Microsoft and Surface Tension

Before I begin, I'll admit something that I consider a deep dark secret.

I LIKE the Surface. I don't love it. I LIKE IT! That alone is an unpopular opinion.

I think the Microsoft's homemade tablet has a lot of potential to smash in to the computing market like a wrecking ball (insert miley cyrus track here), but some bonehead moves are keeping it from realizing it's full potential.

I honestly think that the potential with the Surface tablets lies with the fact that they are effectively tablets for PEOPLE WHO WANT TO GET THINGS DONE. They are tablets for creators, not just consumers. As such, they are a major wrench in the tablet market engine.

Sure you have the potential to create on other tablets (iPad, GalaxyTab, Nexus, etc) but it's often limited by weak third party applications and complicated connectivity issues. They are marketed as tools to help consume content. Apps, Games, Music and Videos are the main purpose. This is no secret.

Microsoft came in with a different tune. They knew that content consumption was a cornered market and breaking in was going to be a challenge. Instead they went a different route. Yeah, you can consume on these surface devices too....but you can ALSO CREATE. Running a full desktop OS allows for a lot of flexibility with application and periphreal support. Photoshop, Pro-Tools, Vegas, etc. All of that would run on this small tablet with a keyboard you can throw in your bag. It was a thin and light laptop with a touch screen. The idea seems great.  I mean the main accessory for this thing is a keyboard. How much more work oriented could you get?

Microsoft then made the huge mistake of ignoring this fact almost immediately and targeting content consumers as their ideal audience. All of the advertising seemed centered around "COOL" dancing and interaction rather than the potential of the device. With the prices the way they sat, nobody was going to buy a surface OR a surface pro when they could get a cool iPad instead.

Another problem came with the RT version of the tablet. RT was an ARM based version of the Surface. It could only use apps from the windows store, and it had a Desktop mode which was effectively worthless because you couldn't run the same windows apps you could on your computer. This was their targeted consumption device. It ran awfully, lacked an ecosystem, and was no competition for iPads or Android equivalents.

Worse yet, Microsoft managed to cannibalize their own sales. Why would anybody buy a Surface RT when they could get a Pro for small premium. The Pro does EVERYTHING, and it does it well. The Surface RT is a monstrosity that should not have ever existed. It's only advantage over the more powerful brother was that it was a bit thinner and lacked a "noisy" fan. As expected, the tablet sold terribly and Microsoft lost millions on the launch. I thought they had learned their lesson then and there.

You can imagine my horror when I heard that the Surface 2 was coming in an RT flavor as well. Microsoft does not even come close to having the required ecosystem to make this work. Sure it's a low priced surface tablet, but it lacks the functionality that makes the surface great. For the same price, I can get a Nexus 10 and enjoy my content with a couple hundred bucks lining my pocket. I could also spend a bit more and get a larger library of content with an iPad.

The Surface Pro, on the other hand remains a great tablet PC for people who want to make things happen. The new ads focus on this, and it seems Microsoft is getting the message now. I have some ideas about their long term plans for the RT platform but regardless, the Surface RT is a mistake. It's their biggest mistake and it is tainting the amazing potential that lies in the Surface brand. I hope Microsoft knows what they're doing and bails out before it's too late. I would love to see the Surface succeed and I'm eagerly awaiting a Nokia made Microsoft branded Surface Phone. Yes Please.

Hardware Concept - One Stop Dock

Portable computing has come a long way in recent years. Where 6 years ago, our only option for portable computing was a heavy laptop computer, now we have devices that fit in our pockets that can do everything we need on the road.

However, this abundance of devices poses a possible problem. There's too many of them! I'll give an anecdote to explain further:

When I left for college, my family bought me a laptop computer, coincidentally the one I am still using today. Later during the HP fire sale, I bought a HP TouchPad tablet and flashed Android on it. I also have an Android smartphone.

Back home, I had a mid range desktop PC. While the specs are a bit dated, it still outperforms my laptop when it comes to things like 3D gaming or video editing. However, since my life at school needed portability, all of my programs, settings, and files were set up ideally on my laptop. When I came home, even in the presence of my more powerful gaming computer with the larger screen, I was still on my laptop most of the time. I only reluctantly turned my desktop on when I wanted to play a game. Talk about first world problems.

Now I propose a solution to this. One device with all settings, that can be "upgraded" at will. Basically you have your tablet or laptop computer with it's limited specs. However, since it's portable you have all of your settings on there. Sure, cloud helps to bridge this gap but it's still not really enough.

Now imagine you have the option to dock this in a setup with much higher specifications. When docked, the system would ignore the onboard specs (or combine them a la SLI or something) and gives you the full scale performance you expect from a larger more permanent computer. That would be amazing!

The dock could be configurable like a standard desktop. You would have all the ports and features you dont get from a smaller tablet or laptop. You could even do things like install stand alone drives in the computer that back up the entire OS using the built in hardware, while you use the dock's hardware to do your work / gaming.

Click to embiggen and read my musings.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine that dock now becomes a home mainframe device. You access content on your portable device from the living room TV via wifi or something. Suddenly you only need one device and some (hopefully standardized) accessories.

I know this gets kinda sketchy but, now lets go to the maximum of extravagance and wastefulness that makes America awesome. Imagine you take that main tablet with you and dock it when you get home. But WAIT! you want to watch movies on the couch and browse with it but you want to keep the tablet docked to charge / backup / someone else is using it/ etc.

There's a type of computer called a zero client device. Basically its a barebones computer that relies on a mainframe to run it's OS. Take that, apply it to a tablet (bare bones, low specs, basically running from the dock / main device combo). Now you can browse on the couch and not mess with anything else. The best part - these devices could come extremely cheap because they will be used for light activity and don't need onboard storage.

Anyways, this is what I see as the future of personal computing. It's not really Post-PC, but rather PC+. Because you know what? I LIKE a tactile keyboard and high power, and I won't be giving that up anytime soon.

Software Idea - Google Drive Consolidation

About a week ago, Google unveiled their new cloud storage solution, aptly titled "Google Drive". All they really did was take the existing Google Docs service and add the ability for desktop syncing and allowed different file types to be uploaded. I'm pleased with the way it turned out, however I do have some desires for future versions of the software.

First off, I should discuss how Google divides storage among users. I was bored in class last week and came up with this very rough estimate for storage allocation:

• Gmail - 10Gb
• Google Drive - 5Gb
• Google Play Music - About 80Gb (Assuming 20,000 songs uploaded at aproximately 4Mb/song)
• Picasa Storage - Unlimited Pictures and Videos (1gb if over size constraints)
• YouTube - Unlimited Videos within size constraints

Total storage - 96Gb MINIMUM

This is very generous of Google and I assume that the ad revenue they make from users make these services pay for themselves. However, as an average user who has been dabbling in Chrome OS a bit, I have some concerns.

On my Windows PC, I am very anal about my file structure. I have hundreds of organized folders and subfolders that really do help increase my productivity. I feel like Google Drive should be Google's version of my obsessive compulsion. For example, here is how I have my Drive folder structure at the moment: 

Google has all of this space spread across all these different services, but in order for Chrome OS to become a true desktop replacement, people are going to want to access all of their content in ONE place. Drive should be the hub for all the content across Google services. The would not even have to redistribute the space. They could simply automatically do the file structure for users based on the services they sign up for. If a user uploads an MP3 to Drive, there will be a meter at the bottom saying "you have used # of your allowed ## songs" (similar to the bottom of the Gmail page). Though the MP3 will show on drive, it will actually be uploaded to Google Play Music (if the user puts it in the music folder and it has a specific file type). When a user clicks on a song, it would redirect them to their Google Play Music page. Similarly Videos would redirect to YouTube, Documents would open in Docs, and Emails would open in Gmail. All drive should do is give the user the ability to see what content they have submitted to Google in one dashboard location. Sharing could be managed here much easier than going between so many different service home pages. It becomes a little overwhelming.

What I would eventually like to see is Google just take the 96+ GB or whatever and give it to users as straight space. I will never EVER use 10Gb in Gmail, but I may have more than 5Gb of Documents and random files. I understand this defeats the purpose of drive, as they want people to purchase more space, but it's a nice pipe dream to consider. The best step Google could make for Drive right now is to make it the aggregate of your entire Google existence.

In addition, I realize the ability to have all uploaded files in one place may be a concern for Google in terms of piracy or corruption. I think the lists shown under the media folders (music, videos, etc) would be READ ONLY and when clicked would be directed to the particular service that deals with those files. There would have to be some sort of barrier so that if someone wanted to just upload a file for sharing and not public viewing, they would be able to download it at will. Perhaps each media folder would have a "linked" and "unlinked" subfolder. Linked files are uploaded to the respective services, while unlinked files are only available for download or viewing IF SUPPORTED, but not direct sharing (IE youtube, etc).

Thoughts? Suggestions? Leave a comment.

*UPDATE - 7/2/13* Called it. Google now merged Picasa, Drive, and Gmail storage in to one 15 GB limit. We kind of got screwed on space but at least it's cohesive now. 

Software Idea #1 - GoOS

First off, I should mention that I am currently using CyanogenMod 7.2 Nightly's on my Nexus One. I have not replaced anything right now, but I do dabble in other ROM's and replacement Apps from time to time when I get bored.

I had been studying for my final exams for most of today and I decided to take a little break. I was fooling around going through the android market and I ran across the GoLauncher EX app listed.

I remember using it for a few months last year. I liked it, but when I reinstalled CyanogenMod, I couldn't be bothered reinstalling a custom launcher and left it.

I decided to check the other apps by the Go Dev Team listed on the market. I was blown away. They have an app for every type of replacement I could think of! Here's a list of the main apps for any readers who are curious:

• GoLauncher EX 
• Tons of customizable, installable widgets
• Tons of installable themes
• Go SMS Pro
• tons of themes for emoticons, look and feel, colors, etc
• Plug-ins to expand functionality (ie - add facebook chat compatability in to the sms app)
• Go Weather widget
• Numerous themes can be installed from the market
• Go Keyboard
• Numerous languages can be installed via the market
• Go Contacts EX
• themes for the dialer can be installed via the market
• Go Book
• mobile book reader
• online book creator app available
• Go Score
• sports score widget / app
• Go Locker
• custom lockscreen app

There are hundreds of themes and add ons for every one of those applications. The best part is that the main apps are ALL FREE. The themes are mostly paid apps but the part that matters is still free of charge.

What's more is that these apps are all pretty superior to the AOSP offerings from what I've seen. MIUI is the closest thing I've seen to an OS based on third party app offerings though, and it's not really the same thing.

I think it would be amazing if either the Go Dev Team put together their own OS OR the MIUI team absorbs the Go Dev Team and makes something amazing.

They are making some amazing products, but it's all so fragmented. The current app / theme offerings are strewn haphazardly across 3 or more different Android Market accounts. Consolidation is what these guys need, and what better way to consolidate than to create an entire OS for your products.

Just my 2 cents though.

-Joel