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comment by speeding_snail
speeding_snail  ·  4541 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Microsoft announces Surface - a fully touch enabled interface
Sorry, but I just don't want Microsoft (or Google or Apple for that matter) in my devices, snooping my data and locking them up.

It does however look great. The I like the way they made it more usable as a semi-computer with the keyboard and the stand. This way you can actually get some work done with the thing insteead of just playing around (lets be honest, most tablets nowadays are big smartphones without the phone part, without any practical use cases).





howft  ·  4541 days ago  ·  link  ·  
You would be surprised how useful they can be. I've been using the iPad for a couple of years and it's fantastic for casual browsing and quickly finding an answer to something around the house.

I couldn't put my finger on any one particular thing tablets excel at compared to any other device, but overall I find them to be a very enjoyable, useful thing to have around. :D

mk  ·  4541 days ago  ·  link  ·  
The keyboard greatly increases my interest. We have an iPad, but I can't say that I enjoy using it that much. Typing on it seems awkward. IMHO it's ok for light browsing, but I do a lot of copy/pasting, and I really dislike the way that you copy/paste on it. Actually, that's why I still prefer a mouse to a touchpad.

I suppose most of my computer use consists of writing, so it's pretty often when I am using an iPad that I am reminded of what I can't do. Also, I'll sometimes switch from the iPad to my phone, because I want to make a note of something, or take a map route with me.

I think I'd do some Hubskiing with Surface. The UI will probably be much worse than the iPad, however. :/

speeding_snail  ·  4541 days ago  ·  link  ·  
A friend of mine said the same thing. Great for casual browsing, a bit of reading and looking up, but when you won't be writing your thesis on a tablet. You could, but you won't, just because it isn't made for that. Thats why I am pleasantly surprised by the addition of the keyboard. It makes it more usable for other stuff than quick browsing and looking stuff up.

Long story short, I didn't say that a tablet is useless, just that it is not as usefull as it could be (which might be fixed in part by the MS surface). As for the reason I don't want one, I'm paranoid :P

cc  ·  4541 days ago  ·  link  ·  
If you can unlock an Android tablet, you an replace it with cyanogenmod, which is an open-source version of Android that won't snoop on you (because you can view the source).

There's also the Vivaldi Tablet, which also runs plain Linux and uses entirely open-source software out-of-the-box.