Asus Vivo Tab RT Review: Windows RT Takes Flight
Windows RT Apps
Alas all is not perfect by any stretch with Microsoft's new OS and there of course are more than a few immaturities you'll need to cope with, at least for a while...
Email sent via Email Share Function of Bing News App
For example, there are a few things that are currently just plain broken. Above is a screen shot taken from the Bing News app, that I shared to my personal email account. When I opened it in MS Outlook on my Windows 7 desktop to view it and clicked the link to the article, what I got was a dead link that didn't work with an incorrect path and bad scripting. This at least seems like an easy fix for Microsoft.
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Microsoft Store App
On the other hand, a longer, harder road for Microsoft will be fleshing out the Microsoft Store app and gaining ISV support for their new OS and app ecosystem. Historically this has been a strength for Microsoft on the desktop, but with handsets there is a big gap between the MS Store and what both Google Play and iTunes (the watermark currently) have to offer. Microsoft is keeping a pretty tight rein on things prior to official launch on Friday, 10/26. NVIDIA has informed us that Tegra Zone will be coming to the Store bringing a much-needed kitty of games to the party.
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Windows RT Pictures Library App
There are more than a few download worthy apps currently available however, to go along with the traditional software that's already included within Windows RT. Seen here is the Pictures app, which does a nice job of organizing and presenting your still image media on the device. The mail client of choice currently on Window RT is Metro-inspired version of Hotmail that is actually pretty slick and easy to use.
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Windows Fresh Paint - Free on the MS Store
Fresh Paint is drawing app that is free on the MS Store, and there are other notable titles like Pandora, which is one of our all time favorites.
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Pandora Music Streaming App for Windows 8/RT - Free on The MS Store
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The Windows RT/8 version of Pandora is really nice, presenting album art and glam shots of your favorite artists along with a buffed up and stylized version of its playback/pause/skip and voting interface.
One of the few graphically intensive games currently on the MS Store is Hydro Thunder Hurricane.
One of the few graphically intensive games currently on the MS Store is Hydro Thunder Hurricane.
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Hydro Thunder Hurricane by Vector Unit and Microsoft Game Studios - $9.99 on MS Store
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Similar to what we've seen on other NVIDIA Tegra 3-powered tablets, frame rates and image quality are impressive, especially for a tablet gaming experience.
Backing up all your precious data, images, music and other media is Microsoft SkyDrive, which has been out on multiple platforms including Windows, iOS and Android for some time now. Much like Google Drive and iCloud, SkyDrive lets you backup your files to Microsoft's servers in the "cloud", and you can access them from anywhere, on any device, regardless of the operating system. It also allows sharing files and access to files that have been shared with you. The app is free, comes pre-installed on the ASUS Vivo Tab RT and you get 7GB of storage capacity for free.
