Microsoft to cut its Surface orders in half (2 millions units instead of 4 millions)

[WillysJeepMan]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

It really works just as well as a mouse interface, that is what most people don't understand since it has been misreported in various places.

Scrolling mouse wheel shifts the tiles left and right. Mouse pointer to the top right corner brings up the charms bar, top left brings up the pictures of currently running programs. It is all well thought out, quick and easy.

That's a matter of personal preference. In my experience Win8 does NOT work just as well as a mouse interface. Although as you pointed out, some actions can be performed with the mouse, the Win8 UI is focused on touchscreen interaction.

The charms bar and task manager feel disjoint and are inconsistent within their own functions. Then throw the classic desktop into the mix.

The Win8 UI is optimized for direct access that is specific to touchscreens. Using a mouse, one must move the mouse back and forth to perform various functions that required less travel in previous versions of Windows.

The behavior is aggravated by the powersaving mode of many bluetooth/wireless mice.... which take a split-second to activate after a period of inactivity which result in overshooting the screen and activating a hotcorner.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Wait what roller-coaster is this that I'm riding....

I noticed the price dropped $20 on Microsoft's site as well. I noticed that one store had new iPad's discounted $40. Perhaps a price war is looming.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I noticed the price dropped $20 on Microsoft's site as well. I noticed that one store had new iPad's discounted $40. Perhaps a price war is looming.

Great time to be a consumer.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by xendula

^ If you use Office a lot, it is probably the best tablet for you.

Rumour mill says Office is coming to Android and iOS.
As the article points out, doing so would undermine the Windows 8/RT proposition.

Source

[Kumabjorn]

I thought they had already released something for the iPad/iPhone crowd.

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I noticed the price dropped $20 on Microsoft's site as well.

i dont see it http://surface.microsoftstore.com/st...C8bETFQR6lTa4g

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

I thought they had already released something for the iPad/iPhone crowd.

It's been rumoured for quite a while (I think somebody posted pictures of office running on an iPad), but officially, it's not out.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by afv011

It's been rumoured for quite a while (I think somebody posted pictures of office running on an iPad), but officially, it's not out.

Guess it was a mockup I saw then, didn't pay attention. But surely it's coming, right?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Guess it was a mockup I saw then, didn't pay attention. But surely it's coming, right?

At this point, I seriously doubt it.
Putting office on iOS would open the corporate market to iPad, which is the main thing MS wants Surface RT to block.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

I thought they had already released something for the iPad/iPhone crowd.

There are a number of Office-compatible apps, but no official Microsoft version.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

At this point, I seriously doubt it.
Putting office on iOS would open the corporate market to iPad, which is the main thing MS wants Surface RT to block.

That's the main point of the Ars article. We'll know soon enough.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

At this point, I seriously doubt it.
Putting office on iOS would open the corporate market to iPad, which is the main thing MS wants Surface RT to block.

According to the rumors, iOS would get, basically, a subscription to office365, while the surface would come with an actual app. Although there appears to be an issue with the subscription price, with Apple wanting its usual 30% cut and MS wanting a discount. So it may amount to nothing for that reason.

But I'm not surprised that MS is interested in bringing Office to tablets; they are already in the workplace, and MS wants to be careful not to undercut its existing and lucrative Office business by putting all of its chips on a bet on the surface.

Plus, if the only think Surface had over existing tablets was the ability to run office, it would be doomed already.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Plus, if the only think Surface had over existing tablets was the ability to run office, it would be doomed already.

Good thing we already know it's got a whole lot of other unique capabilities going for it, then.

[JoeD]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

It really works just as well as a mouse interface, that is what most people don't understand since it has been misreported in various places.

I spent a bit of time with Windows 8 recently for testing some programming work and I really didn't like the way metro worked with a mouse.

Scrolling up/down to move left and right felt weird, although I expect given time I'd grow used to it. However, the major issue I had is anytime you right click you have to move the mouse down to the bottom of the screen rather than using a little localised pop-up menu. An interface that makes sense for touch but not mouse imo.

I think win8 will be fine on a tablet. I've not used it, but that's the impression I got from the desktop version. But on the desktop I didn't like metro one bit.

Splitting the screen sounds like an advantage for those of us using an ipad, would be a nice feature to have. But in reality for the desktop it's a step backwards. Not all apps need to be full screen and even with a 1/3 and 2/3 split not all apps need to use that space either. If it had defaulted to full screen but then allowed you to re-arrange the size arbitrarily on the desktop version (non-tablet version that is, not the desktop part of the desktop version) then it would have been much more useful. But they wanted the same interface on a tablet and a desktop and imo that is awkward and restricts the desktop.

Not that it matters, if you don't like metro, then atm you can almost totally avoid it beyond using it as a new start menu. In fact the few people I know who've made the swtich to win8 are doing just that. They like the quicker boot times and a few other parts and just dislike how metro works so avoid it.

It's likely inevitable we'll be stuck with it in the future, however I hope they allow the desktop metro to be more flexible than the tablet version and open it up to running apps that do not originate from the MS store.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Good thing we already know it's got a whole lot of other unique capabilities going for it, then.

My thoughts exactly.