Newsletter Archives

• Really. Did anybody at Microsoft test version 1803 on their own hardware?

  Posted on May 20, 2018 at 11:45 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Now it looks like installing Win10 version 1803 on one of those expensive ($3,000 to $4,300) Surface Studios may cause your mouse and keyboard to kick out intermittently.

  Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  Other Surface Studio

• CorelDRAW “Unknown Error” on startup with Surface Studio

  Posted on January 27, 2017 at 05:17 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Anybody trying to run CorelDRAW on a fancy Surface Studio needs to know that Corel has just released a fix for the crash-on-open problem.

  Details at the CorelDRAW site.

  Other CorelDRAW, Surface Studio

• Surface Pro 4, Surface Studio firmware patches out

  Posted on January 19, 2017 at 06:05 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  The patches were initially rolled out, undocumented, about 24 hours ago.

  Surface Pro 4 changelog:

  https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/install-update-activate/surface-pro-4-update-history?os=windows-10

  Surface Studio changelog:

  https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/install-update-activate/surface-studio-update-history

  TechNet post that apologizes for pushing the firmware upgrades without documenting them. No, not really.

  https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/surface/2017/01/18/updates-for-surface-studio-and-surface-pro-4-18-january-2017/

  Windows Patches/Security Surface Pro 4, Surface Studio

• New $3,000 + Surface Studio in the real world

  Posted on December 1, 2016 at 12:42 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  If you’re thinking about buying one of the just-shipped $3,000+ Surface Studios, it’d be worth your while to see what “real” people are saying about it.

  I don’t own one. I can think of better ways to spend several thousand dollars – and Microsoft isn’t likely to send one to me for evaluation.

  Engadget’s hands-on “Mini” review is out, and their take is decidedly lukewarm:

  Innovative, but not for everyone…

  If you’re curious about the innards, iFixIt has detailed teardowns of the Surface Studio and its circuitous sidekick the Surface Dial.

  You can run into a Microsoft Store and take a look yourself, but before you do, you should see what new owners are saying.

  My first exposure to the Surface Studio came on this week’s live recording of Windows Weekly. Leo Laporte received his new Studio on Monday, and the way he’s working with it is telling. Some of the foibles got cut in the mix, but the machine has many good features – gorgeous screen, interesting peripheral – and several significant problems – it’s slow (with a mobile GPU) and the drive’s a hybrid. If you look at the way Leo uses it and compare it to the way you work, you might not be impressed. “It’s like a giant iPad.” Think hard about where you’d put your keyboard.

  Then I bumped into this comment on the Microsoft Answers forum. Poster Damon S says:

  Dissapointing performance and hard drive for $4100… I love the idea of the machine but do i now want to go find a way to replace the HD with an SSD and then spend a day reinstalling windows and all the other drivers needed and spend another $500 on a $4k plus computer is daunting.

  Photographer Scott Bourne on Photofocus says the reflections on the screen are so bad “it’s a simple deal breaker for me. As much as I like EVERYTHING else about this machine (okay well maybe not the price) I can’t see myself using one until / unless Microsoft offers one with a matte display.”

  The Surface Studio ships with a tech support phone number, which appears to be unique for Studio support – see Brad Sams post on Thurrott.com – although some wags posit that the number’s answered by Microsoft’s usual support center.

  Watch out for Acer- and Dell- manufactured Studio wannabes in the near future.

  Microsoft News Surface Studio

• Everything you need to know about the new Surface Studio

  Posted on October 27, 2016 at 05:37 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Peter Bright has a Surface Studio review on Ars Technica that’s worth reading, if you’re the least bit curious about where Microsoft hardware and Win10 are heading.  It’s a thorough review from somebody who knows Windows and hardware. (Peter also has the distinction of being the only person who’s dropped a Surface Studio screen and lived to tell the tale, but I digress.)

  My takeaway: Meh. If you need a minimalist desktop PC with a gorgeous screen that doubles as a drafting table, and don’t mind shuffling the keyboard out of the way, have at it.

  Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s wonderful that you can rotate a 3D drawing interactively inside a PowerPoint presentation. It’s just that I can’t imagine myself scouring the web looking for suitable 3D graphics – and I’m not nearly talented enough to create anything like that. Besides, I wouldn’t want to put my audience through that kind of torture.

  As for the hockey puck, hey, some of you spend a lot of time doing freehand drawing and I’m happy for you. But the rest of us can probably find better ways to spend all that money – $3,000 for older-generation Skylake i5, 8 GB, GTX 965M with 2GB, 1 TB hybrid drive, 4 x USB 3; up to $4,200 for i7, 32 GB, GTX 980M with 4 GB, 2 TB hybrid drive.

  For that price you could buy… well, let’s see what Apple’s about to announce. Although Windows users have a few hoops to jump through, if they want to watch the live broadcast, I’m going to start by simply navigating to TWiT.tv live. Starts at 10 am west coast time.

  Microsoft News, Uncategorized hocky puck, Surface Studio