Technology Distilled

Episode 020 – Government of Canada Technology Show Coverage

00:00 Intro

10:00 Surface Pro 4 vs. MacBook Air

MacBook Air

Surface Pro 4

Screen

11 inches

12.3 inches

Resolution

1366 × 768

2736 × 1824

CPU

1.6 GHZ Intel Core i5

Intel Core i5 (1)

Memory

8 GB

8 GB

Storage

256 GB

256 GB

Battery life

9 hours

9 hours

Touch screen

No

Yes

Keyboard

Yes

Not included (2)

Weight

2.38 lbs.

1.73 lbs (2)

Price

$1,199.00

$1,299.00

From <http://winsupersite.com/hardware/surface-pro-4-vs-macbook-air-core-specs>

14:56 Surface Book Pro vs. MacBook Pro

Editor’s Notes: When writing the show notes, I listened to this segment and decided I really want to upgrade my Surface Pro 3 to a Surface Book 4 – David

MacBook Pro

Surface Book

Screen

13 inches

13.5 inches

Resolution

1280 × 800

3000 × 2000

CPU

2.7 GHZ Intel Core i5

Intel Core i5 (1)

Memory

8 GB

8 GB

Storage

256 GB

256 GB

Battery life

7 hours

12 hours

Touch screen

No

Yes

Keyboard

Yes

Yes

Weight

4.5 lbs.

3.34 lbs

Price

$1,499.00

$1,699.00

25:00 Dell and HP are going to sell Surface devices

31:00 Panasonic Tablets and Toughbooks

34:00 Completely managed

35:00 Outro – Call for your help with the podcast, please…

44:00 Whisky of the Week – Aberfeldy

Show notes coming soon

00:00 – Intro

05:00 – Surface Pro 4

23:00 Surface Pro Docking Station

27:00 Surface Pro 4 Type Cover Keyboard

30:00 SurfaceBook Pro

52:00 Surface Pro 3 and Surface Book Pro Summary

4

5

5

4

5

5

5

5

4

5

5

4

5

6

4.7

4..9

1:07:00 – Outro – Call for your help with the podcast, please…

Win a Mystery Surface Pro Accessory – Follow the instructions below:

Help Support the Show

Whiskey of the Week

Enjoyed somewhere in the deepest, darkest Albert with old and new friends … White Owl Clear Whisky

Apologies for the sound quality - We even had to yank the first version of this episode due to echo in the bar we were in.  Share and Enjoy

Show notes coming soon.

00:00 - Intro

Welcome to the Show

Work of the week is "iPad"

4:00 - Contest Winners

Clean Stylus - Neil F. Uher II @NeilUher2

Juiced 4-in-1 - Cristal Kawula @SuperCristal1

7:00 - Surface Nation Updates

Ottawa PC User Group

Bi-Weekly Schedule

Colin and Sean's tour

11:30 - News and Rumors

Microsoft Product Launch - Tuesday October 6th - NYC

Windows Mobile 10536

First Build in 1 month

Fixes broken features like tethering

First thing to do after upgrade is update your apps

Seems a bit choppy, but stable!

Using it on my main phone!

Dell has Leaked a Surface Clone

http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/12/9312215/dell-xps-12-rumor-photos-microsoft-surface

19:00 - IPad Pro Preview

Size - similar

Weight – close -  iPad  1.57 pounds vs Surface Pro 1.76 pounds.

37:00 - As Seen on TV

Can the Surface be used as a throwing start to kill?  Watch the Arrow and find out!

41:00 Growing Surface Nation - As always please contact us with your ideas, and even segments like Kyran does!

38:00 - Outro - Call for your help with the podcast, please…

1.     Follow and Re-tweet, @SurfaceSmiths

2.     Listen www.SurfaceSmiths.com

3.     Email [email protected]

4.     Purchase Amazon A Store

46:00 - Whiskey of the Week is Glen Breton Single Malt Whisky

Apple iPad Pro Review

First Impressions

4

Portability

5

Build Quality

4

Expected Reliability

5

Ease of Use

4

Value

5

Gets Surface Ethos

4

Overall Score

4.7

Episode Summary

0:00 - Intro - new theme music by Rob at the Failed Musicians Podcast.

0:30 - Word of the week - Kryan!

2:00 - News and Rumors 

17:00 - Review of Urban Armour Gear Scout for Surface Pro 3.  We give it a very high rating of 4.7 out of 5.0.

34:00 - Kyran Mountain gives us a review of the Logitech Bluetooth K480 Keyboard supports up to 3 separate devices.

36:00 Growing Surface Nation - As always please contact us with your ideas, and even segments like Kyran does!

38:00 -  Outro - Call for your help with the podcast, please… 

42:00 - Whiskey of the Week is Alberta Springs Rye Whiskey.

UAG Scout Review Summary

First Impressions

5

Portability

4

Build Quality

5

Expected Reliability

5

Ease of Use

5

Value

5

Gets Surface Ethos

4

Overall Score

4.7

Episode Summary

0:00 - Intro - new theme music by Rob at the Failed Musicians Podcast.

0:30 - Word of the week - Surprise!

3:00 - News and Rumors

13:00 - Stephen Hawking's (our former intern) theorizes that you can from a black hole? In related Microsoft news can Microsoft dig out of the Black Hole that is their phone business?

15:00 - Is the Insider Program for Phones Ending? - No the current beta will stop working at the end of September.

18:00 - Matt wonders if he will have to pay for his Windows 10 after the "free year" as passed?  It is free for the foreseeable future.

21:00 - New Surface Application - Less features, bad user interface and doesn't fix the ability to customize the pen-top button.  Check Colin's Blog next week for information on a script that will return some of this functionality.

26:00 - Touch Me Gesture Studio lets you … "create, edit, and export a customized gesture file and that’s it! This app does not and never will contain the gesture engine that actually brings those gestures to life."

27:00 - Product Review - Guest Review Kyran Mountain reviews the "BESTRUNNER 16GB USB 2.0 OTG Flash Drive Memory Stick for OTG Phone PC Tablet Micro USB Pen U-disk 1Pcs".  Follow Kyran on Twitter @Kyran.

33:00 - Call for contributors - This is a community podcast so please contact us if you'd like to contribute like @Kyran did!

36:00 - Contest – Twitter based contest for accessories has limitations as Colin and David are having trouble tracking re-tweets.  Please follow us @SurfaceSmiths and re-tweet us!

40:00 -  Outro - Call for your help with the podcast, please…

40:30 - Whiskey of the Week is a gin.  Ungava Canadian Premium Gin.

Episode Summary

0:00 - Intro

2:20 - Drinking Game – Our new regular feature encourages our listeners to have a drink whenever we say our keyword of the week.  This week’s keyword is “Windows”!

3:00 - CORRECTION – When we reviewed the Clean Stylus from Cleanint David complained because it was black.  It turns out it is available in 7 lovely colours!  We also were wrong about the price.  It is only $19.95 which makes it a steal!

Order any product from CleanInt and receive a 20% discount by using the promo code “SurfaceNation” until September 30th, 2015.

NEWS AND RUMORS

4:00 - It appears Microsoft will hold one event, possibly in NYC, to launch the Phone, Surface Pro 4 and Band 2.

Windows Phone rumors about support for Hello and new Consumer and Enterprise versions continue to circulate.

Surface Pro 4 rumors now include a 14” version and a Hello camera.

The final rumor is that the Surface Smiths will attend the event if we can get invites.

11:00 - Surface Smiths will be presenting at the Ottawa PC Users Group on Septembert 9th. 

11:46 - New Build of Windows 10 – For those of us Windows Insiders tired of running release software Build 10525 has been released.

15:00 - Windows 10 on a Netbook – This week David talks about his experience installing Windows 10 on an XP era Atom Netbook.  It does work – but would you want to use it?  Check out his blog for more details.

19:00 - Contest – Twitter based contest for accessories has limitations as Colin and David are having trouble tracking re-tweets.  Please follow us @SurfaceSmiths and re-tweet us!

20:00 -  Outro - Call for your help with the podcast, please…

Follow and Re-tweet, @SurfaceSmiths

Listen www.SurfaceSmiths.com

Email [email protected]

Purchase Amazon A Store

20:30 - Whiskey of the Week Boyan’s Natural Root Beer.  We have guest reviewers this week Andrew, Oliver and Elliot.

In this episode we review the CleanStylus device from CleanInt

CleanStylus Review Summary

First Impressions

 5

Portability

 5

Build Quality

 5

Expected Reliability

 5

Ease of Use

 4

Value

 5

Gets Surface Ethos

 4

Overall Score

4.7

Order any product from CleanInt and receive a 20% discount by using the promo code “SurfaceNation” until September 30th, 2015.

Listen to the episode to find out how to win one of 3 free CleanStylus devices from CleanInt

Episode Summary

1:00 - Drinking Game – Our new regular feature encourages our listeners to have a drink whenever we say our keyword of the week.  This week’s keyword is “Surface Nation”!

3:00 - News & Rumours – Microsoft releases Cumulative Update #3 for Windows 10 to save time when building a new system or upgrading to Windows 10.  The Microsoft Windows 10 Store was broken for many users and was finally fixed. A new Windows 10 Mobile Build has been released --- time to try it as our Daily Drivers. Laptops, including Surface, are selling with Windows 10 pre-installed at many retailers including CostCo.  The 84” Surface Hub has been delayed until January. 

5:00 - Surface Pro 4 Rumors – Thinner, Lighter, 12” and 14” and not USB-C.

10:00 - Band 2 Rumors – Speaker Phone and more water resistant

12:00 - Minecraft – Beta vailable for Windows 10

13:00 - Windows 10 Installation Experience – In David’s quest to install Windows 10 on his old Atom has spent his whole weekend installing Windows 7 patches.

14:30 - Stashpad Kickstarter – This is a flask in the size and shape of a mini-tablet.  I think this will make a great future product review too.

14:46 -  MIA – Colin’s Surface is getting fixed – so what is it like to use a traditional laptop again?

20:30 - Bridgewaysis an innovative software company that provides Operations Risk Management solutions for businesses large and small. Our products include Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)/Cloud monitoring solutions as well as Microsoft System Center Management Packs for VMware, Oracle Database and more.

21:30 - Gestures – Colin’s top 10 Windows 10 gestures that work with both a touch screen computer and a precision touchpad.  Audio is a little off here as David looks at his Surface and moves his head away from the Mic.

27:00 - Contest – Twitter based contest for accessories has limitations as Colin and David are having trouble tracking re-tweets.  Please follow us @SurfaceSmiths and re-tweet us!

31:00 - Product Review – Clean Stylus from www.Cleanint.com is a much improved system for keeping your pen connected to your Surface Pro 3.  Both Colin and David love it.

Note:  we got the price wrong (it’s $19.50) and didn’t know it comes in 7 colours!  Win one by retweeting our tweet

46:00 - Outro - Call for your help with the podcast, please…

Follow and Re-tweet, @SurfaceSmiths

Listen www.SurfaceSmiths.com

Email [email protected]

47:00 - Whiskey of the Week Royal Suntory from Japan

In this episode we provide our first product review and some bonuses for our listeners

Listen to the review for details on how you can win a FREE Juiced Systems SP3 4-in-1 Adapter.  Additional iscount code at bottom of show notes

Episode Summary

00:30 – Episode 10 show notes provided by Mitch Garvis.  Thanks Mitch

01:12 - No Cortana - She's busy working overtime at Windows 10 and on Android 

02:25 - Secret Surface Pro 4 blog - Verge SP4 Rumour

03:10 - Information on the update for Surface RT Update info

04:26 - MS Open Source tools for porting iOS apps to Windows

05:50 - Windows 10 for Xbox – Preview available in September - Final in November 

06:48 - Bridgeways Promo

07:15 - Product Review - Juiced Systems 4-in-1 SP3 Adapter  

22:29 - Outro 

27:40 - WOTW - Aberlour 10 year old

Juiced Systems 4-in-1 Surface Pro 3 Adapter Review Summary

First Impressions

4

Portability

5

Build Quality

4

Expected Reliability

5

Ease of Use

5

Value

4

Gets Surface Ethos

5

Overall Score

4.6

 Order your Juiced Systems Surface Pro 3 4-in-1 Adapter from Amazon by clicking the link below (please don't go directly to Amazon - we need the affiliate credits).

Use the Promo code SRFCNATN to save an additional 25%

Offer valid until September 30th, 2015