Microsoft may launch several new Surfaces on May 20 – report Microsoft's Surface launch event on May 20 may be a bigger deal than was previously thought, with multiple new models to be unveiled, a new report claims. Redmond hasn't said what it plans to announce at the media event, billed as a "small gathering" in New York. But most rumors point to a "Surface Mini" – some version of …
I've been using a Lumia 920 at work with no sim card, just using it as a mini tablet, it works fine, got my email on there, The Reg App and a few others, browser is okay for most websites. Can someone tell me what the differences are between Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT in terms of apps? The only think I'd like on the 920 is a bigger screen maybe a mini surface is the answer?
"Can someone tell me what the differences are between Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT in terms of apps?"
Yes, the applications available are different, many will be available on both - and more commonly as time goes by as the active push to get one framework for all is gaining momentum.
For a bigger screen than the 920, try also:
- Lumia 1520 - 6" screen, windows phone setup - what you know, but bigger
- Lumia 1320 - 6" screen,. windows phone setup - what you know, but bigger
- Lumia 2520 - 10.1" screen, windows rt 8.1 setup - alternative to surface
Vince,
Cheers for the options, the 6" screen sounds good, still large pocket sized and the same layout. The 2520 I had seen in John Lewis, the build quality seemed the same, the hard plastic using in the phones which I quite like, micro HDMi as wel and Micro SD. Starting to sound a bit like a Microsoft advert now, so I better shut up, no doubt your down voter will also down vote this.
Thanks again.
A lot depends on where you are. In parts of Europe it is just behind iOS in terms of market penetration at the moment (~15% to ~18% last I looked for Germany). In other countries it harldly makes a dent.
At work it is mostly Android, with a few iPhones. I have to use an Android or iPhone at work, my private phone is a Lumia.
Likewise wife and eldest daughter have Lumia (one with WP7, the other with WP8), the youngest daughter has an Xperia. In the larger family, I would think around 60% have Android, 10% have iOS, 5% have WP8, the remaining 25% have normal mobile phones.
In the wild I'm seeing more and more WP8 devices and fewer and fewer iPhones, but Android makes up the majority of what I see, when people have a smartphone at all.
Nice truncation of the fact that that's the tablet market, there. Similarly, the oh-so-subtle introduction of Windows Phone, to try and shift the focus, despite the actual article being about the Surface.
To give credit where it's due, I've only ever seen a couple of Surfaces in the wild.
But Windows Phones - I'd suggest getting on the London Underground, any weekday.
Or does Google glass have realtime filters to remove things that the Googleborg doesn't want you to see?
>>Same here
So it's no longer enough that you post the same stupid link on every Surface story for the past couple of years, you now post it multiple times in the same story?
You really are just a bot, aren't you? Go through Reg stories, see story with Surface in the title. Find high-ranking post, insert link. You're so in the habit of doing that you haven't even realized you did this story yesterday and have the same dull link a few posts further down. Why don't you add a laugh track too?
You can have a Dell Venue 8 Pro for around $200, running Windows 8.1 on a 1.33Ghz Atom. Will that do?
It seems to be available quite widely at that sort of price. eBay at $200: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Venue-8-Pro-Atom-Quad-Core-1-33GHz-32GB-Windows-8-1-Tablet-w-Dual-Cameras-/360916342222?pt=US_Tablets&hash=item54084a55ce ; Amazon at $220: http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Venue-Pro-Tablet-Windows/dp/B00FEE7B1I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399497617&sr=8-1&keywords=dell+venue+8+pro
(Sadly) not the same. The digitzer (while at least inductive) is the worst of the four and even the 2nd gen pen still has problems. The V8 is actually a lot smaller than the S/P2 (8'' vs 10.6'') and uses a low grade Baytrail. And the Venue11 has a lot more problems (either a low end Baytrail with 2GB max mem or stability problems) to add to that. To bad, the previous DELL tablet pc (Latitude 10) was a fine box (maybe the best of the CTrails) and the hope for the Venues where high.
It seems the S/P2 is sold at "black zero" prices. Decend build, stable, good endurance (and the power cover is out) and the Haswell is a MAJOR boost over the S/P1 CPU in the typical tablet pc uses. Units with comparable power/endurance cost more and similar priced units have either less endurance or a Baytrail (At least with 4GB then)
If you want 8''/BT than the Asus unit is likely the better buy since at least the digitizer works (Wacom).
Currently the best bet for a non MS Win8/x86 unit seems to be to wait for the HP Elitepad1000 or ProPad 600 series to hit retail or maybe the Lenovo Thinkpad 10. They are upper end Baytrails with 4GB/LTE versions available and decend to good styli. Sony is currently "no go" (bad, the Duo13 was nice and the Tab and Flip had potential after a workover)
>>"Try here."
Gasp. A pre-release piece of software (Netflix), running on a pre-release version of the OS, installed on pre-release hardware, hung for a few moments. I'm deeply perturbed that such a thing could happen and will be returning the Surface I've used happily for a couple of years immediately.
Oh, I didn't actually click your link but it's the clip of Steven Sinofsky finding it didn't respond for a few seconds and putting it down and picking up a spare, isn't it? I know because you've been posting the same desperate clip for around two years now on every Surface story. I'm right, aren't I?
Netflix? Try again - it was IE, A piece of software Microsoft has been developing for 15 years that has become officially shit.
That video is always worth watching. The majestic sweep of the arm, the confident proclamation, the triumphant tone in the voice as he shows the world how "I'm running Internet Explorer", at which point it hilariously freezes up.
A textbook comedy lesson in perfect timing, from the gift that just keeps on giving.
Full fat windows 8 is the only viable option in my humble opinion. Writers say using desktop mode on an 8 inch tablet is a nightmare - surely the whole point is that you dock it with a monitor (or two) plus mouse and keyboard when you want to work in desktop mode and then switch to app mode when you are out and about.
I agree that Desktop gets unwieldy wants you start dropping below 11". But just to note that you don't need "full fat" Windows to use Desktop. This is a Surface RT: http://i61.tinypic.com/2d1oltl.jpg
I run MS Office on mine quite happily.
"Doing so could give Redmond the opportunity to figure out where previous pint-sized Windows tablets have fumbled and provide some thought leadership for its OEM partners."
............operating system itself the tablets produced (running Windows 8 not RT) in the 7 - 8 inch form factor have largely been crap. The OEMs (pretty much all of them with one or two very limited examples of a product at least worth a look) that produced them ought to be frakking well ashamed of themselves.
>>"I will say a majority of people just do NOT want Windows on their tablets or phones. End Of!"
Even if true, so what? Many of us do and that creates a market. The majority of people don't want GNU/Linux but for many of us it suits are use case and thus GNU/Linux is a valuable market.
It's only "End of!" if you (a) take for granted what you say is true and will always be true, (b) think there should only be one, most popular, product.
Choice is good.
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