Microsoft in the States has now released pricing of the Surface Windows Pro and confirmed availability for January 2013.
The 64GB (SSD – Solid State Drive) model will be priced at $899 and the 128GB model at $999. Based on the pricing of the current Surface RT devices in Australia this may correspond to prices of around $999 and $1,109, but I’d almost expect the more expensive model to be price at $1,099 to make the price appear better.
These are the prices I’d expected but I really was hoping for better.
One thing recently concerned me, is yesterday I started reading a few articles based on information released by Microsoft, and it feels like Microsoft is starting to lower people’s expectation in terms of battery life. It is expected the battery life will be half that of the Surface RT model, possibly giving 4-5 hours on a single charge.
For me the three key features which interests me with the Microsoft tablet are:
1. Compatibility with Windows
2. Extended battery life compared to my ageing netbook
3. Portability
Based on point one I have little interest in the Surface RT model. I’ve mentioned in another post that to me the Surface RT is a product I generally wouldn’t recommend to customers unless they research it well and it meets their requirements. Personally I expect many people will purchase the Surface RT tablet only to realise later all the limitations. However I expect the Surface with Windows Pro will be compatible (largely) with my existing Windows applications and data.
The battery life of the Surface with Windows Pro is now a niggling concern. I don’t expect to achieve more than 4-5 hours of use between recharging. Certainly nowhere near as good as other tablets providing 8 hours or more. The battery life has now put a real dampener on my hopes for the new Surface. That battery life barely matches new lightweight notebooks.
The third is portability. In general the Surface with Windows Pro will meet but not exceed my expectation. It has only become apparent to me just how heavy the tablet is, or perhaps I should say, it isn’t going to be as light as I’d hoped.
A few years ago (about three) I moved my work to a netbook (running Windows XP) which has served me really well. Light compared to notebooks, fast enough for my needs (but now getting a little slow), but the battery life was the biggest limitation at around two hours. Including the netbook in my travel kit was easy. Now the promise of a lighter device with a longer battery life and better performance is appealing.
I decided to weigh my netbook today to see how the weight compared to the new Surface with Windows Pro. The netbook weighed 1190g. The new Surface with Windows Pro is 907g is an improvement, but not quite as much as I’d expected.
Had the Apple iPad Mini been released for $299 for me it would have been an impulse buy. The iPad Mini would never have achieved Windows compatibility, but in time, I’d rewrite my applications and I’d go down a new path with technology. I felt Apple this time had over priced their Mini and the lack of GPS in the entry level model put me off. The Surface RT is like getting an iPad. Both really are not compatible with my Windows applications and both are quite restricted in their design with the ultimate aim being to lock me in as a user. The Surface with Windows Pro gives me Windows compatibility and almost the same level of openness as Windows does today. Some apps just don’t work unless you have a Microsoft account.
I can live with the shorter tablet battery life. The real problem then is the price . This is not an impulse buy. For me I’d question if the 64GB has sufficient space (given Surface RT feedback shows Windows using 20GB to start with) so I’d probably be bumped to the 128GB model. I could get away without the cover/keyboard as there are lots of other options available, but if I decided on the Surface Touch Cover the price is $139.99 and the Type cover is $149.99.
With the Surface with Windows Pro price in Australia I expect the price to be close to $1,099. Add $139.99 for the Touch Cover and that means a cost expected to be around $1,239. To me that’s a very expensive tablet and harder to justify.
Microsoft for me have pushed the price to the point where you need to very seriously consider your options. The question is “have they pushed too far?”
In the end it will probably boil down to Windows compatibility, longer battery life and portability. The premium for Windows compatibility is high. If people can avoid Windows compatibility (getting easier as mobile devices displace desktop usage) Microsoft’s tablet strategy may be in tatters. I’ll pay a premium for Windows compatibility and live with an average battery life, but I’m not sure I can quite justify the premium Microsoft is asking.
What will be really interesting is to see what other manufacturers bring to market. If other manufacturers come out with better pricing then as they say, it is game on.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Doncaster, Templestowe, Eltham and the surrounding area.
Friday, 30 November 2012
Microsoft Surface with Windows Pro release date and pricing, with pricing estimated for Australia.
Internet Explorer 10 - The preferred Australian English spelling now available
I’m pretty excited to announce I’m now making available the preferred Australian English spelling file for Internet Explorer 10 running on Windows 8.
Internet Explorer 10 has Australian English spellchecking built in, but like Microsoft’s Office products, the spellchecker accepts thousands of secondary spelling variations such as words with “ize”, American spelt words such as “mom” and some errors. The preferred Australian English spelling file corrects these issues.
If written communication matters to you the preferred Australian English spelling file is a must have. If you’re a student, applying for jobs, or write reports or sales material, the preferred Australian English spelling file is a must have.
You can find the preferred Australian English spelling file for Internet Explorer 10 at www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
The creator of the preferred Australian English spelling dictionary.
Thursday, 29 November 2012
Origin 25% (25 per cent) off Gas & Electricity offer
I received a letter addressed to “the householder” from Origin Energy offering up to 25% off gas and electricity. This sounds like a lot. However what I find is when you compare the detail sometimes the offer isn’t as good as it sounds and sometimes it really is a good offer.
Comparing offers can be tricky. I find the best way to compare offers is to set up a spreadsheet. I can then enter the my usage and see immediately if this offer is better than others I’ve seen and how it compares to what I’m currently paying.
In my case I just compared the offer to other offers I’ve entered into my spreadsheet and there is another company I’ve look at which is currently $88 better, if I just consider the electricity component. I haven’t yet compared both electricity and gas together.
My main concern with this offer is I don’t have a Smart meter and the offer appears to be for Smart meter owners and I’d prefer not to get a Smart meter installed until the government forces me to. Calling an electricity company for additional information just makes me shudder. I’ve already analysed my usage and reduced our electricity usage to between 6.5-7.5kWh per day so the information the Smart meter provides me will unlikely save me much if anything and the installation costs will consume any potential savings there may or may not be. Reviewing the offers however is wise because sometimes you can save hundreds of dollars. Keep in mind the offer is only for 12 months so at the end of the twelve months expect to move again.
IIf you get offers from gas and electricity companies set up a spreadsheet, plug in your usage data and determine whether or not the offer will save you money or not.
Kelvin Eldridge
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support including spreadsheets.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.
Windows 8 tip number 1 - The Start Screen
One of the big issues people will have with Windows 8 is it is so different to what they are used to. For me, not being able to go direct to the Desktop, no Start button and no Start menu, was certainly a shock to the system and a productivity killer.
However all you need to do is to change the way you think about things just a little and the whole problem just vanishes.
Think of the Start screen as a very big Start button.
That’s all really. Once you think of the Start screen as the Start button then the Start Menu is the contents of the Start Screen, or at least your most commonly used items.
People generally either start a program by clicking on the program in the Start menu, double clicking on a shortcut on their Desktop, and some may even start the program they have pinned to the Taskbar.
Normally when your computer starts in Windows XP through to Windows 7 you see the Desktop and start a program. Now with Windows 8 the Start screen appears and to start your program you click on a tile for the program. Move your most popular programs to the left of the Start screen and you have almost instant access to your main programs. The Desktop will automatically open and the program run.
You can still create shortcuts on your Desktop and pin programs to the taskbar and that can help make things move along quicker. But if you haven’t, a single press of the Windows key when in Desktop mode flips you to the Start screen. Press the Windows key again and you’ll toggle back to the Desktop. The only time this doesn’t work is when you haven’t first started the Desktop.
Until I thought of the Start screen as a really big Start button to me it was a nuisance and just got in the way. Once I changed how I thought about the Start screen the issue disappeared. Nothing needed to be changed except how to view things.
Yep the Start button is gone from the Desktop (you can move your mouse to the very bottom left and the Start screen image will appear for you to click) but pressing the Windows key to me is faster anyway.
We all tend to hate change and grumble when faced with it. But look back and if you’re a Windows 7, Vista, or XP user, just remember you once used Windows 98, 95 and Windows 3.x, and the fact you don’t even think about them now is the same as you won’t think about Windows 8 user interface in the near future, you’ll just use it.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding suburbs.
MyAnswers: How to remove your credit card details from your Apple App Store account.
The following MyAnswers solution 2287 is now available:
There are over 400 million Apple accounts with credit card details kept online. I rarely make a purchase so I'd rather not have my credit card details online. How I removed my credit card details from my Apple App Store account.
Click here to obtain the solution.
Click here for related solutions.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Alert: Jetstar Flight Itinerary - Your Itinerary is attached as file to print
I received six emails to different email addresses with the subject “Jetstar Flight Itinerary”. When I receive multiple emails I investigate and inform clients via this blog if there is an issue such as malware.
The attached file “Jetstar Flight Itinerary-1591163243.pdf.zip” contains malware.
Sixteen out of forty four antivirus providers identified this as malware.
You should immediately delete these emails.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Alert: Malware FedEx Shipment Notification from reveals a number of bugs in Windows 8 and/or Outlook 2010.
NOTE: If you receive an email from FedEx with an attachment treat the email as malware. In this case the email did have malware attached. But to my surprise, as part of my reviewing the malware attachment I found a number of issues with Windows 8 and/or Outlook 2010 which to me are just as important.
The investigation of the malware received via email with the subject “FedEx Shipment Notification” started off in the same way as usual. When I see multiple emails sent to my email addresses I let others know via my blog. New malware is rarely handled by antivirus software so it represents an exposure for clients.
Using Windows 8/Outlook 2010 I saved the file to a folder on my desktop. The structure of the attachment is typical of malware. A file which looks like a potentially harmless file (in this case a PDF) but with the extension exe which means it is actually a program and usually malicious.
I then submitted the file for analysis and it was not identified as malware. That was strange. I then attempted to extract the contents of the zip file which failed. Again strange. But I just assumed this was a poorly formed file and the author of the email/malware had not created a correctly structure file. I’ve seen this before. But something didn’t feel right. More emails arrived so I decided to investigate further.
I pulled out my Windows XP computer running Outlook 2007 and performed the same steps. This time the attachment was reported as malware and I could extract the contents of the zip file. Windows 8 was for some reason failing to save the file correctly. In one way that is good because the file is thus corrupted and can’t be used to infect the user’s computer. But bad in that Windows 8 is not operating as expected. (It appears the zip file has been created as a multi-volume archive which fails in Windows 8 but is acceptable in Windows XP.)
In addition, when saving the file the first time, as expected for a new file, I wasn’t prompted after I pressed the Save button. But then I went to save the file a second time to replace the file I had already saved and there was no warning the file existed. On the Windows XP computer saving over an existing file gave the prompt asking if I wanted to overwrite the existing file.
I created a new file in Windows 8 with the filename the same as the malware (“Tracking_results_as_of_Nov28.pdf.zip”) but with my own content and sent the file to myself via email. I saved once and as expected no prompt. I save a second time and there was no prompt to overwrite the existing file.
To me this is a real concern. Potentially if a file has a certain name users may inadvertently overwrite an existing file without warning and that is not good. I did some testing and don’t yet know which filenames will overwrite without warning so at this stage all I can do is warn people to be careful when saving a file to your computer. At this stage I’ve only found the problem to occur when saving from Outlook 2010.
In summary;
- The FedEx Shipment Notification I received and currently being sent via email does contain attached malware.
- Under Windows 8 the attached file does not open and appears corrupted but does open correctly under Windows 8. This raises the question as to why files can be extracted under Windows XP but not under Windows 8.
- When saving the file from Outlook 2010/Windows 8 the file can be saved twice with no warning to overwrite. This raises the question as to whether other files can be overwritten without warning.
Recommendations:
- Delete any suspicious FedEx Shipment Notifications with suspicious attachments.
- If you received a legitimate zip file but it appears to be corrupt under Windows 8, forward the email to a Windows XP computer and try extracting the contents on the Windows XP computer.
- When saving a file from Outlook 2010/Windows 8 double check to see if a file with the same name already exists. As a precaution you can save the file to a new folder.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you have a computer related problem.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.