Belkin WeMo – my foray into Home Automation

Belkin WeMo - a useful device for remotely controlling mains connected devices

Over time, I've added a number of constant on components to my home. Ranging from Sonos speakers to added Airport Express access points, my core level of electrical usage has increased to the extent it's become unreasonably expensive. It's good to love the gadgets, but the run costs should also be kept in check.

I'd seen the Belkin Wemo units and wondered about its value, considering the relative high cost for each switch (£35 in the UK). But a course, the temptation of adding new gadgets on my home network while being able to reduce running costs was too good to bear.

I've got 6 WeMo units in place, mainly adding the capability to switch the home theatre, Loft and Bedroom Sonos speakers and Airport access points off and on based on my own time schedule.

Initial indications from my old Wattson, show a 50% drop at night in KWh being used, which will only get better given the relatively few hours the units are on during the evenings and weekends.

Setting up the WeMo's were relatively straightforward.  They employ a rather neat and easy setup routine.  Each WeMo acts as switch and emits its on open Wi-Fi access point which you join and then run the WeMo software to configure.  It seems to run only on the 2.4Ghz wireless N band which my main Billion router runs on, so I had some issues with weak spots around my house (as opposed to my Airport access points which run the 5Ghz band).

The overall set up took easily more than 30 minutes due to the firmware upgrade on the WeMo's which need to be completed on each one. The firmware upgrade didn't always go smoothly.  Often, the app status screen appeared to still say firmware was upgrading, despite the WeMo itself switching itself off as part of the process. Something for Belkin to improve.

Other notable features are its range of integration possibilities with IFTTT which to be honest, I've not had the time or the inclination to investigate at this time (largely due to other product reviews I'm working on). An simple example is to send me an email when any of the WeMo units turn on.

In terms of product platform, the WeMo product offers a good base for improvements and added capabilities in the future. One such area would be to add energy monitoring and reporting from each switch. No signs this is an area Belkin may ever want to go into, but we live in hope.  

From an app perspective, an Android Beta is current available (release notes suggest it's for the Samsung Galaxy S3, though it works on HTC One). As a beta it's buggy and needs polishing, and Belkin advise there will be a full release version this year. Strangely though, there is no PC app/browser way to control the switches and no indication that Belkin will release one. How times have changed.

I should mention there is a Motion controller companion product which adds obvious capabilities in activating the WeMo's based on motion detected in that room. Lots of automation possibilities based on that. Bulky and awkward looking, I did not opt to use one of these units.

So overall, I'm reasonable happy. Design-wise, it's a bulky unit, made to look further ugly when you add cube extension to its to control a group of electrical items running off the same WeMo, but useful nonetheless. 

So I can schedule when they activate and override them, even when I'm away from home. And it's reducing my core electric costs. For a ~£200 outlay for 6 x WeMo, my foray into Home Automation has finally started. Time will tell how well these work out, though it feels right.

Now, where's that Nest Thermostat launch for the UK market?

Sound bars reloaded – the Sonos Playbar

Make no bones about this - this is a seriously impressive 5.1 surround system

It's been 18-months since my first post on this blog, when I started with a look the Bose Cinemate 1SR which saw me move on to the Yamaha YSP220 sound bar. Since then, the Yammy has been a solid performer for my Sky TV, media streamers (Apple TV, Boxee, Airplay on a Mac). As a wired single box and sub solution, it did the trick and has added much enjoyment to my movie, sports and general TV watching.

As a solution for music playback, it failed miserably.  I did try putting a Sonos Connect on it to use it as a zone, but unfortunately, it exposed the Yammy's focus on cinema digital sound processing (DSP), which even when disabled, is very unsuited to listening to music.

Since Sonos released the Playbar earlier in 2013, and it being warmly received by the media, the question of course was, how would it fare against the Yammy and would I want one longer term.

Reading the more technical reviews, the key blocker for me was would it  process 5.1 audio from my inputs to recreate a fully 5.1 sound field.

As normal for me, my aim here is not to extensively review the Playbar per se, but for interested readers, talk about my experience with it, vis-a-vis being an existing sound bar owner.

Bulky but luxurious build

Compared to both the Bose and Yammy, the Playbar has a larger form factor and dare I say it, feels bulkier. It's height may be a problem for some TV sets, given the dimensions of a TV's fit and lower screen in relation to the height of the Playbar.

That said, as you'd expect from Sonos, it has a luxury feel and strong build quality.

Simplified setup

Thinking back to the Bose and Yammy, the set ups for both involved reading instructions and running through calibration routines with accessories to optimise the virtual surround modes which both systems employ. The Bose uses the Sonos approach which is to focus on sound integration via co-axial or optical (Toslink) inputs.  Unfortunately, it cops out and does not go further with integrating with TV set remotes, and instead decides to supply its own remote, which fails itself as it provides no visual indication on the sound level when in use.

The Yammy on the other hand, acts like an AV receiver and requires all HDMI sources to route through it and a HDMI output via the ARC channel. It's advantage is that for switching sources, you can simply press the input button on the sound bar. It's disadvantage is that Sky HD copy protection does not allow switching capability when you've chosen another source.  A compromise being reached when you need to use your TV remote to forcibly switch HDMI back to the Sky input.  Beyond that, the Yammy works very well, has been cited for UK home cinema awards and for the price is unbeaten for a 3.1 Dolby Digital and DTS surround system.

In a very Apple-esque way (in fact a wonderfully Sonos way), Sonos have aimed for simplicity and it must be said, really cracked it. In both 3.0, 3.1 and 5.1 set up, setting up the Playbar by itself, or alongside the Sub and Play 3 surrounds is gorgeously easy. Using the iOS app, includes a deceptively simple set of steps for the Playbar to learn the remote of both my Sky+ remote and my Sony TV.

It's the small things

My main technical requirements check was to understand how the Playbar would work with my existing kit in terms of processing stereo and 5.1 discrete audio via its optical digital input.

As luck would have it, my Sony 40 inch 1080p panel outputs Dolby Digital 5.1 via optical. Even better luck my Samsung DRX890 Sky HD+ satellite receiver must have received a software update some time ago to output Dolby 5.1 over HDMI. The screenshot below is how you know:

In the UK, Sky has released a software patch to enable
Dolby Digital over HDMI - a real boon for the Playbar

This is important because it meant that Sky, the Apple TV, Boxee box and my Blu ray would pass the 5.1 Dolby Digital (DTS audio is not supported on the Playbar - at least not yet) and voilà straight into the Playbar.

Other niceties include wireless IR sensors which work to transmit the remote signal through the Playbar to the TV. The Yammy uses a wired approach which is flimsy to fix on to your TV.

Seriously impressive sound

My experience of the Playbar varied dependent on the setup. My own usage has been either paired with the Sonos Sub as 3.1 solution or more recently as a full 5.1 solution when I added as pair or wall mounted Play: 3's (using the very good Flexon brackets)

The sound is bigger, bolder, more naturally open and detailed that the Yamaha YSP220 sound projector. This may be as a result of the removal if the digital sound processing you historically find in Yamaha receivers.

The gain on the Playbar is considerably louder. I barely get up to volume 10 during the day and hover around levels 3-5 during the evening. A night-time mode is one screen press away to compress the dynamic range for late night watching when you live with others. A speech mode also adds gain on the dialogue which sits on the centre channel for those moments when your partner tells you they can't hear the on screen dialogue :)

For both music and TV, this is undoubtedly the best solution I have ever experienced. Even thinking back to the Laser Disc and early US DVD days of the late 1990's, paired with the Yamaha DSP3090 king of an AV amp and a 5.1 wired speaker in those days (B&Ws of course), I've can't remember even being so satisfied with both the performance, portability and convenience of setting it up.  The fact that the sound is delivered wirelessly I consider an astonishing feat of engineering.

If you're a Sonos lover

This is a no brainer. Get one, immediately if you have a Sub and want to add enjoyable grunt to your TV, Movie and Music playing experience.

If you're looking around for a Playbar, then on it's own, this is expensive and the Yammy can be considered a better match for pseudo 5.1 system which also supports a sub woofer.

For everyone else

From a 3.1 comparison standpoint, the Playbar + Sub sits in the Bose price range. By the time you add the Play: 3's as surrounds you're in the luxury mid to higher end area, As in many cases, you get what you pay for. If you can stretch to the Sonos + Sub + Surrounds, you're going to love this.

Spring Cleaning with SSD

Solid State Drives are an expensive way to give longer life to your PCs - as it did with my 2008 iMac

Earlier this year, I set about resolving some long standing issues with my 2008 iMac by giving it a spring clean fresh install with Mountain Lion.  It removed a lot of build issues and legacy OS files from my iMac given its original Leopard install. And while I was happy with a return to its original snappiness back in 2008, I was still weighing up upgrading over the short term to the 2012 iMacs for even better performance.

Faced with choices for upgrading and adding new tech and gadgets in the coming year, it occurred to me that there may be a a more effective route to getting more bang for the buck on the iMac front.  Cut a long story short, I identified OCZ as one of a number of recommended vendors to use in upgrading the iMac disk drive.

The choice ultimately came down between the DIY approach (with various downside risks for open heart surgery on the iMac without the necessary equipment and dust-free environment) and using a Apple Maintenance provider to perform the work.

Ensuring I took a clean back up with SuperDuper!, this was a relatively straightforward exercise and I had the machine back in few days.

Since restoring data and reinstalling my applications, the value of its performance is not found in benchmarks such as GeekBench, which still rates the 64-bit iMac the 4500-4800 range. With machine start up in less than 20 seconds, applications loading in less than 3 seconds mean a far better snappiness and overall satisfaction of using my iMac. It also increases the life to the machine ahead of being able to handle the forthcoming OS X 10.9 Mavericks release, with its focus on more performance and user based enhancements.

Upgrading the iMac to a 2012 and beyond release is now unlikely to happen for another 12-24 months at the very least.

Recommendation?  Put SSDs in any old PC you night have if you want to prolong its life. Not the most original article I've posted, but worth spelling out the experience and the benefits to readers thinking about it.

If you're me, the Chromebook Pixel is a good thing

Chromebook Pixel - a truly stunning screen and laptop build

Learning in our field is often not just about the stuff we read and absorb.  It's about seeing things via our own eyes, with our own direct experience and forming a view.  In that circumstance, some people will agree  with something you write because they relate directly to your point of view and others will disagree because of a whole bunch of things, including the simple fact that their needs and motivations are different.

The Chromebook Pixel, released by Google completely somewhat left-field in February 2013,  is one of those products which I suspect divides opinion in regards to the when and how you use it, where it makes sense, how much it costs and what's its  value in the consumers eyes.  If I remember correctly, Chrome OS has been around as long as Android has, and to be honest, up to now I'd never had any real interest in it.  Until of course, I saw and heard about the Chromebook Pixel (hereafter, Pixel).

In my usual lusting after consumer tech, I wondered - what if there is a machine which I can use which relies completely on web apps (very limited local storage), has a constant web connection and would enable me to do all my key stuff? And basing the solution on Chrome OS and the Pixel as the PC end-point, could I make the cloud and social side work completely with Android in the form of my HTC One or Nexus 4?

Given I'm a predominant Mac and iOS user, with an increasing love of Android devices, the challenge was too tempting to ignore. So I can gladly say, that over the next few weeks and months, I'll be running Chrome OS and Android products side by side and seeing how this works against my Mac and iOS combination. I'm rather excited by this, 'cos right now, as I'm typing this blog post - the Pixel truly is tremendous hardware and a fabulous screen, which has touch capability when I'm feeling lazy or want to use it more like a tablet.  Obviously, I'm using the Blogger tool and with the eye-watering 2560 x 1700 display (which is higher than the Retina on my MacBook Pro), it feels a very compelling solution for blogging indeed (despite the eye-watering price).

Whether, this covers all my required situations (IT folks call these use-cases), then we'll just have to see how this all settles down after I get through this honeymoon period.

I'll post back soon.

Android rising with the Nexus 4 and HTC One – a bigger iPhone next?

In the last few months, I’ve played a lot with leading smartphones from the market leaders. And I’ve focused not only on my go-to device in the form of the iPhone 5, but also spent real time with the Nokia Lumia 920, the Blackberry Z10, and the Microsoft Surface RT in terms of innovative tablets. It’s a good thing to do, as it increases my knowledge and experience of both the innovation goals and dilemmas of the device makers as well as how those design choices in hardware and software marry up in terms of consumer experience. In my day-job, this is a constant point of debate in terms of embracing the BYOD approaches for MDM platforms and determining which ones can work for the enterprise stack and which ones still require roadmap updates in order to work. It also matters in having an opinion which is unique and allows you to cut through the business bullshit crap which fills most large enterprises. What I haven’t said is that in all this time, I’ve also been using the LG Nexus 4 as another premium Android device which comes at a medium price point in UK and international markets.

So overall then, like many of you readers who collect smartphones and tablets, it places us in a great position to understand the markets and take punts in predicting the next wave of innovation and who may hold the keys to dominance.  Up to now from a handsets makers point of view there are 2 key players – Apple and Samsung in terms of smartphones, however, this post concentrates more on how much I think Android is closing the gap on Apple hardware and iOS.

LG Nexus 4

Over and above it’s predecessor the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the Nexus 4 reverts to an quad-core Snapdragon chip, a 320ppi IPS LCD screen at 4.7 inches meaning its slightly taller and wider. The largest capacity version comes with comes with 16Gb flash storage, 2Gb RAM and only HSDPA 3G and Wireless N at typically up to 100Mbps link speed. 

With GeekBench scores which demonstrate its twice as fast as the Galaxy Nexus and on a par with the iPhone 5 – it suggested to me that Apple’s strategy of premium phones which are now half of its the revenue and profit annually, could increasingly come under threat from the sheer scale of Android via lower end manufacturer devices (e.g ZTE, Huawei, LG, Sony, etc) which can largely replicate the form and function of the iPhone to more markets and more people who can’t afford iPhones. The Nexus 4 is a good example of this.  The SIM free version costs just £239 for the 16Gb version. Yes, it doesn’t have LTE, but there are other ways to achieve that cheaply.  It’s a solid replacement for the Galaxy Nexus, which as you know a I really liked and has been my preferred device for running, owing to the better audio sonics compared to iPhones (in my opinion).

So high end features smartphone, sold at a medium to lower end price point in the market. Not withstanding the supply issues Google and LG had with the Nexus 4, we’ve also seen that this approach has been taken by other handset makers married up with telco’s provides s a route for device makers to enter the market and see what share of revenue and profits can be made. The reality is that if your not Apple or Samsung, this is a largely futile exercise.  Apple’s execution of its premium and high margin approach commands 60% of handset profits, with the other 20-30% going out to Samsung.

However, times are changing and innovation is being applied across the board.  It’s easy to say Android has been closing the gap to a large degree on the innovation Apple continues with the iPhone hardware and iOS software.  And within that, there are many parts of Android (v4.x) in terms of features which we all know and would like to see executed in some iOS like way when v7 comes out.  Added to that, while the hardware on Android devices is good to excellent, it still falls short of the smooth overall polish and great user experience you find with the iOS range of devices (and of course iOS apps). 

The reported profiles of iOS and Android users are said to be different.  iOS users are said to be more loyal and Android users more price sensitive and responsive to device offers on plans.  If you’re an iOS like me, then it’s difficult to move away due to your lock-in to the Apple ecosystem based on a level of dependence on OS X versions of the products which combine with cloud (Dropbox 90% of the time) and social media (namely Twitter and Facebook), all of which might night be on Android or any other mobile platform.

But then, just like serial innovation and the ability to create breakthrough products – something comes out of the gate and you just say – wow.

The HTC One

You can read many of the web’s best reviews on the One when you have a moment and like many product launches its easier to read the first few paragraphs and say “meh, big deal”.  But it’s when you get one in your hand and add the optional HTC case on it, do you start to marvel at this feat of engineering.

Combined with the optional case, for me this is the best handset made to date. Gorgeous 1920 x 1080 pixel IPS LCD display, 2Gb RAM, 32Gb storage, driven by a quad-core Qualcomm snapdragon brains.  It rounds off including 4G LTE and Wireless AC (link speed on N is already 150Mbps) and for throwing your content around devices around your home, it’s one of the first few to support Miracast streaming capabilities.

I’ve never been a fan of HTC Sense from my annoying days with the Desire HD, but HTC have re-skinned it and you can read up what others think about it.  I don’t use it myself, and prefer gaining the near 100% replica of the stock Nexus experience by using Nova as my launcher, combined with Holo locker for the unlock screen and SwiftType for my keyboard.

You may say so what to all that – and you’d be right.  But beyond the marvellous size of screen, its feel, the quality case, the Nexus experience – you then get the sound with the Beat audio engine built in for stereo speaker grills at the top and bottom of the screen which work beautifully in landscape mode when watching Netflix movies or just listening to Spotify tracks.  From an Apple-centric view, this is what the HTC One excels at, the basic things like picture and sound – done really well.  Does that sound familiar?

With a GeekBench score now in the higher echelons of smartphones and a quality variety of apps, it’s no surprise to read that this rate of developing maturity in the smartphone market, encouraged by innovations in user experience is prompting some prominent bloggers to switch to Android as their main go-to device.  And I’m not surprised.

So yes, my favourite Android phone is a slight back, but it’s great combination.  If there were all the Android counterpart apps to what I use on iOS and OS X, then this would be my go-to device right now.

The next iPhone

With investors continuing to expect insane quarterly numbers from Apple backed off by an enormous expectations of new products, I firmly think Apple has a battle on its hand to retain the top end of the smartphone market. The fusion of iOS and custom engineered hardware makes Apple special.  But the company’s challenge and core strategy it to bring to market innovations in the smartphone market which every generation or so, make a jump in innovation and customer value – to enable Apple to control the top end. 

iPhone 5S with quad-core chips, wireless AC, 1080p display, a further optimised camera is expected. And of course, it will be their normal twice as fast (GeekBench score in the 3000-4000 range) as its predecessor and it will launch in the autumn. Unfortunately, any which way you look at it, the 4.7 inch screen is what many of us experienced consumers want (despite the design rules Apple applied for the iPhone). With the Beats Audio built in, HTC One has now demonstrated that great audio could now be a now a standard for any premium smartphone.

For me, the HTC One is the best hardware on the market – (I can’t stand the Samsung Galaxy S3 or S4 due to the plastic back). I wish the One could could get the best of Android JellyBean and the forthcoming iOS 7 with it too. Kudos to HTC as you’re well an truly back in the game.  I wish you only could apply the sales and marketing muscle of Samsung to get everyone to know what a great phone you’ve released.

And now over to you Apple. With analysis suggesting that iPhone growth may be topping out, they need need to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat.  And yes, let it please have a 4.7 inch screen.  Apparently it can be done without screwing up the ecosystem.

Breaking free of wires – the surprise of the Sennheiser MM100 Wireless Bluetooth headphones

One of my ‘being in flow’ things is running and doing circuits at the gym. It’s a great way for me to relax and come up with novel solutions and listen what I love a lot – music; in the form RnB, Soul, Jazz, Latin, and Movie Soundtracks.

Over the years, and going from being into audiophile hi-fi, 5.1 surround systems and then portable devices such as Sony Walkman’s, Mini-Disc players and now Smartphones, I’ve had many different headphones and occasionally earphones. And there’s one universal problem I’ve had with them (including leading brands such as Sennheiser, B&W (yes, the P5s), Denon, Bose, and Bose (yes, the A8s). After about 9 to 12 months use, I repeatedly hit the same problem – something in the cord breaks and it works only one channel. The usual warranty repair is performed and we have a rinse and repeat cycle in the next 9 month time frame.  By the second time, I’ve lost trust in that model of headphone or earphone.

Today, my P5 and a backup pair Denon DJ cans (£250 worth of headphones) both failed on me as I prepared for my morning run. They both went 1-channel on me.  My spare Bose A8’s are okay but clearly lack the bass and midrange response of the B&Ws, so while running with these on, it occurred to me that I’d been looking at the wrong solution. As my home music is wireless (oh lovely Sonos), then why not the headphone solution. Enter the Sennheiser MM100’s. 

Suited for runners and gym goers, I always had the preconceived notion, that without wires, the musicality of the sound wouldn’t be good enough. Surprisingly playing non audio enhanced Spotify on my iPhone 5, they sounded musical and pleasant once paired over Bluetooth. You can always tell a good pair of cans are good when you want to play more tracks to listen to those extra tones and instruments you feel you’re hearing for the first time. So far this is has been revolutionary.  Freed around the house, at the gym and commuting to the office, the on-device controls on the headset are awkward and take some getting used to. But simply not worrying where the cables are and just concentrating on your interaction with your smartphone or tablet is a surprisingly nice feeling. I’m so surprised this had not occurred to me before.

I’ll report back after a month once the euphoria of ‘look ma no hands’ wears off and I’ve tested the headset quality in taking calls on the iPhone. But today heralds a breakthrough – and hopefully a longer life on headphones which no longer means a 1-channel pair which no longer work after 9 months. We’ll see of course.

MacBook Pro Retina – the Mac and Windows dream combo

For a while now, I hadn’t been 100% satisfied with my preferred machine and software for writing blog posts. I’d been  looking for better  solution for my writing which balanced portability (to write in the lounge) and desktop like performance, thereby allowing me to write easily wherever I am using the tools to get the job done.

As you know, my favourite blogging solution is Windows Live Writer.  And as it’s on my Lenovo X220 which is my day job  PC, I struggle to make and enjoy the mental separation when blogging in my free time (which in 2013, has been rarely than normal due to the demanding day schedule). I had thought about the Lenovo Carbon X1, but it’s too expensive in relation to a Mac and for more than £1,000 only runs Windows.

An opportunity came up to sell some kit and give the MacBook Air completely to the missus. So I became intrigued with the power, portability and eye catching Retina display qualities of the 13” MacBook Pro Retina. Out of the box with a 128Gb SSD and 8Gb RAM, I got the superior hardware and experience of OS X (of course with that lovely keyboard), and could also run a Windows 7 VM to use Live Writer as I needed. I’m doing that right now. The VM is a 1 processor core and 2Gb and runs well for my lightweight blogging needs.  tart up time for the Windows VM is less than 20 seconds.  Live Writer opens in about 5 seconds. This is a real pleasure, the SSD of course, being the big difference.

Shame Windows it not Retina enhanced, it will make for an even better Windows machine, even better than a PC as reported in the last few days.

The Z10–the essence of cool finally coming to Blackberry?

March 2013 has been an interesting month for me.  For a one man show, I’ve been playing around with the Nokia Lumia 920, Microsoft Surface RT and now this, the recently launched Blackberry Z10.

And combined from late 2012, with the very likeable LG Nexus 4 which is very much one of the highest performing smartphones for a relatively small outlay, I came into the Z10 with intrigue, partly prompted by Stephen Fry’s excellent article in which he answers the question of which smartphone he would take with him if he only had a few seconds in a fire situation.

As usual my post is more about my perceptions having only had the device for just short of a week.  I had two main objectives in mind, would I want to use one of these for the corporate day job (for which Blackberry is renowned and secondly, is this cool enough to replace other phones, such as my beloved iPhone 5, which for me is still my go-to device in the-leave-everything-and-choose-one-device situation.

Solid build

Let’s get the specs out of the way – Dual-core brains, 2GB RAM, 16Gb storage expandable to 32GB via a micro SD slot, USB 2.0 port and a HDMI out port.

The display is very very nice. 4.2” 1280 x 768 screen at 356ppi (yes, another one higher than the iPhone Retina display). The hardware spec is completed with an 8Mb front and back camera  and its 4G (LTE) ready.

Two things jump out here. You can take the back off and change battery, SIM, micro SD card.  I forgot how useful that is over the sealed designs set by Apple. Weighing in at 136g, the form factor combined with a lovely rubberised gripped back, the Z10 holds beautifully in hand. Probably the best native feel of a smartphone since its reinvention by Apple.  I no longer reach for a case, because the smartphone feels like a bar of soap in my hands.  In fact, its the first time I don;t actually need a case.

Blackberry 10 OS

Like the other platforms, Blackberry’s key challenge in the touch and gesture related world of mobile devices has been to seek a way of creating its own user experience of distinction which, if applied well, can be done across a range of their own devices.  If done well, it heralds a competitive form of innovation seen across other mobile OS’.

The new OS is centred around the two important centrepieces – the Blackberry Hub and some key gestures.  The BB Hub ties in system notifications, and a unified inbox of updates across mail and social media accounts, a sort of version of the People hub seen in Windows Phone 8 and Android OS’. 

Gestures are based on 2 key actions, swiping up from bottom to close and app and reveal all other open applications (up to nine of them) in a task manager, and secondly, swiping down from the top (to reveal individual applications settings).  Combined with the unlocking of the phone using the swipe up, Blackberry markets these gestures and the hub as a sort of fade in feature between your hub, notifications, open apps and then your app icon stack.  It works really nice. 

Given my steeped history in OS and Android, I liked it. It took a bit of getting used to, but it works well and over time it starts to feel natural, and better that iOS or Android.  For a first release, it does have a few annoying quirks, but they are not off-putting enough.  It’s certainly a welcome change from the go into and out of your apps world which iOS has and I supposed we’re all so used to, it begins to attract the stigma of being stale.

The keyboard, nice – laid out well. Features a number row above the qwerty keyboard so you don’t have to switch.  That parts works well you can see enough on the rest of the screen. Makes a nice sound. Camera and recording (which goes up to 1080P) is broadly as good as everything else on the market.

Blackberry 10 OS? Cracking start Blackberry.

A real shortage of apps

Having said, all of that – the real problem for me with the Z10 and Blackberry OS10 is the even worse paucity for apps than there was on Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT.  It reasonable for Blackberry to want to lock you into their ecosystem of apps, but the reality is to be up in the game, the big software publishers need to develop for Blackberry as a ranking 4th option after iOS, Android and WP8.  Based on my use case, it’s not great, but not that bad.  In everyday terms, for example:

• I can read BBC News, The Times, Independent and The Guardian and my RSS feeds (although that needs some adjustment in the summer when Google ends the Reader service)
• Follow up and update my Tweets
• Watch BBC iPlayer programmes
• Access Dropbox files and edit them with DocsToGo
• Connect to a WebEx virtual meeting
• Check what movies are on at my local picture house
• Check the weather, train and bus timetables
• Check my TripIT travel  itinerary
• Order my groceries from Ocado
• Sync my iTunes library
• Of course, buy Blackberry store books, magazines, TV shows, and Movies (yeah, right)

But I can’t –

• read my Instapaper saved articles
• access my Evernote notes
• logon to my personal banking applications
• stream Spotify music
• tag Shazam or SoundCloud new music when I hear it
• control my Sonos music
• order from Amazon or eBay
• check IMDB
• access my Passwords store
• scan my network for all IPs,

In the grand scheme of things, it could actually just be a question of time for the main publishers to see Blackberry as another ecosystem to viably publish for. I hope this happens as this is a good OS from Blackberry.

The dark horse for the enterprise?

In the company I work at, our strategy like many large blue chips is heavily centred on iOS as the platform for creating and distributing line of business applications to have a real mobile alternative for getting stuff done vs. a laptop. MobileIron is the Gartner Quadrant leading MDM platform supporting both company owned and BYODs which at various releases on its roadmap support iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8 and Blackberry 10.  While our standards are geared for am entire technology stack (e.g mail , device management, and the ability to provide VPN, internal Wi-Fi, and app distribution), it has not gone unnoticed that Blackberry will be pretty much as capable as iOS on the MobileIron MDM at its next release. And this is where for me, it gets interesting. If Blackberry have sufficient traction in the market, then it makes commercial sense for blue chips to listen up and evaluate Blackberry into their mobile device strategy. 

Not because Blackberry is offering anything special which blows the competition away – far from it (but in a good way). But because from a value proposition in terms of cost, ease of integration, and as a favoured corporate road warrior tool, Blackberry has a chance – in fact, a possibly better chance than Android or WP8. The missing piece for Blackberry is to be able to showcase a breadth of quality of consumer apps, which would then drive interest in better business apps. It’s a big ask.

The consumers case

Blackberry started as the corporate brand. As its average selling price fell, it became attractive to the younger generation. As a device and brand which has lost its way, I’m not in a position to say how Blackberry can really get back in the game in the consumer space. The Z10 and its pricing suggest Blackberry are going back in at the premium end of the market.  The product feels that way. The problem is, while the product is good to excellent in places, it does not have enough in the tank to sway new or loyal iOS and Android followers to switch sides. And that alongside the perception of the Blackberry brand, suggests a long road ahead for Blackberry. If they want the consumer to treat Blackberry OS 10 seriously, then a Playbook which marries this one and perhaps an entry point handset means the brand has a joined up plan.

Wrapping Up

When I started this piece, which I expected to be short – I wanted to know if the new Z10 would be a device I’d want to use as my corporate smartphone and if it could replace my iPhone 5 as my main go-to device. Yes to the first question, not quite on the second.  But it must be said a really good effort. Like the Nokia Lumia 920 I previously reviewed, it will be hard to send this one back, given the positive experience I’ve had. This is by no means an exhaustive review, but in the techmobabble way, this is a bloody good device and OS and it deserves success and support from the market. Goodbye RIM, hello Blackberry.

Nokia’s comeback kid – Lumia 920 & Windows Phone 8

With the ascent of iOS and Android as the leading mobile operating systems powering smartphones and tablets, it easier to to write off the work which Microsoft and Nokia (alongside HTC and other OEMs) have been doing in getting Windows Phone 8 as a major player in the market place. It wasn’t until working with some fine colleagues in Germany and Italy who have been seriously considering Windows Phone 8 as the core platform to replace Blackberry devices, did I start to think that I’ve been blind sided in really understanding the increasing consumers and enterprises appeal of Microsoft’s revamped attempts to make a real player out of this.  I tell you now, why Microsoft didn’t use WP8 as the OS for its tablet devices is beyond me.

Enterprises would clearly be attracted by Microsoft’s partnership with them in terms of enterprise licensing agreements, ease of platform and device integration into their corporate infrastructures notably Exchange, Lync and SharePoint.  But Microsoft has focused on the consumer market with its first release of WP8.  Yes, consumers are driving the demand in the enterprise.

And of course, consumers are driven by unique mixture of needs and wants. Smartphones are upgradeable accessories, and given the intimacy of this single device in the lives of most people in western and emerging economies, driving the multiple forces of social, web and cloud. What does this mean? Smartphones are increasingly driving innovation in term of being fresh and fun to use with life via apps. I’d even succumbed – while I love my iOS devices, and have been seriously impressed with the current generation of Android hardware and software, I had to take a up close and personal look at Windows 8 and its metro UI. It offers something head turning that I wanted to geek out on.  What follows is not a warts and all of every feature of the Lumia 920 or/and the Windows Phone OS itself, just what it means in terms of how I use it and most importantly, is it worth keeping.

Lumia 920 hardware

The Lumia 920 is big. Fat big. For a large handed person like me, it’s substantial in the hand. You don’t feel you’re going to drop it. Yes, it’s a lot larger and weightier, but that does not always need to be seen as a bag thing,  It’s outer material is made of a single slab of colored polycarbonate. Combined with my rubberised case, I’ve been running with the ‘920 and it feels solid.

The 4.5 inch screen with a 336 ppi 1280 x 768 resolution (yes higher than Retina iPhone) is just gorgeous. WP8 on it uses a 800x400 pixel set s that its UI elements appear larger and more spaced out. It works for me. As expected it supports 720P HD, and one would expect the next iteration of the flagship to go 1080P like its recent Android rivals.

The other hardware stuff is pretty standard fare – 4G radios, 2.4Ghz Wireless N, 2000mAh battery, 1GB RAM, a plentiful 32Gb of storage and so on.

Sonically, I really liked the ‘920.  Syncing iTunes music and downloading Spotify, confirmed what I reckoned for the device – it hums real nicely.  There was a level of musicality on the device which was on a part of exceeded my experience on Android, certainly far in excess of the iPhones, which always need equalisation to sound reasonable.

The Lumia 920 is a well made phone. May not sculpted to the reduced weight and sleekness of of the iPhone 5, but it’s solid engineering.  Class A build quality. Check.

Windows Phone 8 experience

Having no previous experience with Windows Phone 7, I came into the experience of WP8 as a relative noob, hoping to be blown away and feel fanboy affection once I got used it.  While there were some strange things which happened in getting it set up – for example, I couldn’t set up the Wallet on the device (had to do it on a laptop) and the MehDoh Twitter client had a horrendous screen in authenticating to Twitter, I really liked it.  WP8 is a fresh and easy to pick up UI.  The Metro UI tiles really work and after a few days I become quite attached.  It relatively simple and is intuitive to see how the other gestures work in terms of press and hold for switching apps or revealing sub-commands in an action.  Microsoft, I salute your innovation here. It’s a really good attempt to do something different.

The overall keyboard is a mix or good and bad. Again, I love the soft and tactile touch feel that the ‘920 and WP8 provide, but hasn’t anyone learned properly, that Apple seriously know how keys for an on-screen keyboard should be spaced?  On the ‘920, too cramped.

The software and bugs which do hang and do odd things, and overall its a great effort.  One thing, of the three buttons on WP8 hardware, the Search button is an odd one.  While Android dedicates a button for home screen, going back and a task manager, WP8 forces Nokia and HTC and others to dedicate a Search button.  I use twice, to realise it’s wired for Bing search only.  WTF?!

Applications

My recent list highlights the apps I installed on the device which I can re-install across other WP8 devices, given the cloud back up on apps and settings built into the OS.   The need for better integration across the Windows ecosystem is something I think Microsoft is not really appreciating.  Xbox integration is only one part (I haven’t really played with it), but phones, tablets and desktops are able to share data via SkyDrive, but there is so much more which Microsoft could be doing in terms of offering differing types of on the go uses between the different form factors of Windows 8.

Of notable mention goes to MeTweets and NextGen Reader the Twitter and RSS reader apps.  Nice, just real nice re-imagination of the app using the Metro UI.

The needs of the Enterprise

In my firm, outside of iOS and Android, there are countries in the global organisation which have expressed a strong interest in switching to WP8 devices as the primary devices (i.e.away from Blackberry).  Take Italy for example, talking to the CIO there, shared that through telco and ISPs, the cost of an iPhone (a standard device in my firm), is significantly higher and not cost justifiable from a business standpoint.  WP8 devices are often free with ISP contracts and thereby with its capability for device management and forthcoming integration with middleware products such as IBM Traveler and MobileIron for MDM, it’s an appealing option from a enterprise and consumer perspective.  The Lumia and WP8 support the needs of the enterprise, with hardware, data, traffic and integration with a range of MDM platforms. 

Performance

Geekbench is not on WP8 yet, so no benchmark comparisons can be drawn to iOS and Android device counterparts in terms of hardware and software performance.  But the Lumia 920 and WP8, felt reasonably quick.  Not as fast as iPhone 5 and Nexus 4, but acceptably quick. Apps can take a few seconds too long to load at times (something consistent to Surface RT as per my other post), but caching seems to help significantly.  What you get with the Lumia 920 and WP8 is a smooth fluidity based on Metro.  The Lumia has a soft rubberised curved finish, with a soft tactile feel on button presses and on soft like audible screen clicks.  This dovetails really nice with WP8.

A couple of quirks came out which I thought were odd. Setting the date and time direct from the internet didn’t work. I had to set this manually. Crazy. Secondly, resetting the phone took ages.  After leaving it for 2 hours, I had to restart the ‘920 3 times for the reset to finish. Odd.

Wrapping up

I really liked the Lumia 920, I mean seriously.  It’s feel nice in my big hands, takes good pictures and the screen and software experience is fluid and feels great.  Yes, there is a current paucity of apps in the store, and I think it will improve.  (Sonos – please release a WP8 app – please!).  The ‘920 is due to go back in a week or so.  Think I’m going to struggle with that.

Mobile Wi-Fi devices–why didn’t anyone tell me these things are so damn useful?

Being a collector of different handsets and tablets can mean restricting usage of them at home for connectivity. Getting a real sense of them on the move, at first suggests individual SIM cards for each device which is not preferred due to the cost and in some cases lock-in on some providers contracts.

4G (LTE) connectivity s also something I wanted to take an up close and personal look given EE’s first off the bat launch in late 2012. There pricing for SIM and Phone plans on their 4G network were completely uncompetitive and its reported take up is seen as moderate at best. It was only when I realised there was a more clever way to get on to 4G and use remove any spend across any individual handset or tablet SIMs, did I come across the solution – the Huawei E589 mobile broadband modem from EE.

It’s pretty standard fare as these devices in their 3G form have been around for some time.  What clicked was realising I could cancel all of my handset SIM deals (as I never use the phone, except for my iPhone) and could then get the benefit of a) 4G Wi-Fi spot speeds and b) sharing them across my devices anytime I needed to take them out with me.  Of course there are corporate uses when I’m in the airport or just travelling around the UK. And of course there are international versions of this device, which are great to get better roaming charges on data.

Using it for the last week has seen a big boost in using my iPhone 5, Lumia 920, iPad mini and the Surface RT when I using them on the train or in the office. Performance was snappy, given that the download speed test results ranged between 10-20mpbs when in and around Docklands area in London. Having one of these on hand is like being a walking Wi-Fi spot having access to 4G speeds (dependent on location given the rollout programme), regardless of the device you are using and its native capability.

Set up is quick once you’ve inserted the SIM. You can do the usual in terms of hiding your SSID and changing the supplied password and you’re good to go.  You can even toggle the Wi-Fi to save on battery.  At the moment, I get about up to 3-days charges toggling it when I need it.  There’s an iPhone app to check your usage and all the other basic admin things you would expect to do. Nice.

So £50 up front for the device, £21 per month for 5Gb of data – shared across up to 5 devices. I’ll never need to buy a cellular iPad ever again.

Applications in use across different mobile platforms

The table below shows the applications I use across iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 RT:

As at March 2013

	iOS (iPhone 5, iPad mini, iPad 3rd gen)	Android (Nexus 4)	WP8 (Lumia 920)	W8RT (Surface RT)	Blackberry OS (Blackberry Z10)
News and RSS	BBC News Reeder The Times The Guardian Sky Sports Football Soccer Saturday FT Instapaper The Economist	BBC News gReader Pro Times Guardian Sky Sports Football Soccer Saturday Instapaper	BBC News Mobile The Times The Guardian Sky Sports News Nextgen Reader Stacks for Instapaper	BBC News Mobile Microsoft News Sky News FT The Economist ESPN FC	BBC News BBC Sport The Times The Guardian The Independent The Economist gNewsReader
Browser bookmarks	iCloud XMarks	Xmarks	Xmarks	Xmarks	no Xmarks
Books	iBooks Kindle	Kindle	Kindle	Kindle	no Kindle
Productivity	Dropbox Evernote Due OmniFocus	Dropbox Evernote	Evernote SkyDrive	Dropbox Evernote Touch SkyDrive	ConnectToDropbox
Communication	Skype Bria	Skype Bria	Skype	Skype	X-Phone Pro
Social	TweetBot LinkedIn Fancy Pinterest	UberSocial LinkedIn Fancy Pinterest	MeTweets LinkedIn	Tweetro+	Tweetings
Music	Music Spotify Sonos Shazam	Play Music Spotify Sonos Shazam	Music Spotify Shazam	Music	Music
Entertainment	IMDB, Sky+ SkyGo TVCatchup YouTube BBC iPlayer Netflix iTunes TED	IMDB BBC iPlayer Netflix TED	IMDB Netflix YouTube TVCatchUp	Movie Guide Netflix TVCatchup TED	BBC iPlayer
Shopping	Amazon eBay	Amazon eBay	Amazon Mobile eBay	Amazon eBay	no Amazon no eBay
Utilities	Speed Test LogMeIn Ignition 1Password mSecure Airport Utility WeatherPro HD	Speed Test LogMeIn Ignition mSecure	Speed Test The Weather Channel	Speed Test Pro mSecure	AccuWeather
Travel	Trainline.com FlightBoard TripIt	Train Times UK TripIt	Trainline.com	National Rail Enquiries	Skyscanner Train Times UK
Photography	iPhoto Snapseed	Snapseed	Photosynth Camera Effects	Nothing available	Photo Studio
Finance	High St Bank app PayPal Moneywise	High St Bank app Paypal	High St Bank app Paypal Account Tracker	All About Money	Nothing available

Two weeks with the Microsoft Surface RT

In the UK, I had not seen the new Surface RT, so only on looking for one in the high street (such as PC World where it’s not on sale), I was directed to John Lewis where I was told it was available. When I showed up at John Lewis, it was not apparent that it was on display, yet alone on sale. An assistant pulled one out of a glass display cabinet where it was folded up in tablet form in a not very obvious place. So much for John Lewis’ attempts to really sell these.

Why was I so interested? To gain my own day to day experience of Microsoft’s hybrid PC and to decide for myself if this has a) its own value for me b) can hold its own with the competition and c) see where this might fit into consumer or enterprise space.

First impressions

Unboxing the surface, I was impressed. Not totally, but enough to see the attention to detail focused on quality which Microsoft put into this to win over customers. The packaging is very simple and understated with only 2-tones in the outer and inner packaging. Touch Cover, Surface RT and 24W power adaptor are inside alongside light instructions + warranty bits. Very Apple-esque. Liked it.

Switching on and getting started was easy enough,  I signed in with my Hotmail account and connected to the home Wi-Fi, and a few minutes later it was up with the default metro tile arrangement. If anything, given I’m used to the smooth and faultless Apple delivery of a new device start up, it just felt slow – a long negative association I’ve held with Windows going back the years.

Given the Surface RT has been out for a few months and a firmware update had been released, it made sense to put it down onto the machine to ensure I was getting the latest fixes and could baseline my experience accordingly. Shockingly, the firmware update took an hour – yes, I said that - 60 mins to download and install.  At that point, I was not impressed, particularly with blue screen Windows update screen thrown into the mix for familiarity.

Beyond that, and having a play for the rest of the day, I’ve been much captivated with the unit and enjoyed the learning curve of discovery and tinkering (what all us geeks love with new kit). 

Getting used to Surface RT & Windows 8

Let’s get past the tech basics – it has this NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip, with 4 cores running at 1.5Ghz, 2GB RAM and my unit is the 64GB model (~46GB usable space). The display runs 1024 x 768 using something called ClearType display (meaning its smooth's out jaggies to make a non Retina resolution look better).  The display is 16:9 which is good in some use cases, but difficult to use in others.  Wireless is 8.02.11n but at 2.4Ghz only so its theoretical maximum for connection and transfer is a 150mbps.

It must be said, having used touch UIs via iOS and Android, my general attitude has always been if the product design is good enough, I should rarely, if ever, reach for a manual or instruction guide,  Looking back over the last few days, I struggled with with navigating Windows 8 UI, which in one sense should not be surprising, but in another sense was because a number of things are not obvious until someone tells you (i.e, the manual).

Gestures for closing apps, displaying two apps side by side, switching apps, the charms bar – are not readily understandable unless some guidance is provided.  Fortunately, Microsoft have recently release a Surface Getting Started Guide, which helped me understand the navigation around this thing to a comfortable level.

Finding applications on RT

This new version of RT means developers now need to need to write for Intel based Windows 8  and the new RT platform, as well as Windows Phone 8 itself. It’s easy to see with the launch and the mixed market response, that apps from the big players are few and far between as the market needs to be convinced that Win 8 RT will thrive.  I had done some checks before getting the unit in and part of my value is in what is available in the app ecosystem of the platform. From that point, and given my investment in iOS, it made sense to compare apps to use across each of platform I have a device. This was never intended to be an exhaustive list, but identify what I must have in order to derive value (blue items).  The exercise in itself did reconfirm how much I am dependent on the app world to access the cloud and the web.

While this is heavily skewed in favour of iOS  and is looking purely at my own choices and needs, then as we move across the different platforms, you can see I’ve found other and in certain cases, useful apps to give me what I want to do on that device.  From the list, it is clear from that from a Windows RT standpoint, yes there is a clear paucity of apps (as evidenced in the Windows 8 Apps Store), but it’s should never be judged purely on volume, but on quality of what’s available. If there is more support for Windows Phone and Windows RT apps from the major app providers, it could soon be easier way to feel adopt different mobile platforms (barring the specific types of applications such as personal finance ones which tend less to be cross platform).

Using the Touch and Type Cover

My unit came with the Touch Cover as part of the package.  I really like this innovation from Microsoft in executing the hybrid tablet and PC to do both consumption activities for which the iPad is the best in class for and then to do the content creation pieces which often has been reaching back for the Lenovo X220 or the iMac/MacBook Air (depending on where I am).  Touch typing on my iPad’s is for light short bursts, such as e-mail, tweets, notes and very short blog posts.

Having read of the difficulties with the Touch Cover other reviewers have had, I really wanted it to work. Aesthetically it looks great, and fits nicely with the Surface itself. As a long standing touch typist, where the weight of my touch varies across the keys I’m pressing, the Touch Cover in short is difficult to use. In the week that I’ve been using it, I too often find that my style of typing misses keys regularly and leads to inaccuracies in creating anything effectively. (Not that there’s enough apps on the Surface RT to use in the first place, but I’ll come to that in another section).

There’s clearly a trade off Microsoft made in its creation. In Windows 8 desktop mode, it’s the only way to directly type on the Surface, which meant Office became less appealing.  Suffice to say, I struggle to use it and will be looking to get hold of the Type Cover to see how this improves accuracy and speed as reported by others, despite it not looking as good.

Update: Having had the Type Cover for a week, it is very much an improvement for me over the Touch Cover.  Easier to use, touch typing style improved and the experience of Surface as a PC, is markedly better.  But here’s the thing, I tried writing up another blog post using Word for RT with the keyboard and for my untrained fingers, its still hard going and full of errors.  In the end, my 2 writing pieces were split over my Lenovoa X220 and my MacBook Air where the keyboard experience is completely solid.

Desktop mode

Not much to say with the desktop mode to date.  Something I need to spent more time on, since I’ve been playing more on the consumption side of the device with metro.  It’s should be an advantage to have office available and integrated with Skydrive.  Being thrown back to the Desktop mode from RT is odd from time to time and does confuse the the RT Experience

Conscious that I’ve had the Surface for just a week, I’ve found that while I like the hardware and want more innovation to continue to improve aspects of the unit, the experience to date is less than ideal. Having applied the requisite firmware updates, downloaded paid or free apps, applied preferences and settings throughout and predominantly used the Surface more than the iPad for the last week my view is basic – it’s too slow and does not really excel at anything it tries to do.

Take the metro UI for example, it looks nice – but you often don’t realise which elements are touchable on an app. Hence the learning curve. The touch elements themselves on the screen seem big and not refined  (and knowing that it doubles up for use with a mouse seems ugly). As a result, there have been multiple occasions where I’m touching an element on the screen, frustratingly without a response.

App design and quality varies. NextGen Reader and Tweetro+ come out well.  The Economist and TED are poor cousins of their iOS and Android counterparts.

That brings me on to my main complaint about the Surface – it’s speed. Apps often take 5-10 seconds to start and there’s is a general latency of response to touch input.  That ranges from Mail to Explorer or 3rd party apps. Caching helps. I’m not sure if this is because the NVIDIA chip is not powerful enough or that RT in itself, based on an NT Kernel is not suited or just optimised enough for its this v1.0 offering. It’s why I’d still hold out that v2.0 model can address these issues.

The kick stand is a good idea, just needs more angles to suit individual preferences.  The Touch Cover keyboard is a truly great idea.  But Microsoft need to make the experience of the consumer the centrepiece here to get this right.  They need to find a way that I can use the Touch Cover on a less than firmly flat surface, such as my lap. Touch typing on the iPad is for me, surprisingly more effective than the Surface and in different situations (desk, bed, couch, etc.). 

What can I really use this for?

Windows 8 RT is a product based on some trade offs. Microsoft’s aim (at least to me) is to create a niche product where we get a tablet which can double-up as a PC to switch between the consumption and creation modes. It supports their post PC era vision.  It’s a strategic move to mitigate that OEM licensing revenue has started to take a hammering from iOS and Android. Microsoft have have made an audacious attempt to create lighter and importantly, more mobile form factor, built on a niche and a mobile OS instance of Windows 8. It runs the new RT based apps and has specific inbuilt functionality to run an RT version of the desktop, including Explorer (including Flash content) and Office 2013.  I applaud the creation of an ARM based device, but with Surface Pro now available and with reportedly better performance, its difficult to see where Microsoft are really positioning the product and the lack of wider take up from OEMs.

The problem I found with v1.0 of RT and the hardware is that while it’s appealing and intriguing to use, it doesn’t really do anything especially well. (Think back to the iPad introduction where you knew it would do a whole bunch of things that a laptop could not fare better with).

The most telling thing about my use of the the Surface RT not excelling at anything was the fact that I could not even draft or edit this blog post – which was an aim from the outset. No LiveWriter for RT. And the combination of my issues with the Touch Cover and the responsiveness of the hardware with RT meant that  when I tried using Word or Evernote, this quickly became a frustrating experience – Touch or Type Covers factored in.I’ll go back to this point once I test out the Type Cover, and I don’t expect it to change significantly at this moment.

I fired up a subjective table on my usage scenarios for the RT against my other devices.  Sadly, it confirmed my fears:

	iPad	Surface RT	MacBook Air / Lenovo X220*
Email	Best	Worse	Good
Reading (RSS feeds, Books, Newspapers, Magazines)	Best	Worse	Good
Tweeting	Best	Worse	Good
Web Browsing	Best	Worse	Good
Blogging	Good	Worse	Best*
Watching Videos / TV	Best	Worse	Good
Music	Best	Worse	Good
Other Content creation*	Good	Worse	Best

The table simply summaries my ranking preferences in relative terms to each device I have. In fact I would say that the experience between the iPad and the MacBook Air is a lot closer than Best / Good rating suggests. What it did help me understand is that the Surface RT has a lot to do to match the either.

I have a another 3 weeks before I return the Surface RT. I really want to support and believe in this platform and product. But away from the business strategy, the market, the developer debate, Microsoft needs to focus on a 6 key things to get this to be accepted with acclaim:

1. Make it just damn fast (as fast as any Android or iOS tablet device)
2. Get wider and better developer support for the RT apps store
3. Improve the Touch and Type Cover – significantly
4. Match the iPad for doing consumption tasks in terms of speed, slickness and usability
5. Match the Mac/PC for content creation tasks (both in apps available and innovation of touch and type)

Surface in the Enterprise

Given the recent release of the Surface Pro and the need to meet corporate requirements (joining local domain, group and policy management, device management, security, data loss prevention, integration into corporate line of business applications), my initial thought is that there would be limited value of the RT compared to the Pro. Having said that I think given the reported battery life of the Pro, there is a limited advantage value compared to an Ultrabook. I’ll come back to this at some point in the future. A future product based on the new Intel Haswell chip line may mitigate this in the future.  In that situation, it would again raise questions for the long term viability of the Surface RT as opposed to the Pro which keeps the legacy connection to Windows apps which is still considered important..

What happens next?

It’s always interesting to see the range of experiences you can have with a product as you are using it and evaluating it. Liking the hardware is not enough. The software really needs to excel, in terms of usability, apps and overall experience.  Having moved away from Windows more than 6 years ago, I wanted to come back to a new form factor to fall in love with it again. That didn’t happen. The Surface RT v1.0 is going back. Its speed and usability are just too frustrating. I’ll get the Surface Pro and see if my experiences change – although I doubt it, given the weight and  batter trade-offs.  At the moment, I’ll stick with my Lenovo and where I need to upgrade hardware, stick with the Ultrabook line Intel x86 line which combined with SSDs, guarantees solid performance at the very least.