Maps Preview

Microsoft has recently released Maps Preview. The feature that really separate this apps from tether maps Apps is the 3D view of some cities land marks. It's known when MS will have at least most of the cities using this feature but so far what I have seen is really impressive. Just check the below pictures.

Real multitasking

Bestbuy approved the Surface RT

This is the type of TV Adds that Microsoft should be shooting about the Surface RT, videos that show what this device is good at. Showing it doing what the iPad can't do.

What do you do in your Surface RT?

Recently I read this question in one of the pages about the Surface hardware around the web and I found the question interesting enough to make me create an account to answer the question. And here is what I wrote:

In my case probably would be easy to say those things that I don't do in my Surface RT. I have been using for more than 20 years all kind of mobile computers as my main PC, from Laptops, TabletPC, UMPC and Tablets. When I began using UMPCs I quickly comprehended that those and later on the Tablets are companion PCs, they are here to complement our computing needs in an era of full connectivity and constant communication. And about two years ago I bought an iPad 2 which I quickly converted and my only PC I used at home and that forced me to find workarounds to all the shortcomings of the iPad + the Tablet platform. The solution, very simple, prepare a PC as you home media server. With that PC constantly on I connected my iPad to it to do everything could not be done in the iPad. That configuration is to me the ideal for those willing to forget the idea of having to sit at home on front of a desk to use a PC. Later last year when Microsoft released the Surface RT I was one of the first ones to get one.

My set up and experience with my ex-iPad served me to overcome the lack of applications in the first few months after the release. So once again I'm using my Surface RT as my primary PC at home, connecting to my Media Server using remote desktop whenever I do tasks that can't be done in my Surface RT. For example, copying and converting a DVD movie to mkv. Why I should even think about using the limited Surface resources for a task like that? Yes, it could be probably done in a Surface RT if the needed Software becomes available but the fact is that you can't pack yet in any Tablet the amount of hardware resources that you can put in any desktop. So it's more logical to just connect remotely to a desktop and from your surface control remotely the tasks/Software needed to copy and convert a DVD. The same thing happen with other activities such as video editing, etc.

Comparing my iPad 2 with my Surface RT, I gained with the RT the control of my device, something that I never fully had in my iPad which I had to constantly jailbreak to have just some control. I'm enjoying my Surface RT every single day. And I do in or from my Surface RT everything I need to do in a PC.

One more time Microsoft is doing a good job

This is what should had have happened since day one of Surface RT release. But better late than never. One of the things that impressed me a lot was how easy was to print from my Surface RT compared with the same process done in my ex-iPad. But telling that does not have the same effect than seeing it done in a video. And here is the video:

Less talking and more doing

Excellent words used by Microsoft in it's last marketing campaign.

HBOGO.com works on Surface RT

HBOGO.com is one of my preferred sites to catch up with all those good series from this premium channel. The site uses flash and for some reason, I believe it was a firmware update, it was not working anymore in my Surface RT. HBO still have not jumped in the boat of WinRT and we still do not have an App. So I decided today to spend sometime trying to get it back working and the good news is that I got it.

Here is what I learned. To sign in HBOGO.com this site sends you to your TV provider where you have to sign in. This process was failing for me. To troubleshoot the whole process I used Fiddler a tool to track your internet web traffic. This application is for x86 but thanks to the tools posted at xdadevelopers I was able to use it in the Surface RT. With this tool I was able to find few things, one of them is that HBO uses a cookie with the information from, in my case, Comcast to grant you access to its site. In my Surface I had Cookies disabled and I thought it was a good idea to keep it in this way. So I went to in the Internet Options from IE10 in Desktop mode and allow cookies for both sites, HBOGO and Comcast. Summarizing, after adding the involved sites to the Trusted Sites List and allowing Cookies for both sites, the HBOGO.com site allowed me to stream video in my Surface RT. And no just in Desktop mode but using IE10 Metro.

This is one of the reasons why I love WinRT, it carries a full version of the IE which allows you to enjoy sites that in other platforms, specifically iOS (translate this as iPad), are impossible to access unless you have an App for that. In another words, some or most of the Apps available for iPad are the result of this device impossibility of using the original websites which these applications substitute.

Virtual Router

Virtual Router is a tool very simple to use that allows you to convert your PC or laptop in a virtual Router. When this is useful? Well imagine that you and your WiFi decide to pass the day camping in a place where the only Internet access is via a 3G Modem connected to your laptop. You can share your 3G connection with your wife's Surface RT using this software. Very simple.

New update for RT and PRO

Microsoft released yesterday a new update for both versions of the Surface. According to some reports the update has fixed issues with WiFi Limited connectivity. The update is available using Windows Update.

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.

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.

More than 17700 WinRT Apps

Back in November I did an analysis of WinRT Apps Store and predicted that we should be ending this year with around 13395 Applications. Well I was wrong. But nothing can make me happier than to be wrong in this case. According to WinRT Store we should be ending the year with 17738 Apps!

Fixing WiFi limited connectivity in Surface RT

I thought that it may be useful to summarize some of the changes that have helped to some users to fix this issue. In my case I did not apply the registry changes because I have an AP with dual band 2.4 and 5GHz and both bands identified with different SSID and I'm forcing Surface to connect to 5Ghz.

In Metro, swipe your finger from the bottom of the screen up, select from the bar All Apps, locate the Command Prompt application, select it by dragging down the icon, select from the bar Run as Administrator, OK the warning message, the system will switch to Desktop mode. In the command prompt type the following commands:

• netsh int tcp set heuristics disabled
• netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
• netsh int tcp set global rss=enabled

At this point reboot your Surface RT. After reboot proceed with this commands:

• netsh interface ipv4 set address "Wi-Fi" dhcp (if this gave you an error check the name of your connection, it may not be "Wi-Fi")
• ipconfig /renew

If you still have problems apply the following registry changes:

Open Desktop -> Search -> regedit

Open regedit. Select menu Edit -> Find...

Enter "AutoUse40Mhz" -> do search.

There are 2 such entries in registry. We need to change one, located under

   "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\" branch.

  - Set "AutoUse40Mhz" to "0" (it has value "1" by default)(This limits the channel bandwidth to use 20MHz, this reduce the speed and it's the recommended setting when you are experiencing issues with  n connectivity)

  -  Set "Band" to "4" (it has value "6" by default)(for what I understand this change may force some devices to  connect g)(I would recommend to apply the first registry change, reboot and see what happens before applying this other change).

Reboot the Surface. Some users believe that these registry changes will make the Surface to connect using the g connection instead of n. That's not the case. Your Surface still be connected using the n protocol but using a slower bandwidth.

To achieve maximum output, a pure 802.11n 5 GHz network is recommended. If you have a 5GHz AP these registry changes should not be needed at all. To know what ratio are you using check the connection status to find the connection speed. If your speed is greater than 130Mbps, its 802.11N otherwise not. Some standard values for 802.11N are 150Mbps & 300Mbps. In my case, its 802.11g as speed is 54Mbps.

In your AP, WMM is required to be on for any Wi-Fi Alliance Certified N product. By default WMM is already on but many users disable it which may prevent N rates or lower throughput.

 

Useful links:

 

From< http://superuser.com/questions/381963/how-to-tell-if-my-wi-fi-is-connecting-using-802-11n>

From< http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless-N_Configuration>

From< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009>

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfwinrt-surfnetwork/wifi-issues/c593dff8-61b3-496c-b8f2-f9deb3e4b35e

Tips to free space in your Surface RT

I found this forum thread with a lot a useful tips to help Surface Owners to free some Space in their devices hard drive.

The author is promising to publish a tip to move installed programs or it's resources (music, images, Tec) to the microsd card. Something really useful if you are installing large games.