Thursday, October 3, 2013

Dell announces their Dell Venue Pro Windows 8.1 8" tablet is coming this month.

Dell on their .com site have now announced their 8" Windows 8.1 tablet with a price of $299 USD. Whilst there is currently no announcement for Australia, this would be one of the early salvos in the small form factor Windows 8.1 tablets.

Yes the tablet is small so working from the Windows Desktop will be an experience! Yes the tablets will come with limited in-built memory. Yes the tablets will use the slower Atom Baytrail processor (compared with the 'i' series running Haswell processors). But for those who wish to have portability and carry around their Windows based applications, we'll soon see a whole range of options.

I've tried Apple's iPad. I've tried an Android tablet. In both cases I've been disappointed. Th iPad went back and the Android tablet is rarely used. The time involved trying to do some of the simplest things I now do on my notebook computer was huge and largely wasted effort. The problem is the time involved in trying to use many of the tools and techniques I've created to assist me in my daily work, means a complete rework and different approach. I'm happy to put time and effort into reworking my approach, but the amount of effort put in so far has not achieved results and I simply return to using my ageing notebook computer because it just works and does what I need.

Acer brought out their 8" tablet a few months ago but the reviews on the screen quality weren't good. Acer also jumped the gun by using Windows 8 and not waiting for Windows 8.1 or Intel's new Baytrail processor. Dell's tablet runs 8.1 and only time will tell how good the screen is. But really that isn't what is important. Microsoft is releasing Windows 8.1 on the 18th of October and I'm fairly sure we'll see more options on small form factor tablets hit the market.

To me this feels like the early days of Windows. I really didn't think much about Windows until 3.1 was released. From that point on Windows to me took off. It feels like Microsoft and tablets have not been a good marriage and perhaps now Windows 8.1 will provide what I need. This isn't just about me because my business is just like many other businesses. What doesn't work for me usually doesn't work for others. So when I get to the point that the technology is working with you rather than making your life harder, then we're all ready to start moving forward. Only time will tell if it is time for us to stop treading water with Microsoft based products. 

Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

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