All the laptops, tablets, TV screens I have seen are measured diagonally. That's how it's always been done. Maybe that's not how it should be done. But it IS how it's generally done.
And I've got no problem with them saying their diagonal is bigger. But, to me at least, they can't say the screen is bigger and be on the "OK" side of even technical truthfulness.
Of course you can convert any iPad owner who is eager to have a usable keyboard and a great Office suite on her tablet so she can stop carrying both a tablet and a laptop with her everywhere.
Office suite, sure, but keyboard? In both cases, a physical keyboard is an add-on that you buy, and the quality of the keyboard is pretty much up to you to decide then.
Apple's 4:3 screen for tablets are outdated and completely unusable. 16:9 is the way to go for any modern computing device. 4:3 is terrible for watching HD videos or browsing websites -- all of which are made with a 16:9 screen in mind.
That’s true if you think tablets should only be used in landscape orientation. I like using the iPad in portrait mode, but on 16:9 screens portrait mode is very awkward for everything but reading novels.
As for smartphones: the maximum width of those screens is dictated by the average size of a human’s palm. If you make the screens wider than 2.5", for most people it will be uncomfortable to operate the phone with one hand. Look at the Galaxy Note[1] (which is 3.3" wide), it’s practically impossible to use with one hand.
For something you need to hold with both hands(which I assume how you use your iPad), I think the landscape orientation is more natural and comfortable. That's how we hold a book while reading lying down.
The vast majority of books are taller than they are high. It’s way more natural to read books on the iPad in portrait orientation, and that’s also how it’s shown in iPad commercials[1].
When you open a book (which is the only way you can read it!), it is definitely wider than it is tall. And hence I find it much more natural to hold a tablet in the landscape mode.
Most books have pages that are taller than they are high, the text blocks on those pages are definitely taller than they are wide. Paragraphs don’t run in one line from the verso to the recto[1]. A ‘page’ is one side of a sheet, you don’t read two pages at the same time.
>> Apple's 4:3 screen for tablets are outdated and completely unusable.
Is that a fact or an opinion?
>> 4:3 is terrible for watching HD videos or browsing websites -- all of which are made with a 16:9 screen in mind.
I also prefer watching videos in a widescreen format.. however, I prefer browsing the web in a portrait view. More often than not, the "side" of the web pages are used for navigation and ads. When it happens, I usually zoom on the content in the middle and read that in a portrait view.
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I think your opinion is valid but not the way you express it. It sounds very aggressive and also comes out like if it was a hard fact. (Which is not, it's your opinion)
That may be true, but that's not the claim that MS made.
If their ad had shown a VivoTab and an iPad side-by-side playing a widescreen movie, I wouldn't have had a problem with it. (In fact I would've agreed with them that the VivoTab is probably the better device for viewing widescreen movies).
Instead their ad claims that the VivoTab is "larger", "lighter", etc all of which are objectively incorrect.
> In fact I would've agreed with them that the VivoTab is probably the better device for viewing widescreen movies
Of course the VivoTab can only play scaled down 1080p video. That probably does not matter to most people, but I really don't think Microsoft wants to go down that road.
Windows 8 has been a ROARING success no matter which way you cut it. 100 million in 6 months is way more than any version of Mac OS or Google Chrome OS will EVER sell.
100 million licenses sold to OEMs and the retail channel. Actual sell-through is unknown. But even if we use these numbers, Windows 8 is much less of a success than Windows 7. Four years a go, there were half as many Windows PCs as there are now, but Microsoft sold the same number of Windows 7 licenses in the same amount of time.
Also, if PC sales are any indicator, consumers and businesses alike are not interested in Windows 8. Back when Windows95 was introduced, people were camping out in front of computer stores to get their hands on it. Are you willing to bet what percentage of Windows 8 sales are boxed upgrades?
This isn't four years ago. There are viable alternatives to a Windows PC, there's less reason to upgrade four year old computers, and people are understandably hesitant about buying a Windows tablet. It will take time for Microsoft to overcome these factors. It's still a success when you account for these things.
Was a brilliant presentation IMO. Maybe Sony's extremely disappointing PS4 event set the bar too low, but anyway this Xbox One announcement gave me goosebumps. The possibilities are endless. Let's see what they have saved for E3.
I think Vimeo deserves more love. It allows you to download videos too which is very handy. Windows Phone and Windows 8 users will be better off in the long run using Vimeo. I think Google has made it pretty clear by now that Windows users are not welcome in their ecosystem.
