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    > but it is not beautiful, nor do I enjoy using it - or being seen using it.

The author needs to get over his gadget insecurities. I was actually on a plane last night coming back from vacation. On my left was a couple, she had an iPad and he had a MacBook, on the other side of the isle, two iPad users. Then I pulled out my Surface... none of the Apple users recoiled in horror or offered to let me use their iPad so I could see what I was missing. In fact none of them took notice, it was almost like they didn't even give a shit.

I mean, seriously, we're adults here, people. Our identities need not be tied to the "street cred" of our electronics devices. Don't want to be seen using a Surface? Good lord.

If you gave this guy a non-iPod mp3 player he's likely crap his pants with shame.

What a colossal turn around from Apple's "Think Different" marketing slogan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_different

To quote Steve Jobs:

When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is - everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.

I think that’s very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.

Would Jobs roll over in his grave knowing that Hipsters were embarrassed to pull out a device in a cafe because it's not the Hippest device?

It's socially expected to use business devices and do work on a plane. Same in Starbucks. In a nice quiet cafe by the sea that sort of thing is simply out of place.

I'm dubious that anybody that _truly_ values the tranquility of a nice quiet cafe by the sea makes much of a distinction when it comes to encroachment of superfluous technology (I lump both the iPad and Surface in that group) based solely on brand.

You have to admit how silly the following exchange between you and a nearby cafe patron would be if your scenario were actually articulated:

You: "Pardon me, would it bother you if I check my email and casually browse the web with my tablet?"

Cafe Patron: "Sure, go right ahea... oh, my mistake, I assumed that was an iPad, I'm sorry but that sort of device simply has no place here."

It's not about fashion-conscious style. Pulling out the Surface in a nice cafe to work in feels... awkward. Out of place. It's clearly a business device for office work, and doing office work in a cafe feels like an imposition. This is not true in Starbucks, but is in the more provincial cafes around here.

Word autosave isn't good enough. Here's what happens regularly: I leave Word open without manually saving for days in the background without realizing. Eventually the Surface decides to reboot itself for an update or runs out of power. The next time I open a Word document from an email attachment during a conference call some stupid side bar pops up with a number of revisions of documents that I instincively ignore. Cancel, go away! I'm busy! Oh, now I've lost that work.

I've retrained myself always to save the 'recovered' copies now, and then manually check whether it's newer or older than the last 'saved' copy. I shouldn't have to do that.

I really, really wanted to like the Surface. Just check my previous posts and tweets about it. I still use it, but I am also disappointed.

| It's not about fashion-conscious style. Pulling out the Surface in a nice cafe to work in feels... awkward. Out of place.

This is your own hangup and has nothing to do with the tablet.

Do you remember the Surface teaser advert? The design language of the device is about aggression, dominance, edge. This is socially out of place in some settings.

Also, I'm entitles to my social hangups. We live in a social environment, not a vacuum.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but even then, who are you to judge someone or something else? This is the exact problem with the computer ecosystem right now (and more often than not, the Apple cult). I understand that you care how it looks, but to go as far as to care how others might perceive the device you chose to accomplish your work? Why would you care - let alone let it influence your decision - on what to buy, what to wear, or what to use?

Be your own person, because half of your "critiques" are based on how you think other people perceive you.

>This is your own hangup and has nothing to do with the tablet.

A few things.

First, that's rude, especially to someone who's taken the time to express an honest view.

Second, he never claimed to be speaking on behalf of some objective viewpoint. This is clearly an opinion piece, and it's redundant to say, "Well, that's your opinion." Of course it is!

Third, and this bears repeating: his opinion is valid and useful in-and-of itself. It doesn't need to be "correct", and you don't need to agree with it for that to be so. What you did there was attempt to invalidate his viewpoint, his reaction. It is a form of control, of bullying, and you should be ashamed of yourself for trying it.

What on earth are you ranting about ?

It IS his own hangup if he feels uncomfortable using a laptop in a cafe. Millions of people do it every single day and see no issue.

Word autosave isn't good enough...some stupid side bar pops up with a number of revisions of documents that I instincively ignore.

You are mixing up Auto Save with Auto Recover. In Word, your first line of defense is explicitly saving the document. Perhaps if clicking the button is too difficult you could hit Ctrl-S? That's what I do.

Failing explicitly saving your document, you could program Word to Auto Save your document every minute if you wanted to. This doesn't bring up (or even create) different revisions of the document. It literally is just as if you clicked the Save button (or hit Ctrl-S).

Failing the Auto Save - maybe you have it set to 10 minutes and you typed for 9 minutes when your computer crashed? You have Auto Recover. That's where Word automatically detects that Something Bad happened and shows you the last few times it made a copy of your Word environment for you (which includes your document).

So, three levels of protection that work pretty well for most people.

some stupid side bar pops up with a number of revisions of documents that I instincively ignore. Cancel, go away! I'm busy! Oh, now I've lost that work.

Perhaps you would be less busy if you weren't ignoring popups that were attempting to help you save your work.

My honest assessment is that you want your real work on Surface to be as easy and fun as your Subway Surfers on iPad.

I think you summed up exactly what's wrong with the Microsoft approach to documents here.

In Pages, or Google Docs, it's just a document. It's always saved, always up to date, it just works.

That's the future.

In Pages, or Google Docs, it's just a document. It's always saved, always up to date, it just works

I have a friend that uses Google Docs. He once sent me a link to a Google Docs spreadsheet.

I got lost in the user interface at one point and ended up seeing the list of all of his documents. I clicked on one thinking it was the correct one and loaded what appeared to be on quick notice a journal of various medical problems he's been having.

That's the future.

You're right. The future is people using technology that they don't want to be bothered to learn and thereby having it do things that nobody (especially them) intended. I'm sorry you lost a document but you fell through 3 failsafe levels and did it to yourself. Pretending things like that don't happen to Google Docs is ridiculous and shows your true bias.

"The future" also has half the power, speed and features too.

Also, it obviously doesn't "just work" for you because you couldn't even use Google Docs in your place of business.

That's pretty much why I avoid office. Just save, don't interrupt me, or reqire me to wet things up, just get out of my way.

There's no reason it can't be "easy and fun" like on an ipad apart from years of "this is how it's always been".

There's no reason you can't use non-Office programs on a Surface either.

Unfortunately for people who don't like Office - there'r no good alternatives if you want to conduct business in the environment where Office is most widely used.

"It's clearly a business device for office work, and doing office work in a cafe feels like an imposition."

Better tell my girlfriend. She's a nanny. I just knew she should have bought an iPad.

> This is an example of one of your contrived reasons. Word auto-saves at a user-definable interval. It also creates AutoRecover files at a regular interval. I've had situations like power outages hard shutdown my computer and AutoRecover restores them up to the second.

It sounds like he has lost work several times, which would mean that it's a valid complaint. If there is a setting to auto save then either it's not on by default, or for some reason it doesn't work for him. Both reasons would still make his complaint valid.

It sounds like he has lost work several times, which would mean that it's a valid complaint.

I would've thought so too until you read how he purposely clicked Cancel on prompts attempting to help him save his work because he was "too busy".

If there is a setting to auto save then either it's not on by default

There is such a setting, and it is on by default.

for some reason it doesn't work for him

Unfortunately when you're a Device Hipster it's easier to find things to dislike about Surface and like about iPad.

> I can do more with the Surface, but it is not beautiful, nor do I enjoy using it - or being seen using it.

That might sound childish, but you can't dismiss it. It is one thing to be seen with a device that other people like. The original iPhone was a conversation starter, just like the iPad when it came out. You can pull out a Thinkpad from 10 years ago in a full Starbucks if you like, but most people wouldn't enjoy doing it - and even apologize for it, if they got curious stares.

It is human nature and cannot be avoided. Kudos to the author for even daring to mention it.

Besides, if it is not "cool" and "trendy", there will be (and already is) an effect on sales.

"You can pull out a Thinkpad from 10 years ago in a full Starbucks if you like, but most people wouldn't enjoy doing it - and even apologize for it, if they got curious stares."

What on earth are you on about?

http://www.thinkwiki.org/w/images/8/8a/ThinkPadT30.jpg

Yes. I'm sure people would "apologize for [daring to] pull it out in a Starbucks".

Seriously - what are you on?

"Kudos to the author for even daring to mention it."

No. Nor to you.

-- signed, someone who owns an iPhone 5, an iPad 4 and a RMBP.

Word does. What about the other apps? What about backups?