Surface Laptop Leaks (and more on Microsoft’s Education debate)

This was going to be my preview and predictions for today’s Microsoft event but the Walking Cat, Microsoft watcher/leaker/Ghost in the Machine, had other ideas.

So we now know what the rumored Surface Laptop will look like. And right now it looks like a well built 13.5 inch laptop coming in multiple colors (Grey, Burgundy, Blue, and Gold). This post will be littered with images. Spec wise the machine weighs 2.76lbs is 14.47mm thin at the back, 9.9mm thin at the front. And the laptop will have a screen with 3.4 million pixels according to the Walking Cat. From view Microsoft has chosen to not use USB Type-C or the Thunderbolt variant and looks to maintain its proprietary charging cord/port. So far reaction is mixed with many wondering why the laptop isn’t on the Type C bandwagon (best guess is for the education market).

I’m surprised the laptop is not smaller. A smaller screen means this could have been used in early grades such as Kindergarten. And the lack of Type C will be met with head scratches; but the device is looking quite desirable.

So before I go too far into the hardware I did want to preview the event.

Tomorrow in New York Microsoft will be unveiling the laptop but it will also be showing off Windows 10 S aka Cloud. This version of Windows will locked down and limit use to the browser and to applications inside the Windows Store.

I think the major focus of tomorrow will be about education and how Windows can work for educators and students. Services like Office 365 and Intune for Education will be on display along with applications like OneNote and Minecraft for Education to show the company’s breath and their ability to compete with Google’s ChromeOS.

And while the big reveal is out, the bigger story will be how Microsoft sells its newest SKU. Chromebooks have made a dent in education and the larger computing market. For Microsoft today is about making the case that they have something of use to education.

It will be interesting.

images: Walking Cat (@h0x0d)

The Consumer Preview: Windows 10

So this is an update on my use of the Windows 10 Technical Preview which was updated about a week ago. Build 9926, which in this post I will also call the Consumer Preview (CP), brought a set of consumer features, apps, and UI tweaks including Cortana and the Continuum mode. The Preview also added the new Universal app versions of Photos, Maps, and the Beta version of the Store. As always this is just my views on the most current version of Windows 10, not a review cause this ain’t done.

Now on with the show.

When I first tried Windows 10 I thought it was something that built on Windows 8 but was clearly geared toward traditional PCs. That opinion still holds. It is not like touch is gone or that Metro has been banished but 10 feels like its first priority is to work on laptops and desktops.

Anybody expecting this OS to be a retreat back to comfort of Windows 7, however, will be in for a rude awakening. Windows 10 doesn’t feel or work too differently on the desktop from 7 or 8 (it’s miles different from XP but so was 7). There have been a lot of little touches to UI to make everything more consistent; icons are now more minimalistic and sort line drawings. The CP has refinements to animations such as moving into and out TaskView and maximizing and minimizing windows. The Start menu has been changed for Build 9926. For one it has been rebuilt as a XAML application and the ability to make it full screen has been added. Additionally the Menu can’t be shrunk or stretched as in the Technical Preview (but that will return). Microsoft has also begun consolidating functionality in places like Settings. Lastly the Action Center from Windows Phone has been added to the CP replacing the Notifications tab and Charms bar.

I like Windows 10 in the little time I use it. I maybe a sucker for the shiny but I like the animations and shadows effects just like I appreciate the small tweaks to the windows with new icons. Whenever I use 10 I can’t help but think it is what should’ve run on Windows RT devices. The ability to run Metro apps on the desktop makes them more appealing to users who live primarily with their hands hovering over a mouse. However some older Windows users won’t be taken by the new system’s charms. It is clear that while Windows is moving away from the touchy-ness of Windows 8 it’s not going back to Aero.

For users who liked Windows 8 and those who have enjoyed Windows tablets Windows 10 will be a mixed blessing. Almost all the gestures introduced three years ago work but they are not the same. Windows 8 was about mobile and touch first, Windows 10 is about the desktop and is merely touch friendly.

The new TaskView replaces the open apps tab when using the left swipe gesture. I like it but those who like the fast app switching of the latter may feel unproductive. You might feel worse when swiping right and using the Action Center which has some of the Charms bar’s quick settings and functionality when in tablet mode. The other touch gestures remain; slide from the top still closes apps. Right now there are a few rough points in the tablet side of things, but Continuum on first blush works and better yet can be done manually. With Windows 10 I think it is time Microsoft rethought the Start Screen for tablets and phones and PCs.

On the app front I have only begun to play around with the redesigned Modern programs like Photos and Maps (haven’t played with the new Xbox, Calculator, and Recorder). Maps is similar to a Preview Map app in 8.1 with exception of Street View and 3D maps. Photos is miles better than the current Windows 8.1 version (still miss the Panorama cover of 8 but changes coming make up for it). The new Store app, in Beta, is also on the CP and handles Windows 10 better than the current Store. The new design gets rid of the Panorama scroll and green/white color scheme for a more sedate style. It is a little bit more professional and maintains the same info, screenshots, and user reviews.

And that was the Consumer Preview. It’s a solid build and is moving along slow but steady but there is more to be done before its shipped.

Because the World needs Windows…….

The first time I saw the team building poster for what was then called Threshold it was in a post on Re/code. That post was about how the poster was both touch-feely tag lines, and, Feeling a lot more like it came from the fictional Hooli of HBO’s “Silicon Valley” than the once rough-and-tough software giant. The second time I saw the poster, well at least the poster’s tag line, was in a opinion piece by Todd Bishop and Blair Hanley Frank of GeekWire.   

The GeekWire piece flipped the tagline and ask the question, Does the world still need Windows?

As I sit here on the eve of the next stop on the road to the release of Windows 10 it is a valid question to ask. Does the world need Windows? Does Microsoft? In a market where the mobile leaders aren’t located in Redmond, WA. Microsoft has been building up its software to be on these non-Windows platforms; the same ones that don’t have the app gap.

In the last few days the narrative of Windows 10 has shifted. At first it was about how Windows 10 was righting the wrong of Windows 8; returning the desktop to a bewildered user base. Now it is about Windows’s last stand or what happens if 10 fails. It is like watching a play that is determining whether it’s a tragedy or a comedy in the last act.

So does the world need Windows….

I don’t know. But it is interesting to note that the poster is asking the same question. It states the world DOESN”T need another operating system. If I’m honest most people could live without Windows and just use Android or iOS or Chrome or OS X; they also could get along without any of them. Software exists because someone somewhere thought it added value; and it is up to them to make the case.

Wednesday will be the day Microsoft makes its case again for Windows. It is the case they made with Windows 1.0, 3.1, XP, 7, 2000, and 8. So here’s to them making their case well.

Cause some of us do not want to sit next to the Linux guy with the cheese collection.

images: Recode/ GeekWire/ Frank Shaw (Microsoft)

A Brief Note to ex-Employees of Big Tech Corporations

Okay hello you don’t know me but I know you, well I know the part of you that worked for (insert company) on (insert product). I followed your work, loved it, and said to hear you are living (insert company) and wish you well on all future endeavors.

Now you may take a sabbatical or go straight on to your next adventure. I’m sure you will see your name pop up on a tech site discussing your departure and what it means for the company and product you live behind. And you may even risk your sanity by reading the comments or even writing a post of your own. Now as a rabid fanboy or girl I may be experiencing a number of what we call “feels”. I may be elated (didn’t like you), nonplused, or shock (you were integral to everything and your departure is the beginning of the end). Now you as a sane and rational person will be taken aback by all this because you were of course busy with your work.

Now we as fans and enthusiasts are a lot like extreme sports fans; we are looking at minutiae anything to tell us about the future of our choice platform. We look to see if you’re living on good terms or were forced out. We looked to see if you switch products (because if you’ve stopped using it it’s a sign it is no good). I do apologize but this is life in consumer technology; loud, brutish, and online.

Please ignore us (you’ll live longer).

Karma

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s New CEO in his 87th week made his first gaffe. He did it in a room he shouldn’t have to a an audience he shouldn’t have and he got burned for it.

Now to set the scene Nadella was at the Grace Hooper Celebration, an event about women in technology. He was part of a keynote session and Q and A hosted by Dr. Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd college. Dr. Klawe is also a member of Microsoft’s Board of Directors. Much of the interview was easy going and Nadella handled himself with his usual casual manner. The problem came when he was asked about how women should go about asking for a raise. Nadella’s response was classic Nadella (complex and deep) it was also a bit tone deaf given the audience. Here is the audio (with a tip of the hat to Neowin):

At the end of Nadella’s talk the headlines about Microsoft’s CEO condoning inequality of pay and one article highlighting him as systemic of a system that hinders women’s advancement in the tech industry. At a time when many are discussing the difficulties women face in technology and the need/want to increase girls and young women to choose the STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Math) field; Nadella’s comment would be stripped of any nuance.

To his credit, or at least Redmond PR, he clarified his statement. First on Twitter:

Was inarticulate re how women should ask for raise. Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of a bias #GHC14

— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) October 9, 2014

Later he made a definitive statement on the matter in which he agreed wholeheartedly that his statements were,

Toward the end of the interview, Maria asked me what advice I would offer women who are not comfortable asking for pay raises. I answered that question completely wrong.

Without a doubt I wholeheartedly support programs at Microsoft and in the industry that bring more women into technology and close the pay gap. I believe men and women should get equal pay for equal work. And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it’s deserved, Maria’s advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask.

I am pretty sure Mr. Nadella meant no harm in his response and hopefully this was a teaching moment for himself and others. I think that the subject of women in technology is complicated. Not complicated in the larger scope, but on the smaller one. There is a lot of mess going on much of it done by a pack of internet trolls that feel the need to berate women, especially women commenters, who talk about gender issues in field of gaming, computing, and the like. They have created a toxic atmosphere that has many women abandoning social media or retracting their web presence to avoid these fools.

Nadella was again tone deaf in his remarks. What he said sounded to attendees like be good little workers, don’t push and one day you’ll be rewarded by HR. Now he didn’t mean and in his head it probably was clear, but it wasn’t to his audience. Now it also didn’t help that his words were chopped and screwed but that doesn’t matter. The effect was the same. There were a lot of angry people who decided to be heard afterwards.

If I am being honest what he said was a gaffe which he apologized for. It won’t calm those who were incensed and it will just confirm ideals about technology and patriarchy. I just know its hard doing the right thing and harder saying the right  thing and too easy too get it all wrong.

Understanding the Consumer Computing Market for Tech Geeks

Okay I am keeping this as short as possible and no there are no figures for my observations Poindexter so ZIP IT.

So you are a tech enthusiasts, a coder, a brogrammer, a girl who codes, or one who self identifies as a power user of great accord. For you technology is a thing to be debated, obsessed over, cuddled like a puppy, and worshipped like that golden calf that got the Hebrews in trouble. You have one (or two) of every gadget known to man and its Chinese knockoff equivalent. You are the Technology elite…..

But you are not the Tech majority.

You want to know who is, your mom and the millions and billions who use mobile devices. You want to complain about why Windows and OSX are looking more like their mobile siblings than the powerful dual core OSes they are blame the people who want to just use a computer. Blame regular users for whom power tools hinder their mastery and enjoyment of the PC they bought at BestBuy for $350.

The fact of the matter my dear PC Master Race member. The tech meek have inherited the digital earth and there is nothing you can do about it. (Well maybe you could blog about it, or do a video on YouTube, or go on Google Plus but no one uses Google Plus)

Adobe on Tablets

So for the last few days Adobe has made a series of announcements around tablet applications aimed at creative on the go. Now this new suite of applications joins Lightroom mobile, Kuler, Ideas, Behance, Creative Cloud, and Voice. The new apps also premier Adobe’s first hardware offerings which they briefly showed last year at Adobe’s developer conference, Max.

The new apps to Adobe’s surprising (to me anyway) iOS offerings are Adobe Line, Sketch, and Photoshop Mix. The Line and Sketch apps make use of Adobe’s new digital drafting pen and ruler called Ink and Slide. Ink is a capacitive stylus and comes with a charger holder. The Slide is as it name applies, a slide ruler that also serves to other drafting duties. Adobe says it working on expanding the software behind Ink and Slide to other pen makers.

What I find interesting about Adobe’s new apps is how tied into the Creative Cloud they are. For example Photoshop Mix (the third new app) uses the Creative Cloud to do some of the processing for Mix. Additionally Adobe uses the Cloud to share work done between the tablet and PC/Macs. Another interesting point with Adobe is that none of these apps are coming to Android. I point it out only because when Adobe began its tablet push it started on Android. Now I you’re wondering about Windows, reading between the lines of a recent article by Mary Breadscomb, Adobe is considering the possibility of porting them. Adobe is also redesigning there current PC programs to work better with touch.

A Changing (Tech) World

My mother has been looking for another computer we got her a Toshiba that was on sale but due to multiple issues she wants another one.

Now she turned to me because if you know more than five things about a computer you automatically become the resident tech expert. In that capacity I have tried to get her the device that fits her needs perfectly. And in that capacity I have utterly failed.

See the thing is the person buying a computer today, and that includes tablets and smartphones, isn’t a person like me or the type of person that visits The Verge or Engadget. We don’t use technology like my mom or my sister or the people who go the Apple store.

Now my mom wants to learn about how to use a computer and she needs things like Word and PowerPoint, but outside of that her actual computer needs are light. She doesn’t need to run programs like Visual Studio or Photoshop. She doesn’t need a device that is capable of playing Crysis.

And she is not representative of a minority user, I and most tech geeks are.

And to be honest when I look at my own usage and needs I think I am more of the type of user my mother represents than the kind that trolls ZD Net. This shift in use case and users is having an effect on computers.

For a longtime a PC has been judged on the amount of power it has and on the amount of “stuff” you could do to it or with it. That whole world view has been represented by the power user and the tech enthusiast. Its why an OS like Android is deemed more geek friendly than Windows Phone and why Windows RT is considered DOA.

That need for power along with corresponding notions on “real” computing overlook the reality that computing and what is considered a computing device has been shifting over the last decade. And with that shift computing has moved to becoming both appliance and utility.

Online people debate use cases or tablets and Chromebooks and whether people can get real work done all the while people are using them to get work done. Various reporters complain about the necessity of Windows RT while students use it just fine.  Online people talk about people never using iPads over Macs or PCs because they can’t do Photoshop while Adobe releases Lightroom for the iPad and Microsoft releases Visual Studio on the Web.

To bring this back home in looking for my mother the perfect device I re-learned the “reality” of technology; technology for everybody else is the tool and not an end unto itself.

That’s the Stupidest Thing I Ever Heard

(This is a Rant; an emotion fueled tirade screamed into the echo chamber of the Internet. My apologies)

Sometimes you read something so damn stupid that it really makes you question why you even bother trying anymore. I admit I am a Microsoft fanboy and that I like learning about Microsoft technologies and the latest tech. I have always tried to be a realistic fanboy and understand that the OS and platform I like are not the default platforms for many.

But sometimes I read shit like this and I wonder why I even care.

So today Microsoft named a CEO (YAY!)

And with a new CEO comes the obvious question of where the company goes now. So this means a few dozen articles listing the top 10, 8, or 5 things the new head must do/face/overcome to resurrect Microsoft. Then there are the articles trying to decipher the “real” meaning behind the new CEO’s first memo and interview. And so there are blog post out now highlighting the words used or not used to decrypt where Microsoft is headed.

And that brings us to, To Grow, Microsoft Must Deemphasize Windows by Paul Thurrott. Now I follow Thurrott and consider him one the best Windows watchers around. I like that he isn’t a fanboy (we have enough already thank you). But there are times when I disagree and this is one of those times.

Now let me preface by saying I agree with Thurrott’s overall point in principal. I agree that Microsoft should release a number of its services unto other platforms. Office, Bing, Sky OneDrive, and Xbox Music and Video are but some of the services that Microsoft makes that should exist on iOS and Android. What I disagree with is the idea of deemphasizing Windows in order to do this.

I am sorry but this is stupid; only thing stupider is Microsoft forking Android. Its a mistake to for all intents and purposes “kill” Windows because a new board member has a hard on for Office on the iPad. I understand that in this new world of technology, a PC platform like Windows isn’t the focus for developers or even a lot of consumers, but its still a sizeable platform.

Realistically Microsoft will bring Office to the iPad and Android devices and while it will help Office, it could very well kill Windows and Windows Phone. I am not advocating ignoring the iPad (that’s stupid), but I don’t think that should come at the cost of improving a platform Microsoft owns.

There are some who want Microsoft to go back to being a pure software vendor and go where the customers are. They want Microsoft to focus on the enterprise because that is where the money cometh from. The problem with that is the technology industry is a mut. Very few of the companies the Redmond giant goes against sticks to their lane. Apple is business and Google has a desktop/laptop OS. All the serious contenders to Microsoft in enterprise have consumer platforms and options.

It fucking unrealistic to hide behind the Enterprise wall and hope this shit blows over.

Publicly deemphasizing Windows, will kill Windows as a platform more than it is now. Who will buy into it if the sense you get is that Microsoft itself didn’t give two flying fucks. Its like the whole idea of Microsoft going Android or forking Android to make a platform.

Why?

The only thing you get is a App catalogue and apps that don’t fit the skin you put on top of Android. Anyone familiar with what OEMs using Android go through knows the reality of this. People will bitch about app selection (because Google will not be opening the gates to Goggle Play or Google apps) and the version of Android forked (“Why the hell isn’t this Android Twizzler?”). Microsoft has a development platform and a mobile OS, what the fuck do they get forking Android?

Microsoft has a lot of challenges, but I sorry but the solutions suggested so far have just plain stupid.

Things I learn while (Tech) Blogging

At some point in my short time as a tech blogger I have come to realize some things:

 

I will never know everything about technology or computing

I am not the dude that will ever have ALL the gadgets

I am not a good gadget reviewer

In order to write about tech you really need to leave the fanboy mess at home

Fanboys have difficulty separating tech personalities from business reality

Consumer technology is not the whole of the business of technology

History is not many Tech writers’ strong suit

There are many realities in tech and only two of them are relevant for regular users and only one reflects business reality

Consumer technology is a vastly misunderstood market

There will never be enough features to please a reviewer, but there can be enough to confuse users.

Android is the answer (default response by tech pundits)

Sometimes a technology can be too early

That on rare occasions you can learn something from reading the comments section

That there are very few features NOT borrowed from other OSes

Sometimes you really get tired having to defend your point

There is no such thing as a perfect device/OS/anything

All operating systems are a work in progress

Sometimes you have to filter out the noise to get understanding

Real people see technology much differently than tech nerds

You never use computers the way you think you do

The Comments section is still the path to madness

No one will ever be satisfied

Software is never finished

There is always someone behind you