Tesmond's Useful Design

I colleague commented to me recently that Windows XP was the best OS Microsoft ever made. An interesting concept, however, I strongly disagree, Windows 7 is substantially better than XP and additionally I felt that Windows 7 brought great new features where as Windows XP feature wise was practically the same as Windows 2000. You could even argue that outside of the business domain there was no real productivity leap for the home user since Windows 95. Windows 7 instead made the task bar easier to use, the snap to left and right are features I use all the time. I would argue that Windows 8.1 is better than Windows 7 in many respects, but in the same way that Windows XP is not a step change from Windows 2000, I would class Windows 7 and its new features as the first genuine universal productivity improvements for a long time making Windows 7 the best Microsoft OS so far. I feel that nostalgia can often blind people to how much a new product has improved or to all the flaws that irritated...

Further research has shown me that if you "jailbreak" an iPad and purchase a camera adapter you can link it to external USB storage, which as I stated was one of my main problems with the iPad. However, this still does not endear me towards the iPad.  The fact that you have to "break" Apple's security restrictions just to perform what I would consider as required functionality is a big strike against the product.  If Apple dropped their restrictions then perhaps I could be tempted, but I prefer being supplied a device which I have more control over than one that operates in an Apple only paradigm... With Windows 8 rumoured to be available in 2012 Q1 I will find out if my wait was worth it, or if I should have been on the "Apple cart" this whole time.

I watched the windows 8 preview again and I cant wait to pick up a Windows 8 tablet.  I know the iPad 2 is already out, looks beautiful and is a relatively reasonable £400, but it is not quite for me.  There are several aspects I do not like, but mainly it comes down to two aspects. Fixed storage size.  If I purchase a 32gb model then that is all I have.  OK I could rip it open and put a new flash drive in, but not really the way I wanted to go... iOS.  There are many plus points, but overall I like the existing applications I use, I like the freedom of Windows and Android too much. Now you might wonder why would I not look at the Galaxy 10.1 and 8.9.  Well I have and lovely they are too, but again no USB storage, storage is fixed.  At the windows manufacturer conference the tablets all demonstrated the ability to connect to USB peripherals, and this for me is a very big deal! I have seen suggestions that a Sept 2011 release date for tablets is...