Did you get a Surface Pro 3 for Christmas?

Nice article with some tips for Surface Pro 3 owners. So if you get one for Christmas that's a good place to start.

http://www.winbeta.org/news/surface-pro-3-top-tips-and-tricks-your-new-microsoft-device

Yeah, I know that most of the tricks are Windows relative but what's nice about it is to see how articles of this type are being published around the web replacing the old ones asking MS to stop making the Surface.

Surface Hub updated

Surface Hub is an App that allows to configure the Surface Pro 3 Pen.

Well, Microsoft just released an update that adds the capability of disabling the Windows Button, feature many times asked by artists. Definitely a nice option to have.

Using Google Hangout for demos

Recently a friend of mine tested Google Hangout as a tool for demoing software. Basically he used the capability of Hangout to stream live events  to Youtube in combination with the capability of sharing the screen of his  PC (or Mac, that's what I think he was using for his experiment).

So I decided to replicate this test using my Surface Pro 3 and IE.

Test 1

Test 2

So it works. It may be not the ideal tool but it's free. Once the video is on Youtube you can do some editing there adding a sound track like I did in the second test. The downside could be that somebody watch your live event before you do the editing. Small price to pay, don't you think?

Very little known feature of OneDrive

The OCR capabilities of OneDrive is a feature added back in August 2013 but I'm sure that very few know about it.

 



Source: wintablet.info

Surface Hub.

Microsoft Just released the Surface Hub. Few days ago Microsoft released an update for the Pen driver. This update was in preparation for this tool which allows you to control the pressure sensitivity of the Pen and how the Top button behaves either calling the desktop version of OneNote or the MUI version.

How the heck

Surface Pro 3 in the classroom

Today I took my Surface Pro 3 to a whole day training. This is the first time that I'm using it in this scenario so to me it was a learning experience.

I started taking notes in OneNote but then the trainer gave us a PDF copy of the Powerpoint presentation that he was using so I switched to use Drawboard PDF.
 

First of all, I should say that this tool has all the elements needed to review or write notes and comments in a PDF file. Probably it's the best tool available of it's kind using MUI. But... Performance was not too good. The writing experience was not as fluid like I would like it to be and some times it took few seconds to "refresh" the page where I was writing my notes. Other than that it did its job decently.

I ended the day with 50% of battery left in my PRO 3. I was taking notes from time to time letting the SP3 go to sleep while I was listening or doing some exercises in a laptop prepared for the training. But even if I had to use it more time taking notes I'm confident that the battery was going to last me the whole day of work in this scenario with more than 6 hours of battery.

Overall, I'm extremity please with the experience and totally convinced that there is not any other device out there that could serve to students better than the Surface Pro 3.

An interesting comparison betwwen i5 and i7

The title explains it all

Link to source article.

  

The SP3 "issues", the truth behind the claims

The Hyper-V and Connected Standby: You can't have both at the same time. The workaround is here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/wiki/surfpro3-surfnetwork/work-around-for-surface-pro-3-issue-where/bd7c8bde-439b-45d6-8d9d-2776913e45e9

According to some sources the Hyper-V team is aware of this situation an presumable working in a fix.
 

WLAN and Sleep Mode or Connected Standby. Most of the problems have been fixed by Microsoft updates. Still unresolved the case of rooters like the Airport Extreme that share the same SSID in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and the Limited connector error that appears on those devices with Hyper-V enabled. The workaround for both cases are described in these two pages:

http://digitalmediaphile.com/index.php/2014/09/16/change-config-or-spend-more-money-to-fix-surface-pro-3-slow-wifi/

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro3-surfnetwork/surface-pro-3-limited-wifi-problem/bd17691d-f00d-491c-a65e-fcd77a304b3a?page=41&msgId=47e4fbee-b56a-4248-98b1-c1ea1318b994

Heavy heat of SP3. For me, the SP3 i5 4Gb that I own is performing at the temperature that I was expecting from this processor. The so called "throttling" issue, most of those reporting the issue are gamers pushing the limits of these machines. I would say that an enterprise user, 95% of them, will not be affected by this "issue".  New potential owners should understand the machine limitations and understand the challenges that having a body design like the one in the Surface PRO 3 represent.

How others use the Pro 3

It's always interesting to see how others use any specific product, but here we talk mostly about computers and accessories.  So I invite you to check this thread where proud SP3 owners show and talk about how they use the Surface Pro 3 daily.

Airport Extreme Workaround for SP3 owners

Some of the users that have Wifi issues they either own an Airport Extreme router or a router that's using the same SSID for the 2.4 Ghz and the 5 Ghz bands. Recently one of this users posted this picture to illustrate the speed difference between his MacBook and the Surface Pro 3.

 

I asked him to change the SSID to a different one and post the same picture.

 

 

A noticeable improvement in both devices.

Configure OneNote to save battery

OneNote runs some background tasks that could impact negatively in the battery life of your tablet So it's important to configure it to avoid this.

Troubleshooting the indexing option

There are many users complaining about high CPU use even when they are not doing anything. Most of the time this is caused by the Indexing of files. I have seen many "power users" recommending to disable this option and that's a real bad idea. Instead of that, here is a very good article that explains how to troubleshoot this functionality.

Installing the Journal Printer

How to disable Connected Standby

This is a question many time asked by SP3 owners that want full access to Power Plans. Before I show how to do it I should add that  tweaking the Power Plans may have a negative impact in the battery life.  In another hand Connected Standby is one of the best features added to this  device. It's the feature that allows you to still receive emails and other services while the SP3 is in Standby.

To disable Connected Standby you should open the Registry and change it:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\CsEnabled (From 1 to 0)

If your want to revert it back then just change the value to 1. After each change you need to restart the Surface Pro 3.

Windows Journal

Windows Journal is a legacy application released in 2002 when the first version of XP for Tablet PC was released. Since them it has been present in all the newest Windows releases. So why I'm mentioning now? Well, because no everybody knows that it supports ink (handwriting).

A simple and easy to use little application forgotten on time.

FYY Ultra Slim Smart Cover Stand Case

If you are looking for a good case to protect your Surface Pro 3 and are not a heavy touch keyboard user then this is the perfect case. You can still using the keyboard without removing it from the case and even carry the device around with the keyboard covering the display and the case front cover in the back of the tablet but you wont be able to close the case with the touch keyboard connected. I'm a heavy Tablet user that writes all my documents, emails, etc, using the pen so for me this case is the perfect match to my habits. The product quality is good. The package mentioned a loop for the pen but I could not find any, that's the main reason why I'm not giving the 5 stars.

 

This is the 3rd case I have tested and so for my preferred and the price that I paid including shipping was less than $10! They are on sale for $2.99 (regular price $39.99)

 

Exact Microsoft Pro 3 case short review

I recently bought the Exact Case for the Surface Pro 3 at an extremely low price:  less than 3 dollars!.

The case qualify is not bad but is not top of the line either. I like the fact that it includes an elastic band as a handler in the back that will allows you to hold the Tablet second with one hand.

There an two minor problems with this case, the first one is the top of the case cover the vents and as result the SP3 can get hotter than normal. So I modified it cutting a hole in the case like it's shown in this picture.

That increased the air flow up to a decent level.

The second issue was the case leaving very little space in the right side to execute the gesture to call the right side charm.  So I had to cut the case in that area leaving more room to do the gesture without accidentally touching the Windows button. The below picture shows how this change  looks like.

Summarizing: with these modifications you can have a decent case for less than 10 dollars  including shipping.

Windows RT: The sky is the limit

I have seen a lot of debate about what can be done and what can not be done in a Surface running Windows RT.   Today I found this article that shows the endless possibilities of these machines: a Security System all built around a Surface RT.

Netgear AC1900 R7000 a good router for the SP3

This is something that I thought I was going to get on Christmas but that I ended buying it on Ebay for $125

Netgear AC1900 R7000 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00F0DD0I6?tag=pccounselor-20&linkCode=sb1&camp=212353&creative=380553)

Pros

a) Works with the SP3, without any issues

b) My home Wifi speed easily is twice what I had before using the dual band Asus asus rt-n56u

c) Better range

Cons

a) The VPN configuration requires to disable IPv6

b) The whole configuration only covers the most simple features or parameters.

Conclusion

A router with a very good performance that uses the latest WiFi technology.

WD TV live now with Miracast support

WD added Miracast support to its WD TV Live media player. This means that you can project your Surface PRO 3 screen to any TV connected to one of this players. I have two of these players and I was able to connect my Surface PRO 3 to them without any problems.

Microsoft new TV commercials

Microsoft has released 3 new TV adds:


As you can see they are very aggressive:

Like this other one:

CCleaner, a must have

I have been using CCleaner since it was first released more than 10 years ago and still today I consider it a must have application.

One of the options on it that I use a lot is the Registry cleaner.   Every time that I uninstall any software I run this option and every time I end finding a lot of junk left there by the removal process.

About the 1.7 billion dollars lost

 

The online press is always ready to talk negatively about Microsoft. For example, now all they are mentioning is about the 1.7 billion dollars in lost that the Surface line is causing to Microsoft. They are calling it the “Surface Damage”. The problem that I have with this is that they are taking the number and converting it into something that it’s far from the reality. And here in why:

·       Every new business or new product starts with negative numbers. Putting it simple, you need to invest to make money. It’s not right to compare the Surface with the iPads because the iPad is up to certain point a sub product that delivered from the iPhone and the iPhone was at the same time a sub product of the iPod. So the investment in R&D were very low. In another hand we have Apple, a hardware company, against Microsoft, a Company that for the first time started to make their own PC.

·       The first year of the Surface was full of Research and changes. And part of that Research was about finding the market demand and the price sweet spot and for that MS paid $900 million. Then in the second year we have the cancellation of the Surface Mini when it was almost at the release to the market point. This last change triggered by another change, a new CEO.

·       The above chart shows clearly a tendency to a positive gross margin. The cost of revenue is becoming lower and the revenue almost doubles the one from the previous year. All this is good. It’s not the time of abandoning the project like some pages have mentioned, on the contrary, the numbers show that Microsoft is doing well and that soon they will get profit from this line. All they need to do is keep going in the right direction avoiding costly mistakes.

·       According to some analysts, the Surface PRO 3 is selling better than the two previous versions.

Microsoft entering the PC market has been like a blood transfusion to a very sick patient, the PC Market. And Microsoft depends on this market to sell its Operating System and the Office Suite. So for Microsoft the Surface Line is more than how much money they make directly from this product but part of an ecosystem that feels the benefit of having its own hardware line. This is the point that is missing on those pages “preoccupied” for Microsoft future.

 

 

There is not a better companion

Recently my bad feeding habits followed during my entered life put me in the hospital and I took with me my Surface Pro 3.

 

So this post is about my experiences with this machine during my recovery period.

Most of the USA Hospital have free Wifi service for patients and visitors. The Surface Pro 3 connected to this service without any problem and with a decent performance, enough to use Netflix at SD resolution, check my emails, read the news, etc.

Thanks to the new location of the speakers and the super high quality screen watching HD movies was a nice experience. The sound quality is a lot better than the achieved in my old Surface 2.

The very low weight of the PRO 3 helped me a lot. But the feature that to me was the most important was the stand.  The fact that I could open it at almost any imaginable angle increased the usability of this machine to a level hard to imagine unless you are in this same low mobility condition like the one I was.

I have been using Tablet PCs, UMPCs, laptops and every type of tablet currently in the market, including iPads, for a long time and I can say without any doubt that none of them would have been able to do a better job than the Surface Pro 3.

Which keyboard is better

Being a tech professional forces me to read a lot of articles and reviews about this field  but to find at least one written or captured on camera by a very young girl is really unlikely. This is the reason why this one got my attention She deserves a MVP Award!!

Bamboo Paper

Bamboo Paper is an excellent App made by Wacom.  It's not a OneNote replacement but an easy to use App with a very good experience.

http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/02f78e60-b8a3-4764-bfe5-ff4c193af9b6

Miracast adapter for the Surface PRO 3

Finding a good Miracast adapter that works with all the devices that you may own at home have proven to be a difficult task. That's why to find a blogger that has gone the extra mile on this task and dared to share his experience is a nice finding. So here is Mark Coppock from The Tech Chat in his quest to find the perfect Miracast adapter for his brand new Surface Pro 3.

The verdict. While still not perfect the Netgear Push2tv is the closest to be one.


Update: I just got confirmation that the Screenbeam mentioned here works at the same level as the one from Netgear. The advantage on the Screenbeam is that it comes with the HDMI to VGA adapter in case that you need to connect to on old projector for a presentation.

The Pro 3 is really thin

When the iPad was released many thought and still think that it was a technology marvel. But once you see a picture of one of them opened then you realize that it's just a giant iPhone. And the iPhone are thin. A real marvel is the Surface Pro 3. How Microsoft could compress everything to made a TabletPC that is as thin as an iPad 2?

 

The one on the left is an iPad 2 close to a Surface PRO 3.



Improving the Pen

Since I used for the first time a pen with a rubber band in the place where you hold it with my fingers I have not switched  back to the  more traditional design without this feature. So I find the Surface Pro very unpleasant to hold. So, I thought, well, here is a very easy project to do.

First task. To find a pen with the rubber band and the appropriate diameter. An old one did the trick.

The rest is easy. Remove the band cut it to the appropriate side, and put it in your Surface Pro 3 pen. And here is the end result.

I'm a happy camper!

How to overcome the lack of DVD reader in your Surface Pro 3

I realize that we have many new readers here that never have used a Tabletpc or UMPC before and the lack of having a DVD reader seems to them an overwhelming issue. So here is what needs to be done.

The first thing is to forget about attaching any DVD Reader/Writer to your Surface. Your Surface is a mobile device born to be free of cables and heavy or not so heavy accessories to be carried.

The second part is to learn about ISO files and how to create them. ISO files are, without entering in too many technical details, virtual copies of any CD or DVD. There are many tools online that allows you to create them. You can read a very good a very good tutorial of how to create an ISO here.

Of course, to create an ISO you will need a PC with a DVD reader. If you don't have one at home use a friend's.

Once you have the ISO you can copy it to your Surface using a microSD or USB memory stick. Once your have access to the ISO file in Your Surface, just double click on it and Windows 8.1 will recognize it as a DVD or CD. The rest... Well, I think that you know what to do next. If not that probably is a topic for another thread.

One more thing, You can take an ISO and create a bootable USB memory stick if you like. You can find a wonderful tutorial about it here.

Surface Pro 3: The hinge

I recently was asked to take some pictures of the hinge mechanism in the Surface Pro 3 by one of my Spanish readers at Wintablet.info and I think that having them here is something that many others for sure will appreciate.