Surface Pro 3

[Kumabjorn]

Microsoft has announced a new generation of Surface Pro called 3.
It comes with a 12" screen in an aspect ratio of 3:2 (nothing else has this) with 2160 x 1440 pixels.

The base model is cheaper than Sony's digital paper and an i5 with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage is approximately the same price. Does this now means we have some competition for the A4 PDF reader and annotator?

[Dulin's Books]

yes but im biased so....

[Glorfindel]

Ooh, I want!

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

yes but im biased so....

I watched the online press conference, and except for Panos thinking everything was "super" this or that, it was quite an impressive device. I wish they would have shown the screen in bright sunlight.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

I watched the online press conference, and except for Panos thinking everything was "super" this or that, it was quite an impressive device. I wish they would have shown the screen in bright sunlight.

Having waited some 7+ months for the SP2 Pro with the 256G to become available, (couldn't be found for love nor money, and MS was not helpful on this front--I decided it was vaporware), I finally decided it was too small for me, and have been equivocating about whether to buy the Lenovo ThinkPad instead. As I don't travel like I used to, a lightweight isn't as important to me as once it was.

I'll still think about the Surface, now the 3, because it just looks lovely, (an' I wan it, I wannnn it, I wannn it) but our old ThinkPad is ~10 years on, running XP, still ticking over. It's reaaaaaaally slow now, so it has to be replaced. (It's mostly used on rare occasions now; I'm on the desktop all the time, but, a lot of that is because it's slow.)

Nonetheless, that's (the years) pretty impressive. When you're going to spend that type of dough, knowing that something is going to last is, to me, important. It infuriates me that my $1K first-gen iPad is now basically an unsupported paperweight that can't run most of the apps I want to use, because Apple quite deliberately abandoned it. It inclines me toward Lenovo, because I have a demonstrated track record with one of their devices, which has lived through some pretty heavy-duty device brutality (being schlepped repeatedly to 7400' in altitude, in freezing cold and snow, building our place in WYO, trucked around the country, bounced around in an old Dodge Ram, running every program under the sun from old AutoCad to my then-foundling business), and still keeps on tickin'.

It's really hard to justify trying a brand-new device (warning, warning Will Robinson, Danger!) when I know that a Lenovo will likely do me just fine. Giving in to SurfaceLust seems like, well...giving into buying it just because I WANT it, because it's pretty cool. {shrug}.

Hopefully, I'll win a lottery into which I've never entered, and then I can justify buying a device that is "cooler" than I actually need. :-) Hell, given what MS has put into B&N, you'd think that they'd just GIVE me one, wouldn'tja? Sheesh. Own best interests, and all that.

Hitch

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Microsoft has announced a new generation of Surface Pro called 3.
It comes with a 12" screen in an aspect ratio of 3:2 (nothing else has this) with 2160 x 1440 pixels.

The base model is cheaper than Sony's digital paper and an i5 with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage is approximately the same price. Does this now means we have some competition for the A4 PDF reader and annotator?

Yep, I have to buy the i7 256GB version. No way to avoid it
Maybe in parallel they'll launch the Surface Pro Mini? Bought.
And I wouldn't be surprised, if Google Glass would pop up at about the same time.
Oh boy, this will become an expensive summer...

[Jack Torrance]

I read an article from Forbes after doing a search and it does look nice. BUT they are trying to take on the Mac book air and the specs look nice it seems to have a major draw back.

It doesn't look like you can actually use the keyboard unless it's sitting on a flat surface. This may seem like a minor point unless you need to be able to do that.

It's still a very cool piece of hardware. Though I haven't owned an actual Apple laptop/desktop I the last 2-3 years I really have grown to like my ipad2 and iphone5. I used to play a few games on my PC and liked to build vs buy but I really am leaning towards getting an apple laptop when it comes time for a new machine.

I really like my iPad for most day to day stuff but a tablet falls a little short for some tasks. So when it comes time to replace the old iPad2 I will probably step up to an MacBook Air

[tubemonkey]

And it costs a gazillion dollars. I'll take a Nexus 7.2 any day.

[aceflor]

I watched too, and it looks sooooooo pretty... !!! But, I am not in for a 12" device so I will not get it. I was hoping for a mini, which did not come. I might along the road get an SP2, although for the time being I'm good.

But still, the SP3 seems just perfect, and the central part they gave digital inking in the conference gives me hope for new nice toys with pen to appear further along the line...

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Yep, I have to buy the i7 256GB version. No way to avoid it
Maybe in parallel they'll launch the Surface Pro Mini? Bought.
And I wouldn't be surprised, if Google Glass would pop up at about the same time.
Oh boy, this will become an expensive summer...

The integration they have done between the pen and OneNote was astonishing. When the device is turned off all you have to do is click the pen and it automatically launches a new page in OneNote, you can do your writing on it and it immediately syncs with OneDrive. I just hope it doesn't mean that outsiders can gain access to the device though.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Jack Torrance

I read an article from Forbes after doing a search and it does look nice. BUT they are trying to take on the Mac book air and the specs look nice it seems to have a major draw back.

It doesn't look like you can actually use the keyboard unless it's sitting on a flat surface. This may seem like a minor point unless you need to be able to do that.

The new Type keyboard for the SP3 comes with a little wiggle room, you then attach about 1/2" closest to the screen on the screen and that worked wonders with stability during the presentation. The new kickstand can be regulated between 20 and 155 degrees, so you can have it at any angle you like.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

And it costs a gazillion dollars. I'll take a Nexus 7.2 any day.

I thought EVERYTHING out of Seattle was valued at a gazillion dollars, including monkeys.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by aceflor

I watched too, and it looks sooooooo pretty... !!! But, I am not in for a 12" device so I will not get it. I was hoping for a mini, which did not come. I might along the road get an SP2, although for the time being I'm good.

But still, the SP3 seems just perfect, and the central part they gave digital inking in the conference gives me hope for new nice toys with pen to appear further along the line...

Something weird must have happened with the Mini between sending out invitations and then holding the press information. Invitation said "Small gathering" or something similar, a clear attempt at hyping a smaller device.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

I thought EVERYTHING out of Seattle was valued at a gazillion dollars, including monkeys.

Amazon doesn't charge too much and monkey's a cheap date

Monkey dislikes Microsoft as much as he dislikes Apple. If it wasn't for books, I'd be able to cut the Windows cord completely. Unfortunately, key book programs require Windows in order to work - ADE, Audible, OverDrive, and WMA.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Amazon doesn't charge too much and monkey's a cheap date

Monkey dislikes Microsoft as much as he dislikes Apple. If it wasn't for books, I'd be able to cut the Windows cord completely. Unfortunately, key book programs require Windows in order to work - ADE, Audible, OverDrive, and WMA.

I've gotten ADE to run in Wine (thanks to some advice here at MobileRead) and, apparently, Audible can also be run under Wine. I don't quite understand not being able to run Overdrive in Linux -- don't you just run it in your browser? (But maybe there is an application that I don't know about.) I don't know what WMA is so can't comment on that.

I agree with you about Microsoft and Apple. Don't like either. Not crazy about Google any more either, but still consider them the lesser of the evils.