soundtweaker
The Intel Based Tablets like the Surface Pro will have the desktop option so no one has to stay in Metro Mode.
And thats how you can do alot more than any iPad.
You're making my point for me, but you don't realize it.
Windows RT/Metro is no competition for iOS because of the music-related stuff you
won't be able to do with it…
Windows RT == Windows running on ARM-based (like the iPad) tablets
Windows 8 == Windows running on desktops, laptops, Intel-based tablets ==
FULL-BLOWN WINDOWS.
Two totally different things, and it seems like you're intentionally trying to blur the line between the two. Windows 8 (i.e., full-blown Windows) running on a Intel-based tablet is, like I said, the equivalent of Windows running on a thin laptop… the difference is no keyboard (presumably, or some flip out thing or whatever), and a multi-touch screen bolted on backwards.
An Intel-based table running full-blown Windows potentially gives you head and tails more capability than either an ARM-based iPad or an ARM-based Windows RT tablet (considering raw compute power and
potential expandability)… In fact that would be like comparing, oh I don't know, a MacBook Air to an iPad. Apples and oranges.
Similarly,
Windows RT (
not Windows 8 aka full-blown windows) running on an ARM-based tablet is NOT THE SAME as
Windows 8 (aka full-blown Windows) running on an Intel-based tablet.
Apples and oranges, so please don't tell me "Windows 8 running on a tablet" is as powerful as iOS running on on an iPad, because you're blurring the line between ARM-based and Intel-based products and associated OS versions:
* Windows 8 on an Intel tablet -- yes, potentially
much more powerful than an iPad, in fact (assuming it's not an Atom-based job, but something running substantial CPU, like an Ivy Bridge Core i5 or whatever, perhaps with a couple of accessible DIMM slots)... you could run an entire DAW on one, Kontakt, SONY Vegas, Pro Tools, Lightwave, whatever…
* Windows RT on an ARM tablet -- not as powerful as iPad -- broken audio, no MIDI, and Lord knows what else… certainly not millions of apps ready for download...
From Noel's prevous comment:
BTW in case its not clear from my article, I'm not against the tablet paradigm at all. My objections to metro were from the point of view of its limitations as a platform for Music apps in its current form. And the fact that its function on a desktop PC is pretty limited without interop between desktop applications.
If you want to compare iPad with "windows tablets" you can only compare apples to… er… apples: iOS on ARM-based iPads vs.
Windows RT (w/ Metro) on ARM-based tablets.
Right now, the latter looks like a big strategic FAIL… at least if you're a music tech weenie looking for cheap, small form factor, portable music thingy.
Full-blown Windows 8 running on a Intel-based tablet is effectively the technology we have today (i.e., laptops, netbooks, ultrabooks, whatever) with the addition of the multi-touch screen... and they will be priced accordingly -- the same or more than a low-/mid-range laptop… cuz, well, that's what they are.
In fact, depending on how much expansability you need, how many USB ports, etc., an ultra thin laptop for the same money as the Intel-based tablet may be the better option…
http://www.pcworld.com/ar...itial_impressions.html Hmmm… kinda looks like a laptop, don't it?