Surface 3 LTE 128gb running Windows 8.1 - What are my options? - Microsoft Surface

I came into a large quantity of these, and wanted to get them into a usable states. I could care less if it's windows 8.1, 10, or linux running off a usb drive at this point. These machines would be great for kids to learn on. Anyone have a clue what I can and cannot do with these?

I'm researching too. I'm not sure if you found anything by now, but try this.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/7kazwp/current_state_of_surfaceseries_devices/

Related

What are the perks of a tablet?

I currently own an android phone as well as an iPhone. I was really trying to find some of the perks that owning a tablet might offer. At this point I'm really debating between a new laptop and a xoom or similar samsung tablet. I play a wide variety of games that run on the windows platform. I guess my real question is. Will a tablet offer me anything new that a phone will not offer me, or would I be better sticking with a laptop that can offer me windows platform games/ easy file system/ and photo editing tools. (photoshop).. Thanks for helping me out, and sorry if my question was not clear.
An android tablet can't replace a windows computer for a heavy user, as you seem to be. A tablet is something extra for people like us, with smartphones and lots of windows programs. For a 'average' person, who uses their computer mainly for the web, a honeycomb tablet could take over as their main/only computer. But for you, I'd say get a laptop. If you want something uber-portable, an ultrabook. Only advantages a tablet has for you is portability.
That's exactly what I was thinking.. I wasn't sure if I missed anything that I tablet could do though. It would be amazing to see a windows tablet, however the windows 8 beta looks to be unpromising..
X2 android phones and tablets are nice but they cant replace computers...yet.
mtmerrick said:
An android tablet can't replace a windows computer for a heavy user, as you seem to be. A tablet is something extra for people like us, with smartphones and lots of windows programs. For a 'average' person, who uses their computer mainly for the web, a honeycomb tablet could take over as their main/only computer. But for you, I'd say get a laptop. If you want something uber-portable, an ultrabook. Only advantages a tablet has for you is portability.
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Click to collapse

Galaxy note 10.1 or Asus Vivotab Smart

They are different operating systems i know and cant be compared. but I'm hesitant for any of these tablets. I love android and this would be my third tablet (actually only keep one, earlier donated it to my family). But my problem is android tablet-specific applications, many of which are stretched versions of the phone or simply lack of design. Applications for Windows 8 RT are few but all are focused on tablet but there are 50% decent that look great and really tablet friendly. Android for me was the customization and power to get ROMS but lately I see that IOS or Windows already have apps that do the same, maybe not at the same level but they do. And customization is getting really stall because every os is adding stuff that ROMs have. I know that many reviewers wont recommend Windows RT but the vivotab comes with windows 8 +RT and cost the same as the galaxy note 10.1 also it has 5 touch point and the s-pen ( i think every windows tablet comes with the s-pen) . I just want to know if anyone with the note 10.1 like the windows 8 tablet or find it more productive . Im not starting a fight about OS but i want to know how people feel about both tablets for work related aplication.Sorry about my english feel free to correct me. thank you
I start by saying that this is just me and my opinion only obviously. Windows is for "windows people" which is to say they want to turn it on,have it work and fancy it up with the options Windows gives them. It can only be customized so far. Now that's not to say it's less productive by any means. I've checked out their foray into tablets and it only reminds me of everything else they do, which I don't like. I stopped using Windows as a main OS long ago. If I do use it, it's a VB and even that is extremely limited.
As far as a comparison goes, most tablets are useful for your basic needs and even limited professional needs. I just happen to prefer open source stuff.
I hate Samsung phones, hate them. I actually debated for a long time before I bought this tablet because of my "Samsung bias" and almost went with a Windows unit. In the end I felt this tablet suited my needs more and was more "me" if that Mae's any sense.
The best advice I can give is test them both out and then test them again, and then again. I did and I don't regret my purchase for one second. Maybe this helps you,maybe not but either way best of luck with your decision.
insanecrane said:
The best advice I can give is test them both out and then test them again, and then again. I did and I don't regret my purchase for one second. Maybe this helps you,maybe not but either way best of luck with your decision.
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Click to collapse
I love android tablet too and agree that maybe tablets will not replace a desktop PC for productivity, but i find myself in time to upgrade
i bought the motorola xoom on day one and it was 7 months of hell using honeycomb (im sure windows RT users will know that by now but im more interested in a windows 8 tablet which is the vivotab smart and apps that work for windows 8 will work here.
im not trying in anyway to change peoples mind about galaxy note 10.1 but i would like to hear someone who have touched a windows 8 tab and tell me if its a good buy or will it not replace android any day. I have not seen any windows 8 review that is honest and not try to compare android/IOS/windows
First and foremost, you are right. Windows RT and Android are different.
Also, both form factors are different as well.
I usually recommend the Note 10.1 over its performance and S-Pen, but only for people who would actually use it. If you take lots of notes, or need to make a quick sketch, or if you are a student, even if you work woth a lot of papers and you need an all-in-one productivity tool, note taking board and Internet device, with all the extras that a powerful configuration has to offer, the Note 10.1 is the one to go for.
If what you need is a fast, Internet surfing machine, basic stuff like searching e-mail, social feeds, playing a game or two and use all that in a simple, modern, clean interface, go for the Vivotab. You also get Office suite, which is good for some in some cases.
I have used a Note 10.1 and a Samsung ATIV SmartPC Pro, and I must say, even though both tablets have S-Pen, (and God that Ativ hybrid is gorgeous), I still prefer the Note. It's up to you and your personal choice. I bought the Note anyways because it was that "finally-device" for my first true Android tablet. Even if some reviews were messed up (drunk reviewers? Jokes).
At the end of the day, I always knew I wanted this tablet as soon as it was announced. It's great for me as a student and as a worker as well. It's a great, efficient and powerful companion that never lets me down. But if you prefer keyboard+simple usage+office, go for the vivotab.
Sent from my GT-N8000 using Tapatalk HD
I love windows. I'm a windows guy. I can take apart, put together, overclock, underclock, bypass, or anything on earth I want to do with any windows based machine. That said windows RT is not my favorite. Surface with windows pro will be out soon so if your going windows on a tablet id wait for that one. Full pc capabilities. Your not gonna be flash restricted in a year and then there's silverlight as well.
BUT, on a tablet you may also want to consider windows tablets have much less battery life, are ram restrictive, in the growing stage so apps are limited, weigh a lot more, are not as community supported as android, the new one's scheduled for release this year with full windows are running i5 which is awesome but comes at a price. Noise. Lots of noise. Those cpu get hot so must be fan cooled, noise noise noise. Android? Blessed silence. Heat. Anyone whos ever held a laptop knows about the hot spots. If you have a fan there will be a hot spot and the back is likely to get warm as well.
Overall, though im admittedly a windows lover, I choose android on a tablet. And I wont speak about apple as I hate their business model with a purple passion.
Well, i am an Android guy, but thats about phones. On a tablet, I think Asus Vivotab Smart is a good choice. Mine will be shipped tomorrow. It is a Cloverfield tablet, so it runs full blown W8. Apps are no problem here. Battery life is ok due to the low power 2760 cpu, which outperforms tegra 3 and Kraits. And it is affordable. I got mine for less than 500 Euro. So it might worth take a look.
jerses said:
They are different operating systems i know and cant be compared. but I'm hesitant for any of these tablets. I love android and this would be my third tablet (actually only keep one, earlier donated it to my family). But my problem is android tablet-specific applications, many of which are stretched versions of the phone or simply lack of design. Applications for Windows 8 RT are few but all are focused on tablet but there are 50% decent that look great and really tablet friendly. Android for me was the customization and power to get ROMS but lately I see that IOS or Windows already have apps that do the same, maybe not at the same level but they do. And customization is getting really stall because every os is adding stuff that ROMs have. I know that many reviewers wont recommend Windows RT but the vivotab comes with windows 8 +RT and cost the same as the galaxy note 10.1 also it has 5 touch point and the s-pen ( i think every windows tablet comes with the s-pen) . I just want to know if anyone with the note 10.1 like the windows 8 tablet or find it more productive . Im not starting a fight about OS but i want to know how people feel about both tablets for work related aplication.Sorry about my english feel free to correct me. thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Jerses,
I've had the Asus VivoTab Smart for about a week now, and so far it's been great. I've loaded Office 2010 Pro onto the device and haven't noticed any lag in load times etc. Having a full version of Word, Excel and OneNote are a must for me, and this tablet fits the bill nicely (it's also the cheapest over here in NZ). I did think I'd need Outlook as well, but I'm finding the built in Mail app works fine - it's nice and fast for reading email on the go, displays HTML email fine, and needs nearly all my needs. I do refer to Outlook for some of the heavy lifting (scheduling meetings etc).
I mainly use for work, so haven't used video or music much.
this table doesn't have a stylus (as noted before) - but you can use one of those 'generic' stylus (like the ones for the iPad) which work fine. I personally think Windows tablet developers are missing a trick here, the Windows handwriting recoginition is out of this world - it reads my scrawl better than I do.
Overall, for an easy to use, not much customisation needed, tablet - I'd highly reccomend this one.
KD.
I leaned a lot for the Galaxy Note stylus 10.01 but there are not many applications for android that support this pen ... I imagine that in the future things may change but by then it will be time to update my tablet back.
I did some research on the stylus you say and there are very good choices, from typical sausage tip, a fine-point stylus (Adonith jot) to one that emulates an S-PEN, same functions to nullify the palm (jot Touch) and pressure sensitive. The latter is ipad but no doubt that technology pass android or windows 8.
I feel bad for leaving behind android, I actually really like the OS but I feel still very green to the world of tablets and that some apps feel more like they where made for a 7" tablet. Also im kind of scared of this seen how bad apps (Phone/Tablet) look on the nexus 10... i think that proves that having one app fits all is not going to work in near future.
So I think I opt for the smart vivotab think android will live in me .... maybe as BlueStacks or dualboot lol
I really prefer android over apple for both phones and tablets (own apple and android in both). I can't speak intelligently about windows 8. I can say this as a first time android Note 10.1 tablet owner - I bought 2 of these for my 6th & 4th grade kids since they wanted apps (games mostly) and I wanted them to be able to do their homework for school (light use of "word and excel"). Overall the notes are a great single quiver solution and we are all extremely happy with them. But, I have to say if my kids were in High school or college I think the challenges we have in some instances with printing and converting polaris office files to word and excel I would absolutely take a hard look at a Windows pro tablet or even laptop. Maybe it isn't fair since we've only had our Notes for 4 weeks but printing anything not portrait is a chore and coming from a strong Word and Excel background leaves me wishing Polaris Office had a lot more capability.
i'd actually love to get a win 8 tab (not rt). no rooting, no waiting on updates from mfg's and running any windows program. what i do hate is the 16:9 screen ratio. it's just too elongated for me.
I was really keen on getting a Surface, but in the end I decided on the Note. It actually came down to one main point, I can't type on the Surface in portrait mode. I loved the integrated keyboard and cover of the Surface and lamented that something similar wasn't available for the Note. I bought a BT keyboard with a stand so I can have the Note in either landscape or portrait depending on my needs, as soon as I can find one that integrates with the Note as a cover I will buy that.
Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk HD
Just for some clarification, the VivoTab Smart seems to run full Windows 8, not RT (it has an Intel Atom (x86) processor). Won't be nearly as locked down as RT, and might be decent if you rely on some Windows apps.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=38329609&postcount=11
Don't forget you can run android on x86 machine. You can dual boot android and windows 8 on the asus vivatab smart.
Nothing beat having a standard keyboard on the screen with all the copy/paste ctrl alt characters and shortcut up/down/left/right buttons etc you have on a standard windows. windows 8 has everything you need for a tablet and more more more more. the asus at 499$ worth any peny believe me. maj-left or right to select ... the end of the tablet copy/paste nightmare on phones and tablets.
I'm in the market for a new tablet as well. I have a Motorola Xoom and while it served it's purpose, it didn't quite cut it as a tablet for me. Why? Well first of all, the performance just isn't very good. I've installed several roms on it and it just gets very laggy and unresponsive after a while. The second thing is the weight. I can't comfortably use it as an e-book reader in bed, which is a big want for me.
I went to Best Buy and played around with a few tablets and was really impressed by the Asus Vivo Tab. It was light, very responsive, and after watching a few HD videos on it and playing with it a while, it never got warm. My bit drawbacks for it are first and foremost, it's running Windows 8, which is good and bad. The good is that it'll run native x86 apps, the bad is that it's Windows 8. Will I need to instal Antivirus on it? Can I anticipate BSOD? Not that you can't get lock ups on Android, I've had plenty on my Xoom. Finally, I've read it's useless for all but the most basic gaming (think Angry Birds). I don't game on my tablet at all but my son does.. but then again, he has my old iphone to game on so gaming's not a big deal.
I'm wondering how Bluestacks runs on it though. Anyone tried running Bluestacks on one of these?
Help me decide which tablet
Hi guys
Please help me to decide which tablet to buy. I have been looking at both the Asus VivoTab and the Samsung Galaxy Note. I am not at all tech savvy so must of what you talk about goes right over my head. I want a tablet to take overseas with me. I want to watch movies, surf the net, catch up on my emails, read a book and play the occasional game.
Just give me a really quick idea of which one will suit my needs.
Thanks
They both suit your needs, you only have to ask yourself if you prefer to work with pen or keyboard.
Sent from my GT-N8010 using Tapatalk HD
Kumabjorn said:
They both suit your needs, you only have to ask yourself if you prefer to work with pen or keyboard.
Sent from my GT-N8010 using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that really the only diference? I have been going mad looking at all the specs etc.. Is one easier to use than the other? All help gratefully accepted.
Thanks
Other differences won't really make a dent in your intended usage. Ease of use will be more important than any technical discrepancies.
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Kumabjorn said:
Other differences won't really make a dent in your intended usage. Ease of use will be more important than any technical discrepancies.
Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My husband and I went out this morning to have a good look at both units and at this stage I am pretty sure that we are going to go with the Samsung.
Thanks for all the input.

Android for Surface RT - how difficult?

What would be required to make Android for Surface RT? The exploit to get into kernel mode exists, so this is more about what is required to get Android running.
Surface RT has a Tegra3 with 2 GB RAM, but I don't know much more than that about the actual hardware. Does Android have drivers for such hardware already?
I'm more of a Windows person. I don't know Linux internals very well.
Myriachan said:
What would be required to make Android for Surface RT? The exploit to get into kernel mode exists, so this is more about what is required to get Android running.
Surface RT has a Tegra3 with 2 GB RAM, but I don't know much more than that about the actual hardware. Does Android have drivers for such hardware already?
I'm more of a Windows person. I don't know Linux internals very well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The biggest challenge would be loading Linux and getting it not to panic immediately.
Other than that, there are tegra drivers available, but I seem to recall that the OEMs customize certain aspects, such as memory mappings, that we'd either have to reverse engineer from Windows or just straight up guess on.
netham45 said:
The biggest challenge would be loading Linux and getting it not to panic immediately.
Other than that, there are tegra drivers available, but I seem to recall that the OEMs customize certain aspects, such as memory mappings, that we'd either have to reverse engineer from Windows or just straight up guess on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think another hard part would be implementing some sort of way to capture the output of Linux's console once the NT kernel is gone.
I don't think that getting the memory mappings would actually be too difficult, if we know the devices.
Myriachan said:
What would be required to make Android for Surface RT? The exploit to get into kernel mode exists, so this is more about what is required to get Android running.
Surface RT has a Tegra3 with 2 GB RAM, but I don't know much more than that about the actual hardware. Does Android have drivers for such hardware already?
I'm more of a Windows person. I don't know Linux internals very well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NVidia have a full linux for tegra project. They like OEMs to keep the devices similar to an extent I think. You can buy tegra dev boards as a consumer (although they have ridiculous prices).
Much of the surface hardware interfaces via i2c as per the microsoft windows 8 hardware guidelines. UART usage is not allowed so much in Windows 8 for internal devices but the tegra does have quite a few UARTS and I presume bare minimum 1 of them is accessible externally, question is how or where. Quite a few methods have been used on phones for adding external serial access, but who knows where it would be on the RT, would take some very intimate PCB tracing to work out where the hell it is if it is there. Common ones I have seen have been a specific resistor value used on the sense line for a USB-OTG adaptor to then trigger a pinmux to swap USB D+ and D- for a serial Tx and Rx, any other value would then trigger the USB host function as you would expect such a cable to do. Same has been done on the nexus 4 between the microphone and ground pins on the audio jack. iPhones and I think the galaxy tabs have them in their regular plug (well, all iOS devices with a 30 pin connector rather than lightning, galaxy tabs also have their own large pin count connector instead of a microUSB).
The RT, well the external keyboard connector is 6 pins. Keyboard, mouse and accelerometer all interface via the i2c bus which is 2 pins (SDA, SCL), all comms need a ground and a VCC connection of some sort is required. thats 4 pins accounted for. For some reason though 1 of the pins isn't connected within the tablet itself, so there are only actually 5 pins. Could the 5th be a sense line?
Android on RT, well, android is linux kernel based. So start with linux on RT and your probably most of the way there. Once your that far you might aswell get a "regular" linux distro on there, if you had full hardware support and were to run lets say ubuntu (for simplicities sake) you probably have a device far more useful than Windows RT now that you are free of the RT limitations
Oh, android kernel sources for several tegra devices are available too I think.
But I am guessing the biggest obstacle is getting the RT to even attempt to boot a linux kernel.
---------- Post added at 11:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 PM ----------
Oh, anyone really interested in whats under the hood of that chip: https://developer.nvidia.com/tegra-3-technical-reference-manual
Display might cause a slight issue. Tegra has both DSI and LDVS display support. Which one is the Surface using is unknown. If I had to hazard a guess, I would wager the surface uses DSI. Mostly because it has an HDMI output, the tegra does not support HDMI output natively, however converting a set of LDVS signals to HDMI (and vice versa) are relatively straight forward compared to DSI. You can get DSI screens in the RT's size, so I would guess they use DSI for the screen and LDVS with an adaptor for the HDMI, or if someone was testing the display output of the RT, you could just presume its LDVS for instance and simply connect the RT to a display as it boots linux and see whether the internal or external displays come on first I guess, or device manager in windows might shed some light (or it might not).
There is PCIe in there, wouldnt surprise me if they use it for networking. I dont see anything else suited to the task particularly (outside of special use cases, SPI is often used for an arduino for example, but at the same time it isnt streaming youtube in 1080p).
The issue here is there is too few devs on xda working on the RT. This is going to stay until more people get RT devices. Look at the HP Touchpad, the dev community was stagnant until the fire sales. After the fire sales, people started ports of android and now afaik, there are fully working ports.
I believe a similar thing must occur for the Surface RT, perhaps clearing stock at $300-$350 with keyboard. Get more people onboard and some serious dev work will begin. MS won't have fire sales, they are not going to close down the RT division anytime soon so chances are, it'll just be some sale to clear old stock.
Actually they are having a sale right now. In korea atleast. 310,000krw (approx US$277) for a 32gb surface and touch cover..
Sent from my MB860 using xda app-developers app
This may sound dumb but, wouldn't it be simpler to drop linux from android and run android natively on windows? Just like normal software in fullscreen.
After all, android is a shell ontop of an OS.
These guys did it on x86 (Surface Pro): http://windroy.com/
ScRePt said:
This may sound dumb but, wouldn't it be simpler to drop linux from android and run android natively on windows? Just like normal software in fullscreen.
After all, android is a shell ontop of an OS.
These guys did it on x86 (Surface Pro): http://windroy.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are not first to do so. Bluestacks and JarOfBeans.
Android mostly consists of the dalvik virtual machine and a few libraries, its a complex project though and it does rely heavily on linux capabilities, I think Bluestacks uses cygwin extensively, which isnt available for RT and is very complex itself.
Its actually incredibly difficult to do what you propose. It might actually be simpler to get the linux kernel booting, besides, the linux kernel on an RT device would be more useful in the long term as it would open the door to running Ubuntu or something on the device.
I referred windroy because I am quite amazed of it's speed.
I thought they just wrapped the linux calls to call the winapi and thus it seemed simpler than porting a whole OS
@ threadstarter:
just buy a nexus tablet if you are in android THAT much.
The idea is to have both Windows and Android... there's no ARM tablet that can currently do that. Besides, "put Linux on it" is a time-honored hacking tradition. It doesn't even need to be practical, really. Myriachan has already done some very cool work for the community, too... https://twitter.com/Myriachan/statuses/365350790803619840
unbenannt said:
@ threadstarter:
just buy a nexus tablet if you are in android THAT much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if you realise who the thread starter was. One of the people who works on jailbreaking the RT and porting applications in the first place, not some random noob saying "herpa I want android derpa".
Its almost unwritten law that when a new device comes out, someone needs to get linux booting on it. Someone has even booted linux on an 8bit AVR microcontroller (AtMega328 specifically I think, although technically they cheated by wiring an actual RAM DIMM module to it and an SD card and then hand writing an ARM emulator which then loaded a linux for ARM port up, took a few hours to boot actually ). Chumbys, DVD set top boxes, phones, watches, anything including the nexus tablet actually https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7/Installation. NEEDS LINUX.
Anyway. If you could boot linux on it then an RT tablet then to many people it would become instantly more usable, its actually the sort of thing that would make me interested in using my 10% off voucher for one.
lambstone said:
The issue here is there is too few devs on xda working on the RT. This is going to stay until more people get RT devices. Look at the HP Touchpad, the dev community was stagnant until the fire sales. After the fire sales, people started ports of android and now afaik, there are fully working ports.
I believe a similar thing must occur for the Surface RT, perhaps clearing stock at $300-$350 with keyboard. Get more people onboard and some serious dev work will begin. MS won't have fire sales, they are not going to close down the RT division anytime soon so chances are, it'll just be some sale to clear old stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, Microsoft just sold 10,000 RT devices on their "manufacturer_certified" eBay account at firesale prices.
about 7,500 Surface RT 32GB with touch cover sold for $199.
and 2,500 Surface RT 64GB sold at $199
I picked up one at this price, obviously a lot of others did as well.
brad1825 said:
Well, Microsoft just sold 10,000 RT devices on their "manufacturer_certified" eBay account at firesale prices.
about 7,500 Surface RT 32GB with touch cover sold for $199.
and 2,500 Surface RT 64GB sold at $199
I picked up one at this price, obviously a lot of others did as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm. Any link to show where you got the figures?
If they indeed sold 10k RT devices, this could bring a boost to the RT dev environment.
my surface is perfect, no hacking needed. does 99% of wat a tablet should do. perfectly
spaco22 said:
my surface is perfect, no hacking needed. does 99% of wat a tablet should do. perfectly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good for you, you really needed to post that? This thread is here for those where the tablet does not do what it should do for some users...
This thing is practically doing a touchpad style firesale for black friday. The hardware is nice for the $200 price point, but I won't bother getting one unless there's a decent chance of an Android port (RT is useless.)
Any work towards that end since this thread died off?
Rakeesh_j said:
This thing is practically doing a touchpad style firesale for black friday. The hardware is nice for the $200 price point, but I won't bother getting one unless there's a decent chance of an Android port (RT is useless.)
Any work towards that end since this thread died off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for that, but in my opinion Android on a tablet is useless...! Except of the case you want many useless apps and games on your tablet...
On RT you have much more opportunities e.g. full USB support full working Office and much more!!!
Gesendet von meinem GT-I9100
lambstone said:
The issue here is there is too few devs on xda working on the RT. This is going to stay until more people get RT devices. Look at the HP Touchpad, the dev community was stagnant until the fire sales. After the fire sales, people started ports of android and now afaik, there are fully working ports.
I believe a similar thing must occur for the Surface RT, perhaps clearing stock at $300-$350 with keyboard. Get more people onboard and some serious dev work will begin. MS won't have fire sales, they are not going to close down the RT division anytime soon so chances are, it'll just be some sale to clear old stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fire sales have begun! Hoping to pick mine up on Black Friday!
http://www.microcenter.com/product/412706/Surface_RT_32GB_with_Black_Touch_Cover
lambstone said:
MS won't have fire sales, they are not going to close down the RT division anytime soon so chances are, it'll just be some sale to clear old stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't be so sure about that.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/26/microsoft-kill-windows-rt-larson-green
http://www.geek.com/microsoft/windo...according-to-microsofts-devices-lead-1578243/
MisterKrispy said:
Fire sales have begun! Hoping to pick mine up on Black Friday!
http://www.microcenter.com/product/412706/Surface_RT_32GB_with_Black_Touch_Cover
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
$179.99 seems about right for standing out in the cold.
lambstone said:
The issue here is there is too few devs on xda working on the RT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not for long.

Possible Windows RT 8(.1) install disk?

I'm relatively new on XDA and also to my new Surface RT, but I think I've found something useful.
I bought my Surface first gen two days ago from an employee from a local retailer, who has won the tablet because of his job. So when I bought it, it came with a preconfigured account MMS on it. I think this would be deployed as demo item, but it never was done so.
So, the point is, when I checked This Computer there was a DVD-RW drive connected, with something like a install disk/iso from Windows inserted. Ofcourse Surfaces don't have physical drives, so I quicly copied the complete contents to my pc.
So my question: is this really the Windows RT install disk? I have really no idea how I can check that.
Quick edit: tried opening the setup.exe, and it popped up as Windows Server 2012.. That doesn't make sense at all, why would you have Server 2012 on a brand new Surface RT?! The Autorun.inf also said AMD64.
Scoutsassin said:
I'm relatively new on XDA and also to my new Surface RT, but I think I've found something useful.
I bought my Surface first gen two days ago from an employee from a local retailer, who has won the tablet because of his job. So when I bought it, it came with a preconfigured account MMS on it. I think this would be deployed as demo item, but it never was done so.
So, the point is, when I checked This Computer there was a DVD-RW drive connected, with something like a install disk/iso from Windows inserted. Ofcourse Surfaces don't have physical drives, so I quicly copied the complete contents to my pc.
So my question: is this really the Windows RT install disk? I have really no idea how I can check that.
Quick edit: tried opening the setup.exe, and it popped up as Windows Server 2012.. That doesn't make sense at all, why would you have Server 2012 on a brand new Surface RT?! The Autorun.inf also said AMD64.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
windows 8 & RT can mount iso images as virtual DVD drives. Seems for some reason the dude simply mounted the server 2012 image?
SixSixSevenSeven said:
windows 8 & RT can mount iso images as virtual DVD drives. Seems for some reason the dude simply mounted the server 2012 image?
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Well, the device was brand new, it was still sealed. But still, why would MS do this, it doesn't make any sense...
I had the original Surface RT (the one you have) and now the Surface 2 (its more advanced replacement). If it was a sealed unit, it should have just booted up and asked a few simple configuration questions and started working. You may have a special demo unit that the store would have on display.
By default there should be a factory image hidden on the SSD. Search for instructions on how to invoke a factory reset. With luck, that will work and you'll have a normal Surface RT.
Bye.
cymedic founder
Scoutsassin said:
I'm relatively new on XDA and also to my new Surface RT, but I think I've found something useful.
I bought my Surface first gen two days ago from an employee from a local retailer, who has won the tablet because of his job. So when I bought it, it came with a preconfigured account MMS on it. I think this would be deployed as demo item, but it never was done so.
So, the point is, when I checked This Computer there was a DVD-RW drive connected, with something like a install disk/iso from Windows inserted. Ofcourse Surfaces don't have physical drives, so I quicly copied the complete contents to my pc.
So my question: is this really the Windows RT install disk? I have really no idea how I can check that.
Quick edit: tried opening the setup.exe, and it popped up as Windows Server 2012.. That doesn't make sense at all, why would you have Server 2012 on a brand new Surface RT?! The Autorun.inf also said AMD64.
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My guess is that the guy was trying to install Windows Server on the Surface RT. You ask why you would have it on there? The answer is that it isn't. It is impossible to put any version of Windows on an RT version of the Surface other than Windows RT and possibly Windows Phone.
The Surface RT line of tablets uses an ARM processor while the Pro line uses x86 processors. ARM processors are the kind you find in a phone or tablet and x86 is the kind in laptops and desktops.
The processors are formatted differently and can't run the same software.
When Windows RT first came out, there was a lot of confusion as to what it could do. Many people thought they were getting a Windows tablet and it could run all the same software as Windows 8. After all, it looks exactly the same.
For the Love of Tech said:
My guess is that the guy was trying to install Windows Server on the Surface RT. You ask why you would have it on there? The answer is that it isn't. It is impossible to put any version of Windows on an RT version of the Surface other than Windows RT and possibly Windows Phone.
The Surface RT line of tablets uses an ARM processor while the Pro line uses x86 processors. ARM processors are the kind you find in a phone or tablet and x86 is the kind in laptops and desktops.
The processors are formatted differently and can't run the same software.
When Windows RT first came out, there was a lot of confusion as to what it could do. Many people thought they were getting a Windows tablet and it could run all the same software as Windows 8. After all, it looks exactly the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's pretty obvious to me Windows Server wouldn't work, and the guy selling it would know this too. The tablet wasn't completely sealed when I got it, but the seller told me it was a brand new unit, and he never booted it up himself either. Here's the thing, there already was a local user account on it, named MMS. The iso of the WS 2012 was already mounted in a virtual dvd drive. So my guess it's a demo model, but that would still not explain the iso.

Windows 10 ARM on Surface RT?

I ran across this little article and I was thinking that when this option becomes available it may be applicable to the Surface. I was able to get a surface for free from a friend of mine who was having trouble charging it. I was there doing work on a laptop for her dad and she just told me I could have the tablet. I offered to try and repair it, and she just said to keep it. So, got the surface rt, blue keyboard, and a case. Come to find out that all that was bad was the charger. Some loose wires. I wasn't able to fix the charger, but I have a new one coming tomorrow. Now I have to come up something to do with this little tablet. Minecraft for the kids would be preferred. Everything else is fine on the tablet. So, a little curious to see how this Windows 10 ARM works and if it will work to put on the Surface RT. Especially, with the emulation built in.
https://www.windowscentral.com/windows-10-arm-not-windows-rt
lol x86 emulation isn't going to work on a Tegra 3. There has been work on porting Windows 10 IoT to the tablet but there is a lot to do like porting drivers and applications
fgghjjkll said:
lol x86 emulation isn't going to work on a Tegra 3. There has been work on porting Windows 10 IoT to the tablet but there is a lot to do like porting drivers and applications
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Lol what. The old tegra hardware is perfectly capable from a hardware standpoint.
We already had working emulation on the surface RT... I played though all of fallout 1 on my surface RT.
https://hackaday.com/2013/02/18/running-x86-apps-on-windows-rt-devices/
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2095934
danthekilla said:
Lol what. The old tegra hardware is perfectly capable from a hardware standpoint.
We already had working emulation on the surface RT... I played though all of fallout 1 on my surface RT.
https://hackaday.com/2013/02/18/running-x86-apps-on-windows-rt-devices/
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2095934
Click to expand...
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The project is abandoned. Sorry.
There is this group working on Linux for the rt model surface units. https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_151267220466917&key=f0a7f91912ae2b52e0700f73990eb321&libId=jawsy41u01000n4o000DAwb2n09zf9zol&loc=https%3A%2F%2Fforum.xda-developers.com%2Fsitesearch.php%3Fq%3Dwindows%2520surface%2520rt&v=1&out=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fq%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fforum.xda-developers.com%2Fwindows-8-rt%2Frt-development%2Fwip-secure-boot-linux-surface-rt-t3653848%26sa%3DU%26ved%3D0ahUKEwiEsrbTwPjXAhWD2YMKHQPXA48QFggMMAQ%26client%3Dinternal-uds-cse%26cx%3Dpartner-pub-2900107662879704%3A4763122713%26usg%3DAOvVaw09iZfaks4BIXZgVRFCfAIG&title=General%20Search&txt=%5BWIP%5D%20Secure%20Boot%20and%20Linux%20for%20%3Cb%3ESurface%20RT%3C%2Fb%3E%20%7C%20%3Cb%3EWindows%3C%2Fb%3E%208%2C%20RT%20...
puppychow said:
There is this group working on Linux for the rt model surface units. https://redirect.viglink.com/?forma... <b>Surface RT</b> | <b>Windows</b> 8, RT ...
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Link isnt working
phoenixbennu said:
I ran across this little article and I was thinking that when this option becomes available it may be applicable to the Surface. I was able to get a surface for free from a friend of mine who was having trouble charging it. I was there doing work on a laptop for her dad and she just told me I could have the tablet. I offered to try and repair it, and she just said to keep it. So, got the surface rt, blue keyboard, and a case. Come to find out that all that was bad was the charger. Some loose wires. I wasn't able to fix the charger, but I have a new one coming tomorrow. Now I have to come up something to do with this little tablet. Minecraft for the kids would be preferred. Everything else is fine on the tablet. So, a little curious to see how this Windows 10 ARM works and if it will work to put on the Surface RT. Especially, with the emulation built in.
https://www.windowscentral.com/windows-10-arm-not-windows-rt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows 10 for Surface RT has been leaked.
Here is a link (follow the steps carefully)
https://forum.xda-developers.com/wi...face-rt-2-windows-10-arm32-step-step-t4107273

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