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...That Apple has a Neo and Surface does not.
...That Apple (and maybe Samsung?) might be preparing a "wide" folding cell phone while Microsoft cancelled the Duo years ago.
...That Asus has a (Zenbook) Duo...
What do you find ironic?
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After all this time... ever since my favorite Asus Vivotab Note 8 days, I still have the original version of Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro software that has the Copic palette built-in.
Having tried all sorts of pen enabled drawing programs like Clip Studio or ProCreate, Sketchbook still manages to pull me back in. I love the minimalist interface, and I can still say it's the only piece of creative software, where I feel like I use every single tool and feature... it's my goto whenever I need to quickly sketch, modify images, turn a background transparent, warp an image, do quick compositions, and do a quick Copic rendering without having to waste the actual costly markers. It just about feels like whoever designed it made it for me in mind. Basically every pen-enabled device I own, from Samsung Note to Dell Canvas has paired up with my Sketchbook scribblings, and it…
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in Graphite, w/ a 3rd-party (Cobak) case which was on sale. Not that wild about the case (debating on getting an "origami" case off eBay which is far more affordable than the equivalent Amazon listing.
Sans case it is remarkably lighter than my original. The case is ~260grams and brings the heft back to something like the original. (If someone has a recommendation for a case which is: lightweight, easy in/out, subdued appearance w/ minimal branding, I'd be interested in recommendations.)
Am I the only person who doesn't like the new pen? Swapped it to my O.G. Scribe --- hopefully whoever ends up w/ it won't mind the grippy/rubbery eraser --- it being a featureless cylinder save for the button (and Kindle logo which is high up and visible, not palpable) is annoying as well.
The UI really needs an option where the colours which are on the device are…
Annoyingly, a couple of books simply are not loading covers, and I don't seem to have been blessed w/ the new Smart Shape Recognition (or whatever they're calling that) --- but once I get that, it gets a lot closer to being a replacement for my Newton MessagePad (just needs Newton Intelligence/calendar integration and a UI which will easily and naturally allow access to handwriting recognition).
I really wish Nebo or MyScript Notes or whatever they're calling that this week was available for it and that the UI was customizable enough to allow easy access to the web browser (which is awesome for viewing help files/documentation).
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Just saw Costco has the Surface Pro 11 X-Elite 16gb 1tb OLED screen model with standard (not Flex) keyboard and slim pen for $999. With prices going through the roof right now this is an amazing bargain BUT it also portends new incoming 2026 models and they are dumping inventory.
Looks like a quick return is coming for the just received Surface Pro 12 - refurb plus key board and pencil cost me just as much as a new X Elite and oh by the way SP12 will not drive 2 external monitors with their dock or my OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock.
AND YES, dstrauss and dstraussing are back!!!!!!!!
I got an email saying there was a new comment in this saga, but I can't find it! It started "Last word on the Costco baragin kit - it's going back to Costco." Did you delete that @dstrauss or am I overlooking it?
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I've typically turned my nose up at all things Walled Garden (tm), but I've had the need to deploy software via XCode recently and broke down and bought a Mac Air M4 at the risk of @dstraussing myself.
I have to say, it's pretty impressive hardware, very lightweight, long battery life, I charge it with the same 30W charger block for my Fold. It's, shall I even say, a delight to use?!
I still hate Finder though... and there some things I still mechanically fumble with on the OS (i.e. "why can't I figure out how to copy this screenshot image and paste it into my presentation??!!??")
👍👍 for Finder hatred. It works a little better if you use column view so you can see your path back a little better, but I never thought I'd find a file manager even weaker than File Explorer. I got my M4 MBP (base M4, 16gb/1tb) on a great bargain at Best Buy over a year ago ($1599 - well, great bargain by Apple standards) but the MBA design, weight, and dimensions are a dream in comparison...until I look at the screens and ports. The miniLED on the MBP is NOT a marketing ploy - it is gorgeous and extremely bright, and having 3 TB ports, HDMI, and SD card port (with a small adapter can use a mSDXC 1tb card for "slow storage"), it just offer a lot of bang for the buck, or is that extra pound, you carry.
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Still using a Fold 5, but this makes me go hmm...
Like every year, there's rumors of S-pen, but at this point, I only believe it when I see it.
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Yup, that's a surface go 2 running the ubuntu installer. I'm typing this post from this machine. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole when a very well priced Surface Pro 5th gen showed up on my local Marketplace. I wasn't able to get that one, but it sent me searching, since I really like the hardware of my Surface Pro X but I'm trying to get away from Windows. The Pro 5th gen is one of the most well supported according to the feature matrix, but it lacks usb c. On closer inspection, the Go 2 is probably the best supported and it was available with LTE. Off to ebay I went.
After an adventure in FedEx's "care" it arrived several days late with the tape cut on one side and a corner of the box torn and peeled back. Apparently they didn't like what they saw…
You guys! This little thing can drive my LG DualUp over USB-C through the surface dock. It couldn't do it through the generic USB-C hub I was using with my laptop. I'm kind of shocked at how much this thing can do, and do well running Linux.
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For some reason, I just signed up for Robert Braxman's Open Slate crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Maybe it's my long standing reservations about the path that Windows is on (and the annoying features that simply don't work... looking directly at you, Outlook...) or maybe it's my curiosity about whether Linux or Android would serve my purposes better, but for whatever reason, I've decided to take a genuine look at replacing Windows. The Open Slate Pro is not a powerhouse design, but it appears to have adequate features at a reasonable price. The feature that really appeals to me is that you can load Android or Linux in (apparently) multiple flavors of each. Open Slate seems to have a source where the OS loads will be available with support. The campaign is fairly new, and at least for me there are still a lot of unanswered questions. But if this…
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... and how did you like it?
I'll go first: late November I got myself a black 16GB/256GB Surface Pro 11 with OLED and SDX Elite for $900, thinking that my old SPX was too slow for a good PDF markup experience. I loved the deep blacks of the OLED screen, but I wish it was as thin as the old Surface Pro X. In the end I returned it because the digitizer was acting up, showing an entire horizontal unresponsive section.
I'll keep an eye out for bundle deals on the SP12" (..but why no OLED, why no SSD, why no SSD hatch!) or the SP11, because I did like the speed.
Well, I got tired of the ensh!ttification of Apple as well as Microsoft (although to be fair, Apple isn't quite as bad on this scale, but making iWork part of a larger thing I had to pay for (which I don't need anything but Numbers, Pages, and Keynote) and give me lots of ads if I don't, really rubbed me the wrong way. I decided that, coupled with PC gaming, I was going to downsize to one device if I can (Instead of Macbook Air and gaming laptop. Also considering prices were going to go up significantly (RAM and SSDs), I decided to get a refurbed Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16" with an RTX5070Ti, Intel 275HX, 32GB DDR5 RAM, etc., It is really nice I have to admit. This made me remember how painful it is to try to use an iPad Pro 12.9" with a Windows laptop. So I dug my Surface Pro 9 out of storage and dusted it off. The combo has been working pretty well.
Somewhere, I have a CD w/ a license key --- not sure if it will still install or no.
I've set a goal in Bing Searching/Microsoft Rewards to get a $25 Microsoft gift card, so I'll buy a copy once that rolls over.... (I try very hard to avoid spending "real" money on software licenses and ebooks and so forth, limiting my spending to only what I earn in the course of my regular searching)