Already done --- Asus PadFone
Posted on 03/04/2012 4:19:33 AM PST by SmokingJoe
Windows 8 is now available for anyone to download, and it already shows a ton of potential. In fact, Microsoft’s bold new OS, which reminds us a lot of Windows Phone, outshines the iPad in some key areas. Granted, there were things we didn’t like in our Windows 8 Consumer Preview — and the iPad 3 or iPad HD is just around the corner — but there’s no question that Apple will soon have a real fight on its hands. Here are the top 10 ways Windows 8 is better than the iPad right now. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBCUniversal.)
1. Windows 8 is more personal than iOS While iOS represents photos with a flower icon, Windows 8 lets you choose any photo you want to populate the live tile that lives on the Start screen. And that's just one of many ways you can customize the screen you'll see most. You can move items around, name groups of apps around and name them using the Semantic zoom feature, and pin everything from your favorite people and websites to the Start screen.
2. Faster multitasking on Windows 8 No double- tapping a button to see your stuff here. Windows 8 lets you thumb through the applications you recently opened fast and fluidly just by swiping from the left edge of the screen. If you want to see all of your open apps at once, swipe from the left edge and then pull your finger back towards the edge to reveal a thumbnail view
3. People App: Beyond the Address Book One of our favorite features in Windows 8 is the People app. Why? Because it automatically links duplicate contacts so that there’s only one person for a given name.......
(Excerpt) Read more at gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com ...
10. Windows 8 supports more devices Out of the box, Windows 8 will support lots more peripherals than the iPad or iOS because it’s built on Windows 7. If you have a USB drive, keyboard, printer, or camera, it should just work. Microsoft’s new OS makes it simple to access these add-ons via the Devices charm. Just swipe from the right side of the screen. And you can add devices from the PC settings menu.
I read the article, but didn’t see any mention of the purported eight reasons an unfinished OS is comparable to an established hardware / software platform that is extremely popular.
The only thing I don’t really like about it is that tile system. I understand it, as I can see information being updated as it happens.
I’m hoping that I can customize the background and tiles so they are one colour, so I don’t see the tiles though still see the information.
It’d be even fantastic, since they are going to have a choice of coloured phones, if I could choose colours that would blend with the tile colours it it all looks like one colour.
LOL x 1 Billion!
one word - Linux
Windows 8 will be a big success with both enterprise and prsonal users.
Why?
It caters to both.
From an enterprise standpoint, you can have Windows on USB with access to all files stored securely in the cloud, not locally on the hard drive. When you access the file, it is the latest version, not the last one a user downloaded.
From a personal point of view, download a game on XBox and play it. Continue play on your PC or Tablet and then play on your mobile phone. One download and the game is on all your devices. Yes, the gameplay might be restricted on your phone due to hardware limitations. However, having access to everything while you are away from home is incredible.
With Windows 7, I already download movies and games on my XBox. I can play those on my laptop and phone. Windows 8 just takes it to be more integrated, more consistent.
Sharing the core OS across all platforms is going to be the game-changer here.
iOS is trying to get there, but has a looong way to go.
Android is nice if you like to tinker with your system, but the fragmentation of upgrades is incredibly irritating. They just announced Android V5 while some people have just received their upgrade from 2.2 to 2.3.
Is it any different than countless blogs where the writers constantly extol the “superiority” of Apple, while they use nothing but Apple products?
I know where the market is going, in this regard.
Your phone is basically going to become your computer. If you’re, for example, you’ll be able to dock your phone and run your monitor, printer and peripherals. Though all that would, of course, be powered separately from your phone.
The average phone today is probably almost as powerful as computers were 4 or 5 years ago. When they get quad-chipped, they will be about as powerful as computers are today.
The only limitation is us, with our big fingers and limited senses.
Is it any different than countless blogs where the writers constantly extol the “superiority” of Apple, while they use nothing but Apple products?Yes, it is different.
If Apple published an article on the superiority of Apple products, that would be comparable to this.
Windows 8 is an operating system, iPad is a hardware platform.
I wouldn’t count Microsoft out. If they are as serious as I think they are, they are going to offer more features for the price and they will catch up on everything.
If they don’t and this is where I think they are, they will be forced out of the consumer market almost entirely. I don’t they will fall that easily.
We live in interesting times.
Last summer my wife won an iPad2 by calling Big Brother to vote out “an annoying homosexual.”
Chuckle!
There are plenty of Apple Mac web sites that do exactly the same thing all the time, and have been doing that FOR DECADES,like these sites for example..
http://www.macworld.com/
http://www.appleinsider.com/
Don't see ya complaining about those now do we?
Of course.
Those blogs don't claim to have the objectivity of a news network.
Those blogs aren't published by Apple.
It's comparing hardware that is running Windows 8 to the iPad. You can't evaluate an operating system on a disk to a piece of hardware. It's got to be running on some hardware, which is the case here.
Already done --- Asus PadFone
Do those sites claim to be objective news networks? Because, with a name like "MacWorld" I have to assume it's a site about Apple products, right?
Is MSNBC a news network about Microsoft products? Because that would explain a lot.
Perhaps I need more caffeine. I appear to have inadvertently awakened the MAC/PC wars, which was not my intent. I had hoped to point out one of the many corruptions of the network formally owned by Microsoft.
I saw that and thought it was cool. It’s certainly a possibility.
Too bad it’s not coming to North America, from what I read anyway.
I find the idea of trying to impose a tablet UI on a desktop computer to be absurd.
All of these features designed to save screen real estate make perfect sense, on a tablet’s small screen.
I’m running a pair of 27” monitors.
Why would we Microsoft users complain?
It keeps Applebees chattering amongst themselves. :)
I think the phone will be the core of it all, eventually.
Everything else will be dumb terminals (basically a display with some ports)
Microsoft is already too late to the mobile market. I have no doubt they will turn out a gazillion features at a price match against iOS and Android, but they will be doing nothing more than once again copying technologies that others have pioneered (at a buggier price). My bottom dollar says the only way they “compete” against iOS and Android is to come up with a better compression strategy to alleviate the carriers bandwidth woes and in return, the carriers will give kick ass deals for MS Mobile devices. In the end, the consumer will pick the lesser priced “fully featured” phone powered by MS and get a second rate mobile os that has the carriers laughing all the way to the bank.
iOS on the iPad already has this. You can switch between applications by swiping the screen left or right with multiple fingers.
Exactly.
If you think about it, for most computer users, all they want is for their computers to function. They are not tinkerers.
Another advantage is that, as technology keeps improving and developing, you’d be able to have your cell phone with you and you could download the new tech straight onto it.
What a stupid article. It compares an OS with a tablet computer, then proceeds to list 10 “cool things” as if that’s the difference-maker in such a war.
Yup, passions tend to run hot in the technoweenie universe
But I don’t want a pad environment. This doesn’t belong on a conventional computer.
Hated my Windows phone ... don’t like this either.
Absolutely!
There is no inherent reason all the computational power and storage we presently have in a laptop or desktop can’t be put into a phone.
As you say, the limiting factor is not the innards, it’s the input/output. Mouse/keyboard and screen.
Neal Boortz, Erik Erikson and Herman Cain all do radio shows from WSB, which is owned by CNN. They don't exactly toe the parent company line. I assume at least some of the folks at MSNBC have the same freedom.
Neat-o!!!
THanks for that. Collecting devices is expensive!! I want one stop shopping.
This is such a BS comparison. If you want to compare apples and apples (no pun intended), it should be a comparison between Microsoft Windows 8 and Apple’s Mountain Lion. Comparing Windows 8 to the about to be superseded Apple OS is such an obviously dishonest exercise. Why not compare Mountain Lion to Windows 7? That would be equally dishonest.
This is such a BS comparison. If you want to compare apples and apples (no pun intended), it should be a comparison between Microsoft Windows 8 and Apple’s Mountain Lion. Comparing Windows 8 to the about to be superseded Apple OS is such an obviously dishonest exercise. Why not compare Mountain Lion to Windows 7? That would be equally dishonest.
Windows 8 can be used as a desktop environment with the touchscreen interface. So multiple monitors and all the rest will be there.
What version of the Windows Phone did you use? Windows Phone 7 is great!
So how well does Win8 run on a tablet?
Meant to say Windows 8 can be used WITHOUT the touchscreen interface.
I have 20 years of experience doing tech support for Windows users. The average user is going HATE Metro. There is no easy way to back out of full screen apps (no home button, no Start). They will likely use desktop immediately after startup - only to find that every time they run a program they have to slide to corner, select an icon, then click a window to get out and select another program. Stupid. Newbies are going to get LOST.
Maybe on a device that has a home button, but not a PC.
Very well on Intel based tablets and ARM based tablets coming soon!
.
Article 1,232,9392 that states some other device will out iPad the iPad.
I don’t want my laptop limited by the capacity of a phone battery. And make no mistake, the speed and storage on a phone are limited by the battery that powers it.
I want the most powerful phone that battery technology will allow but when I get home, I want the horse power that only a plug in the wall can support. And I don’t want an OS that is hamstrung but the limits of mobile technology.
I don’t think they want to out iPad the iPad, I think they want to change the meme just like Apple did when they released the iPhone.
Apple is promoting the phone to replace the PC by basically putting the OS in a really big phone.
I think MS is trying to expand the traditional PC by putting it in really small containers.
Neither are doing this for our benefit. They are both trying to expand their market share. Personally, I want the most powerful phone I can get that is not hampered by trying to be a PC and I want a PC that is not hampered by trying to be a tablet or phone.
“Those blogs aren’t published by Apple.”
No they are not, and Microsoft doesn’t write articles for *shudder* MSNBC, but they are written by people that openly admit that they prefer Apple products and use nothing else.
And yes many do claim to be objective.
I want the smart phone I can use while sitting in the passenger seat of a moving car, the one I can quickly look up a fact on while sitting in a friend's house, the one I can check prices on while standing in a store aisle, etc.
In other words, I want the one that is easiest for a real human to use in a less than ideal environment, not necessarily the one that is most "powerful".
Some people will consider this a phone with "training wheels". Let them have their very powerful phones. I'll settle for my iPhone, training wheels and all.
It’s interesting that you would respond in that way. Apple burst onto the scene with arguably the most powerful phone on the market and kept doing so for several generations.
It was version 7. Never could get used to it. I found it very clunky compared to iOS or Android.
Thanks for the article, I just threw it on my 5 year old P4 laptop, only system I have around that I can wipe out and play with, don’t want to do my main machines.
On even that old clunker, it is fairly responsive, but I can see how it is really designed for a touch based system, while you can do everything with a mouse/keyboard some things would be much smoother with a touch screen.
It took me only a few mins to figure out where all the settings were, the side bars that showed running apps, and ‘app’ specific settings, etc. It doesn’t recognize the built in video card so can’t do the native widescreen resolution of the laptop screen, which seems odd given how well hardware has been detected from Vista on.
So first impressions, I like it, though not sure I would want it on a daily work desktop, but certainly on a touch based tablet.
In 10 years the “limitations” of phones are likely to be a great deal less significant than they are now. Compare today’s phones to those of 10 years ago, or 3 years ago, FTM.
SS technology is expanding rapidly. Its use, in theory anyway, can be much less volume and energy intensive than a spinning disk.
I also suspect batteries will become more efficient, or the fuel cells they’ve been talking about forever will become practical.
Difference is, Windows 8 will sell in huge quantities, ending up selling even more units than Windows 7, which has already sold a staggering 550 million in such a short time, even if those Windows 8 sales are split between traditional desktops and tablets.
Its not so much about “out iPading” the iPad, its about "out tableting" the iPad. Funny enough, long before the iPad, there were plenty of tablets including Windows XP tablets from as long ago as 2000.
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