John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Could have got any 5ghz access point instead of an airport express.
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evilrob
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Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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This is all interesting stuff - but moot at the moment as I'm still none the wiser as to if/when I might actually be receiving the damn thing.
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evilrob
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Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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Also - kz; smack talks OS X, buys Airport Express router. 
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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've never heard of 'smack talk' but I assume it's derogatory... I wasn't being serious, I love Apple's equipment 
The reason I actually got an AirPort Express was to use AirPlay but I found it pretty much useless compared to using Bluetooth audio. I was about to return it until I tried the 5GHz thing and was pleasantly surprised to find it solved my issues!
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evilrob
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Location: Your mum's house
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quote:
Originally posted by kz
I've never heard of 'smack talk' but I assume it's derogatory... I wasn't being serious, I love Apple's equipment
The reason I actually got an AirPort Express was to use AirPlay but I found it pretty much useless compared to using Bluetooth audio. I was about to return it until I tried the 5GHz thing and was pleasantly surprised to find it solved my issues!
Fair do's, fella! 
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evilrob
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Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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Well, it turned up this morning. Would have been nice if the Microsoft Store website worked properly or they could have given me a call or sent me an email or something, but hey.
Currently installing update 8 of 80...
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evilrob
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Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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An hour later... 62 of 80... 
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evilrob
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Location: Your mum's house
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Jesus Christ - those 80 updates were just the updates you have to do before you can install 8.1 via Windows Store. (I realise other methods are available - I just assumed it would ship with 8.1 for some reason)
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Oh Microsoft
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kz
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Registered: 9th Aug 02
Location: Southend, Essex Drives: Mini Cooper S
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quote:
Originally posted by evilrob
Jesus Christ - those 80 updates were just the updates you have to do before you can install 8.1 via Windows Store. (I realise other methods are available - I just assumed it would ship with 8.1 for some reason)
yeah... I've had to do multiple reboots and have to go through this each time, quite annoying. The Surface Pro 2 comes with Windows 8.1 already installed, but it kind of makes sense the original doesn't as it wasn't out then.
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evilrob
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Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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Have you seen this?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrisleung/freedomcase-adjustable-stand-and-case-for-microsof?ref=card
Looks like it might be worth a punt. The kickstand is annoying me already.
[Edited on 06-03-2014 by evilrob]
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evilrob
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OK - I've been playing with this thing this evening and I really like it. Windows 8 makes a lot more sense now.
It is bulky, heavy and gets hot compared to an iPad, but then it's a full PC, not a toy.
Pretty incredible piece of kit for less than the price of a 32gb iPad Air, really.
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evilrob
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Big pants down man hug for kz for giving me the heads up on the offer. I'd never have bought one otherwise.
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kz
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Registered: 9th Aug 02
Location: Southend, Essex Drives: Mini Cooper S
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quote:
Originally posted by evilrob
Have you seen this?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrisleung/freedomcase-adjustable-stand-and-case-for-microsof?ref=card
Looks like it might be worth a punt. The kickstand is annoying me already.
[Edited on 06-03-2014 by evilrob]
Not bad but 95% of my usage doesn't involve needing anything other than the standard position. I got a Nixon case for mine btw, imported from America over eBay, does the job well when I need to move it around.
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Rob_Quads
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: southampton
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quote:
Originally posted by evilrob
Have you seen this?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrisleung/freedomcase-adjustable-stand-and-case-for-microsof?ref=card
Looks like it might be worth a punt. The kickstand is annoying me already.
Stupidly expensive - Give it a few weeks and copies will appear on Ebay for <$10 shipped.
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evilrob
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Location: Your mum's house
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I've had a good play with the Surface Pro over the weekend. Net result: it's fucking brilliant. I think I might actually like it more than my Macbook Air (and that's saying something!)
Bought South Park Stick of Truth on Amazon for £30 (Steam code download - tenner cheaper than on actual Steam) - runs perfectly in glorious 1080P! (although you do need to set the power profile to 'performance' rather than 'battery saver' or 'balanced' as the battery saver throttles maximum CPU performance) - plays beautifully with wireless Xbox 360 controller and USB receiver.
Link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/South-Park-Stick-Uncensored-Online/dp/B00ICSSO78/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1394369873&sr=8-2&keywords=stick+of+truth+pc
[Edited on 09-03-2014 by evilrob]
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dannymccann
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Registered: 9th Aug 06
Location: Doddington, Lincolnshire
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I'm liking the sound of this, I've been eyeing up the full blown Win 8 tablets. RT was nice in Currys when I tried it out but I need to able to use proper PC apps on it if it's going to be any good. Can't afford one at the moment so the good old laptop will have to do until I take the plunge!
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evilrob
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Here's my setup in case anyone was looking for some new stuff to try, there may or may not be something new for you in here - apps highlighted in green are my 'outstanding' picks, those in red I binned off:
Desktop apps:
Bitdefender Total Security - self explanatory; works, no discernible performance impact - occasionally pops up annoying notifications like 'in Laptop mode' which you don't seem to be able to disable
Photoshop CC - self explanatory; nice and speedy on Surface Pro - user interface is crazy small on the Surface Pro's HD screen though
Office Professional 2013 - self explanatory
Visio Standard 2013 - self explanatory
iTunes - self explanatory
Spotify - self explanatory; horrible touch experience, doesn't scale to HD well - not optimised for touch at all, but better than the web-player which stops playing unless your web browser is the front-most window - no integration with the volume pop-up (so you can't skip tracks backwards or forwards)
CCleaner - useful tool to clear out junk - everyone should have this
1Password - password manager; yes there are free alternatives - I like this one because having read the developer's blog, I'm confident they know what they're doing when it comes to encryption.
Breevy - text snippet expander - as above really; there are free utilities that do similar things, but this one works the way I want it to, I'm happy with it.
Virtualdub - video processing tool - I'm sure you don't need me to tell you about this or handbrake
Handbrake - video processing tool
Google Chrome - looks horrible if your text display settings are set to 150% scaling (the default); you can fix this either by changing your display settings to 100% scaling instead, or as follows:
quote:
1. Right click Chrome shortcut/taskbar icon and choose "Properties." (if you do this on an icon in you startbar, you'll need to right click again on the one that says "Google Chrome.")
2. Click Compatibility tab.
3. Check box for "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings."
4. Click OK.
5. It will render pages using tiny, practically unreadable fonts, but you can change that in Chrome Settings under "Show advanced settings" --> "Web Content" --> "Font Size."
6. Enjoy. (you can do this for other apps that show up comedically big too - like the Adobe Creative Cloud updater helper)
Sublime Text 2 - brilliant code editor
Steam - you don't need me to tell you what this is.
Modern/Metro UI apps:
Social:
Facebook - probably the least worst Facebook client of any platform; certainly much better than the official Windows Phone one - I like flipping it into portrait mode for faster newsfeed reading; loses the left and right menu bars
Twitter - clean, simple, does the job; if you're a power Twitter user you may need to look elsewhere (I am not, so can't recommend anything I'm afraid)
Skype - clean, simple, does the job.
IM+ Pro - multi instant message protocol chat client - not pretty, but largely works
Viber - clean, simple, does the job - I like being able to transfer calls between devices running Viber (start a call on PC, fire over to Mobile if required). Not as polished as Skype, in my opinion.
Shopping:
Amazon - ordered 3 or 4 things using one-click; seamless if you already know what you're looking for - probably still prefer using the website for product discovery to compare different options / find the best deal etc.
eBay - slick, seems to work.
Tesco - works much better than Ocado below
Ocado - can't actually manage your shopping basket, but does have a nice live tile telling you when the next available delivery slot is, or how your order is progressing if you've made one via the website
Photo:
Adobe Photoshop Express - simple photo enhancement tool, works
Fotor - another simple photo enhancement tool - allows you to do some pretty nice filters, effects, collages etc - worth checking out. (not as slick as Photoshop Express obviously, but you can do some cool stuff with it)
Video:
Netflix - slick, works; drops into SD more often than I'd like - this is probably more to do with my internet connection (although it doesn't happen so frequently on the Apple TV so... jury's out on this one)
TVCatchup - horrible interface, does the job though
4OD - bit buggy and frustrating to use, largely plays the content you want though; sometimes randomly resets back to the beginning of what you were watching.
Demand 5 - better than the 4OD app
Hyper for Youtube (seems to work better than MetroTube) - I like the download features and the fact you can set it to default to 1080P when available.
MetroTube - Youtube app - using Hyper instead. I love with Windows Phone version of this app, but it's not as magical on Win8.
Blinkbox from Tesco - UK movie store for rental/purchase, really slick user interface.
Audio:
Xbox Music - nice apart from the fact playlists don't seem to sync between desktop/phone - lots of music available free, though - not found anything I wanted to listen to that wouldn't play for free
Deezer - music streaming app; really nice if you don't mind paying £9.99 a month. Worth checking out until Spotify get with the times!
BBC Podcasts - free, cool app to download your favourite BBC podcasts
Radio 1 - free Radio 1 streaming app; took me a while to figure out you have to swipe up from the bottom to uncover the play button (the only control in the whole app!) Does not allow you to expand to 'wide' tile size, but the Radio 2 one below, bizarrely, does.
Radio 2 - as per Radio 1 app above.
Tunein Radio - listen to radio from around the world. User interface is poo. Does not seem to let you pin individual stations to your Start Screen.
Reading:
NextGen Reader - brilliant RSS newsfeed reader.
Flipbook - personal magazine app; reasonably slick, works OK - not as good as the iPad version
Bing News - slick current affairs app, not found a better one yet
StumbleUpon - really cool user experience to find interesting stuff on the 'net / waste some time
Wikipedia - no 'did you mean?' - will only return things if you type them absolutely correctly and/or know the correct spelling of whatever it is you want to find out about
Kindle / Nook - eBook readers; haven't decided which one I prefer yet
John Lewis Things We Love - department store magazine, has some nice stuff I can't afford in it
Local:
Bing Weather (I prefer this to AccuWeather due to not having ads in your face all the time)
TripAdvisor - works nicely, few too many gradients in the UI for my liking - would be better if it were flatter
Foursquare - very 'Metro' UI - definitely worth checking out.
HERE Maps - really cool, but I actually prefer the standard Bing Maps app for my general map needs.
Rightmove - property search, pretty nice
Cloud - not decided on a favourite yet, will probably be OneDrive though, to be honest:
SkyDrive (aka OneDrive now, obvs)
Dropbox
Box
Productivity:
2Day - great GTD task management app; bit overwhelming at first; not pretty or slick, but functional and so far reasonably reliable. Live tile is useful in 'large' mode - shows you your next few upcoming tasks. Syncs with Windows Phone version well.
OneNote (the metro version) - not as fully featured as the desktop counterpart obviously, but great for quick notes and sketches straight into your notebooks.
Fresh Paint - genius art app; works great with the stylus.
MinimaList - to-do list; looks lovely, works well - uninstalled due to ads and no way of removing; will stick with OneNote
[Edited on 09-03-2014 by evilrob]
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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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Wow I think I've only used about 7-8 Modern UI apps in the year I've had mine lol. At the moment all I have installed is...
Autodesk Sketchbook Express which is by far the best app I've used with the stylus
Surface Music Kit for music production and remixing, only available if you have the music blade
TVCatchup & Twitter as you mentioned. Can't agree with Skype doing the job though, it's bloody awful!
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evilrob
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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£50 cashback and free touch cover offer back on at Quidco for three days:
http://www.quidco.com/microsoft-store/
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evilrob
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Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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Just a quick update:
So far, my findings have been as follows...
Windows Phone is brilliant - I love it
Surface Pro is brilliant, save for the battery life which will be fixed with a Power Keyboard Cover and the one-position kickstand which was fixed with a case that can be set at several angles
Windows 8.1 is brilliant, best enjoyed on a tablet such as the Surface Pro
Biggest annoyances in this whole process of moving to an all-Microsoft ecosystem was the gash service from the online Microsoft Store, and having to do 80 updates on the Surface Pro immediately after getting it out of the box, and then having to update it via Window Store to 8.1 and then doing a load more updates. Since then, it's been plain sailing, and not encountered any classic Microsoft weirdness - no blue screens, no lockups, no crashes, no glitches - it's all been a pleasure to use.
I'd quite like to get a docking station for the Surface, but no word yet on when they'll be available in the UK.
Next purchase will likely be an Xbox of some sort - just need to decide 360 or One? Thoughts, anyone?
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dannymccann
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Registered: 9th Aug 06
Location: Doddington, Lincolnshire
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Suppose it depends how much use it will get and what games you want to play. the 360S is still perfectly capable if you just want to game now and again but if you want all the latest releases in top detail you will obviously need to go for the One. Don't forget £25/year tax to actually make it usable online
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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I want a Docking Statio when I order mine
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kz
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Registered: 9th Aug 02
Location: Southend, Essex Drives: Mini Cooper S
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Could always get a docking station off eBay (USA) about the same price it's going to be in the UK anyway.
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evilrob
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Registered: 16th Mar 12
Location: Your mum's house
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Upgraded the Lumia 920 to Windows Phone 8.1 today - everything feels a bit snappier and it's removed several of my biggest annoyances with Windows Phone:
1. Quiet Hours - you can now set the phone to not disturb you during certain hours or when your calendar shows you are in a meeting
2. Notification centre - there is one.
3. Separate volume controls for applications/music and ringtones/alerts.
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