Tuesday, November 27, 2012

in, around and in spite of at the Windows 8 promo

So, the blog's name is in, around, etc so I suppose I'm entitled to run with this theme. If I'm writing about achieving balance despite and in addition to the family I suppose I should throw them into the mix every so often - right?
The evening babysitting fell through. mr ebb is in the orient. An invite to play with some Windows 8 goodies landed. I took the Wee Guy with me to a swanky promo party (checked with the PR person first). Food, drinks, gadgets - here we come.
All went well for the first ten or so minutes when the Wee Guy latched on to the Kinect. I found out about the Windows 8 os for the Rogers smart phones (it has a very useful and customisable child lock screen so you can hand junior the phone to play with without worrying about scrambled apps or toddler-dialling mishaps), and then had a play with a sleek tablet.
Then the Wee Guy got this crazed blood lust look in his eye as he realised the awesome computing power available on some very shaky tables. Mr Grabber was at home despite cautions I hissed in his ear. He wasn't so amazed by the new Windows - I think this is because this slide and swipe stuff is all he's known. He settled into exploring very quickly before being lured back to Fruit Ninja on the Kinect.
I had a few personal moments with the new Microsoft portable keyboards (loved them) and the new Bluetooth wedge mouse (cute and it works nicely) before the great Kinect meltdown.
Exit stage left.
Sometimes it's the 'in spite of my family' descriptor which prevails.

... and Windows 8?
I like it. I will be upgrading my desktop soon and am looking forward to running it on my touchscreen monitor. However, I'll be sticking to android for the phone, and probably for the tablet too. I'm not sure if I can load windows on the nexus 7. I did have a play with the Asus tablet on display and was impressed with how the new interface works. I love how the tiles 'work' on the screen though I think it might function better on a larger 10" tablet for maximal effect. It will be interesting to see how the art and drawing apps develop.

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