Backside Bus

With the replacement of my once-great Samsung Stratosphere* with an HTC Windows Phone X, my business computing is now entirely under the Microsoft umbrella. Windows 7 at the office, Windows 8 at home (desktop and laptop), Surface RT for the tablet/netbook. Now if Redmond would only send me the shill checks they promised... But seriously, this is the first time that I have had all my eggs in one basket - I would generally have one "odd man out" device, if not more. In fact, until recently, my standard trio for business trips was my iPad, my Windows 7/Ubuntu dual-boot netbook, and my Stratosphere. I'll be doing some posts on living in the MS world (like I haven't already...) and how it affects my work, leisure**, and other computing activities. *more to come on this story - quick version is that Verizon took a great phone and completely ruined it with an OS update. ** My iPad needn't worry... there are enough iPad-only apps that I got used to using on that pl...

As someone who does light to medium office work on my business trips (creating editing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, e-mail, skype chats) as well as wanting light entertainment (music, movies, games) while traveling, I would typically bring a netbook and an iPad on all my business trips. They both filled their niches and I was generally a happy camper.   I recently brought my Surface RT on a 10-day business trip as my only computing device. My initial conculsion was that it was working well for me after the first day and a half, and that impression didn't change throughtout the rest of the trip. One thing that really impressed me was the battery. Not only does it have adequate battery life - I never had it run out in the middle of the day with moderate use - but it charges quickly - about 2 hours for a full charge. This meant that I could use it all day, then put it on the charger while I went out to dinner, and it would usually be done by the time ...

I've had my Surface RT for a little over a week now. While I have generally been impressed with the device, enough to take it solo on a business trip , I have also discovered a few rough edges. Nothing that I would consider a fatal flaw, but things that bug me nonetheless. Inserting a flash drive does not pop-up a message or take me to the desktop automatically. While the system acknowledges the drive with a USB device attached sound, I am used to Windows either taking me to the drive window or popping up a "what do you want to do" window. Unless I am already at the desktop, I need to switch to see the device activities. Of course you don't need to go to the desktop in order to use a device - if you are using the Photos app and insert a USB drive with photos, it can be accessed without going to the desktop first. Some games act up when playing offline. This is not a Microsoft issue per se - it really depends on the particular game. Actually, most MS games worked ...

The Surface is at home on the hotel desk. I am currently on a business trip and decided to only bring my Surface RT along. Since Microsoft is positioning it as a device that can be used in lieu of a laptop for business users, I figured I would see how well it does. So far (after a day and a half), things are working well. I was able to get online at both airports (I had a connecting flight) and check/respond to e-mails. One of the airports had a walled garden, and I was able to connect without a hitch. My hotel has free wireless, so no problem here either. One thing to note - from what I read, there is currently not an official Ethernet dongle out for the Surface, but this MS community post has a potential solution . Since my arrival, I have had to take notes in a meeting and work on a budget for a proposal for my office. Office 2013 RT has worked well for both tasks. Since I have an Office 365 business account , I can use the included Office 2013 for Commercial use, howev...

This is a bummer ... I had been hoping to get one of these, but when they didn't come out for over a month and there was no word on how long they were delayed, I decided to get my Sony Ultrabook instead.

I've been using Windows 8 for a little over one month now, and have used it enough to develop some thoughts on it as an Operating System (OS) as well as on what I perceive as the broader direction Microsoft is trying to go with it. In a nutshell, Windows 8 an attempt at combining the traditional desktop OS with a tablet/touch-friendly OS. For desktops and laptops, this basically means that you get a fully-functional desktop OS (with some not-so-small performance enhancements over Windows 7) overlayed with an elegantly executed tablet OS. In some cases, this works very well, and in others it can be confusing or just weird. Personally I think that MS is headed the right way, and that as the lines between traditional computers and tablets continue to blur, we'll see more of this (such as Ubuntu for Android - a different approach to the same idea). Where's my Start Menu? The biggest change in Windows 8 is the addition of the start scr...

Had a little early Christmas yesterday... well, technically a late birthday. I got a Sony Vaio T-series ultrabook and a 64 GB Microsoft Surface RT . Playing with them now. Quick first impressions of the Vaio: this thing is incredibly fast... from power off to using Office 2010 apps in under 20 seconds, including the time it takes to enter my password. Also, this is the kind of machine Windows 8 was made for. Surface RT impressions: decent tablet, but quirky. System messages call it a PC, which makes me chuckle when I see them. Not seeing the speed issues I read about in the early reviews, but mine updated right when I got it. Office 2013 RT is the best tablet office suite I have used, and it integrates well with my SkyDrive. I'm impressed with Microsoft's work on creating a seamless ecosystem... I upgraded my desktop when Windows 8 came out, and when I set up both systems, my settings (including wireless network settings) synced. I set the Surface up at ...