gumbi

rogifan_new said:

lkrupp said:

Schools are ditching iPads for $200 ChromeBooks and this thing is supposedly aimed at the educational market? What the hell is going on here? And what about the AI trolls who are always bitching about MacBooks with the same amount of RAM and storage? This sounds really gefickt to me.

It was a confused event.  Microsoft was billing it as an education event. So naturally people are assuming k-12 and a chromebook competitor. Instead they announce a laptop designed to compete with the MacBook or MacBook Air not a chrome book.  It's like they didn't think they could have an event just to announce the laptop so they threw some education stuff in there to try and make it a complete event. People talk about Apple's sometimes confusing naming conventions. Here we have Surface Pro, Surface Book and now Surface Laptop. How is that not confusing?

No it wasn't.   Windows 10s is what they are targeting at K-12.  The Surface Laptop is not targeted at that market at all - there are several hardware vendors that are making the hardware for that market - starting at the $189 price point. 

It's typical, but, apple users have NO clue as to what Windows 10s is.  Windows 10s IS Windows 10 Pro with a couple of modifications - mainly involving startup, locking it to the windows store (a feature that is actually in Windows 10 Creators Update), and it can't be managed through on premise AD.  Windows 10s is meant to be managed by cloud by a cloud based MDM solution (Intune for education being the main one).  The point of windows 10s is to compete with ChromeOS - cheap hardware and easy to manage.  Most American school districts have very little in the way of funds for IT, so can't spend money on expensive devices and device management.  This is why Chromebooks are so popular in this market - and are eroding both Apple's and Microsoft's market share in that area (if you look at the actual numbers it has much more harm to Apple then MS at this point, but, it's only a matter of time before it starts really hurting MS as well).   What Windows 10 s gives them is a secure easily managed and restricted environment with the ability to easily switch profiles.  

Being locked to the Windows store in that environment is not really a hindrance -  its a safety and performance feature.  It seems to be little realized, but, even Win32 desktop applications can be made available to the Windows store via the Centennial bridge.   There are a number of those applications on the store today - Adobe Photoshop Elements 15 being one example.  Full Microsoft Office will also soon becoming to the Windows store as was announced today along with the Spotify desktop application.

ericthehalfbee said:

This is Apples answer to those who think the actual screen should be a touchscreen (stupid idea, IMO - who wants to reach up to touch your screen and who wants fingerprints).

IPad Pro says, "Hello!"

macplusplus said:

gumbi said:

jkichline said:

I'm not buying the 13.5 hours of battery life though.  The claim is that this is with video playback without WiFi and screen on low brightness.  However, that's not typical usage.  I know for a fact that I can get 12+ hours from an iPad with it actually being used.  I

This device is about 50% thicker than the iPad Pro and the latter has more pixels.  Notice how they compared it to the 12" MacBook instead of the iPad Pro... why are we comparing laptops to tablets exactly? Why isn't the iPad Pro considered a computer by statistics companies again?

The thing also weights more.  I'm not saying it wouldn't be a great device, but I don't think it's all that much better than the existing iPad Pro lineup and Apple is set to announce something new in less than two weeks...

Because you can do heavy workloads on a surface you can not do on an iPad...  Can you run VS or equivalent dev environment?  Can you run a full on database server like Sql Server?  A local web server?  Linux?  Full Photoshop?  No...  That's the reason they don't compare to iPads.  One is a toy one is a powerful computer for real productivity tasks.

Apparently you have used none of these (Visual Studio or other dev environment, Sql Server, local web server) because if you had, you'd know that is impossible to manage thousands of lines of code without the versatility of a mouse interface. If you plan to do so, then kick-off that ridiculous Metro UI, attach a mouse and switch to the good old Windows desktop. And never mind why your powerful computer is shaped like a tablet and why it actually has a bigger footprint than a true laptop...

Since when does the surface not have the flexibility of  a keyboard and mouse...  Oh, yeah never.  You obviously have never used a surface.

melgross said:

danvm said:

cali said:

CheeseFreeze said:

Ofcourse Kinect is cancelled, they have evolved since then. Obviously AppleInsider wants to turn it into a sensational piece. 

Evolved into FaceID. 

Correction, it evolved into Windows Hello. FaceID is just a copy of it. 

Windows hello, wasn’t bad. But it’s not as sophisticated as Apple’s Face ID.

Proof?  I have been using windows hello on my pc for a while now - it works almost instantaneously almost every time.

fallenjt said:

icoco3 said:

The Lenovo Carbon lost the physical function keys a couple years ago and added an adaptive touch bar across the top.  Not as nice as Apples but they were there before Apple.

It's still physical keys, but instead of 1 row, Lenovo made 3 rows and you have to press the function key to switch between rows, and these functions are fixed...nah, it's not the same as Apple Touch Bar which is a dynamic LED screen to add functions depending on each app ...from now and future.

I believe they changed them back because no one liked the adaptive keys.

minisu1980 said:

I see Touch ID being the biggest reason for this update. Eventually it will replace username and password on the web which will be an end game move on the competition. Remembering usernames and passwords on websites, resetting them, having accounts compromised by software capturing key strokes or fishing scams are BY FAR the largest complaint/problem/annoyance the average computer user has. Solve this pain point few people would even look at another platform. 

See "Windows Hello".  MS has already got this covered.

SpamSandwich said:

Not gonna happen. I'd expect Microsoft or Samsung to go this route.

Microsoft already did... Lumia 950 and 950XL have had Iris scanning for like a year now....  It was a bit tricky at first, but, it has greatly improved as they have updated the software.  It works in almost all light conditions - I still have problems in very bright light.  It works with my glasses on or off (the trick is to train it with them off and with them on), and it works reasonably quickly.  I would say not as fast as a finger print, but, definitely faster then entering my passcode.

Reading through this thread, it is pretty obvious none of the apple fans know a single thing about Microsoft's Windows Hello.

lkrupp said:

Doesn’t matter. Windows Rulz! Apple Suckz! Ask any neckbeard. Windows and Android rule the world. Apple is a has-been toy maker. I read this on the Internet.

Neckbeards are usually GNU/Linux supporters, not windows. 

And for the most part, *nix, Android, and Windows do rule the world.

The above article is why I always tell people NOT to buy their machines from the OEM or a big box outlet.  You can usually get the better models as Signature Edition machines directly from the MS store.  No crapware, no adware.  Just windows and the necessary drivers - and often a 1 year office 365 subscription for free