Windows Slate OS upgrade for me! #bldwin

I’ve been using a ASUS eee Slate since around June this year and absolutely love it on Windows 7 primarily replacing my iPad as a note taking tool via OneNote 2010. The deficiencies of the device were really more to do with the Operating System than the hardware itself as the eee Slate is packed with quad core i5, 4Gb RAM and 64Gb SSD to name the core specs.

At the BUILD conference we were lucky enough to be given new Samsung developer preview Windows 8 slates. The form factor is slightly smaller than the ASUS in screen size and much closer to the original iPad in size and close in weight.

Dan Holme actually recorded on my Flip me unboxing my new slate…check out for my reactions here!

I’ve noticed a few things with Windows 8 that have made me put my ASUS eee Slate with Windows 7 down.

Cold Boot Time – this thing boots from full shut down in around 6-8 seconds which is crazy!
On-screen Keyboard – much more comparable to iPad in terms of tactileness, Windows 7 sucked so much I had to buy an software add-on
Metro UI – to be honest, the current metro UI apps are ‘gimmicking’ but it’s a dev preview…once there are Outlook tiles, SharePoint tiles (starting to build a few), Twitter, Google Plus etc. it’ll be a much more useful interface! Currently I stay in ‘retro’ (desktop) mode.
Task Manager – task manager got a serious face lift and much it a lot easier to see how much CPU, RAM and network each application is using!
Gestures – I’m still learning the gestures, but the 1pixel edge that you slide across for popping up sub menus is simply awesome and keeps the screen clutter free!
IE10 – the IE10 Metro version, which is causing some debate being plug-in free, is great for touch compared to IE9 in Windows 7. I will say that Firefox, Chrome etc. need to get on the bandwagon and make hooks into the Windows touch UI for example, going into the address bar and getting a more incontext keyboard would be useful!

So far, I haven’t turned my other machine and this has been really stable…which for a ‘developer preview’ at least 3 builds earlier than what they were demoing at BUILD is just amazing! It is available on MSDN for download and from the community seems to run better on older machines than Windows 7 so give it a try…it will also run up in Virtual Machines as well if you’re not brave enough to start from scratch Winking smile All my Windows 7 apps: Office 2010, MindJet Manager 9, Skype, Live Writer are running fine in ‘retro’ (desktop) mode.

Top effort to Microsoft in not only putting together a great OS but keeping the whole conference a secret for so long!

I can say 100% that I came out of the keynote by Steve Sinofsky absolutely pumping the air! Such a refreshing feeling for a Microsoft keynote where usually they just don’t hit it for me personally.

BTW my Asus eee Slate is for sale, so e-mail me and make an offer, I paid USD$1100 for it and it has an extra AC adapter.

Published: 9/18/2011 7:28 AM | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Speaking at the SharePoint Conference 2011 (#SPC11)

I’ve just got back from the BUILD conference with fellow colleague and SharePoint MVP, Dan Holme and totally looking forward to SPC11 which conveniently is at the same venue in Anaheim, California.

After being one of 10 or so SharePoint people at BUILD from a cast of 5000 attendees it will be refreshing to be surrounded by 5000+ SharePoint fanbois! Hopefully of which 500 will be wearing NothingButSharePoint.com free t-shirts (register here). I would also highly recommend you register for the only party worth going to, other than the conference party on Tuesday, being the AvePoint Red Party…I’ll see you there! Winking smile

I am speaking at SPC11 this time, after being an attendee SPC09, and really excited about speaking on “How we built NothingButSharePoint.com on SharePoint 2010”. The session will be useful to not only Developers but also Web Designers and IT Managers interested in the process of building a site. I look forward to seeing you at the conference and hopefully my session on Tuesday afternoon!

I’d also recommend attending my company, AvePoint’s, vendor session which will be focused on Governance where we will also be announcing a new product which I have been heavily involved with since joining the company in April! John Hodges who I work with daily in the Product Team and Toby Tobescue from the Microsoft MTC in New York will be presenting.

Dan Holme also has two sessions: one on Governance and one on Change Management. The Governance session is a tweaked version of what he did in TechEd Australia which was standing room only…so best get to that one early!

Session Title:
How We Built Community Site NothingButSharepoint.com

Speaker(s):
Jeremy Thake

Level: 300

Abstract: This talk will walk you through how the community site NothingButSharePoint.com was built on SharePoint 2010. This presentation will highlight all of the out of the box Publishing Web Content Management functionality that was leveraged in the implementation. The talk will also discuss where and why customizations were required to cater for the requirements of the solution. There will be detail about the architectural decisions made with all the extension points in the solution which will include the Article Commenting engine, Trending Web Analytics, Branding and lots more.

Session Title:
Governance Enforcement with out of the box SharePoint and AvePoint’s DocAve Platform

Speaker(s):
John Hodges
Toby Tobescu

Level: 200

Abstract: So you’ve heard about “Governance” from all angles in the SharePoint community – the fact that you need “People” to define “Policies”, but what Processes are actually required to bring this to fruition? This session will discuss how to bring these three P’s together by enforcing established Policies through Processes built using out-of-the-box SharePoint features by the People (SharePoint IT Administrators and Site Owners). The session will cover what is feasible using native SharePoint 2010 functionality, and what to watch for to ensure you are planning for common challenges customers face.

Published: 9/18/2011 7:01 AM | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

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Windows Slate OS upgrade for me! #bldwin

Speaking at the SharePoint Conference 2011 (#SPC11)