Greece is the Word – Windows Weekly 693

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• waethorn

  09 October, 2020 - 3:12 pm

  <p>To this date, some customers are still experiencing connection issues with Exchange Online with Outlook.</p>

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• JanesJr1

  11 October, 2020 - 4:16 pm

  <p>Practical objections to Alcantara seem way overblown. Easy to keep clean and I prefer it both for looks and feel. </p><p><br></p><p>There seem to be tropes or blurbs of conventional wisdom that get passed around uncritically. Or parochial personal preferences of journalists that get projected across all users as bestowed wisdom. Like "Alcantara discolors and takes too much maintenance." (90 seconds maintenance in one year for me, and it looks like new.) Or "Thinkpad trackpoint is no longer necessary and is a relic of the days of bad Windows trackpads". (It may have originated then. But I use Apple, Thinkpad and Surface laptops all the time, and the Trackpoint is still much more ergonomic than any trackpad I've ever used — and it's objectively not even close, except for gestures and scrolling on some websites, where a trackpad helps.)</p><p><br></p><p>I'm not sure yet, but the same thing may be happening on this site for the Surface Duo, which makes great sense to me as a productivity worker. I don't know if these expensive devices will sell, but the functionality seems like the future to me. Single-screen seems like a prison to me, and like Patty Hearst, we may be so used to the single-screen paradigm that we've come to identify way too strongly with our captor.</p>

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• Paul Thurrott

  Premium Member

  12 October, 2020 - 8:42 am

  I think the bigger issue with Alcantara is simply that most people do not want a carpet on their laptop, so Microsoft is responding in kind.

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• JanesJr1

  13 October, 2020 - 10:10 am

  <p><a href="#585979"><em>In reply to paHaul-thurrott:</em></a><em>Has MS said that alcantara is unpopular in the aggregate? Most Surface Pro, Alll Surface Go, and helf of Surface laptop models are still sold with Alcantara. It could be, with the Laptop Go, that they want to associate the Alcantara option with the step up to the more luxe Surface Laptop 3. Why put leather seats in a Chevette? I understand not everyone likes Alcantara, but is there any objective evidence that MS is backing off the option?</em></p>

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• Paul Thurrott

  Premium Member

  14 October, 2020 - 9:48 am

  Yes, there is. There are many more non-Alcantara models with each generation. In gen 1, only the base model came without it. Now, there are more non-Alcantara choices than Alcantara choices, and the best/unique new colors are only without Alcantara.

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• JanesJr1

  13 October, 2020 - 10:20 am

  <blockquote><a href="#585979"><em>In reply to paul-thurrott:</em></a><em>OK I'm just going to say it. I think you're an interesting commentator, a good analyst, and I'm paying for the premium option. But on the other hand, you frequently project your own (biased!) preferences onto everyone else, the same way you constantly interrupt Mary jo in the videos (who unfailingly is gracious about it). To wit: "carpet" in your response to my post above: I don't associate Alcantara with carpet, obviously, so your retort is kind of smug. You'll be an even better journalist if you step out of your shell GOY..</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

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• Paul Thurrott

  Premium Member

  14 October, 2020 - 9:45 am

  It always amuses and depresses me when someone believes that I literally can’t understand the needs or wants of other individuals or, for that matter, most people in general. I try to be obvious when something is my opinion. But my carpet response is accurate: Most people hated it, and so Microsoft back off.

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• Paul Thurrott

  Premium Member

  15 October, 2020 - 9:21 am

  Also, it occurs to me that you aren’t reading me correctly at all: I happen to like Alcantara myself. I just recognize, via the evolution of the product, that few others do. That’s why Microsoft is changing it up.

  I also have always understood why some/most would not want Alcantara on a laptop. It’s almost like it’s the opposite of your complaint.

  OK, not almost.

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• sarah45

  21 March, 2021 - 11:16 am

  <p>actually the outlook has some issues i hope MS fix them it some times take long time to download new messages. it's like a <a href="https://www.arabsdreams.com/dreams/&quot; target="_blank">dream</a> to fix some of the outlook issues, i wish they fix them as soon as possible</p>

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