Keep My rMB or Exchange It for the SP4? (1 Week Left on Return Period)

[ahostmadsen]

As far as I understand IMessage is not a normal sms message app . I can't check as it's not available here but you should be able to txt via Cortana using normal sms service.

In the US, with T-mobile (I think it's also coming to other carriers?) ordinary sms can be sent through iMessage on Macs (if you have an iPhone). I didn't see about Cortana and sms. The only thing I read is that MS plans to implement something similar to iMessage, IF you have a Windows phone.

 

[SteveJUAE]

In the US, with T-mobile (I think it's also coming to other carriers?) ordinary sms can be sent through iMessage on Macs (if you have an iPhone). I didn't see about Cortana and sms. The only thing I read is that MS plans to implement something similar to iMessage, IF you have a Windows phone.

I can see part of the convenience of imessage on the IPhone or your laptop ie if you sender has an iphone and is in wifi range it will use imessage opposed to sms but given all the other message apps functions and they are so wide spread now imessage is more of a novelty for IPhone owners as much as BB messenger was although that had better encryption

Will try and find the Cortana message set up for you

 

[SteveJUAE]

Will try and find the Cortana message set up for you

Sorry for the delay, been away for a couple of days

I managed to get Cortana working in my region it was easy to set up to send SMS (not Imessages) via my Android phone, IPhone should be the same

All you need to do is have the same phone number registered to your Microsoft account and obviously "people app" must have your contacts which is simple to link to most accounts there even a dedicated icon for gmail and Icloud accounts

Additionally when you put Cortana on your iPhone or Android phone you can receive miss call notifications on your laptop and Cortana immediately comes up with send a sms message with a pre filled in reply

Maybe not as comprehensive as Imessages with call answering on your laptop, yet , but given the greater flexibility and cross platform when combined with Skype and skype messages and other popular imessaging apps you will be far less restricted than having to have everyone in your group with the same OEM/brand

 

[SteveJUAE]

I can't speak for ahostmadsen, I can give my input based on the limited experience I had owning the SP4. For me it's SP4 to iPhone that is the issue. Now I know that you can get push email on the SP4 w/ the Mail App, I know you can use Google Calendar so that your iPhone and SP4 stay in sync, I know putting iTunes on the SP4 will take care of syncing music, etc. You even explained that you can download iCloud for Windows to take care of Photos, Contacts, etc. I'm sure you probably can take care of most "Apple Eco" issues on the SP4 through the use of Apps, Programs, etc. That's not the point.

Most of us who aren't using our rMB/SP4 as a work device are limited on the

amount of time we spend on it. We, well I know I, spend 8+ hours a day on a different device for our work duties. When I get off I have limited time on my rMB if any, so convenience is big for me. When you turn on a rMB and sign into iCloud, everything is instantaneous. My contacts, calendar, notes, iMessages, reminders, etc are all right there ready to use as well as mimics what's on my iPhone. I can create a new reminder from my Mac and its automatically on my phone. I can get a text message from a friend, my iPhone can be in another part of the house, yet I will still get the alert on my rMB and can respond right from it. My kids have iPads and use FaceTime, I can answer them from any of my Apple devices. I don't have to put my rMB down and go and locate my phone. This includes phone calls which I can answer right from my rMB. Yeah, Yeah I know, I can get Skype on The SP4 and install Skype on my kids' iPads. That's not the point, the point is convenience.

For some the convenience of everything just working is advantageous. Spending time researching and installing programs to create the best sync environment possible between an iPhone and SP4 may not be desirable for some people. And when they have to make changes for everyone in the house, it's even more of an inconvenience. Now I don't claim to have done much research on synchronization between iPhone and SP4, but from many reviews/impressions I've read, many consider it a disadvantage owning a SP4 over a rMB if you have other Apple products. Doesn't mean it's not possible, just not as seamless. For some people, "Apple Eco" convenience is a big deal. Even more so in a house full of Apple devices

Whilst I appreciate and understand what you like about the ECO in the 4 walls of your house the simple fact is it all starts to crumble one you step outside and obviously your placing familiarity over alternatives

Whilst there is this perception it's easy plug and play in the Apple ECO in truth it's not and you will be surprised how many this functionality is simply lost on.

I think you seem to be under some miss conception that these apps on Windows have to be run each time you switch on, but its not the case, once install like any app they are simply there working in the background like Apple pre-installed apps.

I can appreciate it's easy to give up and not explore further, I have done it many times with OSX, however I have always stuck it out for several months or more with IOS products (Ipads/Iphones) until they eventually completely naffed me off

One nice thing for me about the rMB, and something that has long kept me from moving to the Surface Pro, is the software and operating system.

One thing that is important to me is security.
1. By just clicking a button, I can easily encrypt my hardrive and any external drives I connect to the computer. None of these passwords have to be shared with Apple or anyone else.
2. Using DEVONthink (personal information manager), I can securely sync all of my data through Dropbox with other Macs (everything is encrypted).
3. Using DEVONthink, I can easily sync securely with my iPad without having to go through the cloud (wifi or bluetooth sync).
4. TimeMachine automatically backs up everything in the background and it is encrypted. Wow.

.

I think if you look a little harder you would realise there are the same options for your points above although the very popular Evernote may not be as a full AI PIM an DEVONthink, but then this is not your work laptop.

I certainly do not wish to digress in to a OS comparisons as it's been flogged to death but both OS's offer similar options some are stronger that the other, both platforms are good and use the one your most comfortable with

 

[palpatine]

Whilst I appreciate and understand what you like about the ECO in the 4 walls of your house the simple fact is it all starts to crumble one you step outside and obviously your placing familiarity over alternatives

Whilst there is this perception it's easy plug and play in the Apple ECO in truth it's not and you will be surprised how many this functionality is simply lost on.

I think you seem to be under some miss conception that these apps on Windows have to be run each time you switch on, but its not the case, once install like any app they are simply there working in the background like Apple pre-installed apps.

I can appreciate it's easy to give up and not explore further, I have done it many times with OSX, however I have always stuck it out for several months or more with IOS products (Ipads/Iphones) until they eventually completely naffed me off



I think if you look a little harder you would realise there are the same options for your points above although the very popular Evernote may not be as a full AI PIM an DEVONthink, but then this is not your work laptop.

I certainly do not wish to digress in to a OS comparisons as it's been flogged to death but both OS's offer similar options some are stronger that the other, both platforms are good and use the one your most comfortable with

hi. it is my work laptop. i have windows computers, and actually prefer them for some things, such as microsoft office. in general, i think you can say "use the one you are most comfortable with," but for the specific points raised, you cannot. i don't really care much for os battles based on ideological / philosophical/ aesthetic differences -- i have particular needs that don't seem to be met by windows products. that's all.

1. evernote
evernote is not secure enough for my needs. they only use encryption for transmitting files. at rest, everything is unencrypted. you can encrypt blocks of text, but this is quite cumbersome with tens of thousands of files. the only way to encrypt an entire note is to use a third-party application, which gives that third party unrestricted access to your entire account. again, this is not secure enough for my needs. there is no way to encrypt notebooks. there are other issues with evernote, but this is the biggest roadblock for me.

2. devonthink
please tell me of any other personal information manager that can sync with encryption. i know of one possibility on windows (filemaker) and three on mac. filemaker is an amazing app, but quite complex, and really ill-suited for managing my data -- it's made for doing different stuff at the corporate or university level (it is also priced that way). however, it is, indeed, an option i could consider.

3. searching
there is nothing, as far as i know, that can handle chinese and japanese (obviously, basic searches work, but advanced ones with third party software, as far as i can tell, perform poorly). indexing external drives also appears to be out of the question. if anyone knows of anything, i am all ears.

 

[SteveJUAE]

hi. it is my work laptop. i have windows computers, and actually prefer them for some things, such as microsoft office. in general, i think you can say "use the one you are most comfortable with," but for the specific points raised, you cannot. i don't really care much for os battles based on ideological / philosophical/ aesthetic differences -- i have particular needs that don't seem to be met by windows products. that's all.

Sorry from your original postings you seem to imply this was not your work laptop, however I think the problem is as you specifically note is with some software requirements that you have which are probably not equally available on Windows or cost prohibitive and this is not specifically the Surface Pro short coming's or any other similar laptop

I'm surprised knowing your requirement that you even tried the SP4 given this being high on your priorities and was known beforehand .

I'm more surprised that given the size of Chinese/Japanese speaking community there is not the software you require although I suspect it's not available in an English interface other than what multinational companies use which are not out of the box solutions for windows and probably are non existent for Apple.

 

[palpatine]

Sorry from your original postings you seem to imply this was not your work laptop, however I think the problem is as you specifically note is with some software requirements that you have which are probably not equally available on Windows or cost prohibitive and this is not specifically the Surface Pro short coming's or any other similar laptop

I'm surprised knowing your requirement that you even tried the SP4 given this being high on your priorities and was known beforehand .

I'm more surprised that given the size of Chinese/Japanese speaking community there is not the software you require although I suspect it's not available in an English interface other than what multinational companies use which are not out of the box solutions for windows and probably are non existent for Apple.

hi. maybe mixed up with someone else? i don't remember mentioning the surface pro as a non-work laptop for me (if only i had the dispensable income to comfortably purchase thousands of dollars of computer equipment every year!). and, i used the surface pro 2 for a month or so, bought the surface pro and returned it (for other reasons -- i tried to ignore the security and search issues), and i have used the surface pro 4, though i never bought it (security and search).

as for security, i wasn't aware of the microsoft 10 issue with the encrypted drives until it broke in the news a few days ago. the other stuff with security i knew or could kind of work around. i suspect there is a way around giving microsoft the encryption key as well, perhaps by re-encrypting the drive or something. at any rate, this is another reminder about how great apple is doing with security. i like to see people out there complaining about cook, because it suggests that he is actually doing a good job on security -- so good that governments (china and the us) are trying to legislate broken encryption. the silence with microsoft is telling.

the search problem may be my own ignorance, but in my experience, development for windows (at least, stuff i use) is stagnating in japanese. some of my software gets nothing more than maintenance updates and other stuff is ten or more years old now. i used to have great search software, but the company seems to have folded. it might be a mistaken impression, but it seems to me that resources have largely shifted to mobile solutions, none of which are feature-rich enough to meet my needs.

my needs, by the way, are fairly mundane, and easily covered by houdahspot and/or spotlight on the mac. an inexpensive front-end for spotlight (houdahspot) seems to trump everything i've tried on windows. weird.

strictly speaking, my issues are not with the surface pro, but as it might solve my syncing security oroblem (tablet + computer), it is actually (in this respect) superior to the rmb for my workflow. i'm just one search software and one security software (encrypted disks) away from seriously considering the surface pro. but, again, this problem highlights how great the appleverse is -- stuff does just work, and i appreciate how few hassles i have trying to do pretty straightforward stuff.

 

[SteveJUAE]

hi. maybe mixed up with someone else? i don't remember mentioning the surface pro as a non-work laptop for me (if only i had the dispensable income to comfortably purchase thousands of dollars of computer equipment every year!). and, i used the surface pro 2 for a month or so, bought the surface pro and returned it (for other reasons -- i tried to ignore the security and search issues), and i have used the surface pro 4, though i never bought it (security and search).

as for security, i wasn't aware of the microsoft 10 issue with the encrypted drives until it broke in the news a few days ago. the other stuff with security i knew or could kind of work around. i suspect there is a way around giving microsoft the encryption key as well, perhaps by re-encrypting the drive or something. at any rate, this is another reminder about how great apple is doing with security. i like to see people out there complaining about cook, because it suggests that he is actually doing a good job on security -- so good that governments (china and the us) are trying to legislate broken encryption. the silence with microsoft is telling.

the search problem may be my own ignorance, but in my experience, development for windows (at least, stuff i use) is stagnating in japanese. some of my software gets nothing more than maintenance updates and other stuff is ten or more years old now. i used to have great search software, but the company seems to have folded. it might be a mistaken impression, but it seems to me that resources have largely shifted to mobile solutions, none of which are feature-rich enough to meet my needs.

my needs, by the way, are fairly mundane, and easily covered by houdahspot and/or spotlight on the mac. an inexpensive front-end for spotlight (houdahspot) seems to trump everything i've tried on windows. weird.

strictly speaking, my issues are not with the surface pro, but as it might solve my syncing security oroblem (tablet + computer), it is actually (in this respect) superior to the rmb for my workflow. i'm just one search software and one security software (encrypted disks) away from seriously considering the surface pro. but, again, this problem highlights how great the appleverse is -- stuff does just work, and i appreciate how few hassles i have trying to do pretty straightforward stuff.

Yes sorry it's this auto double quoting screwing things up

What recent issues with the encrypted drives ?

Sorry I can't help with your specific software requirements way outside my area as it's handled at a corporate level

 

[palpatine]

Yes sorry it's this auto double quoting screwing things up

What recent issues with the encrypted drives ?

Sorry I can't help with your specific software requirements way outside my area as it's handled at a corporate level

the initial reports suggested there was no way to prevent your encryption key from being sent to microsoft. it looks like that is possible after all, though a pain, as one might expect.
http://arstechnica.com/information-...our-encryption-key-heres-how-to-take-it-back/

the other issues may have solutions. i'm on the lookout. satisfied with my rmb, for now, but prefer to have options.

 

[SteveJUAE]

the initial reports suggested there was no way to prevent your encryption key from being sent to microsoft. it looks like that is possible after all, though a pain, as one might expect.
http://arstechnica.com/information-...our-encryption-key-heres-how-to-take-it-back/

the other issues may have solutions. i'm on the lookout. satisfied with my rmb, for now, but prefer to have options.

Ahh the keys not really hard to fix and you can just delete them if you wish or generate a new key and not send it to MS.

I think more of the fuss was MS did not make it obvious this was the case especially with devices with Bitlocker on by default