Former Microsoft Windows President on his full-time use of an iPad

The loop In Site ^ | May 6, 2016 at 6:44 am. PT | by Dave Mark

[Swordmaker]

Steven Sinofsky was President of Microsoft’s Windows’ division from 2009 to 2013. From his blog post about moving to an iPad as his full time machine:

Unlike many “use a product for month” tests this is not an experiment. For me this is a deeply held belief that the rise of smartphones (specifically starting when the iPhone launched) would have a profound impact on the way we all use “computers”.

The transformation spans hardware (thinner, lighter, smaller, cheaper, longer battery life, instant on/off, touch, sensors, connectivity, etc.), operating systems (more: secure, reliable, maintainable, robust, etc.), and app software (refactored, renewed, reimagined, etc.). It is the combination of these attributes, however, causing a change as fundamental as the leap from mainframe to workstation, from character-based to graphical OS, from desktop to laptop, from client/server to web — perhaps equal to all rolled into one shift if for no other reason than the whole planet is involved

And:

Note: This is not a Mac v. Windows or iOS v. Android discussion, so no snickering please. This is about a shift to a “modern mobile” computing platform from hardware to software and the cultural changes that surround that.

I find it fascinating when folks move to a tablet as their full-time machine. I can’t imagine doing that. A big issue for me is the fact that Xcode only runs on my Mac. Add to that my frequent use of a large screen for both editing (multiple windows open side by side) and for development (side-by-side code listings and complex storyboards).

Sinofsky’s post is compelling and worth reading. Interesting that he made the choice to use an iPad and not a Surface solution.

[Swordmaker]

Steven Sinofsky was President of Microsoft’s Windows’ division from 2009 to 2013. He has now moved to an Apple iPad Pro as his full time go-to machine. Here are some of his comments from his blog. — PING!

Ex-Microsoft President Now Uses an Apple iPad Pro
Ping!

The latest Apple/Mac/iOS Pings can be found by searching Keyword "ApplePingList" on FreeRepublic's Search.

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me

[Swordmaker]

Ping for your list?

[minnesota_bound]

He would use the Surface Pro but the video problems keeps him from using it plus it is too expensive for him even on his salary to own one.....

[Nifster]

But he chose the iPad

Apple just does it better

[cba123]

FORMER president.

Sour grapes, perhaps?

Just saying.

[cynwoody]

I find it fascinating when folks move to a tablet as their full-time machine. I can’t imagine doing that. A big issue for me is the fact that Xcode only runs on my Mac. Add to that my frequent use of a large screen for both editing (multiple windows open side by side) and for development (side-by-side code listings and complex storyboards).

The iPad is to the Mac as the Apple Watch is to the iPhone.

Different form factors for different uses.

[dennisw]

I have a 7” tablet for fun and reading ebooks but since internet surfing is my main computer use how many tabs can an ipad open? My guess is 15 at most.
So a 12” ipad is out for me

I usually have 70 tabs/sites open (8gb DDR3 memory) because some are retained for a long time as bookmarked sites I need to return to in detail even a few weeks later. I don’t know why but keeping many many tabs open works better with an SSD than my old spinning disks.

[Spktyr]

I’ve had an iPad up to 50 tabs before I got bored and quit.

As for your 8gb machine with 70 tabs open and why it works better with an SSD - that’s because your tabs are causing the machine to exceed the physical RAM available to it and it is using storage space for virtual memory. Unfortunately, this will kill SSDs in short order because they have a finite number of read/write cycles available to them. You should upgrade RAM if possible ASAP or consider reducing open tabs/sending pages of interest to your reading list.

[dennisw]

Thanks much. I have another more detailed question for later. But I can go to 16gb right now. I have 16gb memory in a secondary desktop computer. I can take these same spec ddr3 and move (swap) them over to my primary desktop computer with the SSD today. Thanks for the tip! And the secondary computer has a hard disk drive anyway for operating with the 8Gb mem it will soon have.

I am surprised so many tabs can be open on an ipad. Very good!

[dayglored]

> Ping for your list?

Sure, why not, it's Saturday. Haven't had a good tech food fight all week... :-)

Sinofsky using an iPad, hmmmm ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

[CedarDave]

Got my iPad two years ago with a Zagg keyboard. Reason was my boss uses it to communicate with employees in the field. What I miss the most is the lack of a mouse. Fingers on the screen don’t do it for me and I lose time trying to cut and past. I also miss Firefox browser and HTML extensions that I click instead of type.