Windows RT: ‘Obviously you can see it’s not optimized for a touch experience’

Ross Miller from The Verge talking about the final version of Windows RT on a Samsung tablet. The video is funny. Microsoft is screwed.



  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    What a mess. I love all the commenters who’re making excuses for whatever hasn’t been made useful for a touch interface.

    • D Pauw

      Yeah, I mean when you pick up a touch device you obviously think to put it into touch mode before you use Office. I mean, who doesn’t do that?! [/snark]

  • http://twitter.com/sinclairmacleod Sinclair Macleod

    A menu to change between portrait and landscape? Unbelievable.

  • http://twitter.com/forty2j Jim McPherson

    What a shame. I was really hoping Apple would have an actual innovator to compete against.

    • JohnDoey

      Microsoft is not an innovator. Compared to Samsung, Microsoft is a more ethical copyist is all. Don’t get carried away.

  • EzraWard

    Still not sure why The Verge has reporters that clearly don’t use or understand Windows at all doing the hands on for these things. What makes the video laughable is that Ross for whatever reason wants to change the screen resolution, and seems to think that you need to go to the control panel to change screen orientation. Facepalm.

    • http://twitter.com/hypothesard Hypothesard

      Well between High expectation of a TOUCH Driven device and Low expectation on Windows, any progress Microsoft might have made for their Surface branch will always have to pass such Basic snif tests (does It works like Past Windows, or like It should [Child-like mind])… until everyone agrees that Microsoft has indeed changed for the better (this time hasn’t come)…

      Let’s hope figure It out sooner than later

      • EzraWard

        I’m just not sure that looking to the desktop is useful in a video like that at all. We knew the desktop would be included for specialized uses. We already know that the desktop isn’t well suited for touch. Instead of testing ARM browser/app switching performance Ross runs to the legacy environment for whatever reason.

        • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

          The biggest problem though is it isn’t always voluntary to go into the Classic mode. They send people to it so it absolutely should work.

          • EzraWard

            Let’s be clear, to change some settings, you do have to enter the desktop. I was not aware that was the case beyond some (very specialized) cases. Mainly managing fonts, etc. I am not aware of any case where a person is compelled to use the desktop aside from things the vast majority of people don’t need or want to care about. My final little note is this: I like the fact that there is a desktop. I like the ability to do things with it that I wouldn’t be able to on my iPad or an Android tablet. Most people will not, as evidenced by iPad sales. My guess is most ‘average users’ will not use the desktop on the tablet.

          • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

            Notepad and Office were Desktop. Other apps will be as well. If you’re going to offer it, it should work. If you’re going to “force” it, it better work.

            I dig the idea of Windows 8, 100% excited about the possibilities it brings, but not with outright compromises like this. The hybrid system has great potential but “average users” will use desktop because they will be forced to, see my above references; unless you consider Office something “people don’t need or want to care about.”

          • EzraWard

            No, I think Office is something folks will care about. Home users, some will definitely. Office has been marginally updated to handle touch better, but Ross in that video didn’t even enable it(why it’s not enabled by default is up for debate). I see desktop as a ‘it’s there if you need that’ proposition. Microsoft never said that the desktop was meant for touch, just that it’s there when/if you need it. I tend to fall in line with their explanations and don’t see it as a compromise just as a nod to the users that will use the desktop(with a mouse most likely). Like you, I’m pumped at the possibility of hybrid devices. I really think a Surface Pro will replace my tablet, desktop, and laptop computers all in one.

            You know, these kind of debates about whether the way Windows 8 was designed right or wrong will go on for years. I should also note that I generally agree with this “Other apps will be as well. If you’re going to offer it, it should work. If you’re going to “force” it, it better work.” But I think that it works well enough to include it.

          • JohnDoey

            You can call up a Mac or Windows Desktop remotely from an iPad or iPhone very easily. And it will be a real Mac or real Windows, running on Intel but not draining your iPad or iPhone battery.

            What Microsoft did here is like a Linux tablet shipping with server software inside, so that you can run a Web server off of it and kill your battery and destroy your 3G/4G data bill. That is a stunt only. Desktops and servers should be on the other side of the network connection from your 700 gram ARM PC.

        • JohnDoey

          The Desktop plus MS Office is 75% of this device. The other 25% consists of about 5 preinstalled apps nobody wants and 100 3rd party apps nobody wants.

          What you are saying is like saying that Classic was not important in Mac OS X, or Rosetta was not important to the Intel Mac, or that iPod+iTunes was not important to iPhone.

    • JohnDoey

      All of the people who work at The Verge are technology enthusiasts. Therefore they are all running Macs since at least 2006 and iPhones since 2007.

      But you should not need Windows experience to use this tablet, because most of the people in the world do not have Windows experience. Mobile devices sell to a much larger market than the PC market.

      You do need to go to the Control Panel to change screen orientation in the device he is using. Apparently, the drivers for the accelerometer are not ready yet for that device. So the face palm should be reserved for Microsoft.

  • Lukas

    The main thing that’s funny is how he shows a Windows RT tablet for four minutes, spends three of those in the desktop mode, and explains how the DESKTOP mode (note the word DESKTOP in the mode’s name) is not optimized for touch. No shit, Sherlock.

    • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

      Yeah, I wish he hadn’t sat in Desktop mode the entire time.

      Even though it was Desktop mode, I’d expect a better touch interface; considering this is a touch device.

      • JohnDoey

        There is nothing new anywhere else. We have seen Metro for like 6 years now. There are about 100 Windows RT Metro apps that nobody wants.

        News, right? It has to be new. The Windows Desktop and Microsoft Office running on ARM is new, although nostalgic and retro also. Metro is not new. It is not news.

        A really great Metro app would be news.

        • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

          Sure there is. The building is final now and on actual hardware. Plenty to show.

    • D Pauw

      Might have something to do with how Office is in desktop mode and how Microsoft is pushing Office as the killer app (along with all the desktop apps that cannot work with RT by misleading people to think Windows 8 and RT have the same capabilities). If you don’t like the desktop take it up with Microsoft.

  • Caspercdn

    Way to go Mr. Softee. Can’t wait to see Balmer sell this to the masses. Nice to see Sammy whore themselves some more…

    • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

      Umm…you know Samsung has been making Windows products for years, right? This is just an evolution of their Windows history.

  • http://twitter.com/haymoose Larry Hay

    My God, the RT version of Mail is awful. Have you tried to mark mail as spam/junk? It is bad. The Settings in each program being in the hidden sidebar is awkward but I could get used to them.

    Please, Adding additional accounts or marking mail as Junk was a challenge, but I am trainable.

    There is no way large companies are going to buy in to this.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/A7WUTFGQK7YNIL4YRABIL7ENKA Dave

    My favorite line from the video: “”the touch menus are really not suitable for touch.”

  • nizy

    That’s the final build of RT that Microsoft will actually ship to consumers? No compromises…except all the compromises.

  • http://www.appleoutsider.de/ AppleOutsider.de – Sebastian P

    The only reason why Microsoft might not be screwed is if people are unable to find Desktop mode. You know like in that video with the guy’s dad who didn’t know how to find it.

  • JohnDoey

    What breaks my heart is the kids who are going to get given one of these by a well-meaning parent, while the neighbor’s kid has an iPad that can do everything. Both devices will cost the same, but the kid with Windows RT can be an accountant and that’s it. The other kid can be anything he or she wants to be. If they are musically inclined they can make a record with an iPad.

    You just get so little from the generic tech companies these days. Almost nothing. There are almost no 3rd party apps. And even your Web apps are compromised compared to what people get on an iPad.

  • Andrew Hopper

    LOL!…….what a shambles. So its basically mong Windows with a wrapper over the front? Doesn’t stand a chance, lets face it.