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Mythbusters

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It's odd that Microsoft's name does not come in the discussion that talks about technology giants. Google, Apple all are competing with Microsoft tooth and nail. Amazon and facebook maybe less so. Not mentioning it makes me question if its the bias or lack of knowledge on the part of the author.

Who cares? With most of the phones being sold with contract, this is just a gimmick. What does it have going for it other than a cheap price anyways? Poor camera? no expandable memory? No LTE? Poor speakers? Manufacturer with questionable quality record?

Right is subjective. Care to explain? Maybe there is no single device that gets everything right? But are there separate devices that each got one aspect right? Care to give examples?

My pint is that Windows ecosystem is all about diversity. If there exist separate devices, some manufacturer will bring the together.

Likely. The other way to look at it is that many of the apps that are present in Windows phone app catalog are the ones where Microsoft convinced the app developer to write for the platform specifically. Now if that strategy is used then its obvious that Microsoft would have courted the top quality apps rather than going after poor quality ones.

Aren't we talking about the architecture here? Surface and the software on it is ARM architecture. Something that Office never ran on before. These are significantly different architectures and just because the graphics or processing capabilities are same does not mean it will run right?

Besides the version that was tested with was a beta. The final version of office runs smoothly on the device. So what is your point? RTFA!

Anybody who shares their opinion should consider these points:

1. The office on surface is not the final version of software. It has RTM'ed so it should get updated with the final version pretty soon.

2. The fact that you have an ability to run a program like office on a tablet class hardware and ARM architecture is in itself a feat of engineering and Microsoft should get some credit for that here. I was dying to put this louis CK piece in the comments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpUNA2nutbk

>> The problem with Windows "apps" is that they are made inefficient and un-optimized by default

Very knowledgeable opinion sir. This is indeed true. Us as windows developers are required to add a sleep statement every few lines of code so as it not make it appear responsive.

The 5$ SaaS 14 years ago

Netflix is not at $5 but almost there. So is Hulu+. Does the Xbox music have subscription or is it free?

Checkout the surface Pro or many other similar products that came out recently (a windows 8 tablet that docks into a keyboard) The only tradeoff there is the smallish screen size and possibly price but those are to be expected I think.

I get that it was not a replacement for a desktop. That's a given. but I don't get "not a replacement for iPad" part. I don't see why it is not a replacement for iPad for doing most of what people do on iPad, browse, game, read, watch, listen, etc. If you consider broad app ecosystem, nothing is going to be a replacement for iPad except iPad. Agreed Windows8 doesn't have a whole lot of apps at this point but its not even released yet.

I wonder why the author tried to treat this as a full desktop replacement knowing that this is ARM based unit and hence does not run full windows 8. The Surface Pro is the one that should fir the bill of a tablet that is a laptop replacement. The author is expecting things from the unit that it is not quite designed for.

This one focuses on the hardware for the most part. Which I think is quite comparable to other options if not favorable. When it comes to Windows 8 though, its a personal taste. I love it even on my non-touch laptop and am looking forward to using it on a touch based laptop when I upgrade my current machine.