Windows 8 Desktop Manager is buggy.

Windows Desktop Manager uses as much battery as Mail! And it doesn't stop even when the device is on standby. Here is what happened to me: I changed the desktop background in desktop mode and picked a picture located in my SD card. I was under the impression that when you do that the picture is copied by windows and saved somewhere else. Later on I changed the configuration of the SD card to use a folder instead a letter. So the path to my picture was not anymore the same to the eyes of Windows. Let my Surface go to Standby during the night and when I tried to turn it on in the morning I couldn't. The Battery was completely drained. When I finally could turn it on after having connected to power for around 15 minutes I found that was the Windows Desktop Manager the cause.

There is not any reason why applications such as IE, Mail, Desktop Manager and in fact any other should be kept running when the device is in Standby. I understand that it's good to have all the emails retrieved when you switch on your computer but these are processes that take just seconds to performs. No a good reason for having your battery drained in normal conditions up to 7% in less than 9 hours or totally drained like it happened to me.

The Power Management in Windows 8 has been improved but still buggy, no ready to compete against the iPad.

RT vs PRO

Here is an excellent article about why many of us, including me are happy to be using a Surface RT and we are not thinking about switching them for the PRO version officially coming in February.

The Surface PRO is just a Tablet PC! We have Tablet PCs since 2002 and they always have been a product for a very small portion of the market. Why somebody at Microsoft has decided that after more than 10 years in the market this is going to be the next Microsoft winner product? Because now for the first time is made by Microsoft?

Audacity for WinRT

Those who as been in this business of bytes long enough for sure in one time or another as used Audacity, a simple to use audio file editor. Well the good news is that it has been ported for WinRT! The Ported version can be downloaded here.

Teens think Apple is done, iPad is not longer cool

According to an study published by Forbes, teenagers believe that to own an iPad is not cool any longer. They prefer a Surface RT or a Galaxy Samsung. To me that makes since, Apple is stuck in the iPad concept and iOS has not been change with new features and new design since long time ago.

In another hand, they do not feel attractive anymore to own a device that everybody owns including their parents and grandparents!

Map Skydrive as a network drive in your Surface RT

This is a nice trick, very easy to perform. Once the mapping is performed your skydrive will be available in Windows File Explorer as just another network drive.

Jailbreak for Surface RT

Finally somebody has posted a tool to Jailbreak Surface RT, this means, to run any application for ARM that is not distributed/signed by Microsoft. Of course, right away a list of open sources of desktop applications was opened and even rumors of a Firefox version compiled for ARM.

Surface RT updated

The Surface RT got several update packages today via Windows Update. One of them was a firmware update. Unfortunately according to users suffering from the WiFi Limited Connection issue, this update did not fix it.

I installed all the packages, the process took about 5 minutes and so far I have not notice any dramatic change neither anything new.

GoToMeeting for Windows RT released

GoToMeeting has been released for Windows RT. This an important milestone for this device because it opens a big door for the Surface to be used in the enterprise market.

GoToMeeting is together with WebEx one of the most used applications in the business environment letting business to save in traveling expenses creating virtual meetings with remote presentations capabilities.

Create a recovery USB Drive to free space in your Surface RT

Microsoft has posted an interesting article explaining how you can create a recovery disk in an USB memory stick and after that remove the partition currently located in your Surface. Here is how is done:

Make sure your Surface is plugged in and connected to power.

1. Insert your external USB drive into the USB port on your Surface.
2. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
   (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.)
3. Enter Recovery in the search box, tap or click Settings, and then tap or click Create a recovery drive.
4. Tap or click Yes in the User Account Control dialog box to allow the recovery drive tool to open.
5. When the recovery drive tool opens, make sure the box is checked next to Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive. Then, tap or click Next.
6. Select the USB drive you would like to use for your recovery disk by tapping or clicking on it. Tap or click Next.
7. Tap or click Create. The recovery image and necessary recovery tools will be copied to your USB drive. Your Surface must stay awake during the copy process, which will take 10-15 minutes.
8. When the recovery tools are copied, do one of the following:
   If you want to keep the recovery tools on your Surface, tap or click Finish.
   -Or-
   If you want to remove the recovery tools from Surface and free up disk space, tap or click Delete the recovery partition. To confirm, tap or click Delete. This will free up approximately 3.5 GB of storage space on your Surface. When the removal is complete, tap or click Finish.
   
   Warning  If you choose to delete your recovery partition, you will need your USB recovery drive to refresh or reset your Surface in the future.
    
9. Eject and remove your USB drive. This is now your Surface recovery drive, so keep it in a safe place and do not use it to store other files or data.