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The Dell Venue11 Pro with optional tablet keyboard has a remarkable 20 hour battery life
Dell sent me several of their tablets to review, and they run the full range from their Venue 8 inch Android tablet through their Venue 11 inch core i3 Windows 8.1 Tablet with Keyboard. What remains to be seen is if the range of OS choices and hardware is enough to make an impact on a crowded tablet market.
Read moreToday Scrolls, the latest game from the folks at Mojang who brought us MineCraft hit open BETA, giving everyone a chance to learn gameplay and strategy before the game goes world-wide in general release. Gameplay is based on collectable card games such as Magic: The Gathering, but has some unique twists and strategy that will make it fresh and exciting. I got my login for the beta this afternoon, and am taking this break to give you all a look!
Gameplay starts with customizing your game deck.You start by customizing your deck. The minimum legal deck size is 50 cards, and you get a full deck from one of the three factions to start. As you complete games versus the AI you earn gold, which can be used to buy additional cards, and allowing you to customize your deck in myriads of ways. You also can trade cards with other players, giving you additional options to create a winning and powerful deck.
Once you have assembled your deck, to can play a quick game, or compete in trialsGameplay then begins, with quick play games to practice, and then trial scenarios allow you to win gold to use for purchasing more cards. Gameplay is pretty simple to follow, but infinitely complex to master. Each player has their own side of the board, and each row has an idol which you need to protect. Once you get past the enemies and destroy three of the other players idols, you have won the game. Likewise, if three of your idols fall, you are defeated.
When you win a game, you are awarded gold based on several criteriaOnce you win a game, awards and statistics are presented for your review. Your ranking is based on how well you do against other players, not the computer. The more you play, the more you increase your stats and improve your ranking. One word of warning, the tutorial makes this game look very easy, but once you complete it the difficulty goes up incrementally.
As I get deeper into the game I will post updates, but this should give you a decent idea of what Mojang is up to.
Scrolls is in open beta! On-sale now!
The home screen of Windows RT on the new Surface from MicrosoftMicrosoft for the first time has released their own computer, and it could be a game changer. Fed up with hardware partners failing to capture their vision of tablet computing they have this week released Surface, a bold new take on the world of mobile computing. Featuring a power efficient Tegra 3 processor from NVIDIA and finally removing backward compatibility from windows they have been able to strip their vaunted operating system down to its bare essentials. A complete re-imagining of Windows has been needed for a long time, and I think Microsoft has hit on a winning formula here. What remains to be seen is how quickly software developers start writing programs that will run natively in Microsoft’s new “MODERN UI”. Without developer support this grand experiment is destined to fail.
Hardware
With a new hardware and software platform, it is impossible to really compare specs for hardware. The surface has some interesting design cues, and Microsoft’s design team has made some risky design choices that I think they have really pulled off here.
The touch keyboard doesn’t seem like it would work. 3MM thick, no moving parts…it would seem to most to be a token gesture towards a physical keyboard. However, after a few days using it I am writing this review using it and am more than happy with its responsiveness. Unlike many of the netbook keyboards we have seen over the last few years, the touch keyboard cover that is available with Surface has a surprisingly roomy keyboard, with nice separation between keys and a decent feel. It takes some getting used to, but once you do it is like a whole new world.
One thing that became clear when watching the official release keynote for Surface was how much thought went into the smallest features of this hardware. From the sound made when the kickstand is deployed or stowed to the angle of the cameras being set to account for the slope of the Surface when using the kickstand, no aspect of this hardware design was not thought of and planned for a specific reason.
Surface with Windows RT features 2GB of RAM, a 1.5GHz Tegra 3 processor, and either 32GB or 64GBs of flash storage. There is no benchmark software available in the Windows Store yet, and no other devices to compare it to anyway, so in depth numbers cannot be a part of this review. What I can say is that while some software takes a bit to respond, it does not seem to be a resource issue. With more than ten applications running programs had the same response issues as they did when running alone. Surface is a very responsive system, and on I could see replacing an Ultra Book or Net Book in just about anyone’s workflow.
Software
Windows RT is a new and vastly different operating system than Windows 7, and that is easy to see when the Surface first comes on. The live tiles are not just the first thing you see, they replace the start menu so crucial to previous versions of Windows. Make no mistake though, this is Windows, right down to the command prompt. The biggest difference is “legacy” software. It can run under Windows 8 Pro, but not on Windows RT. This makes getting software written for and offered through the newly minted Windows Store critical in the short term. Without software, this platform is doomed to falter.
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