Jambo
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Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
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Will never understand how this failed and Android succeeded.
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evilrob
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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So I gave up on Windows Phone and got an iPhone 6S, bought a PS4 cos the Xbox One kept crashing and doing weird stuff and generally pissing me off and my Microsoft Band 2 died.
The Sculpt ergonomic keyboard and mouse still going strong, though. Still loving those.
Pretty fair to say this experiment was a failure. 
However - what I really came here to say was to remember to upgrade your old Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 today or tomorrow as the free upgrade offer expires Friday.
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nathy_87
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Registered: 14th Aug 08
Location: West Mids. Drives: koda Fabia VRS 5J
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Holy crap talk about coming in 3's
I've currently got a Microsoft Lumia (basically a Nokia) absolutely crap, buying an Apple phone (again) on Friday.
If it's any conciliation myself and Whittie are on PS4 
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evilrob
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Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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No consolation required, old chap - I am loving the PS4; the menus make sense and it makes less noise and it just generally works. Still got the Xbox One for exclusives like Quantum Break or Inside or whatever but I'd sooner fire up the PS4 in any given situation. Currently very much enjoying the new Doom on PS4.
Which MicroNokia Lumia have you got?
Oh, in other news I got rid of the Surface Pro (there was nothing wrong with it just the novelty of the tablet form factor wore off) and bought an Asus Zenbook UX305 instead; much better:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Zenbook-UX305CA-FB005T-Windows-802-11ac/dp/B019KZVESM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469698586&sr=8-1&keywords=zenbook+ux305
For all intents and purposes it's a Macbook Air with a high res screen running Windows 10 instead of OS X. No backlit keyboard which is a bummer, but for £535 it's a bargain.
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nathy_87
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Registered: 14th Aug 08
Location: West Mids. Drives: koda Fabia VRS 5J
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Yeah straight forward really and so much easier to use. Not played Doom as of yet, liked the original so probably get it on the whim. I've got the 550, real basic. Just little things like it freezing, restarting by itself is getting to me only had it a month or two.
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kz
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Registered: 9th Aug 02
Location: Southend, Essex Drives: Mini Cooper S
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I'm finally going to upgrade from my original Surface Pro to the new laptop, looks lovely 
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evilrob
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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Yeah! Saw the news about this launch earlier. Looks good. Not sure how the alcantara keyboard will wear though! Microsoft are doing some good stuff lately. I liked the swivelly desktop thing they released.
This new ultrabook is basically what the Macbook Air should be, instead of the Crapbook Pros with the stupid touch bar Apple released last year.
I'm kind boycotting Microsoft for the time being, though. They seem to have abandoned Windows Phone, the Xbox One pisses me off almost every time I use it, and my Band 2 died well within warranty but it's taken them about six months to either repair, replace or refund.
I'll be getting a cheque in the next 6-8 weeks apparently. This after returning it to them on three separate occasions due to their absolute joke of a returns process.
[Edited on 03-05-2017 by evilrob]
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kz
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Registered: 9th Aug 02
Location: Southend, Essex Drives: Mini Cooper S
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Yeah my original Band died, and they wanted £79 for a refurbished one... so I bought one off eBay which was absolutely mint for £25!
Definitely impressed with the Surface line though, my 4 year old one still works good as new.
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evilrob
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Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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Look forward to hearing how you get on with it! 
Loved my Surface Pro. Shame font scaling in Windows 10 is still a hot mess, though.
Assume you'll be upgrading immediately from the gimped Windows 10 "S" it ships with, to full-fat Windows 10 (which you'll be able to do for free until 31st December 2017)?
Both my original Microsoft Band, and Band 2 died. I've since had a Fitbit Blaze, which was horrible. And a Sony SWR-50 which was alright but didn't have a heart rate sensor, and won't be getting Android Wear 2.0. So I got an Apple Watch (second gen); which I have to say, while absurdly expensive, is the least worst of the wearables available right now, I think. It does exactly what I want it to do, reliably - if I'd just bought an Apple Watch from the start instead of the four other devices which either broke or had some sort of compromise, I'd have saved a load of cash.
[Edited on 04-05-2017 by evilrob]
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evilrob
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Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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Just as an update to my "all Microsoft, all the time" experiment, here's how it went:
Mobile:
Lumia 920, followed by Lumia 930; Microsoft seem to have abandoned the phone market.
Replaced with: iPhone 6S (also have a Galaxy S7 through work, still prefer iOS to Android)
Laptop:
Surface Pro, followed by Asus Zenbook UX305; Windows 10 is a mess.
Replaced with: Macbook Air (the new Macbook Pros are WAY too expensive, the touch bar is gay, and the keyboard is shit - and the Macbook is underpowered, too expensive for what it is and only has one USB-C port; useless!)
Wearable:
Microsoft Band, followed by Microsoft Band 2; Microsoft seem to have abandoned the Band product line and Health ecosystem. Had some epic customer service issues, still not resolved - taken six months and counting to get a refund on a returned (three times) faulty Band 2.
Replaced with: Apple Watch
Console:
Xbox One; buggy and unintuitive - Microsoft seem to have abandoned Kinect and Xbox Fitness (which was actually quite good), using it as a media hub never really worked properly, never got DVR capabilities.
Replaced with: PS4 / Apple TV
Streaming music:
Microsoft Groove; just a horrible user experience.
Replaced with: Spotify (Apple Music is just as horrible as Groove)
Microsoft have all the right ideas, but seem unable to execute on their vision or stick with anything. Having been burned with the abandonment of Windows Phone, Band/Health platform, and Kinect/Xbox Fitness/the "entertainment hub" it was supposed to be in addition to being a gaming machine, have basically gone back to Apple after 3-4 years of persevering with Microsoft.
If I had to sum up my all-Microsoft experience in one word, it would be: "frustrating."
[Edited on 04-05-2017 by evilrob]
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kz
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Registered: 9th Aug 02
Location: Southend, Essex Drives: Mini Cooper S
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Damn that's a shame! Well you may or may not have heard that there's yet another Surface event coming later in the month... so now I'll have to wait and see what's revealed there. Tom Warren is predicting Surface Pro 5.
If I was going to go for another wearable right now, it'd be something from Withings. I have two mates with them and I think they look great, and do enough for me personally. I wouldn't get an Apple Watch just because I don't like square watches... the best smartwatch I've seen has got to be the Samsung Gear S2 but they ruined the looks and size with the S3. I would have also considered the Pebble Time Round, but now it's been bought out it's more or less been reduced to nothing,
I'm still on my iPhone 6 as am waiting for the iPhone 8 or 'Anniversary Edition' or whatever they're going to call it.
I do actually use Groove. I don't love it, but I only listen to downloaded mixes, and recent updates have made it slightly better.
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kz
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Registered: 9th Aug 02
Location: Southend, Essex Drives: Mini Cooper S
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New Surface Pro announced today. Not much to see but fanless i5 and big battery life seems good. Still, I think I'll get the Laptop because they're both the same price but then you need to add on the keyboard (and this time pen if you want it) to the Pro...
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evilrob
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Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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I loved my original Surface Pro - I couldn't believe how much power they'd crammed into something so thin; it was super fast, battery life was good and it mostly worked.
Then I had use of a Surface Pro 4 for a bit through work - but it was buggy as fuck. Switching from portrait to landscape often caused things to crash. Trying to use the pen in OneNote was hopeless, but worked fine for drawing a big cartoon cock and balls in Paint (pretty sure that's all anyone ever actually does with the pen, tbh). It only has one USB port - and trying to attach an external wireless keyboard/mouse (a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop in this case) via the Dock accessory rendered them unuseable due to an absurdly low polling rate; it couldn't keep up with the speed at which I type and the mouse movement was jerky and crap. Same keyboard/mouse combo plugged into anything else works perfectly; even directly into the Surface itself, but introduce the Dock and it all goes to shit. I love the look of them, and the concept, but the 4th gen just didn't work properly.
In other news: finally got that refund for the Band 2 that crapped out. They COURIERED a cheque from Texas for £149.99; less than I paid for it, but I really can't be bothered to argue with them about it now, seeing as it took six months to get this far.
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kz
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Registered: 9th Aug 02
Location: Southend, Essex Drives: Mini Cooper S
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Sounds like you had a shitty experience! Totally understand why you've had enough.
I was literally about to order the Laptop today, had my card in hand, and just thought I'd read through the specs one more time... NO SD SLOT! 
Totally a no go for me. So I'm going to have to go for the Pro, which is no bad thing really just that it's more expensive. Guess I'll have to consider that's going on the fanless i5 though!
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kz
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Registered: 9th Aug 02
Location: Southend, Essex Drives: Mini Cooper S
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Got my Surface yesterday and must say it's rather lovely... however they've decided to postpone the Type Cover for 2 weeks! Packed it away again now, can't be arsed without the full experience!
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evilrob
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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Nice! Old type cover not compatible then? Or is the connector the same, it's just a slightly different size and thus looks a bit gay?
Can you use the old pen with it? I seem to recall the new Surface Pro doesn't come with a pen in the box now does it?
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kz
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Registered: 9th Aug 02
Location: Southend, Essex Drives: Mini Cooper S
User status: Offline
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Don't know why it doesn't work, same connector so must be something different about it.
Don't think the old pen works, they changed it around SP3 iirc? Not included, no. I won't bother getting it, but my missus might as she's an illustrator so likes the sound of the new one! To be fair it does look a lot better.
Setting up Windows with Cortana is cool, especially when you haven't got a keyboard lol. Not sure on Windows Hello though, it's got me wrong loads of times already.
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evilrob
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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How are you getting on with this a couple of weeks in?
Has your new Type Cover turned up yet?
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kz
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Registered: 9th Aug 02
Location: Southend, Essex Drives: Mini Cooper S
User status: Offline
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Type Cover is absolutely fantastic to be honest, best thing about my upgrade! Keys feel much better, the trackpad is fantastic and I love the way you can customise so much about the gestures. Also a big fan of the colour (went for burgundy) and the fabric.
The Surface however, has been sent back for a replacement
Bluetooth is knackered - My mouse lagged all the time. This is a mouse which works perfectly on my old Surface
Wi-Fi is knackered - Took around a minute to actually connect after loading Windows. Most of the time when it finally connected it was 'limited access' and wouldn't work properly, and when it did connect it was around 25% of the speed of my other Surface sitting right next to it!
Screen bleed - Only slightly, and I wouldn't have bothered returning it just for this but it just added to it really.
I did do a full restore before sending it back in case it was Windows related, but no change.
Worst thing was Microsoft's customer service! Four days to get me a delivery label, after speaking to them over email, online chat and the phone 
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evilrob
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
User status: Offline
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Grim out... Sorry to hear you had to send it back. Largely echoes my experience with Microsoft Customer Service - it's the pits!
Will be interested to see how the alcantara on the keyboard ends up over time... I'm not convinced about fabric on a computer, personally! If you've ever seen the steering wheel on a Racing Puma (that hasn't been retrimmed), you'll know what alcantara that regularly comes into contact with hands looks like - not nice!
[Edited on 18-07-2017 by evilrob]
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