joker454 do you just have your desktop sitting in a closet conencted by only ethernet to your network? I find my desktop to be louder than I'd like but i want access to it all the time so i was thinking of doing the same bit. WHat is your setup at the desktop? Do you just RDP into it from Your MB and connect the MB to your monitors?
MS's business future, particuarly in mobile space *spawn
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We use the closet next to the tv in the tv room basically as our server room, there's lots of hardware in there including internet modem, router, 16 port gigabit switch, raid units, directv receiver, etc and the gaming pc. So the gaming pc just connects to ethernet switch in there and a single hdmi cable goes to the a/v receiver which hooks to a 65" plasma tv. I backup my daily video work to a raid unit, so if I have a new project to render overnight I simply wake up the gaming pc and let it render the project overnight directly from the raid unit. So I don't rdp from the mac air for renders, the tv is basically a big ass 1080p monitor, I just use that to start the rendering, turn off the tv and go to sleep. There is a shared folder on the gaming pc where the renders get dumped to, I grab the results next morning from my Mac Air. So that's all the gaming pc is used for as far as work is concerned, it's usually asleep and just woken up at night either for me to play games or to serve as a render mule overnight, nothing more, then it goes back to sleep.
My office setup is now extremely simple. I have a 4 port usb 3.0 hub with wireless keyboard/mouse dongle, usb to ethernet adapter, external bluray burner and portable hdd connected to it. So I put the Mac Air on the table, connect the single usb 3.0 cable from the hub, the display port connector for audio/video, and power plug. Presto I'm now working on the 30" display in the office at 2560x1600 and in complete silence as a bonus. Works really well and I do all work right on the Mac Air, it's strong enough for what I need and I do backups to a raid unit with robocopy. Those same backups are what the gaming pc would use later if I needed an overnight render. If I have to go somewhere else or I just feel like working outside on the hammock I simply disconnect the usb hub, display port and power cable and go work anywhere I want with the same mac air.
That's awesome. So you have no kb/mouse connected to the gaming pc? How do you initiate a render/game without logging into it first? I want to put my workstations into my closet and just rdp into them by Ethernet and control them from my remote session (either my surface rt or my MBP) so I can mess around with R, and splunk, whether I'm at home or away. I may consider a whdmi option too.
I'm hoping that the Xbox one can serve as an all in one server of sorts when it drops in two months. If they did I'd put the damn things all over the house and treat them like a cortana or jarvis
I actually do the same thing, I recently replaced both my desktop office pc and 2011 Mac Air with a new Haswell based Mac Air running Windows 8 and I plug it into a 30" screen to get 2560x1600 in the office. Since it has the HD 5000 Intel gpu means it's worked great with Vegas Pro 12 for video editing, and I'm fully mobile now which is awesome. As a bonus I get 11 hours battery life when I want to just use it casually, best of both worldsFor the 10+ hour renders of my video projects I just use my gaming pc that lives in a closet and let it grind away overnight. Point being that laptops have really gotten quite strong, that I'm able to run my business which involves lots of video editing on a Mac Air is quite remarkable. The upcoming Macbook Pro's are supposed to have Iris Pro gpus so I'm going to check those out as well out of curiosity.
It's anecdotal but the #1 complaint from the myriad of people I work with is the camera quality on cell phones, especially Android phones which are particularly bad. It's also, again anecdotal, the reason people nowadays are always asking me about my Nokia Windows phone. Doesn't matter where I am be at at the car dealer, in the grocery store, at the bank, at a video shoot, anywhere I'll hear "hey is that the one with the camera?", "how is the camera on your phone", "yeah I want to get one of those the camera is awesome", etc, etc, almost ad nausea now. I've even been asked to take pictures of people just so they can see it's quality which is kinda funny, but having seen how poor Android phone camera's are I can understand. Real camera's are not an option anymore, no one bothers carrying them around, they are basically dead.
This is the appeal of Nokia, they have arguably the best cameras and their antennae quality is a step above anybody. If they had made a high end Android phone they would have sold well. Perhaps we'll get to see them bring their hardware expertise to the next Windows phone...
On a related note some of the leadership is trying to do a start up called Newkia:
http://www.zdnet.com/nokia-is-dead-newkia-rises-from-its-ashes-7000020271/
The name is just bad but I'm crossing my fingers they can pull off an N9 style phone in the new future.
I should have been YesKia...
Yeah it just happened again right now at the bank, once again hit with the "Is that the nokia phone? Is the camera good?" They all ask about the camera time and time again. It's gotten to where I don't take out my phone if I'm in a big hurry because I know I'll get quizzed on the phone and the camera. I'm starting to see how actors must feel to where it's cool to be recognized at first but now it's become yes it's a damn windows phone already! I guess Nokia's marketing campaign seems to be working in spite of stores steering people to android phones. I've never had people consistently bug me about wanting to see my phone like this in the past. I wonder what will happen when I switch my Nokia 920 for the 1520
Thing is, that's because of the handset and not MS or Windows. Other phones could also go with great cameras. Samsung have even done that by combining a phone with a compact zoom camera in the S4 Zoom. If camera quality ends up being the deciding factor in the mobile space, other companies will follow suit (not least the camera companies like Canon and Nikon). For that to be something MS can uniquely capitalise on, they'd need something unique at the OS or hardware level that makes Windows Phone the best possible camera phone.Yeah it just happened again right now at the bank, once again hit with the "Is that the nokia phone? Is the camera good?" They all ask about the camera time and time again. It's gotten to where I don't take out my phone if I'm in a big hurry because I know I'll get quizzed on the phone and the camera. I'm starting to see how actors must feel to where it's cool to be recognized at first but now it's become yes it's a damn windows phone already! I guess Nokia's marketing campaign seems to be working in spite of stores steering people to android phones. I've never had people consistently bug me about wanting to see my phone like this in the past. I wonder what will happen when I switch my Nokia 920 for the 1520
Sure eventually Android phones will catch up on the camera side. But at least the camera seems to have helped bring attention to the windows phone platform which was previously invisible to most. In turn the camera is helping people notice how cool the platform looks, etc, maybe that can snowball for them.
I've read articles like that and they must live in a parallel world than me, where I am the camera is very important. People talk apps and other things, but when I'm able to take clear pictures with my phone and others with me can't capture the moment and miss it because their android camera's are crap, interest in my phone tends to skyrocket more so that any app can do.
Not really, L1020 have some things better than 808. I think the lens size or something like this is better on 808, but pictures have similar quality but the 1020p has better low light pictures.
My wife and all her girlfriends love the Iphone primarily bc of the picture quality, granted its anecdotal due to sample size but that is what they all talk about. My wife says my Android phone is easier to use but she needs her Iphone bc of the picture quality. I'd also say that if I'm being honest about how I use my phone, the camera is pretty high up there in terms of features. Internet and email probably first then calls, calendar and text followed closely by pictures/video other applications like GPS are nice when I need them but the ones I mentioned earlier get used all thru out the day and on the weekend when we are together as a family the camera trumps internet and email.
At the end of the day phones will be limited in terms of what they can replace due to UI, touch screens were a huge improvement over keyboards for many task but laptops and desktops can do things that in the short to moderate run won't be convenient on phones due to screen size and input options. At that point I doubt we are still calling them phones and even now a decent argument can be made that phone isn't descriptive of what these devices do.
Edit:
I'd love for someone to make a phone with a high quality camera that takes quick good pics/video and antennae and if they included better speakers and sound quality I'd be thrilled. That trumps CPU, memory and cost for me.
If this thread continues to discuss the state and future of mobile phones as opposed to MS's long-term business strategy, I probably ought to close it up. Is there anything about MS really still to say?
I could try add to the discussion, that IMHO currently the biggest problem with MS' mobile future is Google. Google is quite deliberately trying to minimize it's presence on Windows Phones and if Microsoft can't handle the situation somehow (by paying money), that's going to cause problem for Windows Phone.
Here's some recent and current issues:
* Google blocked the WP's YouTube app. So, currently, Windows Phone doesn't have official and working YouTube app.
* Google was seriously discussing of dropping Windows Phone's Gmail Calendar & Contacts sync support (Exchange ActiveSync). This has been delayed until the end of this year.
* Previously, Google's app advertising platform supported iOS, Android and WP. They released an update to Admob which dropped the support for WP (this has been then added as a beta feature).
* Google extended Analytics to apps. That includes Android and iOS apps, no Windows Phone.
* Chromecast has iOS and Android support, but no Windows Phone.
* Google Wallet has iOS and Android support, but no Windows Phone.
* GMail has official iOS and Android apps, but no Window Phone.
* Google Maps has official iOS and Android apps, but no Windows Phone. Google has previously blocked Windows Phone users from accessing Google Maps with Mobile IE. (I'm not sure if this is still effective.)
And so on. Google owns the Web and if they block Microsoft out from their services, it's not good for Windows Phone. But I don't think there's anything that money couldn't fix.
The reality is also that Microsoft has the most platforms to cover if they want their services to be used with mobile phones & tablets:
* Apple (mostly) only creates apps and services for their own devices.
* Google makes sure that their apps and services work with both Google's and Apple's devices.
* Microsoft have to provide their apps and service for their own system, to Apple's devices and to Google's devices.
I remember a story long ago about Commodore approaching MS to develop Office for the Amiga, and MS asked a million bucks minimum. Without Office, the Amiga couldn't compete in the office space and that helped contribute to its demise.
I can see why Google don't want another competitor. iOS they have to support as it owns such a signficant market, but squeezing out rivals makes sense from a business POV. It's strange to see MS on the receiving end, getting squeezed out because they aren't big enough to push ahead.
east of eastside
Newcomer
The best way MS should use Nokia now is to establish WP by focusing on having the best budget phone on the market. Lumia 520's recent success indicates WP can be strong on the low end. In contrast, not sure if iPhone 5c is really telling the story that there is a place for a cheap iPhone. MS should have done the same with Surface and focus on owning a lower market segment than going head-to-head with iPad.
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