Day ... 2. 2 years after the original post. I have a few notes around Windows 8 during the first 8 days but piecing them together is just a pain.
Since then the ASUS laptop has given up the ghost. It was a nice little machine.
It was replaced by an HP All-in-one touchscreen which now sits in the lounge room beside the tv.
Caeden's little twin sisters wants to bug him everytime he logs on to Mathletics and Reading Eggs. Eventually the girls got their own trial Reading Eggs account.
We also have a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2 and a Lenovo Yoga 2 - both mentioned in the last post. Nobody bothers with the tablet 2 as there's 2 big ipad 2's, and old ipad 1 and Caeden got an ipad Mini ( we got for ANZ rewards ).
About Mac's : Weng refuses to give the mac. So she got a new Macbook Air during the last Mother's day after she the old Macbook Pro started misbehaving. I got that Old Macbook some decent upgrades (SSD,Battery,Memory) but that's another story.
Kid's Time : Now Windows 8.1 is a staple at the house. We get some decent use of the 'curfews' that can be set on the Family Safety account. Caeden does kumon and mathletics so he can have a 30 minute session on the computer. It develops that understanding that he must do work before he can play.
Primarily a Browser : I find he just uses it for Internet Explorer. The touchscreen bit helps on the quizzes in Reading eggs and Mathletics but we still need a keyboard there. I don't think the Win 8.1 experience will get away from it. Windows 9 is being planned now and it includes a return to the "Desktop / Start Menu" paradigm. :)
Network : The network discovery has been great with the Win 8. The printer and the NAS works plays pretty well with the router Telstra gave us.
Stability : I can't remember when it last crashed. And we often don't have to turn it off manually either. Waking it up is basically instant.
Exploration : Somehow it does not lend itself to much exploration. Caeden spends time on the Apple App Store on his ipad... but not on the Windows.
Other Windows Bits : The other windows bits don't get much airtime either. : News, Player, Camera, Calendar.
Anyway, wait another 2 years. Win 8 is a definite step up but it's not a must-have for Win 7 users. Wonder what Win 9 will bring. I wish my development tools is accessible on an RT. I'm looking forward to switching to a Windows phone from my Iphone. Since I last Posted Nokia got acquired by MIcrosoft and the new Nokia 930 is a good foreboding of things to come.
Monday, August 11, 2014
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Day 1 - Unboxing the Doggie
When Caeden and his mum complained that they're fighting over the macbook, it was time to buy a new PC. I also needed to do occasional PC-stuff as I've already thrashed my thinkpad t410s. For example, my facebook account's settings is schizophrenic and is a bit difficult to manage on the ipad.
It's good timing that Windows 8 just came out last month. Initial reviews seem ok. There's a few folks complaining about how 'confusing' it is, but that 's to be expected from a wide range of audience.
I've been holding out for a Microsoft Surface RT. But because it was a not full pledged PC, it was going to act as an ipad replacement for me. I figured Caeden can survive with one as he primarily needs it for ReadingEggs, NickJr and ABCKids. At 699$ it wasn't bad. But if I wanted to do the occasional PC stuff, I had to wait until January for the Surface Pro.
The Thinkpad Tablet 2 was interesting. But the digitizer just looked too business like. To tell you the truth, my former T410s was abysmal. I used to have really good Thinkpads when they represented the best of what the PC market had to offer. Things have gone downhill since then.
The Lenovo Ideapad Yoga is a very nice concept. It folds backward on itself to make a nice pad. I was half tempted to get them from the US as they're not available in Australia. I'll consider that if they ever get here.
So there it was. I needed a PC now. I saw this cheap ASUS. JBHifi had 15% off so I picked it up for 420$. It was thin, light and best of all.. Touchscreen! Build quality is excellent. Touchscreen was as responsive as an ipad. On a ultra-low volage Celeron, it wasn't going to win any bechmark contests. For what Caeden is going to use it for, I figured we didn't need the grunt. It had a 2GB memory and 128 GB storage. I don't even know if that's SSD. But I noticed that the power plug is a lot less conspicuous than a typical PC.
I just played with it in the store, took out my wallet and ask the guy if he can do better than 420$ just out of habit. He said no and I said yes.
Sat down with my 5 year old that night and we named it Sizzles. It was the name for a dog he wanted, but until his mum agrees to get one - he'll have to settle having a windows 8 as a pet. Took us maybe 20 minutes to get all the initial stuff out of the way. Some ASUS pre-loads, Microsoft Live registration SIZZLES@LIVE.COM, attached to the wifi network and took a grainy photo of a nicely satisfied wide-grinned kid for the user account.
I thought it was going to be a slow. It does hesitate in loading some apps. But one key stat was during one of the restarts... it took 4 seconds from no power to the Start Screen. Beat that windows 7 and OSx!
We put Reading Eggs on the initial screen and downloaded Cut the Rope and MonteZuma. I removed a few apps so Caeden can just pick the apps he needed.
It looks a little bit like this at the moment.
Caeden did a level of Reading Eggs. I had to remind him to use the screen when he was having trouble with the trackpad. "See you can touch this one now". He figures his computer is better than his mum's macbook pro because he can swipe it.
It's good timing that Windows 8 just came out last month. Initial reviews seem ok. There's a few folks complaining about how 'confusing' it is, but that 's to be expected from a wide range of audience.
I've been holding out for a Microsoft Surface RT. But because it was a not full pledged PC, it was going to act as an ipad replacement for me. I figured Caeden can survive with one as he primarily needs it for ReadingEggs, NickJr and ABCKids. At 699$ it wasn't bad. But if I wanted to do the occasional PC stuff, I had to wait until January for the Surface Pro.
The Thinkpad Tablet 2 was interesting. But the digitizer just looked too business like. To tell you the truth, my former T410s was abysmal. I used to have really good Thinkpads when they represented the best of what the PC market had to offer. Things have gone downhill since then.
The Lenovo Ideapad Yoga is a very nice concept. It folds backward on itself to make a nice pad. I was half tempted to get them from the US as they're not available in Australia. I'll consider that if they ever get here.
So there it was. I needed a PC now. I saw this cheap ASUS. JBHifi had 15% off so I picked it up for 420$. It was thin, light and best of all.. Touchscreen! Build quality is excellent. Touchscreen was as responsive as an ipad. On a ultra-low volage Celeron, it wasn't going to win any bechmark contests. For what Caeden is going to use it for, I figured we didn't need the grunt. It had a 2GB memory and 128 GB storage. I don't even know if that's SSD. But I noticed that the power plug is a lot less conspicuous than a typical PC.
I just played with it in the store, took out my wallet and ask the guy if he can do better than 420$ just out of habit. He said no and I said yes.
Sat down with my 5 year old that night and we named it Sizzles. It was the name for a dog he wanted, but until his mum agrees to get one - he'll have to settle having a windows 8 as a pet. Took us maybe 20 minutes to get all the initial stuff out of the way. Some ASUS pre-loads, Microsoft Live registration SIZZLES@LIVE.COM, attached to the wifi network and took a grainy photo of a nicely satisfied wide-grinned kid for the user account.
I thought it was going to be a slow. It does hesitate in loading some apps. But one key stat was during one of the restarts... it took 4 seconds from no power to the Start Screen. Beat that windows 7 and OSx!
We put Reading Eggs on the initial screen and downloaded Cut the Rope and MonteZuma. I removed a few apps so Caeden can just pick the apps he needed.
It looks a little bit like this at the moment.
Caeden did a level of Reading Eggs. I had to remind him to use the screen when he was having trouble with the trackpad. "See you can touch this one now". He figures his computer is better than his mum's macbook pro because he can swipe it.
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