Reviews - Microsoft Surface with Windows RT

[dangel]

But not the other way round. Considering the pro tablet will run windows 8 like a desktop or mobile (ish) the RT seems like a expensive consumer experiment from Microsoft.

Not quite - an MUI app can potentially run on WP8, WRT and W8 as I understand it - I think that's the point.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Not quite - an MUI app can potentially run on WP8, WRT and W8 as I understand it - I think that's the point.

That was my point

[dangel]

That was my point

I agreed with you and quoted someone else (?)

[scaryjim]

The whole point of MUI is that developers can write programs that will work across all Windows platforms. Write it once, it runs on all Windows desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. That's a huge install base. Now all they need to do is create a free-to-download MUI application for Windows 7 (should be relatively simple to virtualise the runtime into a windowed mode I'd've thought) and that's a massive base install for developers to aim at, without having to write separately for all three platforms.

Or, you can write an application for Window 8 Desktop and accept that it will only work on x86 Windows 8 devices. But that's a different application market to MUI, and not getting those applications on Win RT and Win 8 Phone isn't really going to bother the developers, whereas being able to run all the mobile apps natively on desktops/laptops is a huge selling point for developers (seriously, I'm currently wondering if it's worth brushing up my programming skills as I can see the Windows MUI development market exploding...)

[j.o.s.h.1408]

The whole point of MUI is that developers can write programs that will work across all Windows platforms. Write it once, it runs on all Windows desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. That's a huge install base. Now all they need to do is create a free-to-download MUI application for Windows 7 (should be relatively simple to virtualise the runtime into a windowed mode I'd've thought) and that's a massive base install for developers to aim at, without having to write separately for all three platforms.

Or, you can write an application for Window 8 Desktop and accept that it will only work on x86 Windows 8 devices. But that's a different application market to MUI, and not getting those applications on Win RT and Win 8 Phone isn't really going to bother the developers, whereas being able to run all the mobile apps natively on desktops/laptops is a huge selling point for developers (seriously, I'm currently wondering if it's worth brushing up my programming skills as I can see the Windows MUI development market exploding...)

What IDE and lanuages must i learn/use to make some win 8 apps?

[mikerr]

The whole point of MUI is that developers can write programs that will work across all Windows platforms. Write it once, it runs on all Windows desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. That's a huge install base.

..and no doubt also on the next xbox too....

[dangel]

What IDE and lanuages must i learn/use to make some win 8 apps?

Visual Studio 2012 - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/wind.../br229512.aspx

[Noli]

Dangel I do not disagree with you but you have to look at what media are people actually consuming.
If most people are like me then what they consume in HD is all 1080p. I just do not think most people will want to downscale.

What format people are consuming media in is irrelevant. What HD is isn't a matter of opinion but fact. Dangel is right - high definition is defined as 720p or 1080i as well as 1080p.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television

People just seem to have forgotten this now that most quality media, especially blu-rays, are 1080p.

I don't want to downscale either but for a tablet it would be far from a deciding factor for me, especially as 1080p on a native screen is going to burn down the battery so much quicker. For quality media consumption it's always going to be my 1080p TV, 1440p monitor or, in the old days, my 1080p projector. All are a better experience than a tablet if you're being fussy about scaling, image quality etc.

[Michael H]

Can't help but think Microsoft are missing a trick having the ARM based Surface and the i5 based Surface Pro (which is 1080p for those debating the aspect ratio above) - but not a Clovertrail based device that would combine the form factor and battery life as the Surface(non-pro) and the x86 compatability and full Windows 8 experience of the Pro.

Any chance of a Hexus review of the Samsung ATIV 500T?

[borising]

Nice one Microsoft, It's going to dethrone the king

[MattEvansC3]

Dangel I do not disagree with you but you have to look at what media are people actually consuming.

If most people are like me then what they consume in HD is all 1080p. I just do not think most people will want to downscale.

If however most people are consuming 720p media or SD media then Surface will be fine.

Obviously I believe most people are like me - the alternative is that I am sane and it is the rest of the world that is mad!

As a HTPC enthusiast that does all his own encoding there's a lot to disagree with your post.

Resolution is nothing but a number with the quality actually coming from numerous things, one of the main ones being bit-rate which also affects video size. If you strip out the chapters and gubbins a like for like Blu-Ray rip still comes in at around 10-15GB for a 100 - 120min movie. Most media consumed on portable devices is compressed formats such as mp4 or MKV ranging from 1.5GB to 4GB (I always encode at 4GB).

During the compression process a lot of the fidelity is removed and the picture quality dulled. At the same file size a 1080p movie has inferior file quality to a 720p movie and with the pixel density of a small screen the difference between resolutions is negligible.

[harryj1995]

I can't wait until the windows surface pro comes out becasue the desktop on windows RT seems to be pointless