large iPad if it came out? Or is that a big meh to you?
I recently bought a little BT keyboard cover for my iPad mini (way cheep like <$20) and it is almost wholly useless.
I use the Apple Wireless keyboard with my iPad (standard size) and find it works well for text-y things. I don't do that all that often but when I do, I like it.