The disapointing "new Surface Pro" 5

I spent most of the last half of 2016 checking google new results every for the new model of Surface Pro to succeed the Surface Pro 4 and now it is here after being announced in  a May 23 event in Shanghai just 2 days after the announcement of the new model of Surface Laptop. The "new Surface Pro" in it's announcement and it's specs really seems like an after thought that has left me disappointed. To illustrate what I mean I will compare it here to the Surface Pro 4 and the Dell Latitude 5285 which is everything that I has hoped the Surface Pro 5 would be.

	Surface Pro 4	new Surface Pro
CPU	6th generation Intel core m3, i5, or i7	7th generation Intel core m3, i5, or i7
Memory	4GB, 8GB, 16GB DDR3L 1600 MHz RAM	4GB, 8GB, 16GB (unknown speed)
HDD	128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD	128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD
Graphics	m3: Intel HD graphics 515 i5: Intel HD graphics 520 i7: Intel Iris graphics	m3: Intel HD Graphics 615 i5: Intel HD Graphics 620 i7: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640
Screen size	12.3” PixelSense 2736 x 1824 (267   PPI)	12.3” PixelSense 2736 x 1824 (267 PPI)
Battery life	9 hours	13.5 hours
Weight	1.73 lbs	1.73 lbs
Available keyboard cover	Yes	Yes
Stylus	Surface Pen	Surface Pen
Camera	5.0MP front, 8.0MP rear with 1080p video recording	5.0MP front, 8.0MP rear with 1080p video recording
Wireless	-          802.11ac Wi-Fi -          IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n compatible -          Bluetooth 4.0	-          802.11ac Wi-Fi -          IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n compatible -          Bluetooth 4.1
Ports	-          Full-size USB 3.0 -          microSD card reader -          Headset jack -          Mini DisplayPort -          Cover port -          Surface Connect	-          Full-size USB 3.0 -          microSD card reader -          Headset jack -          Mini DisplayPort -          Cover port -          Surface Connect
Price (low)	$699 m3, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD	$799 m3, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD
Price (mid)	$999 i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD	$1299 i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
Price (high)	$2399 i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD	$2699 i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD

 Ok, so what does all this mean?

Compared to the Surface Pro 4, the "new Surface Pro" has an updated CPU which give it longer battery life and the corresponding chipset gives it an updated Bluetooth spec (4.1). Everything else is the same: same screen, same hard drive, same memory, same ports, same camera, same stylus.

Now lets look at the Dell offering: 

	new Surface Pro	Dell Latitude 5285
CPU	7th generation Intel core m3, i5, or i7	7th generation Intel core i3, i5, or i7
Memory	4GB, 8GB, 16GB (unknown speed)	4GB, 8GB, 16GB LPDDR3—1866 MHz
HDD	128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD	128GB, 256GB, 360GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD
Graphics	m3: Intel HD Graphics 615 i5: Intel HD Graphics 620 i7: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640	i3: Intel HD Graphics 620 i5: Intel HD Graphics 620 i7: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640
Screen size	12.3” PixelSense 2736 x 1824 (267 PPI)	12.3" 1920x1080 (179 PPI) with Corning Gorilla Glass 4, Anti-reflective and Anti-Smudge
Battery life	13.5 hours	7 hours
Weight	1.73 lbs	1.89 lbs
Available keyboard cover	Yes	Yes
Stylus	Surface Pen	Dell Active Pen
Camera	5.0MP front, 8.0MP rear with 1080p video recording	5.0MP front, 8.0MP rear with 1080p video recording
Wireless	-          802.11ac Wi-Fi -          IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n compatible -          Bluetooth 4.1	-          Dual-Band Wireless-AC 8265 Wi-Fi -          Bluetooth 4.2
Ports	-          Full-size USB 3.0 -          microSD card reader -          Headset jack -          Mini DisplayPort -          Cover port -          Surface Connect	-          2x USB-C (DisplayPort compatible) -          microSD card reader -          micro-SIM card slot -          I2C for Dock Pin Keyboard connection -          microphone-in and stereo headphones universal connector
Price (low)	$799 m3, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD	$899 i3, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD
Price (mid)	$1299 i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD	$1429 i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
Price (high)	$2699 i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD	$2428 i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 4G LTE

When you look at the Dell you get upgrades to a better processor on the low end, faster memory, Bluetooth 4,2, USB-C ports instead of USB3, and the availability to add a 4G LTE SIM card so you can operate without logging into a WiFi hotspot or tethering to your phone. Price-wise the Dell is more expensive at the low (with better CPU) and mid range but comes out cheaper at the high end even when you add the 4G LTE connectivity. The upgrade to USB-C is a huge gap in the specs of the new Surface Pro; the Dell shares one USB-C port for power which can still be used for external devices and power at the same time when you add a USB-C hub and both ports can be used to drive an external display. The only downside to the Dell is the shorter battery life (7 hours seems fine to me for this kind of device and double that of traditional laptops) and it tends to generate more heat then the Surface Pro models. If I had the cash to buy a new system today I would buy the Dell without a second thought.

Coming at a time when Apple is falling behind in this space with under-powered tablets (compared to full Windows 10 tablets like these) or laptops without touch screen support or detachable keyboards Microsoft is losing a lot of momentum and giving Apple a chance to come back and take the lead in the market again. I have not heard any rumors of any real innovation coming out of Apple in this space yet but shame on Microsoft for giving them the chance when they have worked so hard to claw themselves back into relevance out of the Windows 8 hole.

Amazon Alexa and Echo Show, What is going on with this?!

This month Amazon announced the new product launch of the Echo Show set to debut on June 28. You can read all about it in a few places, I will not repeat what has already been reported so if you do not know anything about it, please check these articles first:

https://www.amazon.com/echoshow

http://www.techradar.com/news/amazon-echo-show

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/9/15593378/everything-you-might-have-missed-amazon-echo-show

Really quickly, I will give you my brief review of this unreleased product. The Echo Show is overpriced and ugly. I really can't see a use for this thing in any room of any home as it does not bring any new features or benefits to the Amazon product environment and all that it can do is done just as well but less expensively in an Echo or Echo Dot and video calling is done way better in any smartphone via Facetime, Skype, or WhatsApp plus you can walk around the house with your smartphone and even use it in the car (attached to a fixed mount and operated hands free of course). The Echo Show is also quite ugly; I would not want that thing hanging out in any room of my house just because it does not look nice.

I did not choose to write this post just to agree with the rest of the internet that thinks this thing is stupid. You can google it and see lots of that rhetoric. Instead, I want to focus on another aspect of this announcement which is a bit more groundbreaking and far more interesting to me. With the addition to the Echo product line of Alexa messaging Amazon has, probably entirely unwittingly, brought back the landline.

At this point in history I would surmise that no one under the age of 50 even has a traditional home phone line at all other then the folks suckered in to getting phone service as part of a package including internet and cable television programming and that phone number never gets used in those households. A phone that plugs into the wall that you have to run to the other room to try and answer has become a things of the past having been entirely replaced by mobile phones with cellular service. Many years ago when my family transitioned away from a landline I even bought a special adapter to allow me to plug a landline phone into the computer to use it to answer Skype calls and that phone still never got used.

Mobile phones have become the number one way to stay in touch with work, friends and family wherever you may be. There is a problem with using a mobile phone as your primary mode of communication though. When you are out of the house at work or shopping or hanging out with friends or whatever, your phone is in your pocket or handbag and readily accessible. If someone calls or texts you, you either answer the phone immediately or take note of it to review the voice mail or text message when you get a break from whatever is taking your primary attention at the moment. Where is that handy mobile phone when you are at home though? It is sitting on a charger somewhere and if someone tries to get in touch with you when you are not in the same room as your charger you miss the call and may not even know you missed it until you check your phone hours later. Among the millennial generation that has never known a time without cellphones, these gaps when you are unavailable can cause much angst sparking suspicions that you are mortally injured or cheating on your significant other or just intentionally ignoring the request for communication out of spite or malice.

Alexa messaging will change the way we communicate with the world outside of our home. Even if you do not currently have any Amazon Echo devices in your home you may find yourself installing the Alexa app to communicate with your friends that do. Once the impact of Alexa messaging starts to be felt other standalone devices for Apple/Siri, Microsoft/Cortana, and Google Home will offer similar messaging features. When we first got an Echo and then looked at getting Dots for the kids' rooms we wondered why there was no way to use it as an intercom. Alexa messaging is not quite an intercom system but much more. Anyone in your Alexa contact list (which imports from the contact list on your mobile phone) can call you from another room or anywhere they have internet service. Now, instead of having a landline, all of your Echo devices will ring when someone calls and tell you who it is that is calling and you don't even have to run to the other room to grab it because you can just holler "Alexa: answer" while you walk to get in range of the microphone. If someone calls or leaves a text message while you are asleep then the light on top of the Echo devices changes to green so you know you have a message to check. My nine year old that does not have his own mobile number yet can now call me from his room when I am at work or in the call by just saying "Echo: call Paul Jacobs" and I can answer it with the Alexa app on my phone. Within a week of installing it, our Echo lit up green one day with a message for Sandy from one of her old high school friends that had just configured their messaging and saw in their contact list that Sandy was reachable this way.

There are some cons to Alexa messaging. This is a new service that just launched so the setup process is not intuitive and it does not play well with some other Amazon services. The most painful aspect of the setup for me was the requirement that any individual Echo device that you want to "call" must be on an individual Amazon account and tied to a phone number. The individual Amazon account means now that all of my Echo devices can no longer share my "free" Amazon music account and a call to customer service confirmed that this also cannot even work with an Amazon Household account to share the Amazon Music Unlimited family subscription. Not being able to share my Amazon music with my Echo devices means I will choose a different music service outside of the Amazon ecosystem that will work better like Pandora or Spotify. The phone number requirement is stupid; I had to go and get a free number assigned through a Google voice account to setup my nine year old. I understand why Amazon might have thought his a good idea to make sure the device had access to a contact list on a mobile phone thus instantly having a network of connections but I was able to circumvent it pretty easily so really it is just stupid.

There is also the creepy factor inherent to all of the cloud based voice activated devices. Echo records everything you tell it and saves those recordings in the cloud, purportedly to improve it's ability to recognize your voice. You can go and remove these recordings at will but you can't tell it to stop saving them. There have already been reported cases of law enforcement seeking these recordings from Amazon. Also, there are the recent leaks from the CIA exposing their hacking tools showing their ability to hack devices. If you are really concerned about this aspect then you also need to reconsider every device you own that has a camera and microphone like your smartphone, laptop, and desktop computer which are all at risk of being compromised by law enforcement, hackers, or apps you may choose to install that may not strictly follow their privacy policy.

Going back to the Echo Show to end on a more positive note I want to predict what would have made this a far more useful product rather then giving it a 7" touch screen in such an unattractive package. If Amazon had taken a little more time in design and development with existing technology they could have instead launched the first real robotic in home assistant. I do not mean Rosie from The Jetsons as a humanoid robot that does housework; that would have been too expensive and robotics technology is really not there yet. Instead Amazon could have leveraged existing quad-copter drone technology to make a small drone that sits on a dock with a 5" or 6" screen, camera, microphone, and speaker. The drone could then go and fly over to wherever you are in the house when you get a call or when you call for it to come and "echo show" you something and then fly back to the dock for charging when dismissed. Teenagers nowadays with their snapchat fascination could even call the droid to come and follow them taking short videos of whatever activity they are doing.