6 ms·

Wow, looks awesome and for business, the ability to use Microsoft office is the "killer app", as much as I dislike ppt and word and wheel they are the staples o

by hnriot 14y ago

Wow, looks awesome and for business, the ability to use Microsoft office is the "killer app", as much as I dislike ppt and word and wheel they are the staples of most companies so the lack if office on iPad is hurting it for business users and this will be just what they are looking for. I am glad to see a new player (although msft are well experienced at touch computers) and excited to get my hands on one. They hit the pain points of the iPad out of the park, can't type for toffee, and lack of msft office for work stuff. Google docs is great for trivial things but not for getting real work done in a team where everyone else has Office.

proee 14y ago
Isn't Microsoft planning to release an iOS version of Office sometime soon? Seems there was some leaked screenshots shown last month. If this is the case, it makes the office integration less of a selling point.
throwaway64 14y ago
unfortunately, these devices have no AD integration, or other Enterprise deployment stuff that typically makes windows appealing to businesses.
- timthorn 14y ago
  Agreed this is a real issue, but a professional buying a device personally is unlikely to care about those bits of the puzzle. Compared to the existing tablet market, Windows RT is significantly better in terms of enterprise integration.
  - nodata 14y ago
    How is it better? RT has zero AD support, Android apparently has lots of app options for centralised management.
    - timthorn 14y ago
      It does support multiple user accounts (yes, not synced to AD, but better than Android and iOS) and FS encryption out of the box. MDM is baked into the platform; again, no Group Policy, but it can be managed through System Centre. It supports the concept of a mouse, it has USB, it can (I think) integrate with Sharepoint.
- mogrim 14y ago
  Not sure how much of that is a problem - how many meetings do I go to that have iPad users busily taking notes? AFAIK they're not integrating directly into the enterprise network, as long as they've got access to mail they're happy. If you could get a decent version of Office on there... (Not that I completely disagree - AD integration would certainly be a massive additional advantage, I just don't think it's critical).
buro9 14y ago
OneNote on Windows RT could be the killer app that makes me want one. I want a sketchpad, handwriting recognition, the ability to insert audio clips and videos and images, OCR for text in those images... in fact let me take a photo, paste it in and then extract the text in the photo... quick text tools with basic formatting... and all of this should be searchable, shareable, integrated. That's OneNote. On the desktop I always felt OneNote was being held back. It begged and screamed for a tablet to bring it alive. The only thing that makes the Surface compelling for me is: Does it have a full-featured OneNote? Unfortunately the reality is that OneNote falls short just a little. Surface has OneNote MX which is a version of OneNote that doesn't have feature parity with the desktop version. And that sucks, as if it did Microsoft would have me buying a Windows OS once again, just for that application.
- dsirijus 14y ago
  I've always recommended OneNote as one of THE best tablet application ever. Using it on TabletPC almost 4 years now. It will really be a shame if it's not featured full-featured on Slate.
- NZ_Matt 14y ago
  Well the good news is that you are mistaken, Surface RT comes with both the desktop version of OneNote and OneNoteMX. http://office.microsoft.com/en-nz/home-and-student/office-home-student-rt-preview-FX103210361.aspx http://office.microsoft.com/en-nz/home-and-student/office-ho...
  - buro9 14y ago
    The reviews I've seen say that there are far fewer features. If you've ever tried OneNote on Android you'd know that in the worst case this could be just turning it into a basic note-taking program. I want to be wrong, but nothing on the Microsoft site (or anywhere else I've seen) shows me a side-by-side compare of the features of OneNote for every platform and version. What I've read is that OneNote is available for Surface, but it's a feature limited version. No real details on what features are limited or missing.
TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
I think the Surface with Windows 8 Pro (perhaps its second generation since current one's too bulky) is a killer business product. Put it down on a table with the keyboard, and it's a fully-powered laptop! Pick it up and fold back the keyboard, and it's a fully-powered tablet!
- runn1ng 14y ago
  The inability to install anything on the desktop OS apart from the Office makes it less compelling as a laptop. But the jailbreaks will come sooner or later, anyway. edit: oh, you speaked about x86 version. Well I would guess this will have higher energy consumption and be less compelling as a tablet.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
    Yeah. It looks like the current x86 version isn't going to be too popular, but I expect there will be an improved second generation that might take off.

by hnriot 14y ago

proee 14y ago

Isn't Microsoft planning to release an iOS version of Office sometime soon? Seems there was some leaked screenshots shown last month. If this is the case, it makes the office integration less of a selling point.

throwaway64 14y ago

unfortunately, these devices have no AD integration, or other Enterprise deployment stuff that typically makes windows appealing to businesses.

timthorn 14y ago
Agreed this is a real issue, but a professional buying a device personally is unlikely to care about those bits of the puzzle. Compared to the existing tablet market, Windows RT is significantly better in terms of enterprise integration.
- nodata 14y ago
  How is it better? RT has zero AD support, Android apparently has lots of app options for centralised management.
  - timthorn 14y ago
    It does support multiple user accounts (yes, not synced to AD, but better than Android and iOS) and FS encryption out of the box. MDM is baked into the platform; again, no Group Policy, but it can be managed through System Centre. It supports the concept of a mouse, it has USB, it can (I think) integrate with Sharepoint.
mogrim 14y ago
Not sure how much of that is a problem - how many meetings do I go to that have iPad users busily taking notes? AFAIK they're not integrating directly into the enterprise network, as long as they've got access to mail they're happy. If you could get a decent version of Office on there... (Not that I completely disagree - AD integration would certainly be a massive additional advantage, I just don't think it's critical).

buro9 14y ago

OneNote on Windows RT could be the killer app that makes me want one. I want a sketchpad, handwriting recognition, the ability to insert audio clips and videos and images, OCR for text in those images... in fact let me take a photo, paste it in and then extract the text in the photo... quick text tools with basic formatting... and all of this should be searchable, shareable, integrated. That's OneNote. On the desktop I always felt OneNote was being held back. It begged and screamed for a tablet to bring it alive. The only thing that makes the Surface compelling for me is: Does it have a full-featured OneNote? Unfortunately the reality is that OneNote falls short just a little. Surface has OneNote MX which is a version of OneNote that doesn't have feature parity with the desktop version. And that sucks, as if it did Microsoft would have me buying a Windows OS once again, just for that application.

dsirijus 14y ago
I've always recommended OneNote as one of THE best tablet application ever. Using it on TabletPC almost 4 years now. It will really be a shame if it's not featured full-featured on Slate.
NZ_Matt 14y ago
Well the good news is that you are mistaken, Surface RT comes with both the desktop version of OneNote and OneNoteMX. http://office.microsoft.com/en-nz/home-and-student/office-home-student-rt-preview-FX103210361.aspx http://office.microsoft.com/en-nz/home-and-student/office-ho...
- buro9 14y ago
  The reviews I've seen say that there are far fewer features. If you've ever tried OneNote on Android you'd know that in the worst case this could be just turning it into a basic note-taking program. I want to be wrong, but nothing on the Microsoft site (or anywhere else I've seen) shows me a side-by-side compare of the features of OneNote for every platform and version. What I've read is that OneNote is available for Surface, but it's a feature limited version. No real details on what features are limited or missing.

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago

I think the Surface with Windows 8 Pro (perhaps its second generation since current one's too bulky) is a killer business product. Put it down on a table with the keyboard, and it's a fully-powered laptop! Pick it up and fold back the keyboard, and it's a fully-powered tablet!

runn1ng 14y ago
The inability to install anything on the desktop OS apart from the Office makes it less compelling as a laptop. But the jailbreaks will come sooner or later, anyway. edit: oh, you speaked about x86 version. Well I would guess this will have higher energy consumption and be less compelling as a tablet.
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  Yeah. It looks like the current x86 version isn't going to be too popular, but I expect there will be an improved second generation that might take off.