Tag Archives: Tablet

Gadget Review: Surface Pro 2

Posted by Steve on October 30, 2013 2 comments

Ok so one of the benefits of finding a job again is that I have income again! Which means I can afford to get some of the things that have been needing a refresh. My laptop, for instance, is my main system that I do most of my photo processing and ….pretty much everything else on. It’s an Asus republic of gamers behemoth laptop that I bought back in 2009. (hey, in computer years, that’s ancient!) It’s served me very well and I still use it for all sorts of home use. The problem with it is that it’s giant. Yeah I know it’s a laptop, but it’s big. Way too big to actually take places and be mobile. I have been planning to replace it as a home system with a full desktop that I can update as needed for gaming and general home use, but that means I still needed a laptop.

Today’s tech trends seem to be leaning towards the tablet types, and I love my iPad for it’s portability and ease of use…but I can’t run Lightroom on it. Yes, I know I can process pictures on it, to an extent, but I can’t really do all of the things LightRoom allows me to do. So running native Windows apps was very important to me, but I liked the idea of a portable tablet.

Enter the Surface Pro 2

I wish Microsoft knew how to market this device. It really is an amazing piece of tech, but it’s just not getting the market share it deserves. For starters, it’s not an iPad replacement. I still use my iPad all the time for general browsing at the couch or in bed. The iPad is lighter and much simpler to navigate. (Not to say that Windows 8 is complex, it’s just different, and I bet it would be easy to adjust). No, the Surface is a laptop replacement. Plain and simple. You can use it with or without the keyboard, but with is much easier, which just makes it a small laptop anyways.

I have had it for a week now and here is what I have been doing with it. For starters, I have left my iPad at home, to force myself to use the Surface for everything on the road. It fits nicely in my camera bag. I bought the 256gb version with 8gb ram and the i5-4200 “Haswell” CPU. I have installed LightRoom, Photoshop, Steam, and a few other “new computer essentials”. Most of my latest P365 shots were processed on the Surface, as well as the latest RnR Comics assembled there. So, that being said, here are the Pros and Cons I have found in the week of use.

Pros:

Windows 8 in touch screen format = Easy to use
Nice bright screen with good color
Stylus makes everything better
Small and Light enough to carry in the bag
Powerful enough to run everything I have thrown at it (it’s only been a week)
Battery life = Amazeballs for a laptop

Cons:

A little heavy for extended handheld use
Windows App library limited
Screen is still small for serious LightRoom use, but good for Portable
One more USB port would be good
Slight screen edge drift with the stylus.

Overall I am really happy with it. It does exactly what I bought it for and I hope to get a lot more use out of it. I am thinking of doing a future project (after P365 is done) where I sit in a coffee shop and do on the spot portraits, processing and all. More on that later though.

if you have any questions or want to know something specific about the Surface pro 2 that I didn’t cover here, please ask away in comments or via facebook or twitter!

Trying to resist.

Posted by Steve on April 4, 2010 No comments

So back in January we saw the announcement of the iPad and now the time of the tablet is upon us. I wrote up a small preview back when it was announced and mentioned a few of the issues I have with the device. Mostly it came down to some of it’s capability and it’s price, two things that I still hold as the primary reasons for holding off on buying one. The problem is that there are so many reasons to check one out.

Let me explain. I have a Droid, and before that I had a Blackberry Storm. I am on the Verizon network and have no plans to change that anytime soon. My phone plays music and runs apps and plays videos just finr so the things I would use an iPod for are all covered…..except the litany of custom iPhone and iPod apps that are available. It would appear that since Apple was first to really grasp the App market mentality that many of the primary developers have embraced that as the high visability area to produce their applications. Due to this, most of the more utilitarian and high quality apps are produced for that platform. Not to say that there are not any good apps for the Android market, there are, but they are still playing catch up.

Because of this, I have been kind of yearning for the ability to make use of some of these apps. Until now, the only way to acomplish this has been via the iPod. Andrew has an iPod and I have toyed around with his for a while, but it would be wrong of me to monopolize it. So, that means my option has been go out at buy myself an iPod touch. But again, my phone does more of that and so getting yet another small touch screen device for only a little functionality doesn’t seem like a wise use of funds.

Enter the iPad. So over the last 4 months there has been a lot of talk about what the iPad will be able to do, as well as an ongoing war between Apple and Adobe over Flash. (FYI, for those interesting, I am in the Flash camp. It’s damn hard to do things on the Internet without flash.) Other things that have gone on are all about showing how many new and cool things the iPad can do. From Specific games designed for the larger screen to the ability to stream Netflix Watch now movies. (Which personally, I think is huge.) So now we have a device that is 1/2 way between a netbook and a iPod, that has full access to all the apps available to the iPod and iPhone crowd.

Gizmodo has a great set of articles that covers why you should, and shouldn’t get the iPad. I am still riding the “Not gonna get one” side of the fence, but from what I have seen as of late, it’s becoming increasingly difficult. The biggest issue, of course, is still the price. I can’t see dropping $500 on something like that just yet. I also have a feeling that we may see a price drop within the first few months. I have changed my original estimate of $300, to a good solid $400 for something of this worth. So a simple $100 price drop on it would totally entice me to buy it. It is just still too early to jump on the bandwagon and grab one.

But the gadget guy in my is screaming in the back of my head. It’s gonna be a long month or two.

iPad, or iPod-Maxi, take your pick.

Posted by Steve on January 28, 2010 1 comment

It should surprise no one that I am not a huge Apple fan. Heck I am taking a week long class on Windows Server now, but I am not completely against them either. Without Apple we would not have the competitive market that is leading us into the 21st century. No iPhone means we would all still be using flip phones because of how they remind us of Star Trek. (or maybe that’s just me.) I certainly would not be writing this post on my fancy touch screen phone while zipping along on the train. Apple has done some amazing things for tech, but now it seems like it’s their turn to try and play catch up.

The tablet PC has been around for a long time. I understand that most tablets are bulky, or the interface is a bit weird, but they keep changing and have progressively gotten better. I have used a few tablets that feel great to use and do everything I need them to do and more. Unfortunately I don’t see this iPad doing even 1/2 of them. Yay, it can read books, but my Kindle and any number of cheaper ebook readers can do that. It plays games, but so does my Droid and my Xbox and any of the tablet. (one may argue that it plays iPod/iPhone games that my stuff can’t, we have an iPod in the house so I’m good.) Honestly the only things the iPad has going for it is 1: a rabid Apple fan-base that will buy anything the almighty Steve Jobs produces, and 2: its size. I will say that they seemed to have gotten that part right. It appears to be sleek, slim, and fit right in the hand, but I would expect that from Apple.

So what would it take to make me like this? Easy.
1: Flash Player. (Adobe has 10.1 working now…port it!)
2: Front facing web-cam. (it would be the perfect video conference tool)
3: USB (why does it NOT have this? oh right because then you could choose your wireless provider)
4: Hit below the $300 price mark. (seriously with everything that’s available that does the same thing, it’s just not competitive)

So there you go. I am sure that many of you have other ideas about what it should have as well but there are r simple things that would make me more interested. Until I see that, I give the iPad a preview score of 6 oranges out of 10 apples.