12 Month Windows

So for the past week I've been making use of the new HTC One provided to me by my office. I also have an iPhone 5 I use as my personal device. I am wishing I'd purchased an HTC One as my personal device instead of the iPhone 5 after just a week. Let me start with the only two (or three) things iOS has going over Android at this point... Lumping together two different features, I must say that iMessage and Facetime are two features that need to find comparable features in Android. iMessage allows delivery confirmation and, if the user allows, read receipts. I always allow read receipts because I want people to know I've read their message. iMessages are controlled through Apple, not the carrier and therefore don't count toward texting limits, if you have any on your account. Facetime allows you to use the phone number of your contact to call them on a video call and talk, as you might imagine, face to face. While that functionality is provided in some capacity with S...

First, go and read this:  http://ludwigkeck.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/windows-8-1-importing-photos/ Now, I'm not saying that much of what he's saying here isn't valid, I just think he's not looking at things the same way I am, and the same way I suspect Microsoft is. The fact is that Microsoft did decide to remove some features from Windows 8 and 8.1. But that doesn't mean that they didn't think about what they were doing. The more I make use of this device, the more I realize that it is, very likely, a far more user friendly system than even Mac - which might frighten the folks in Cupertino if Microsoft's own loyalists weren't busy bashing an OS that has a ton of potential (this coming from a former Mac user - hence this blog). Apple doesn't even have to respond to Windows 8 because they see it as a non-issue because of the public response to it. Much like the iPad, this is simply a point and touch device, but with so much more ability than t...

I had posted before about how I seem to be in the minority regarding Windows 8. I like the interface and I even like the ability to switch between a desktop and a tablet interface. This is, in my humble opinion, brilliant (though, as I discussed before, the implementation isn't perfect). As a note, this is Beta software and therefor anything I discuss here could be changed by the time the official release is made. Windows 8.1 fixes many of the issues it had with implementation, but creates some new ones. My over all thoughts on these changes are positive, so I'm going to start with what I feel they've missed on. My biggest issue out of the gate seems to be the touch pad. First of all, it feels as though it's using two different drivers. One driver is used in desktop mode, where I have no problems scrolling, and the other in the FKMI* where I scrolling has become a bit of a nightmare. If I go into the PC Settings/PC & Devices/Mouse & Touchpad, the touchpa...

Now here is where I'm going to deviate from what most of the reviewers are saying and state that I think Windows 8 is brilliant. As I have stated in previous entries, I don't believe that it's perfect and I think it suffers from "Design by Committee" issues, but over all I've become impressed with it. At first I had believed that the marrying of the Desktop and Tablet like interface was a giant mistake. Now I feel that it's just the implementation that suffers from issues, but that the idea behind it is actually pretty sound. (Please accept my apologies for being unable to manage simple tasks this morning - I accidentally published this super short, then updated it with a huge amount of text and accidently hit "Revert" after I was done - I'm not certain that beyond this point is going to be any good). Microsoft was ahead of its time in the early 2000s with the release of the convertible form factor Tablet PCs. Gates and Co. could have h...

Jumping off my experiment for a moment, I'm going to take some time to share my thoughts on Steve Balmer leaving Microsoft. This could be the best news that Microsoft has had in years. Why they allowed him to stay as long as he has is still a mystery to me. The man has taken good ideas and managed to murder them. The Courier, which was far more interesting and impressive than the iPad ever was, was killed with the reason being, if I recall correctly, they couldn't figure out the battery life on the device. Then there was a huge jump in battery life technology which made that reason completely stupid. The rest of the time Balmer was trying to play Catch Up with Apple and then Google. They have been watching as their business becomes more of a joke than anything else. Now is the time for them to take charge, hire a CEO with some new vision and a willingness to take risks in innovation and bring some new product ideas to the table. One thing Microsoft can't do is continu...

I'll really have to post something when it's not the middle of the night. But let that say something about this device - I love using it and tend to use it until I should go to bed. Then I remember I need to post something about my experience for the day and stay up even later. I'm going to keep this short tonight - I'm exhausted. The "Formally Known as Metro" UI is good and bad all at once. It gives some basic ability to customize, but it feels very much like iOS in that you can only customize within their specified rules and regulations. I think they could have done much more with it. I don't hate it, and I LOVE it when I have my Yoga flipped into Kiosk or Tablet mode. In fact, I think that's what MS should have done. Given us a great Desktop like Windows 7 and then, with convertibles, had it swap to "Formally Known as Metro" when you turned it into a Tablet interface. They could also allow for a hot button to swap you into that int...

For those of you wondering what it is that I decided to purchase to replace my MacBook Pro, here it goes: Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11s. 256gb SSD 8gigs RAM Core i5 Ivy Bridge Processor 11.6" Touch Display I will say this again: This laptop has THE best keyboard I've ever used on any laptop EVER - and possibly any keyboard I've ever used. Regarding the track pad, which I lambasted a bit yesterday, I must say that as I get used to it, it doesn't feel quite as glitchy. I still don't like it as much as the Mac track pads, but I think they may have made a pact with the devil to get those things so buttery smooth. Also, I wish I could turn off the physical "Right Click." The track pad is one giant button, but the lower right of it is still the "Right Click" area. I can also Two Finger click anywhere with the same result. Let me pick which way I want to do things in that instance (or, beloved readers, please let me know how to do this). To be ...

The wait is over. As of this moment I am typing on my new 11.6" Ultrabook Convertible Laptop and, so far, I'm rather fond of it. Before I purchased this device, I actually went around and tried a number of different devices from a number of different manufacturers. The simple truth is, I picked this one because of what I wanted it to do. I can't promise this would be ideal for anybody else, but in the short time I've been using it, it's pretty nice. Even though I had spent time with the device in the store before I ordered it (I couldn't get the configuration I wanted pre-made at any retail location), I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived and I removed it from the box. It comes in just over 3 pounds, but I honesty can hardly tell the difference between this and the MacBook Airs that I've been setting up at work. The other nice thing about this device is the fact that it's much sturdier feeling than I thought it would be. At the retail locations...

All the time you hear people talking about jumping from Windows to Mac, but rarely do you hear about somebody going the other direction. For twelve months, I will use Windows as my primary OS at home. I remember my first computer being an Atari 400 that my parents brought home and hooked up to the TV in their bedroom. The first game I remember playing was Caverns of Mars and it was wonderful. There was also Pac-Man and a space battle game that was highly advanced for its time, but I can't remember what it was called. After that computer came the Apple IIe and it's been Apple for me ever since, with two deviations into Windows with a home built system running Windows 98se and another home built system running Windows XP SP2. In both those instances, it was more about building the machine than about the OS. Either way, I ended up back on Apple pretty quick. I've owned PowerBooks, MacBooks, tower system, more MacBook Pros and so forth. I won't list them all hear as...