One thing I do believe is that the Surface Pro is better than anything that's been done to date. It might not be 100% perfect but then neither is the opposition.
I think it more accurate to say that the Surface Pro is better for you than anything done to date thus far. I think there are many who might prefer a smaller form factor, lighter weight, longer battery life, etc. You seem to want portable Windows. Nothing wrong with that either, but it doesn't mean the Windows device is the best thing ever made across the board.
That's why I have a typecover case and a wireless mouse, for when I'm using the tablet as a PC.
And I guess for me, I rarely would use the tablet as a tablet and would always be using it as a PC. Just visiting this site would be a nightmare on a tablet unless I had a keyboard and mouse. I WAS on my phone, but after seeing all of the responses that I wanted to quote and comment on, I put my phone away and grabbed my laptop because it's the only way I could have efficiently made this post.
I don't see anything (or, didn't ... I'm not on Win8 anymore) in the Windows App store that can touch certain iPad programs I have like "ForeFlight" (a pilots charting & navigation program). With my iPad, paper charts and approach plates have been rendered obsolete.
You have hit the nail on the head. I don't think many Windows folks get the very specialized App support of the iPad. If you are just using the iPad to surf the web or read your email, then it's probably nothing special. But the fact that the iPad device is more or less the "universal standard" means you can damn well believe you will get some very specialized app support. I do some audio work on the side, running mixing boards and such...and YEP...there are iPad apps that allow you to remotely run the front of house boards or monitor boards while standing on stage working with the musicians. I attend some audio classes every week and there are about 15 of us who regularly attend. Most have MacBooks, iPad's and iPhones. Some have all 3, with them, every week. I'm the only one there who only brings an Android phone. I take my notes using a pen and a notepad.
I've got 3 iPads, I don't see anything really fantastic about them, they crash more than my Android tablet, Apps crash, Safari used to crash numerous times per day, WiFi dropouts, slowdowns for no reason at all etc. Its not because there's anything wrong with a specific iPad it happens to all 3.
Wonders to myself why you have 3 iPads. I know a lot of people who use iPads daily and I don't hear them complaining of this level of problems with them. I've been in many classes and trainings where people run the slideshows and such from their iPads and things have run very smoothly.
I don't mind the iPad, but I don't think I'll be buying anymore Apple stuff in the future, it's not that good.
That is why i have never purchased an Apple product myself. There always seems to be a better product, that fits me better and almost always costs less.
I actually would prefer to interact with the Desktop with touch. From my toying around with DPI settings on Windows 8 and a touchscreen, that makes a WORLD of a difference with touch input.
Well, I know that YOU would. But you are different. As it stands today, personally I don't want touch on a desktop at all. It only slows me down. Perhaps down the road a few years when things have changed, it will be better. But we aren't even close today for me to personally want to touch. Even after spending a couple of weeks setting up All in One touchscreen systems, from both HP and Acer, I can honestly say that they all left me disappointed. But I remember you practically drooling all over yourself after playing with the AiO's at Best Buy..so clearly we have different responses to the same technology.
That's because YOUR thinking of a tablet is the one that apple wants to you think of: low powered, long battery life, and forces you to use different and multiple devices.
I'm thinking about any tablet that I have ever used. I've had to setup iPad's (both full size and mini) at work, I've used Android tablets at work (nexus 7, samsung tab 7's and 10's). I've used Blackberry Playbooks at work (my coworker is a huge Blackberry fan and he has a couple of them), I've used Windows 7 tablets in the office (even the cheap chinese knockoffs)....and they all leave me feeling frustrated and annoyed.
And I don't think multiple devices are necessarily bad. For example, why in the world would i ever want to use a surface pro as a book reader? It's HEAVY (compared to my kindle), the backlight is fatiguing (compared to a kindle paperwhite), it will need to be charged every 5 hours (compared to 8 weeks with my kindle), it's noisy (compared to my Kindle), and it's expensive (compared to my Kindle). Having a Surface Pro to replace a Kindle would be an absolute awful proposition if you ask me.
Wonder why MS is in a panic now then.
Yes sir. They are certainly scrambling.
Photoshop and Autocad on an 11 inch tablet sounds a real joy.
It's a matter of "it could be done", but I don't think many would actually do it.