{"id":1558,"date":"2009-11-08T23:04:33","date_gmt":"2009-11-08T23:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm"},"modified":"2009-11-08T23:04:33","modified_gmt":"2009-11-08T23:04:33","slug":"a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm","title":{"rendered":"A quick look at Microsoft Surface"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of weeks back I managed to get a close look at a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/surface\/\">Microsoft Surface<\/a> table.  Although Surface has been around for a while now, it was the first time I&#8217;d been &#8220;hands on&#8221; with one and, considering it&#8217;s really a bunch of cameras, and a PC running Windows Vista in a cabinet a bit like a 1980s Space Invaders game, it was actually pretty cool.<\/p>\n<p>One thing I hadn&#8217;t appreciated previously is that Surface uses a totally different technology to a multitouch monitor: rather than relying on capacitance, the surface table is sensitive to anything that reflects or absorbs infra red light.  It uses an infrared emitter and a series of cameras to detect light reflected by something on the surface, then processes the image and detects shapes.  There&#8217;s also an API so that software can decide what to do with the resulting image and a DLP projector to project the user interface on the glass (with an infrared filter so as not to confuse the input system).  At the moment, the Surface display is only 1024&#215;768 pixels but that didn&#8217;t seem to be restrictive in any way &#8211; even with such a physically large display.<\/p>\n<p>Although in some ways surface behaves like a touch device as it has multiple cameras so it can perform stereoscopic three dimensional gestures but, because it lacks direct touch capabilities, there is no concept of a hover\/mouse-over.  Indeed the surface team&#8217;s API was taken and extended in the Microsoft .NET Framework version 4 to work with Window Touch and, at some point in the future, the Surface and Windows Touch APIs will converge.  <\/p>\n<p>The surface technology is unable to accommodate pressure sensitivity directly but the underlying processor is just a PC and has USB ports so peripherals could be used to extend the available applications (e.g. a fingerprint reader, card reader, etc.)<\/p>\n<p>Surface can also recognise the type of object on the glass (e.g. finger, blob, byte tag) and it returns an identifier along with X and Y co-ordinates and orientation. When I placed my hand on the device, it was recognised as five fingers and a blob.  Similarly, objects can be given a tag (with a value), allowing for object interaction with the table.  Surface is also Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled so it&#8217;s possible to place a device on the surface and communicate with it, for example copying photos from the surface to a phone, or exchanging assets between two phones via the software running on the table.  Finally, because Surface understands the concepts of flick and inertia, it&#8217;s possible to write applications that make use of this (such as the demonstration application that allows a globe to be spun on the surface display, creating a rippled water effect that it feels like you are interacting with, simulating gravity, adding sprung connections between items on the display, or making them appear to be magnetic.<\/p>\n<p>One technology that takes this interaction even further (sometimes mistakenly referred to as Surface v2) is Microsoft&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2008\/10\/30\/microsoft-makes-surface-obsolete-with-secondlight\/\">SecondLight<\/a>, which uses another set of technologies to differentiate between the polarisation properties of light so images may be layered in three dimensions.  That has the potential to extend the possibilities of a Surface-like device even further and offer very rich interaction between devices on the Surface.<\/p>\n<p>At present, Surface is only available for commercial use, with a development SKU offering a 5-seat license for the SDK and the commercial unit priced at \u00c2\u00a38,500.  I&#8217;m told that, if a developer can write Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) they can write Surface applications and, because Surface runs WPF or XNA, just as an Xbox or a PC does, it does have the potential for games development.<\/p>\n<p>With touch now a part of the operating system in Windows 7, we should begin to see increasing use of touch technologies although there is a key difference between surface and Windows Touch as the vertically mounted or table form factor affects the user interface and device interaction &#8211; for example, Surface also detects the direction from which it is being touched and shows the user interface in the correct orientation.  In addition, Surface needs to be able to cope with interaction from multiple users with multiple focus points (imagine having multiple mice on a traditional PC!).<\/p>\n<p>My hour with Surface was inspiring.  The key takeaways were that this is a multi-touch, multi-user, multi-directional device with advanced object interaction capabilities.  Where it has been used in a commercial context (e.g. AT&#038;T stores) it has mostly been a novelty; however there can be business benefits too.  In short, before deploying Surface, it&#8217;s important to look further than just the hardware costs and the software development costs, considering broader benefits such as brand awareness, increased footfall, etc.  Furthermore, because Surface runs Windows, some of the existing assets from another application (e.g. a kiosk) should be fairly simple to port to a new user interface.<\/p>\n<p>I get the feeling that touch is really starting to go somewhere and is about to break out of its niche, finding mainstream computing uses and opening up new possibilities for device interaction.  Surface was a research project that caught Bill Gates&#8217; attention; however there are other touch technologies that will build on this and take it forward.  With Windows Touch built into the operating system and exciting new developments such as SecondLight, this could be an interesting space to watch over the next couple of years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of weeks back I managed to get a close look at a Microsoft Surface table. Although Surface has been around for a while now, it was the first time I&#8217;d been &#8220;hands on&#8221; with one and, considering it&#8217;s really a bunch of cameras, and a PC running Windows Vista in a cabinet a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A quick look at Microsoft Surface<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1,32],"class_list":["post-1558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-microsoft","tag-pc-hardware"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A quick look at Microsoft Surface - markwilson.it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A quick look at Microsoft Surface - markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A couple of weeks back I managed to get a close look at a Microsoft Surface table. Although Surface has been around for a while now, it was the first time I&#8217;d been &#8220;hands on&#8221; with one and, considering it&#8217;s really a bunch of cameras, and a PC running Windows Vista in a cabinet a &hellip; Continue reading A quick look at Microsoft Surface\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-08T23:04:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"headline\":\"A quick look at Microsoft Surface\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-08T23:04:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm\"},\"wordCount\":923,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"keywords\":[\"Microsoft\",\"PC Hardware\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm\",\"name\":\"A quick look at Microsoft Surface - markwilson.it\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-08T23:04:33+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A quick look at Microsoft Surface\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"markwilson.it\",\"description\":\"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \\\/dev\\\/web\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\",\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"width\":800,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Mark Wilson\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\"},\"description\":\"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/markwilsonuk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/markawilson\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/markwilsonit\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/mark-wilson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A quick look at Microsoft Surface - markwilson.it","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"A quick look at Microsoft Surface - markwilson.it","og_description":"A couple of weeks back I managed to get a close look at a Microsoft Surface table. Although Surface has been around for a while now, it was the first time I&#8217;d been &#8220;hands on&#8221; with one and, considering it&#8217;s really a bunch of cameras, and a PC running Windows Vista in a cabinet a &hellip; Continue reading A quick look at Microsoft Surface","og_url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm","og_site_name":"markwilson.it","article_published_time":"2009-11-08T23:04:33+00:00","author":"Mark Wilson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@markwilsonit","twitter_site":"@markwilsonit","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Wilson","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm"},"author":{"name":"Mark Wilson","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"headline":"A quick look at Microsoft Surface","datePublished":"2009-11-08T23:04:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm"},"wordCount":923,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"keywords":["Microsoft","PC Hardware"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm","name":"A quick look at Microsoft Surface - markwilson.it","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-11-08T23:04:33+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/11\/a-quick-look-at-microsoft-surface.htm#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A quick look at Microsoft Surface"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"markwilson.it","description":"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \/dev\/web","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468","name":"Mark Wilson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","width":800,"height":800,"caption":"Mark Wilson"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1"},"description":"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/markwilsonuk\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/markawilson\/","https:\/\/x.com\/markwilsonit","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A"],"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/author\/mark-wilson"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8183,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2021\/03\/setting-up-a-surface-pen-with-a-new-pc.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1558,"position":0},"title":"Setting up a Surface Pen with a new PC","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Monday 8 March 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been using Microsoft Surface devices for work for years now. Put simply, the company I work for is a Microsoft consulting and services business. So you would expect us to \"walk the walk\" as well as \"talking the talk\", right? Each time I get a new PC, I seem\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/20210308_101608-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/20210308_101608-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/20210308_101608-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/20210308_101608-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/20210308_101608-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4102,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/06\/microsoft-surface-my-attempt-to-cut-through-the-hype.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1558,"position":1},"title":"Microsoft Surface: my attempt to cut through the hype","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 19 June 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the last 24 hours, I've watched the hype build about Microsoft's mysterious mystery event (thank goodness I missed the build-up last week as I was still on holiday in France...), watched the news break, and watched everyone either go ooooh, ahhhh, or hrmmm... I couldn't stand it any more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/dpzu3HM2CIo\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5675,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/06\/one-month-with-the-surface-pro-3.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1558,"position":2},"title":"One month with the Surface Pro 3","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Thursday 18 June 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"When I started my current job and tweeted about my new \"laptop\" (a Microsoft Surface Pro 3), I was a little surprised at the reaction from some people, including one of my friends whose words were along the line of \"give it a month and then then tell me if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8083,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2020\/09\/tweaking-audio-and-webcam-video-quality-in-windows-10.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1558,"position":3},"title":"Tweaking audio and (webcam) video quality in Windows 10","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Thursday 3 September 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the spring (whilst I was on Furlough Leave and had time for weeknotes), I wrote about some upgrades to my home office. The LED lights didn't work out (battery life was too short - I need to find something that works from mains power) so they went back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/J7iXt9fLI2U\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7523,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2018\/07\/microsoft-surface-pro-3-refuses-to-power-on-fixed-with-a-handful-of-elastic-bands.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1558,"position":4},"title":"Microsoft Surface Pro 3 refuses to power on: fixed with a handful of elastic bands","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 4 July 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This week didn't start well (and it hasn't got much better either) but Monday morning was a write-off, as the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 that I use for work wouldn't \"wake up\". I'd used it on Friday, closed the \"lid\" (i.e. closed the tablet against the Type Cover) and left\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7464,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2018\/05\/booting-a-microsoft-surface-pro-3-with-a-broken-screen.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1558,"position":5},"title":"Booting a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with a broken screen","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 16 May 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A few months ago, the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 that I use for work took a knock at one corner and developed a crack across the screen. I was gutted - I'd really looked after the device and, even though it was approaching three years old (and running like a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"Windows Device Manager, showing disabled devices to work around issues with a broken screen","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/images\/broken-surface-pro-device-manager.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/images\/broken-surface-pro-device-manager.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/images\/broken-surface-pro-device-manager.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/images\/broken-surface-pro-device-manager.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/images\/broken-surface-pro-device-manager.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}