What's beneath the Surface?

Article first published as What's beneath the Surface on Technorati

Microsoft after talking about the much hyped Windows 8 for over a year, which lead to speculation around how the PC World and the world of lighter compact tablet computers will intersect, has finally announced Surface. An apparently well designed Microsoft tablet PC with design intricacies that are widely published. However the most interesting pitch is that the Surface will not only be your bed time read but also your Ultrabook. So in other words unlike Android that has to play catchup with the AppStore the Windows 8 platform would support the around 4 million applications already available for the Windows platform. So in other words you can enjoy the power of the Adobe Creative suite, Microsoft Office and Outlook, that forces me to switch back to my Ultrabook, available on my tablet. This is a compelling value proposition. This not only eliminates the need for me to purchase apps for previously desktop applications but will allow me to use everything I already own for Windows. Further that puts an end to the endless porting converting and switching back and forth between the PC and the tablet. Finally the browsing experience in an iPad minus flash support sends me back scampering back to my PC. With IE10 this will not be a problem.

While I have heaped praises, here comes the fine print. Windows 8 has inherently built two views the Metro mode and the Desktop mode. The Metro mode which is the tablet interface with the tiled views is a distinctly different environment from the more classic Windows Desktop. So applications that were developed for your Windows PC will function in your desktop mode as against your Metro or tablet mode, and they don't seamlessly transition when you switch modes. So you do get the power of the desktop in your tablet but only in your good old Desktop world. For applications to run effectively in a tablet environment you will have to depend on the Microsoft app store, which I would hazard a guess is still in its fledgeling state. Further the keyboard which looked like an ultra cool add-on, is a necessity in the Windows 8 world.

So yes you can own one single device, but you don't eliminate the Desktop PC. You do make a big save by not having to buy a separate Ultrabook, but in Surface you actually have a cool-compact Ultrabook with tablet functionality. While you do get to use your existing desktop apps, you don't get to use them with the tablet interface, so back to shopping in the app store. Finally not sure everyone would enjoy working on a 10.4 inch Windows Ultrabook as against the 13 inch or larger variety. For e.g a creative designer will any day like to use the larger screen in their laptops rather than hunching over a tablet.

While Surface is far from perfect, to their credit Microsoft has taken us one step closer to bidding goodbye to the PCs. By virtue of having come out with a powerful product, they will keep Apple and other tablet manufacturers on their toes. Surface will certainly force manufacturers back to the drawing boards to solve the rather challenging problem of merging the longstanding PCs and revolutionary Tablets. While we all eagerly await the next wave of Tablets, it will still be a while before we say "RIP PC".

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Digital embrace

Just as the world seems like this increasingly wired network of communities that constantly feels the need to stay in touch, are we in the process actually loosing touch? I don't find it unimaginable that soon mobile phones will be confined to the dusty corners of the nostalgia shops and people will never speak face to face. Everyone will only speak to their smart phones or whoever is in it. "Hey let's Hang Out at the Coffee Shop" would not mean meeting at a coffee shop but a Google plus group video conference during coffee breaks.

There was a time when people just received a morning paper, now I'm not sure what to read, Times of India, Straight Times, WSJ or a mix of everything on Flipboard or Evri. While I love the Flipboard magazine interface, I also love Evri's organization by topic of interest. Even better just read what every body is reading by tuning into your Twitter channel. We are so spoilt for choice on this information crazy highway you're just not sure where to exit. Does it really matter if I knew Colnel Gadaffi's whereabouts by the minute or his birthday even? Speaking of which, I rarely call friends on their birthdays, and remembering them is not so special anymore, thanks to Facebook reminders. I have so many friends on my Facebook I don't know most of them.

All of this just says one thing the virtual world has helped us go viral, not without infecting us in the process. Human beings are highly evolved species, our brain senses everything from body temperature, to texture and the subtlest of body languages. It will take a digital dodo to assume that a smiley can evoke the same human response as a smile. Communication advances has undoubtedly brought the world together, yet we run this risk of becoming transactional. It's so much easier to defraud, be ruthless in business or ignore a friend, as the person is just a digital rendering. You don't really know the person, because you never felt that handshake or warm embrace.

A story for bed time is a personalized children's book reading software. You can record yourself reading the book and your children can launch their favorite bed time stories, to hear and see you read them. An up in the air salesman's dream, a one time setup for a life time of guilt free cocktail parties and business travel. But maybe your children will never think of Noddy as that lovable little boy, but a funny kid in a car, as they never felt that good night kiss and your warm embrace. I'm sure as we speak someone is solving that with an iPad app, but you must realize, not everything is solved with a digital embrace.

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Keeping Tabs

I practically live in my computer, but sort of ties you down at home or you got to lug around the laptop all over town. Reading an ebook with the laptop on my chest can get pretty hot and heavy for all the wrong reasons and I almost need to redecorate my living room to hook it up with my sound system. So in 2009 I bought an HP Tablet PC in the hope that I could finally read my ebooks with a swipe, twist it around and voila, I got myself my good ol’laptop again. As I used it believe me wasn’t easy reading on travel with a backlit display and the weight felt like carrying a Greek marble tablet. So I went and got myself one of those nifty ebook readers the slimmest lightest gadget out there called the Jet ebook reader. Loaded up my ebooks and started reading, great under sunlight easy to carry around. All was good until I tried reading some of the illustrated magazines, ebook readers takes publication back to Windows 3.11 days with their monochrome displays. So out went the ebook reader. I had almost given up looking for the all in one device until Apple launched the iPad. With its slick design, light, touch screen display, 3G support, it was god sent. So like every judicious electronics shopper I started reading the reviews and watched product demos online as I went through the glittery specs my eyes finally landed on the fine print, NO MULTI-TASKING. It felt like a kid being told Santa wasn’t real. I am still amazed how the 25 million iPad owners feel when they have to turn off their music to check the incoming email, it made the device seem practically useless. I quickly realized the iPad was a tablet prototype and the real deal is yet to come.

March 2011 was the much awaited iPad 2 launch, which turned out to be a big disappointed. They did fix the multi-tasking bug, but with the poor front facing camera and Apple’s frustrating stance on flash and micro SD support left a lot to be desired. At the same time there were a host of competing products being launched, right from the RIM’s Playbook to the so called iPad killers in Honeycomb tablets. So let’s flip it around, why not look at what I want my tablet to do and not do.

Phone vs Tablet

Samsung created this unwanted confusion by rushing into the launch of Galaxy Tab before Android launched their tablet OS and in doing so created an accidental hit. The smaller foot print made it compact and easy to carry around and made quite a few Android apps targeted for the phone work. Further you could even make phone calls from the tablet, does it make a tablet also your phone? Some of those carrying it looked pretty ridiculous answering calls on it to be honest. I would certainly look at it as a means to video conference but not to replace a phone. So let’s safely leave this feature out of the criteria list.

Reading a book

An average paperback book measures around 216X135 and weighs 373gms, so if you are looking for a tablet to read a book I would imagine you would also look for a similar form factor. The 10 inch tablets clearly don’t fall into the paperback category both in weight and size. The closest contenders in this regards would be Samsung 8.9, RIM Playbook, Sony and HTC Flyer which is also the lightest.

None of the tablets have a viable solution to daylight displays and Super AMOLED has remained just a super rumor in 2011. Given this is the case I would go for the best displays, both Samsung tablets and to be launched Sony score highest with their 1280x800 displays but iPad 2 remains the best display unit out there.

Document publishing

Sending email, making presentations and editing spreadsheets and documents would primarily be the list of tasks I would like to do on the tablet. Today onscreen QWERTY keyboards try hard to replace physical keyboards with vibration or audio feedback, but that remains a distant dream. Can’t beat the physical keyboards when it comes to typing speed, so serious work does take me back to my laptop. A viable solution to this challenge could be a Bluetooth keyboard; some of them even come with a very slick leather stand that can be propped up like a laptop.

Camera

Will I run around taking pictures with a tablet, seems Ok to do it with a phone as it’s almost the same foot print as the point and shoot cameras. But holding up a 10 inch tablet to take a picture can be quite cumbersome to say the least.

If you are one who scans a lot of bills or documents, having a camera handy in your tablet can be great way to do it provided the rear camera is good. The Samsung 10.1 seems to have gone all the way with an 8MP camera; none of the other tablets come anywhere close to that.

Tablet is a great medium for video conferencing on the go, but most of the tablets have a really low resolution front facing camera. RIM’s playbook has the best 3MP front facing camera along with Adam (since its camera rotates both ways), while strangely most others are 2MP or lower.

Internet

Browsing the internet on most tablets is a breeze with their powerful dual core processors and 1GB memory is what most laptops ran 2 years ago. Adding to that is the great usability with the touch screen, pinch zoom and swipes make the entire interaction so direct and interactive. I think tablets were designed for the internet and beat the PC experience hands down. Having said that if you are wondering why your favorite news site looks so different on an iPad, its simple, they don’t support flash and probably never will. Why would you build an amazing tablet and not include Flash support, Apple fears losing revenue from its Appstore to flash based web developers so until it makes business sense better luck iPad fans. So the iPad is a great tablet otherwise, but the anti-flash support definitely remains a blemish.

Video watching on a 10 inch tablet is definitely better than the smaller ones and the quality of display matters, the Galaxy tablet and iPad are definitely top of the heap. While Xoom has a higher resolution display somehow it does not convert to a great display.

So are tablets PCs?

That’s my dream; clunky laptops belong in the museum, tablets are like the dog in the Vodafone ad tagging along wherever you go. But it’s too early for a tab to replace PCs, tablet applications will have to mature like desktop applications have and will certainly not be a replacement for heavy duty PC app users. So tablets for now will remain an evolving platform and will find its place as a powerful business and personal solution with every platform leaving you wanting just a little bit more.

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