12 Month Windows

Dear Christopher, I have spent years jumping back and forth from Apple to Windows and back again. Same with iOS to Android and back. Here's the thing that's important, however. The part where I continue to come back. The user experience really is that much better. Sure, there isn't the same kind of customization available on macOS or iOS, but at the same time, they are far more user friendly in general. I could point out about a dozen things I feel Android does better than Apple, but then there's also the privacy concerns of using any Google service right now. I think there's an article floating around out there about privacy, and the title is something like: "You pay Google with data, and Apple with Cash." Microsoft has made a major comeback in recent years, and that's good. Albeit, the OS is still clunky as hell on anything not built by Microsoft, the idea behind it is solid. If you're going to buy anything Microsoft, buy hardware that was ...

As much as I am an Apple fan, I often find myself excited by the ideas presented by other technology firms. For example, my previous post boasts the Moto X as being the best smartphone currently on the market. I continue to stand behind this claim even as I use an iPhone 6+. The technology that is included in the Moto X reminds me in many ways of the sort of direction Apple would have taken a number of years ago. At the same time, I’ve been very excited about the direction Microsoft has been taking with its Windows platform. Many people hated Windows 8, but I never did. I think it was flawed, but I think OS X is flawed as well. I think what’s coming with Windows 10 is beyond innovative and amazing and I think that its price tag is something very new for Microsoft. With the money they won’t be making off their Operating System, what revenue stream will fill that void? Then you’ve got Hololens - their augmented reality glasses that make Google Glass look like a Gobot Compared to a Tr...

I will start this by simply saying that for many years I used Microsoft's Entourage software on the Mac as my primary email, calendar and contact application. While it didn't have all the features of Outlook, I also wasn't completely aware of what I was missing since I'd not really used Outlook by that point in my life. Entourage was discontinued after the Office for Mac 2008 release. It was replaced with Outlook for Mac. It was around that time that I switched from Entourage to the Apple Mail, Calendar and Contacts system that came baked into the OS. I never really liked it as much as I liked using Entourage since everything was kept in separate containers. Sure, the various applications could talk to each other, but if I wanted to go through my contact list in any meaningful way I had to open my Contacts application instead of just checking out contacts within the software. It was also around this time that I began using Outlook quite heavily in my professional li...

I've been a user of Apple's iWork suite for quite some time. Because Pages wasn't as feature rich as MS Word, I actually preferred it over the feature rich MS suite. Pages did everything I needed it to do as a writer and made creating basic page layout documents a snap. But today I realized that in Pages 5 they stripped out something I used heavily in my work life: Mail Merge. I have a ton of documents setup to use Mail Merge from various sources. Every year I would simply update the sources and hit merge. Done. I starred agape at the notice that said "Mail Merge is not supported. Your Merge fields have been turned into plain text." How could one of the basic features of any word processor be stripped out of their productivity suite? Have they really just given up to the point of no longer caring? Have they reached the levels of hubris that Microsoft reached in the 1990s? Is Steve Jobs rolling over in his grave? I don't know the answer to that - his ...

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 understand absolute hate. I absolutely hated Windows for decades for various reasons before I ran my (failed) experiment. I don't hate it anymore, but I've also found that it's not for me. That said, I'm still trying to wrap my head around why some people hate Apple so much. So while I understand it, I still don't understand it - if that makes sense. I can understand preferring Windows over Apple because of software titles or personalization possibilities such as skins, but I don't understand the pure hatred that's directed at them. Back in my younger days, as a teen and young adult, I would vehemently declare my hatred toward everything Windows. I would talk about how Microsoft stole this that and the other from Apple. I got older, I read up on things and later came to the conclusion that while Microsoft may have stolen from Apple, Apple took a few things from Xerox back in the early days. Tech companies like to steal from each other - it's ...

Today has been really been the first time I’ve been frustrated with my decision to jump from Mac to Windows, and I’m not sure where to point the blame for it. The biggest issue I have both with Windows 8 and Android is the lack of quality apps. I know the Android lovers and Windows fans will decry me being a blind Apple Fanboy, and anybody who is that close-minded is just a waste of my time. They can live in their happy little bubble the way I used to live in my happy little Apple bubble. The fact that Apple OS X and iOS have a better selection of Apps available isn’t Apple’s fault, per se. I’m not saying that the Apple Branded Apps are better than the Windows branded apps of the same vein, I’m talking strictly 3rd party developers. I would imagine that with Android having more market share than Apple at this point there would be a better selection of Apps available for the platform and more high quality apps. The issue here is 3rd party developers. I’m not a part of any developer p...

And the iPhone 5c is REALLY Dumb This post is in no way meant to negate my previous post titled iOS 7 is Dumb. This is merely meant point out the parts of iOS 7 that really aren’t dumb at all, and are actually brilliant. The iPhone 5c feels like Apple is trying to jump back in time. First, iOS 7 Anybody who knows anything about computer programming or engineering understands that iOS 7 isn’t dumb in the least. The underpinnings of the OS are quite sound and incredibly stable, more-so than Android and Windows Phone. What is dumb about iOS 7 is the feel and look of the interface, but that’s not to say that there isn’t brilliance there. While Notification Center has gotten better, it’s still more annoying than it is useful. On the other hand, the swipe up from the bottom to get to some quick-action controls that are frequently used is brilliant. So is the addition of a flashlight button available from the lock screen that also stays on when you lock the device, unlike the 3rd part...

When I first held the iPhone in my hand back in 2007 it never felt cheap to me. It was solid, it was aluminum and, despite people’s grouch regarding a lack of customizability, it felt like a professional, slick device. I was proud to own one and I felt like, to use a Maine saying with a wee bit of profanity, King Shit of Turd Island. I never fully understood the switch from the aluminum back to plastic with the 3G and 3GS, but they were still solid phones. I had two at the time – for work and home – and the one I used for work took a beating. I dropped it on cement, I kicked I across marble floors, I dropped it down some stairs. It never broke, though I’m certain that it should have about twenty or so times. I was impressed. Then there was the app store. Prior to that, I admit, I had done the whole jailbreak thing on my phone until the app store appeared. At that point, I didn’t really feel a need to jailbreak. I could get anything I wanted and I felt that the people who designed the...

One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard about Windows 8 is the fact that it’s useless without having touch. I accepted the challenge and spent a week using just the mouse and physical keyboard interface on my Yoga 11s. This won’t be as long as many of my other posts have been because there’s not much to say. Touch is nice, but it is not necessary to make Windows 8 as functional, if not more so, than Windows 7. The gestures take some getting used to, but after just a couple of days they’re second nature and highly useful. There are also a huge number of keyboard shortcuts that create a fast, easy experience to work within Windows 8. Over all, I will say that touch is absolutely not necessary to work with Win 8 and that the computing experience can be just as productive and fun as Win 7, if not more so. The more I use Windows 8, the more convinced I am that people hate change, not the OS. Again, Windows 8 is perfectly usable without a touch interface. But maybe that’s just me. ...

I would be remiss if I didn’t address the Apple Keynote for the new iPhones that was held last week. While I should have posted sooner, I needed time to digest it all and form an opinion I was more or less certain of. When Steve Jobs passed away there was a camp of people who were worried that Apple would lose its direction in the absence of the man behind Apple. I had hope that things wouldn’t change much in his absence. I had hoped that he had created a company that was self sustaining with creativity and innovation and would just keep going. As it turns out, I fear that that group of people may have been correct. I’m not seeing anything exciting from Apple. There have been no game changers since Steve Jobs passed away, merely incremental updates to existing hardware. Perhaps the ONLY exception to that is the Mac Pro, but it holds the moniker of its predecessor, even if it doesn’t hold the same form factor. The hardware in the new Mac Pro is very innovative, but it’s being used to...

So I called Lenovo tech support last night because the volume rocker on the left side of the device stopped working. It would only send the volume down, not up. This was only a mild annoyance because there are three ways to control the volume on the Yoga 11s and that was only one of them. On the keyboard you have function keys that can be used to control the volume and in tablet mode you have the setting area when you bring up the charms bar on the left. Having an additional volume control seemed a little overkill to me, but I didn’t design it. The first thing that happened upon this discovery was that I wasn’t overly upset by it. I had two other, perfectly functional methods for changing the volume – I didn’t need a third. If it had been an Apple device, I would have marched my ass down to the Apple Store and raised a stink. Which I did with my 15” MacBook Pro with Retina on multiple occasions – in fact, they replaced it five times over the course of a year. Maybe now you understand...

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...