With that coach, the unspoken concern might be that his activities and communications on the Surface could later be audited by league officials. A blabbermouth Surface could facilitate second-guessing of non-standard coaching decisions. (That can't be good!)
It sounds like a good deal of the trouble stands squarely with the NFL and how they have chosen to implement this program with MS. If the tablets were with the respective teams, full time, they could be preloaded with materials to dramatically reduce the risk exposure of networking problems. I would also like to know if the positioning of the access points is the decision of the league, the home team, or of both teams, repsectively.
They either work well, or they do not. Amazing how corporations (MS) don't mind spending money ($400M) to get someone (NFL) to endorse their product. If it were their own Money, Mr Marketing 9MS) would not spend so freely. $400M would go a long way toward developing something that worked.
Or the NFL could just buy Apple iPads which do work. Of course, it is all about the money. Follow the Money.
There was a company I consulted for up in Bellevue, WA after leaving Apple who wanted to bring the Internet to wealthy retirement closed communities [their logic was that 65% of disposable income is in the hands of 65+ and it was ripe to make money off], by creating a custom AOL closed system environment to do so where the members would come down and surf the web, chat with their grandchildren, etc., etc.
I asked them when I first arrived to show me their platform: A custom Jetson like box that ran a modified version of Linux well before any Linux DE was worth a crap.
I looked at the CEO who specifically wanted my feedback having just left Apple and worked at NeXT before hand, and asked, ``Why don't you just purchased iMacs and lock down OS X?''
He never gave me an answer but talked about controlling the experience with this custom Linux; again I said, ``That's the point of rolling a custom OS X image as an enterprise client with Apple and they will lock down the system to your specs.''
They blew through $10 million and went bankrupt.
There are some people who can convince VC to invest in anything.
Microsoft is becoming the joke many of us thought 20 years ago. It just takes a while for the world to figure it out.
Paying someone to use your technology when the real need/purpose for the technology has not been firmly established by the consumer of the technology is prone to failure. Once the sponsorship dries up these devices just end up in trash bins.
The problem here is that the coach seems to think it's a tablet problem, rather than a Surface problem. The chances are Microsoft have ruined it for everybody, Apple included.
If that were the case, Microsoft would have ruined computing, tablets, and smartphones for everybody. Of course, that is not the case. Just go outside and observe the number of Macs, iPads, and iPhones.
P-DogNC said: But the story said that MLB hadn't reported problems similar to those of the NFL. Baseball has plenty of fans in the stands using Wi-Fi as well.
It really depends where the Wi-Fi router is located. If it is close by like in the locker room or the dugout where it is the strongest signal then it will work a lot better. Stick it out on a the playing field where you might be 100 feet or more from it, there definitely could be some degradation and interference, at least that has been my experience when I'm out in the back yard of my home. I'm not saying the Surface is a good device. I have never used one and not even tempted to try it. I have two iPads. Just trying to look at the problem from different angles.
"...including Surface carts with integrated Wi-Fi for on-field use..."
sounds like it's a wi-fi hotspot right next to the dug-out, on I would hope a closed network separate from the fans.
P-DogNC said: But the story said that MLB hadn't reported problems similar to those of the NFL. Baseball has plenty of fans in the stands using Wi-Fi as well.
It really depends where the Wi-Fi router is located. If it is close by like in the locker room or the dugout where it is the strongest signal then it will work a lot better. Stick it out on a the playing field where you might be 100 feet or more from it, there definitely could be some degradation and interference, at least that has been my experience when I'm out in the back yard of my home. I'm not saying the Surface is a good device. I have never used one and not even tempted to try it. I have two iPads. Just trying to look at the problem from different angles.
"...including Surface carts with integrated Wi-Fi for on-field use..."
sounds like it's a wi-fi hotspot right next to the dug-out, on I would hope a closed network separate from the fans.
My mac sometimes has trouble connecting to my own router at home. When wireless is sharing the same air as everything else even proximity doesn't guarantee things will be right.
Schadenfreude. These types of problems couldn't happen to a nicer football team or tablet!
You have no clue about the Patriots, do you? Meaning, like actual facts?
Unless, of course, you happen to root for another football team (in which case, fear of the Patriots often translates to unexplained loathing, so that would be perfectly understandable).
As the M$ adverts on TV over here say, "can't do that with my Mac.." as the adverts demonstrate touch screens and drawing on the screen - but you can with an iPad Pro...
I prefer "wouldn't do that to my Mac" as coach hurls the offending Surface....
What would YOU rather have?, a device that 'just works' or a device that's 'just Windows'.
Wi-Fi in large venues can be really unreliable. Remember when Steve was trying to demo some Wi-Fi feature on stage and it failed because there were something like 500 hot spots in the room. You get 50,000 fans in the seats, you are bound to have hundreds of people with the hot spot on their phone still active even though they aren't even using it. Some technologies just don't scale well and Wi-Fi might be one of them.
Sorry, but these POS's run Windows 10, and it is known for having SERIOUS problems with connectivity, especially wireless, after the multiple crap updates MS has put out for it. Not to mention the power management / sleep issues, BSoD's, app crashes, battery failures, the list goes on...
The Surface devices are straight-up SHIT, as is the new Windows, and I applaud the coach for coming out and saying it like it is. It's astonishing that MS has the cahoonas to say they stand by the "reliability" of these devices in the face of mounting criticism.
Did you know that the customer satisfaction for the Surface is as good as the iPad?
The primary issue there was the price ($768 per device), and problems with lack of internet connectivity in schools. It had nothing do with iPad's performance or capabilities.
Wi-Fi in large venues can be really unreliable. Remember when Steve was trying to demo some Wi-Fi feature on stage and it failed because there were something like 500 hot spots in the room. You get 50,000 fans in the seats, you are bound to have hundreds of people with the hot spot on their phone still active even though they aren't even using it. Some technologies just don't scale well and Wi-Fi might be one of them.
Sorry, but these POS's run Windows 10, and it is known for having SERIOUS problems with connectivity, especially wireless, after the multiple crap updates MS has put out for it. Not to mention the power management / sleep issues, BSoD's, app crashes, battery failures, the list goes on...
The Surface devices are straight-up SHIT, as is the new Windows, and I applaud the coach for coming out and saying it like it is. It's astonishing that MS has the cahoonas to say they stand by the "reliability" of these devices in the face of mounting criticism.
Did you know that the customer satisfaction for the Surface is as good as the iPad?
Comments
I asked them when I first arrived to show me their platform: A custom Jetson like box that ran a modified version of Linux well before any Linux DE was worth a crap.
I looked at the CEO who specifically wanted my feedback having just left Apple and worked at NeXT before hand, and asked, ``Why don't you just purchased iMacs and lock down OS X?''
He never gave me an answer but talked about controlling the experience with this custom Linux; again I said, ``That's the point of rolling a custom OS X image as an enterprise client with Apple and they will lock down the system to your specs.''
They blew through $10 million and went bankrupt.
There are some people who can convince VC to invest in anything.
Microsoft is becoming the joke many of us thought 20 years ago. It just takes a while for the world to figure it out.
"I could never to that on my Mac"
Note that they don't say, 'on my iPad'.
sounds like it's a wi-fi hotspot right next to the dug-out, on I would hope a closed network separate from the fans.
Unless, of course, you happen to root for another football team (in which case, fear of the Patriots often translates to unexplained loathing, so that would be perfectly understandable).
I prefer "wouldn't do that to my Mac" as coach hurls the offending Surface....
What would YOU rather have?, a device that 'just works' or a device that's 'just Windows'.
As when iPad's were mandated (by force, not preference) in LA School District, right?
http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/04/15/lausd-seeks-multimillion-dollar-refund-from-apple-for-scrapped-ipad-in-education-program
Did you know that the customer satisfaction for the Surface is as good as the iPad?
http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-surface-apples-ipad-in-customer-satisfaction-dead-heat/
It looks like they aren't as bad as you think.
Yes, such mandates are stupid. Period.
How many have been sold?