12 Month Windows

For the longest time we were fighting for the smallest, thinnest phones, laptops, and other pieces of technology. That trend appears to be reversing itself in recent years with the advent of "the phablet." When I first saw the gigantic Galaxy Note I almost lost the Coca-Cola I was drinking out my nose I thought it was so insanely huge. Now I have an iPhone 6+ and I'm officially a Phablet owner. What does this mean? For somebody who thought that the size of the Galaxy Note was obscenely over sized, I now find the size of my 6+ to be perfect for me. Perfect in ways my previous phones have been imperfect. First of all, I no longer feel as though I need to carry around a laptop and a tablet and a phone. I now have my phone, which is big enough to be a small tablet, and my laptop. It's easier to carry around than either an iPad Mini or Nexus 7 (or any of the other smaller form-factor tablets) and I find it's more useful than a tablet. I also ordered myself an iWerk...

Since 2007 I have been carting around some version of the iPhone. Somewhere around August 7th, that won't be happening anymore. After much deliberation, window shopping, hands on testing, research, and thought I have purchased a fully customized Motorola Moto X phone. If you're interested, it's got a natural ebony back, black front and Red buttons and highlights. The screen will actually say "Welcome, Micah" whenever I turn it on. Beyond the ability to customize the look of the device and have my name engraved on it (which is possible with the iPhone as well), Android gives me features I've been waiting for on the iPhone. While iOS 8 promises to catch up in some areas, namely the ability to swipe in text as opposed to tap typing, it's still lacking in others that I have made heavy use of in my work provided HTC One. While I did consider the HTC One (M8), when I starting toying around with it, it had gotten too big. As much as I loved the one work pro...

After a hiatus, I think I'm coming back to this blog. I am still fascinated by what Windows has to offer as it tweaks and tries to perfect the Windows 8/8.1 experience. While I am still primarily a Mac OS X user, I have installed the latest version of Windows 8.1 Pro on my 15" Retina MacBook Pro. Since the original inception of my failed experiment, there are still the nuggets of gold that I saw as potential, and initially loved, about Windows 8/8.1. Now that I'm using it more as a Desktop and less like a Tablet, I have a new perspective on how it functions for millions of people, and it's not half bad. Coupled with the release of the new Surface Pro (3) and you're looking at something that is actually appealing as a Laptop/Tablet hybrid with the power of an ultra book and the portability of a tablet. Many people note that when they compared the new Surface Pro on a scale, it was to a 13" MacBook Air and not an iPad. I think those people are missing the ...

I was asked the question "Why not a windows tablet?" After publishing my last post. That ultimately boils down the the entire reason behind why the 12 Months of Windows failed for me. Windows 8 isn't what was promised. You simply cannot have a "best of both worlds" scenario with Tablets and PCs. While my initial findings were certainly interesting to me, it became more of an issue as time marched on and I began to see the chinks in the facade. Simply put, you cannot expect a PC to act like a tablet or vice versa. That's not to say that Windows 8 didn't have some great ideas, but they were hampered by Balmer's fear of moving forward too quickly. The fact that there is so much legacy support still built into Windows astounds me. Apple cut its OS install size in half when it stopped supporting the PowerPC chips.Windows could save space by losing all the extraneous crap that 99% of the world doesn't need any longer. Make the companies who need th...

I've spent quite a bit of money over the course of my life playing with various technologies and trying to find something that was the "Perfect Tool." I recently came to the conclusion that in searching for the perfect tool, we forget to make use of the tools that we have. I started  this blog with the idea that we cannot make a decision about whether or not we like something or hate it without first knowing all sides of the equation. That said, I think there were too many failures and unrealized potential within the Windows 8 package. Windows 7 is a far superior product that is not attempting to be more than what it is. Because of that, I moved back to the Mac ecosystem. Over the past six months or so I've been using an android phone and an iPhone. I've made a few comments in the past about my thoughts on Android vs. iPhone. This is more about Tablets. While I feel that Android Phones (the good ones that update quickly and don't come loaded with 2.1) ar...