Silicon Shecky

I have in my possession a Surface, an iPad, and an ASUS T300 Android Tablet. After having spent time with all three, I look at the pluses and minuses of them, from my perspective, which means that there are opinions in here that are just that, opinions.

Tablets are the new big thing. Everyone wants one, and plenty of companies are making them. Some tend to be designed for specific things (Nook, Kindle) while others make what seem like empty promises to me. I started out with a Nook Color e-reader not long after it came out. I had figured that it would be the tablet of choice for me. Problem was, the 7″ screen and lack of apps, especially free (Ad Supported) apps made me think of getting something else.

That something else came from my work. As we were getting iPads and starting to support them at client sites, they gave me one. this was for me to play with, learn about and use so I could support them. I enjoy the iPad experience. It is quick, and solid. I don’t like Apple, their holier than god and we know what is right for you attitude, and the lack of decent tech apps. Video playback on it has been nice on trips, but I am limited to the Apple formats, as usual.

The Surface is the newest of the Tablets I have. I really had high hopes for this machine, and maybe in the future it will reach those aspirations, but not at the moment. Right now, I deal with the frustration of not finding either the apps I use or an equivalent. Flip Toast is ok, but has bugs (They have told me they are working on fixing them). I can’t find decent Network tools, most apps that I can get free with Ads on other platforms, cost money, or are more expensive than they are on other platforms. Then there is also my Nook issue. I have the Nook app, or my Nook Color on everything else. My Library is there on all my other devices. Microsoft, which bought an 18% stake (IIRC) in Nook has no Nook App for Windows 8. In Fact if you search for Nook in the App Store, you get 2 choices as of writing this article, Kobo or Kindle. So much for partnerships. Don’t get me wrong, there is good about the Surface. Office works nicely, the hardware is responsive and the tile system looks nice. Plus there is the keyboard cover, which is pretty sweet.

Both the Surface and the iPad I got through my office for testing and learning purposes. We want to make decisions on what our sales and service techs are going to use going forward. Honestly, I would lean to the Surface, because of Office, and because of the ease at which it integrates into a Microsoft environment. I can access network shares easily (even though I cannot join an RT device to the domain), and it will do everything that our sales and service teams need. The iPad integration we were trying with a Mac server and we just could not get it to do what we wanted.

The ASUS Transformer T300 is a personal item. It was a birthday gift back in Sept. To tell the truth, I love it. Outside of Flipboard not being available for it, I have everything I want or need on it right now. Yes, I am using Pulse on it, but the lack of new sources I like, and the lack of aggregation from the social media world, makes Pulse a bit annoying, especially in regards to World/U.S. news. Still, I have everything else, including a free Office Suite (which is amazingly useful in its own right). The only drawback to the T300 as compared to the Prime, is the plastic back. I also got a 3rd party case/bluetooth keyboard for it which works as nicely as the Surface’s keyboard cover.

My recommendation right now to people would be the Android Tablet. The T300 does it all, and while a bit sluggish at times, is still is plenty responsive. There are more free apps available for it, and you are not tied into iTunes or Apple’s network. The Surface might be the thing in the future, bight right now, it doesn’t have enough to make it worthwhile, especially on price point. The T300 costs under $400 for a 32GB model. The iPad and Surface (with Type touch cover) are both at $600 for 32GB (Without the Cover the Surface is $499 for 32GB).

This summer, when Microsoft announced it was going to make its own tablet, I was pretty excited. I had a chance to play with Windows 8 at TechEd the week before the announcement, and felt it would do well as a tablet OS. When pre-orders opened, I got my boss to get me one so I can test it for deployment in our company. After having it almost a week, I can tell you, this is a product that definitely has the 1st generation problems.

I felt like a kid in a candy store that had free samples all over the place. Opening the boxes that contained my Microsoft Surface and starting it up for the first time, that sense of anticipation for something you just can’t wait for was bursting. Then the testing began. Simple enough at first, connect to a wireless network, and go through all the setup routines. Simple enough, and easy enough, but then it hit me. The Surface came with 2 small books. The warranty book in 20 different languages, and a pamphlet book that had some crappy diagrams in it. No instruction manual, no real quick start guide, nothing. this over faith in the simplicity and easy of use is the first problem I have.

No information on how to close apps on the unit. No information about swipe gestures at all, let alone things such as how to switch between apps, how to bring up a settings menu, the things one should know. The tiles are nice, and pretty, but the constant (and I mean constant) update speed on them gets annoying. When I finally found the setting (swipe in from the right side) area to adjust it, I was disappointed that the slowest refresh rate was 90 seconds.I personally believe this helps shorten the battery life of the Surface itself. As I played with opening apps, and setting up a connection to my office’s Exchange server, I found I could not pinch and zoom. I also had to do a search on the web to find how to close apps, and then the motion (swipe down) had to be performed very specifically with regards to speed, otherwise the app would stay open. Not very intuitive in my estimation, and the slower speed of swipe to close items, will drive some people crazy.

The office apps were next for me to dig into, along with switching to the desktop mode and going to a share on a server to grab some Docs. This worked fantastically. Going into explorer, pulling up a server, logging in with my domain credentials, and then opening and working in office was nice and easy. Office itself was pretty decent to work with, especially with the tablet mode turned on so items were spaced a bit apart. I also tried to find the built in Cisco VPN system that I had been told about at training in Chicago’s Microsoft Tech Center the day before, but as of this writing, I still cannot find it.

Speaking of Apps, and the App store, I have found it to be frustrating. Not because of the lack of Apps, but because of the problems I have getting the store to open up and recognize that I am online. In fact the whole, am I online issue happens in most of the Metro, oops sorry, Modern Style Apps, including mail. Yet when any one of these shows that I am offline, I can open up IE in desktop mode and show that I am online. Heck I can go to a command prompt through the desktop and ping the internet at large. This to me was very surprising, as it is not a factor of the hardware, but of the Modern UI and Apps that have the issues.

Hardware wise, everything seems pretty solid. The disappointments to me is more with responsiveness (which could be an OS thing) and with the Touch Type Keyboard cover. I have found that the responsiveness to be sluggish half the time. Switching from portrait to landscape modes is slow. Response to touch even gets slow and sluggish. The Touch Type Keyboard Cover, is a different creature. When used as a keyboard (provided the tablet sees it which occasionally it doesn’t) it is great. Where I find it lacks is when you close it. It does not have a magnet to keep it closed, nor does it put the unit into a sleep or standby mode. It makes me feel like I should have another cover that will be more protective to the Surface itself. The next issue I have is that there is no way to keep the wireless on that I have found (I have this same issue with my Asus T300 Android tablet). This means no new mails when it shuts off. The iPad seems to be the only tablet not to have this problem so I can keep it nearby and know when I get new mail as long as I am in a place where I have wireless. This also affects the Windows Automatic Updates, which are supposed to happen at 3am (when the wireless is offline). I also have found that if I store my Surface in my bag next to my iPad, the Surface turns on.

I will not go into the Apps so much except on one surprise front. Microsoft bought int Barns and Noble’s Nook spinoff. Yet the only App is Amazon’s Kindle app, which I don’t use (I own a Nook Color). the lack of a Nook app at launch is extremely surprising, and I have yet to hear when a Nook app will come out. The rest of the App story all depends on what one is looking for. There are fewer Apps than Android or iOS, right now, but that should change, and is not a worry point for me as I don’t use 500,00 to a million apps. My Android tablet has the most downloaded apps on it and that is maybe 30, out of which I use many 10-15 apps regularly. The Nook app though is a big one for me, as I have all my tech manuals in my Nook system, and do not wish to repurchase them.

All of the problems and issues I have found can be fixed. It just make sit obvious that this is a first generation device, and a first serious attempt. From the screw up with the word Metro, to the issues outlined above, everything is fixable. The question is, will Microsoft fix these problems quickly and let the platform live up to the potential it has?

Extra charges for single online pay, 4G outages, the FTC starting to look at their business practices. Verizon, what have you done?

I was going to give a review of the Motorola Droid Razor today, but decided to push that off. See the Razor is available only through Verizon, and I noticed yet the start of another outage of 4G services this morning. Verizon has said these outages are growing pains, and were the 4G network brand new, I would accept that, but it is not. Verizon has had their 4G network up for just over a year, and should know how to handle growth. They were the ones who didn’t have the issues AT&T had with the explosion of smartphones. Of course that was CDMA vs. GSM. Now its LTE vs. LTE, and AT&T might have the advantage.

See both are using the LTE network, which requires the use of a SIM card. AT&T, whose network is still known for poor quality, and lots of drops, at least has a head start in dealing with the issues of a network that requires the SIM cards. I wish I had proof, but it seems that the SIM cards, or at least networks that require them, are not as stable here in the States as a network like CDMA which has no SIM card. (At the time of writing this, the 4G network just came back up after being inaccessible for an hour). It would be interesting to hear from someone on the differences between the two networks and why the ones that need SIM cards seem to be more unreliable.

Now this is on the heels of the FTC announcing it was probing Verizon over the $2 convenience fee it was going to charge and then pulled back on. Verizon’s statement is that even paying online has its costs. And they are right, there is equipment and software costs, maintenance on the systems, and hardening the equipment against hackers and other forms of data breaches. Still the costs are the same, whether for an automated system or if people pay individually. That is, unless they have to use 2 separate systems, or the company that is processing the payments is charging them an extra fee. Either way, there are other options to reduce the cost. If you think about it from a security standpoint though, the single payment, which I use, is a safer bet, not just from people knowing they have the money in their account, but from a security breach standpoint.

Just think about it. If you sign up for Automated payments, Verizon and the third party who processes the payments, both have your bank account or credit card information saved on servers. These servers are supposed to be PCI compliant. Even if they are, PCI compliance is a joke. Think of the banks (all of which have to follow at least PCI compliance) or stores (Which have to be PCI compliant) or anything that does online transactions, and how many breaches we hear of. Now think about how many breaches we don’t hear of, at least not immediately. Now look at single payment options, where you can choose not to save the payment info on their servers. Yes there are still problems that can arise from man in the middle attacks, spoofed SSL certificates, etc.. but once you make that payment, the info is not supposed to be stored anywhere. That means if Verizon, or their third party payment processor, has a security breach, your payment information should not be compromised. In reality it might just me being paranoid, but from a logic standpoint it does seem safer.

Now, Verizon did withdraw the $2 fee idea pretty quick, but expect to see it show back up again and again. The bigger thing Verizon has to worry about right now is the amount of bad press they are receiving. They need to remember that pissing one customer off means that customer is going to tell their friends and family, and eventually it can and will take a toll on business.