Microsoft Surface Pro 3

I have been interested in a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 since I first saw one that my friend's girlfriend owns. She doesn't like Mac Products and prefers Windows products and PCs. (everyone to their own taste I guess).

However, my interest is different. My interest is that I was proficient only mainly on PCs from the first AT Clone I bought from Silicon valley along with an Epson printer for $2500 around 1987. I changed by 2006 just getting tired of my PC's both desktop and laptops crashing under the weight of more and more viruses and cookies.

So, at that time Macs (both Imacs and macbook pro laptops) were not having any trouble with viruses so I moved my family over to Macs.

Mostly we have been happy with this except my son who prefers PC laptops and desktops for gaming. Also he likes to build custom gaming computers so he can design himself what he is using for maximum efficiency and speed of graphics cards. So, mostly you cannot usually buy built as nice of a computer as he tends to build stock from any company prebuilt, even though you might get someone to send away for the parts to build something like this for you or build it yourself.

He found by joining Amazon Prime with movies and free shipping of all Amazon products that he was able to save about $300 in having free shipping and buying all the components this way through Amazon.com. The computer at that time cost about $700 in parts but likely to have someone build this for you would be $1500 or more (the total cost of parts and having something like this built for you custom made).

It greatly helps if you know how to match components and operating systems and motherboards etc. like he does.

Anyway, I realized I needed to bone up on Windows PC types of knowledge since I have been "out of the loop" so to speak since 2006 regarding using PCs. Like with anything in life it is always "Use it or lose it". So, I decided to buy the "Technology breakthrough of 2014" which was the Surface Pro 3 which is both a laptop and like an Ipad or tablet in that you can either just use it as a tablet or join it with it's keyboard when you want to have a keyboard. So, it combines the best of tablet and laptop in a PC format.

Also, in addition to my friend's girlfriend having one her old friend who runs Mt. Shasta's internet service along with his brother told her about it too. So, he I guess prefers PC's especially this one too.

So, since I had been wanting to reacquaint myself with microsoft's PC operating systems again it seemed like a perfect choice.

However, when my wife brought it home I realized that the PC operating systems had completely changed in every single way since 2006 to the point where I likely was going to have to Skype with my friend's girlfriend or drive up to Shasta to have her help me navigate this new system.

Also, it is a similar system of blocks (tablet style) to work from if you also have a Windows phone.

My daughter had a Windows phone for 2 years and liked it okay even though she likes her Iphone5S now better because it is easier to use of all the smartphones including androids.

However, remember you likely can do many more things with a Windows phone or an Android than you can in the end with an Iphone because of they way they are designed.

However, learning an Iphone (to be effective in a shorthand way) takes about a day or two. However, being effective with a Windows phone or Android takes about a week or two.

After texting with my friend's girlfriend and learning a little more about it, I finally was able to drill down into it far enough to install the name and password of my wifi. So, so far so good. However, when I tried to compose on i† it wasn't working with my blog site.

The other thing to remember if you get one of these because basically it has two operating systems or modes it goes into. One is a more traditional one for a laptop and one is a tablet type of operating system for navigating by touching the screen. You can to either anytime but it might be important to know there are two separate modes one for the external keyboard and one for the touchscreen so you don't get confused by what happens when you use one or the other.

The first problem I had was when I tried to get to settings in the control panel so I could install my wifi and password. I couldn't get there from here so to speak so I was frustrated.

I really couldn't believe the user had been so far removed from the reality of Windows 95 to whatever versions I was using still in 2006. So, I called my friend's girlfriend. And even though what she said wasn't helpful in setting up my wifi correctly it informed me of other differences in using this type of laptop computer which is really a hybrid of a windows phone and a PC Tablet with a keyboard.

I was sort of frustrated with my software and computer background sort of being treated by this computer like a total idiot. So, I found it wanting me to use microsoft as my base of operations on the internet sort of irritating. I prefer to customize everything. On my Macbook Pro that I have used for several years now I mostly use firefox and Google Chrome. The fastest loading is Google Chrome especially if I'm composing at blogger.com where this website is located which is a part of the Google World.

One of the reasons I chose blogger.com or Blogspot as it is also sometimes called is that it goes all over the world by using a Google blog site like this one. So, I have had readers literally in any country in the world that receives Google over the years. However, I don't always know the politics or business practices of all this in regard to all the countries of the world. All I know is that over 30,000 people around the world or more each month visit my site. And I can see which countries they are visiting from but not who or exactly where they live, just by countries. Also, I can see which articles they visit the most so I can get an idea of what my audience is interested in as well.

However, since I'm not paid for doing this mostly I just share what interests me that day, because otherwise I wouldn't do this at all. But, there appear to be a whole lot of people interested in the kinds of things that I am generally too which is why over 30,000 people visit here each month now or more.

One of the many things hard to get used to on Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is that you have finger swipes from four points on the computer screen. So, if you want to navigate somewhere else you can just take a finger and put it to the right of the center outside of the tablet and swipe inward at any point. This gives you some icons for navigation. However, there is also one from the top that does something else and one from the left that does something else and even one from the bottom that does something else.

However, for navigation swiping from the far right of the screen inwards seems the most generally useful.

Also, when you want to start it at the very top of the tablet on the left is a button. Hold that one down a little and if it is charged up it will start up. Also, the charger device is magnetic like Mac chargers   are too except it is black instead of white like a Mac cord is. So, when you get it near the orifice for charging your Surface Pro 3 it will magnetically attach itself if you get it near the right place in a proper alignment for recharging your Surface pro 3.

Also, there is no CD or DVD drive built into a Surface Pro 3 but there is a USB port that you can use.

So, it is much more similar to a tablet than it is to a laptop in this sense.

So, I find it the most useful in accessing the Internet but not necessarily for blogging. I find the connections to blogging are kind of iffy when trying to sign in for example. I have had the same sorts of problems as well as others when I tried to blog while traveling in a car with my Ipad with an external keypad. I got a phone number for my Ipad for doing this but over time I saw it wasn't very practical to use in this way either.

However, I still really like my Ipad for navigation by using my GPS on my Ipad though. It's navigation device that speaks to me or anyone in a car I have found very useful in places like Portland and Seattle and Canada to find out where I am and where I am going to a specific address.

It can be useful if I'm in the Bay Area or Los Angeles or Santa Barbara in areas where I'm not very familiar with or also even where I live if I'm trying to find an unknown address or street I'm not familiar with.