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Isn't touch screen better than touch bar?
- Thread starter vmflapem
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Microsoft Surface Dial ads show the wonders you can create
As fascinating as the Surface Studio might be, without one particular optional accessory, it’s really just a gigantic, but well endowed, Surface tablet. Microsoft all-in-one computer’s spellbinding appeal is thanks partly to the Surface Pen but probably more importantly thanks to the odd but fancy Surface Dial remote control. And to hammer down on how game changing this little puck can be, Microsoft has released not one, not even two or three, but five ads that show how, with the right app mixed with the right tool, great things can happen.
When Microsoft unveiled the Surface Dial, one of the first apps it demoed was Sketchable. This third-party painting app made by a small startup exploded in popularity in the Windows Store, especially for the Surface Pro tablets, making it the perfect poster boy for the new device. In Sketchable, the Surface Dial takes on the role of a precision instrument, allowing artists to pick colors, select brush sizes, and rotate the canvas in a way that’s more precise than using touch but feels more natural than entering hard numbers.
Drawboard was another app that was showcased early on. Unlike Sketchable, Drawboard is more of a document editing and annotation app. That doesn’t mean, however, that it won’t have use for the Surface Dial. Particularly interesting is how its developers have taken advantage of the accessory’s round nature and turned it into a digital protractor.
Some within the same subject is Bluebeam, which is an engineering and architecture program. The interesting bit here is how the Dial becomes a sort of magnifying glass. When placed on the screen, its splits the view of the current document and where the Dial is place on one side will show zoomed up on the other side.
Mental Canvas takes the Surface Dial from 2D into the realm of 3D. While the Dial also functions like on Sketchable, allowing users to select colors and brush sizes at the twist of the, well, dial, it also has another function specific to Mental Canvas. In particular, it allows users to fly through the app’s unique 3D-esque space.
And if you thought that the Surface Dial makes sense only to visual creatives, StaffPad would prove you wrong. The music writing apps has already been featured before in Microsoft’s Surface Pro marketing, and here it’s back for the Surface Dial. As the app has no need for colors and brushes, the Dial takes on a different duty in StaffPad, aside from interface navigation and playback controls. Amusingly, it functions like a rubber, cloning notes and measures from one place to another.
While the Surface Studio itself won’t be available until next year, or late this year at the earliest, the Surface Dial will become available first. That’s because the rotary control can also be used by itself as a Bluetooth remote. That said, its magic really happens when you place it on a screen, but only the Surface Studio and, through a firmware update, the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, are supported.
As fascinating as the Surface Studio might be, without one particular optional accessory, it’s really just a gigantic, but well endowed, Surface tablet. Microsoft all-in-one computer’s spellbinding appeal is thanks partly to the Surface Pen but probably more importantly thanks to the odd but fancy Surface Dial remote control. And to hammer down on how game changing this little puck can be, Microsoft has released not one, not even two or three, but five ads that show how, with the right app mixed with the right tool, great things can happen.
When Microsoft unveiled the Surface Dial, one of the first apps it demoed was Sketchable. This third-party painting app made by a small startup exploded in popularity in the Windows Store, especially for the Surface Pro tablets, making it the perfect poster boy for the new device. In Sketchable, the Surface Dial takes on the role of a precision instrument, allowing artists to pick colors, select brush sizes, and rotate the canvas in a way that’s more precise than using touch but feels more natural than entering hard numbers.
Drawboard was another app that was showcased early on. Unlike Sketchable, Drawboard is more of a document editing and annotation app. That doesn’t mean, however, that it won’t have use for the Surface Dial. Particularly interesting is how its developers have taken advantage of the accessory’s round nature and turned it into a digital protractor.
Some within the same subject is Bluebeam, which is an engineering and architecture program. The interesting bit here is how the Dial becomes a sort of magnifying glass. When placed on the screen, its splits the view of the current document and where the Dial is place on one side will show zoomed up on the other side.
Mental Canvas takes the Surface Dial from 2D into the realm of 3D. While the Dial also functions like on Sketchable, allowing users to select colors and brush sizes at the twist of the, well, dial, it also has another function specific to Mental Canvas. In particular, it allows users to fly through the app’s unique 3D-esque space.
And if you thought that the Surface Dial makes sense only to visual creatives, StaffPad would prove you wrong. The music writing apps has already been featured before in Microsoft’s Surface Pro marketing, and here it’s back for the Surface Dial. As the app has no need for colors and brushes, the Dial takes on a different duty in StaffPad, aside from interface navigation and playback controls. Amusingly, it functions like a rubber, cloning notes and measures from one place to another.
While the Surface Studio itself won’t be available until next year, or late this year at the earliest, the Surface Dial will become available first. That’s because the rotary control can also be used by itself as a Bluetooth remote. That said, its magic really happens when you place it on a screen, but only the Surface Studio and, through a firmware update, the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, are supported.
Is that at a nudist colony?Touch Bar is a nice bar to hang out and have a cold beer !
You'd be surprised how much your shoulder and arm can fatigue. I use an iPP with the keyboard so I do have that experience now and depending on the task my arm does get sore and tired.
To me the TB will be a much more useful row of F keys. Maybe it would be better if there were raised areas on them so you could continue to touch type but having content relevant buttons on the TB makes a lot of sense to me. Even if there will be a learning curve.
Fair enough. For me I jumped ship for a while and was using a touchscreen Lenovo. After going back to a MacBook Air I found myself reaching out to touch the screen fairly often. I was surprised how used I got to it. Thats why I feel a MacBook with a touch screen would be the ultimate.
Touch screens with the traditional laptop form is not for me and makes little sense. I do see more functionality in screens that rotate back or flip. Also the Surface line seems like a solid solution where the screen/keyboard is detachable.
Having the screen front and center provides a much more usable and flexible form for touch.
Having the screen front and center provides a much more usable and flexible form for touch.
Being able to convert complex hand written notes instantaneously to text, edit or create hand draw complex flow diagrams directly in VISIO, reviewing & marking up technical documents/papers submitted for review are just a few examples of the benefit of Touch & Pen input. Microsoft will address the Surface Pen`s shortcomings in the next revision, improving the inking experience for "creatives" So some us might just be inclined to document directly on the display of a 2 in 1 as opposed to dealing with paper and needing to transcribe all to digital at a later point in time, wasting both time & money, with Pen & Touch input being more collaborative and intuitive.
Apple has just painted itself into a corner on the subject, with Apple fundamentally wanting is`s customers to purchase both Mac & iPad...
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Bought a Surface Book a while back, very much took me by surprise just how good a device it is. My only regret is not getting one sooner, The Surface Book also really illustrated to me just how far Apple is behind the curve. Don't have a need for the Surface Studio, however I am going either pick up a 2nd Surface Book with Performance Base or Surface Book 2
Surface Book is everything Apple should have done with the MBP, with a different OS...
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Apple has just painted itself into a corner on the subject, with Apple fundamentally wanting is`s customers to purchase both Mac & iPad...
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Bought a Surface Book a while back, very much took me by surprise just how good a device it is. My only regret is not getting one sooner, The Surface Book also really illustrated to me just how far Apple is behind the curve. Don't have a need for the Surface Studio, however I am going either pick up a 2nd Surface Book with Performance Base or Surface Book 2
Surface Book is everything Apple should have done with the MBP, with a different OS...
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Thanks. I guess.
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How do you get on with the OS?
The interviews I saw they said they tried a touch screen extensively and decided it was rubbish, that's their call with the information from their product testing.
I think the touch bar is a cool idea that may or may not be worth the effort, only time will tell on that, however Apple think it's a good solution and they get things spot on for many people much of the time.
If it's not your thing then it's time for a rethink about which computers you use.
I think the touch bar is a cool idea that may or may not be worth the effort, only time will tell on that, however Apple think it's a good solution and they get things spot on for many people much of the time.
If it's not your thing then it's time for a rethink about which computers you use.
Windows 10 is fast stable & secure, starts up near instantly on decent hardware, nor does it have high requirements. Biggest thing to take away is, Windows 10 is less forgiving of your mistakes and much depends on your usage/workflow etc. What I would recommend is avoid 3rd party "Snake Oil" App`s as they in general only cause more harm than good. Microsoft is surprising pretty good at getting things at least half right and they follow up fairly well. There is a lot buried in Windows 10, just need to dig it up and no need to spend out on 3rd party App`s.
I have aways done a clean installs of Windows and have always had very little issue with the OS as a direct result, nor do I fool about with the inner workings as once again more chance of doing more harm than good. Don't even worry about 3rd party AV, just run Malwarebytes on the off chance, same as my Mac`s with the same results Zero detections. A lot will depend on your browsing habits, for my needs Windows Defender is adequate, and I can back it up with other on-demand scanners. If more is needed Bitdefender is a solid performer.
Surface comes with a completely clean version of Windows 10 Pro, absolutely no bloatware, fully up and running my own Surface Book is lucky to break 70 processes, in comparison my Mac`s are close to 200 (OS X 10.10.5). No doubt Windows 10 is a complex beast, equally Microsoft have clearly been doing their homework on optimising the OS..
In summary my opinion is Windows 10 is a solid OS, you just want a clean install and little to no intervention from external sources i.e. bloatware, corporate images etc. the OS will remain to be stable. Truth be known my Surface Book is far more stable than any of my current Mac`s which are currently on OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 My decision to switch to Windows took over a year, primarily driven by Apple`s lack of effort with OS X and productivity, it became apparent to me that Microsoft was offering a more productivity focused OS with features that Apple will never bring to the table purely for it`s own selfish commercial reason. Another aspect is to research the hardware a little, as all PC`s are not equal, with some suffering buggy drivers etc.
First backup:
Microsoft Backup:
1 - Plug in external drive (should also work wirelessly as long as drive is mapped, NAS etc.)
2 - Settings - Update & security - Backup - Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7) - Create a system image
3 - Once the image of the drive is created you can copy & paste it about like any other folder (needs Admin rights) I just created a couple of folders on another larger drive to store the image folders. I deliberately reloaded my Surface Book from multiple backup images 4-5 times with zero issue, so am now confident the this is a solid solution.
Do this then you can play about with the OS as much as you want, having a safety net to fallback on.
FWIW I`ve been a Mac user for over two decades, bought numerous Mac`s for home & professional purpose. I still retain some Mac`s however I expect to depreciate them over time, barring maybe the rMB and will continue to follow the Mac`s progress. I just find now I an working in a more productive and dynamic environment, with a lot of the frustrations with Apple dissolving. Windows 10 is not perfect mind just better for my needs and I feel like I now have so much more choice. I also feel that Microsoft with it`s current team is heading in the right direction and responding to it`s customers needs Surface Book with Performance Base being a good example, who would have thought offering a slightly thicker more powerful device with extended battery life...
If you have a real interest drop me a PM, maybe this thread or start a new post in that forum, and let me know. As a lot of the guys here have no interest in Windows 10 etc. which is more than fair enough given it`s the MBP forum.
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As someone who has used windows primarily over the past decade and does development with mircosoft products it is not a stable platform for mobile machines. It is not reliable, and it is frustrating to use. This is with Microsoft hardware too (Surfacebook and Surface Pro). Windows 10 is not a very friendly laptop OS and you will end up frustrated as there is a greater chance when you open it up it's going to have run out of battery during sleep, or the keyboard won't work without a restart, or the display will stay black.
Surface Studio is touted as something revolutionary but Wacom has been doing this for years, and the pens Wacom uses are much, much, better than the MS pens, with there heavy weight, and batteries. I own a Surface 4, BTW. The dial is cool for sure, but doesn't compensate for the pen, which is primary.
Note: the problem with MS, is that battery-less pens only can work !00% if there's not metal at the borders, as there's EM interference. Also the screen component consumes a lot of power. Wacom though, builds their interfaces 'around the pens', instead of the pen as an addition.
So in essence, the MS stuff suffers the 'jack of all trades...' dilemma.
Note: the problem with MS, is that battery-less pens only can work !00% if there's not metal at the borders, as there's EM interference. Also the screen component consumes a lot of power. Wacom though, builds their interfaces 'around the pens', instead of the pen as an addition.
So in essence, the MS stuff suffers the 'jack of all trades...' dilemma.
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Well we will have to settle to disagree, as since Windows 7 SP 3 I have have very little issue with Microsoft`s OS. I am not a Dev, however I am an engineer with a fairly high knowledge of the system as a whole, once holding certifications on hardware and software. I currently have 3 Windows 10 systems none have sleep issues, I recently revived my wife`s old HP DV2 that I set up for her in 2009, absolutely a mess thx to the user
equally after about an hours work it`s good as new, which admittedly was never very good in the first place if I installed Windows 10 on it, things would likely improve vastly My own Surface Book has so far been impeccable, not one crash or glitch, no "hot bags" no issues with the soft detach, it`s even proving more stable than this 2014 13" high tier MBP which has just crashed out Safari, outstanding...
Personally what I believe is that you need to look at the system as a whole, if I thought for one second that the Surface Book was less stable than my Retina`s I would not be using one as these machine put the $$$$ on the table so to speak. I don't suggest Windows 10 is the great panacea and everyone should be running it by default as we all have differing needs, equally it not the disaster many would portray it to be, certainly not for me, and I seriously doubt that mine is a special one
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I believe that Microsoft is working on a rechargeable Pen with tilt sensor, improving the inking experience for "creatives" kind of expecting it to be released with the Surface book 2 with the Creators Update to Windows 10 next year. What I am really liking about Microsoft`s more recent approach is that they are really working with users and you can see a significant generational improvement in both hardware & software. Users wanted a more powerful dGPU in Surface Book and Microsoft delivered.
Going to pick up the Surface Dial as I can see use for that for my needs, interested in the global release of the Performance Base model and of course Surface Book 2 with NVIDIA 10 series dGPU.
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Really finger print smudges on the screen must be one of the weakest OCD like responses to not having a touch screen
Personally I can live with the occasional wiping of the screen vs increase risk of RSI of now trying to use a touch bar more than tradition function keys row
Moving around from just one typing position is simply good for you. Judging from all the negative responses we have seen of conventional clam shells vs the multitude of 2 in 1 configurations where one of the biggest counter argument was lap ability, which only encourages poor tying postures.
The chances are touch screens are more likely to be better for you in the long run if they encourage or break bad habits when typing on non touch clamshells
Having said this like our smart phones, cameras or laptops etc we simply enjoy and often revel in thier capabilities and features even if in reality we do not use them or only occasionally.
Having touch on your laptop may well fall in to the category of nice but I don't use it, not unlike the touch bar for many but at least you have the potential to hand literally.
We only have to wait on the software developers to inspire us eg the surface studio like many I have no idea what I can do with this but I would like one even just to give my back a rest or standing up and changing that screen postion
Personally I can live with the occasional wiping of the screen vs increase risk of RSI of now trying to use a touch bar more than tradition function keys row
Moving around from just one typing position is simply good for you. Judging from all the negative responses we have seen of conventional clam shells vs the multitude of 2 in 1 configurations where one of the biggest counter argument was lap ability, which only encourages poor tying postures.
The chances are touch screens are more likely to be better for you in the long run if they encourage or break bad habits when typing on non touch clamshells
Having said this like our smart phones, cameras or laptops etc we simply enjoy and often revel in thier capabilities and features even if in reality we do not use them or only occasionally.
Having touch on your laptop may well fall in to the category of nice but I don't use it, not unlike the touch bar for many
but at least you have the potential to hand literally.We only have to wait on the software developers to inspire us eg the surface studio
like many I have no idea what I can do with this but I would like one even just to give my back a rest or standing up and changing that screen postion
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Using a touchscreen on a laptop puts you arm in a very awkward position. My brother has an HP laptop with a Touchscreen and rarely uses it. In order for the touchscreen to be useful, it needs to be able to detach like the Surface or fold over. In both cases, Apple would end up competing with its own iPad.
In time we'll see better uses for the Touchbar. We're already seeing some good uses from 3rd party developers like Better Touch tools (allowing you to make your own touchbar buttons) and the 2 programs that allow you to put your dock on the touchbar. I'd say we have come pretty far in the short month that these models have been available.
In time we'll see better uses for the Touchbar. We're already seeing some good uses from 3rd party developers like Better Touch tools (allowing you to make your own touchbar buttons) and the 2 programs that allow you to put your dock on the touchbar. I'd say we have come pretty far in the short month that these models have been available.
I would like the option of having a touch screen. Bunch of times I've been filling out a form on my MBP and reached up to the screen to click the OK button. Force of habit from using my iPad Pro I guess. I wouldn't use the touch for everything, but would find it useful to mix it up with typing, touchpad navigating and clicking, and screen touch.
An aside -- is Windows 10 supposed to be a touch-friendly OS?
I have a work-issued Dell with Win10 -- no touchscreen, pretty much stock, fresh install with some security additions -- and I think the UI is terribly unfocused.
If this is what touchscreen laptops would be like, count me out.
I have a work-issued Dell with Win10 -- no touchscreen, pretty much stock, fresh install with some security additions -- and I think the UI is terribly unfocused.
If this is what touchscreen laptops would be like, count me out.
Exactly why we don't have a 2 in1 Mac, Apple once provided the very best hardware & software solutions experience for it`s users, 2016 Apple only serves the stockholder...
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