Category: Microsoft

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Microsoft

Surface Pro

Brad Colbow: “I’ve been working on a Surface Pro the last year or so. I can sketch, color, ink, vector up my artwork and then get it press or web ready all on one device and often times just using one or two programs: Photoshop and Illustrator.”

Mr. Colbow’s piece is focused on Adobe’s iOS offerings, but the bit above really jumped off the page. I’ve been looking for a comparison between Surface Pro and iPad Pro, this is the closest I’ve seen.

Last week my brother and I made a trip to Los Angeles to attend a Microsoft Device Night. I was able to watch Jordan Crane, a Cartoonist, draw on a Surface Pro. I cannot recall the name of the application he was using, but it wasn’t an Adobe application. He was creating a beautiful picture with a stylus and a full range of color, brushes, and effects. The bottom line is, it works really, really, well.

I’m hoping someone will do a side by side analysis of the iPad Pro and Surface Pro’s input latency.

One other thing of note. I still haven’t been able to use an iPad Pro hands on. I’m hopeful it will be an amazing experience. I can tell you I have had time to use a Surface Pro and it is a fine computer and in my opinion a real replacement for a lot of laptop users. The keyboard is fine and it has a nice touchpad, which means you have mouse pointer. This is something the iPad Pro does not have, and that is fine, but it does give the Surface Pro a leg up as a laptop replacement.

The one thing I haven’t tried is running Visual Studio on it. 

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Microsoft

Microsoft Surface Book

Surface BookPaul Thurott: “I’ve been asking for this product. You’ve been asking for this product. Hell, apparently everyonehas been asking for this product, based on the news I received last night that preorders for Surface Book are higher than for any previous Surface device.”

It’s nice to see Microsoft surprising people again. We had heard they would be introducing a couple new phones, which they did, and everyone expected them to introduce the Surface Pro 4, which they did, but the Surface Book was a complete surprise, it’s also a beautifully engineered piece of hardware.

Everyone at Microsoft should be extremely proud of their new entrant in the laptop market. Here’s hoping it sells like hot cakes. I have a feeling it’s going to be very popular.

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Microsoft Windows

OneDrive flaw in Windows 10

Jerry Fahrni: “However, I can see all OneDrive content on each machine regardless of setting; file and folder names appear in online-only status. This all disappeared with the Windows 10 update. Now you have to pick which folders you wish to sync, and if you don’t sync them they don’t show up in your folder structure. That really ticks me off. That was the best feature of OneDrive. Without it there’s no reason to continue using it. Why would Microsoft remove such a useful feature? It defies logic.”

Jerry is not the only person disappointed with this change Paul Thurrott mention this flaw a few weeks back on Windows Weekly. hopefully Microsoft will follow up with a nice patch to repair this regression.

As a software developer we have to deal with tough choices like this to make sure we ship a stable product on time. As bad as this omission feels it was probably done for the sake of shipping. With Windows 10 the idea is to patch the OS often, as a service. We will see how well this plays out, but this feels like a good candidate for patching sooner rather than later.

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Microsoft

Cut Quickly

Microsoft Cash Cow.Mini-Microsoft: “That’s why I hope that Cut Quickly happens. Without it, we’re back to our first layoff experience. If anything broke the back of this blog, it was the first big Microsoft layoff back in 2009. How? How could the realization of a step towards Mini-Microsoft do that? Because it was implemented so poorly, with constant worries and concerns and doubts about engaging in new ideas due to expectations those would be the easiest to trim during ongoing cut-backs. When was it over? When was the “all clear” signal given?”

Hey, welcome back, Mini! I used to love reading this weblog many years back. Can you believe it’s been around for 10 years? 10 years of begging Microsoft to focus and trim the fat. Anywho…

This is a pretty big deal. I have friends there and I hope they can stay, if that’s what they want to do. Now could be a great time for someone that wants to take some time off to smell the roses, or take a chance on a startup. Take the money and run, so to speak.

I wonder why they’re taking a year to implement this? It seems like a great way to absolutely kill a year of productivity in a business that changes day to day. Microsoft is just beginning to steer their large ship in a different direction, what if the target has moved by the time this RIF is complete? How do groups plan to ship product over the next year with the fog of a layoff hanging over their heads? Guess we’ll see.

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Microsoft

Mini-Microsoft on Ballmer Retirement

Mini-Microsoft: “A well prepared blogger, even a crusty spider-web covered 99.9%-retired one like me, would have at least had a post ready to go for this glorious circumstance, like how most news organizations have obituaries written up and ready to publish. I had no such optimism that this would be happening before 2017.”

Emphasis mine. It sounds like the troops have wanted this for a while. It also makes me wonder if the theory that Steven Sinofsky is Mini is credible?

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Microsoft

WP7 To WP8 Migration, Not Easy

Microsoft Cash Cow.John Marshall: “Existing WP7 apps will be recompiled to work under Metro, but nothing has been said whether this is a one time event or the developers will have the oppurtunity to continue to modify the WP7 code.”

Wow. That’s all I can say. Nokia bet the farm on Windows Phone 7, released the Lumia 900, and Microsoft does this?

Man, good thing they’re friends.

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Microsoft

Does Microsoft have a winner?

VentureBeat: “Real innovation has been laid upon innovation here. If Microsoft stood on the shoulders of giants who started this tablet revolution, the company has done its predecessors proud. The keyboard cover is sheer genius — whether or not you believe that text entry is a key part of the next generation of computing devices”

I really hope Microsoft can deliver this device, and I hope it succeeds. A real competitor to iPad will make Apple step up its game, which is good for consumers and developers. We all win.

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Microsoft

Windows 8 requires a developer license

Kunal Chowdhury: “The straight forward answer to this is “No”. You can’t develop and deploy your Windows 8 Metro applications in your Win 8 environment or Win 8 simulator unless you have a Developer License synched with the PC. If you try to deploy the app without the license, you will get the error “Error: DEP0100: Deployment failed due to a Developer Licensing issue.” as shown in the following screenshot:”

Hopefully you don’t have to take a test.

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Microsoft

Microsoft, stacking the deck

Skatter Tech [hat tip James Robertson]: ‘I excitedly thought I won out of pure luck. However, I was quickly told that I lost. I asked for a reason and was told Windows Phone won because “it displays the weather right there.” That was rather unclear. I showed her my device which also was showing off the same information with two side-by-side weather widgets on the center home screen. After pressing for a better reason, I was told that Windows Phone won “just because.”’

Way to go guys. Don’t be a sore loser, especially if you’re going to stack the deck in your favor. That would be like saying take a picture in Instagram and upload the results to Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. Oh, wait, what? Windows Phone doesn’t have an Instagram app? Oh, I guess you lose.

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Microsoft

Windows Phone, a Disappointment?

Asymco: “Windows Phone is in limbo. The company acknowledged that it has performed below expectations. During the last quarter for which we have data (ending June) I have an estimate that Windows Phone sold only 1.4 million units (Gartner’s sell-through analysis suggests 1.7 million). That gives Microsoft a 1.3% share of units sold (Gartner 1.6%), a new low.”

1.4 to 1.7 million units in a quarter. Compare that to 1 million iPhone’s in a day.

It’s too bad, really, the Windows Phone OS is pretty darned nice and Microsoft has shortened release times, which is super nice.

Hopefully they don’t give up, it’s good for all the smartphone makers to be pushed by each other.