<story><title>Why I&apos;m returning my Microsoft Surface RT</title><url>http://ozar.me/2012/10/why-im-returning-my-microsoft-surface-rt/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Splines</author><text>&amp;#62; &lt;i&gt;Is Microsoft really serious about challenging the iPad juggernaut with this kind of inattention to detail?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not sure where you&apos;re going with this, but given the amount of effort and ambition around the Surface, I would say that Microsoft is absolutely serious.&lt;p&gt;As for Word, there was a limited number of things we could do and fix in a finite amount of time.  Trade-offs need to be made.</text></item><item><author>cageface</author><text>Interesting. Thanks for the insider&apos;s insight. Is Microsoft really serious about challenging the iPad juggernaut with this kind of inattention to detail?</text></item><item><author>Splines</author><text>&amp;#62; &lt;i&gt;&quot;So quickly, in fact, that I can outrun Microsoft Word on the Surface. I get the feeling that the Surface RT’s CPU or Word code just can’t keep up with my typing. Here’s an example video:&quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m on the Word team in Office and I&apos;m coming into this thread incredibly late, but FWIW the slow typing on ARM was something we couldn&apos;t fully address in time for the preview release.  Word RTM (ARM and x86/x64) has &lt;i&gt;much&lt;/i&gt; better performance.&lt;p&gt;One of the challenges we had was that for a large majority of the product cycle we didn&apos;t even &lt;i&gt;know&lt;/i&gt; about the Surface.  We were looking at ARM early on, but the hardware we had was prerelease hardware from MSFT partners that had varying levels of performance.&lt;p&gt;Even now we don&apos;t know a whole lot about the Surface.  It&apos;s a little frustrating, since we (Office) hit RTM we&apos;re eagerly awaiting the point at which new Surface RTs will have Office RTM baked into them.  The preview release is seriously many many months old from the RTM release, and it&apos;s painful to think that &lt;i&gt;this&lt;/i&gt; is what customers are going to see from Office when they turn on their shiny new device.</text></item><item><author>Anechoic</author><text>&quot;The diagonally-oriented camera is strange. In the one orientation it’s optimized for, it’s slightly annoying. In any other orientation, it’s almost intolerable. &quot;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The built-in front-facing camera for Skype is angled so that it’ll work great when the kickstand is open, but again, only for Danny DeVito, or maybe for people who want to show off their chests in Skype.&quot;&lt;p&gt;------&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Touch Cover is one of the Surface’s biggest innovations. I thought I would hate it, but I didn’t. It’s not like typing on a completely flat surface: each “key” is raised slightly, so while there isn’t any mechanical feedback, it does feel a bit like a keyboard.&quot;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Type Cover (the one with real keys) just works.  I’ve got big hands that often struggle on undersized keyboards, but I can type very quickly on the Type Cover.&quot;&lt;p&gt;------&lt;p&gt;&quot;He showed me Office, which was almost unusable: it was extremely sluggish, and touch targets were tiny and difficult to hit.&quot;&lt;p&gt;&quot;So quickly, in fact, that I can outrun Microsoft Word on the Surface.  I get the feeling that the Surface RT’s CPU or Word code just can’t keep up with my typing.  Here’s an example video:&quot;&lt;p&gt;-------&lt;p&gt;&quot;The standard gestures don’t help, requiring many in-from-the-edge swipes that not only aren’t discoverable&quot;&lt;p&gt;&quot;After waiting over a minute for the machine to boot and launch the mail app, I got a blank gradient screen. User interface 101: if the app needs to be set up on the first launch, offer to do that, please.  Folks from Twitter suggested that I swipe out from the right side and click Accounts&quot;&lt;p&gt;--&lt;p&gt;So, can we conclude that these observations might be real (V. 1) problems without resorting to ad-homs regarding the author?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rm999</author><text>There&apos;s a difference between being serious about a product and being serious enough to do what it takes to make the product succeed. Apple has set a high bar of tight hardware/software integration, where the software is hand-tuned to take advantage of everything limited mobile hardware has to offer. The market expects nothing less. The Apple model works because management is willing to control both sides, and the Android model works because everything is relatively open so the software devs can play directly with the hardware.&lt;p&gt;&amp;#62; there was a limited number of things we could do&lt;p&gt;No one is blaming you or your team. I&apos;d blame the lowest person in the company who had the ability to install beta versions of Office on beta versions of Surface.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why I&apos;m returning my Microsoft Surface RT</title><url>http://ozar.me/2012/10/why-im-returning-my-microsoft-surface-rt/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Splines</author><text>&amp;#62; &lt;i&gt;Is Microsoft really serious about challenging the iPad juggernaut with this kind of inattention to detail?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not sure where you&apos;re going with this, but given the amount of effort and ambition around the Surface, I would say that Microsoft is absolutely serious.&lt;p&gt;As for Word, there was a limited number of things we could do and fix in a finite amount of time.  Trade-offs need to be made.</text></item><item><author>cageface</author><text>Interesting. Thanks for the insider&apos;s insight. Is Microsoft really serious about challenging the iPad juggernaut with this kind of inattention to detail?</text></item><item><author>Splines</author><text>&amp;#62; &lt;i&gt;&quot;So quickly, in fact, that I can outrun Microsoft Word on the Surface. I get the feeling that the Surface RT’s CPU or Word code just can’t keep up with my typing. Here’s an example video:&quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m on the Word team in Office and I&apos;m coming into this thread incredibly late, but FWIW the slow typing on ARM was something we couldn&apos;t fully address in time for the preview release.  Word RTM (ARM and x86/x64) has &lt;i&gt;much&lt;/i&gt; better performance.&lt;p&gt;One of the challenges we had was that for a large majority of the product cycle we didn&apos;t even &lt;i&gt;know&lt;/i&gt; about the Surface.  We were looking at ARM early on, but the hardware we had was prerelease hardware from MSFT partners that had varying levels of performance.&lt;p&gt;Even now we don&apos;t know a whole lot about the Surface.  It&apos;s a little frustrating, since we (Office) hit RTM we&apos;re eagerly awaiting the point at which new Surface RTs will have Office RTM baked into them.  The preview release is seriously many many months old from the RTM release, and it&apos;s painful to think that &lt;i&gt;this&lt;/i&gt; is what customers are going to see from Office when they turn on their shiny new device.</text></item><item><author>Anechoic</author><text>&quot;The diagonally-oriented camera is strange. In the one orientation it’s optimized for, it’s slightly annoying. In any other orientation, it’s almost intolerable. &quot;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The built-in front-facing camera for Skype is angled so that it’ll work great when the kickstand is open, but again, only for Danny DeVito, or maybe for people who want to show off their chests in Skype.&quot;&lt;p&gt;------&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Touch Cover is one of the Surface’s biggest innovations. I thought I would hate it, but I didn’t. It’s not like typing on a completely flat surface: each “key” is raised slightly, so while there isn’t any mechanical feedback, it does feel a bit like a keyboard.&quot;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Type Cover (the one with real keys) just works.  I’ve got big hands that often struggle on undersized keyboards, but I can type very quickly on the Type Cover.&quot;&lt;p&gt;------&lt;p&gt;&quot;He showed me Office, which was almost unusable: it was extremely sluggish, and touch targets were tiny and difficult to hit.&quot;&lt;p&gt;&quot;So quickly, in fact, that I can outrun Microsoft Word on the Surface.  I get the feeling that the Surface RT’s CPU or Word code just can’t keep up with my typing.  Here’s an example video:&quot;&lt;p&gt;-------&lt;p&gt;&quot;The standard gestures don’t help, requiring many in-from-the-edge swipes that not only aren’t discoverable&quot;&lt;p&gt;&quot;After waiting over a minute for the machine to boot and launch the mail app, I got a blank gradient screen. User interface 101: if the app needs to be set up on the first launch, offer to do that, please.  Folks from Twitter suggested that I swipe out from the right side and click Accounts&quot;&lt;p&gt;--&lt;p&gt;So, can we conclude that these observations might be real (V. 1) problems without resorting to ad-homs regarding the author?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chris_wot</author><text>No offense here, and I realise that you probably aren&apos;t in management, but if you can&apos;t fix a problem with slow typing and you&apos;re on the Word team, then the release should have been put back. Seriously.</text></comment>