low end Windows 8.1 Tablet... now what?

useless4

I bought a Winbook T802 for $99 to get the Office subscription for my Macs/iPhones (Basically for the cost of one year Office 365 Home I got this tablet + 11 months of Office 365 Home - singed up for home free one month trial and then used the 365 Personal license for 10 months of Home)

It's 2GB RAM/32GB Storage/64gb SD Storage.

I am a straight Mac person who believes Windows 2000 is the best Windows - I just got this because I needed real Excel on the Mac and this was the only way to get it. I have an iPhone 6+, iPhone 5, iPad Mini 2, Apple Watch... I am fully on board with Apple.

What can I do on this different then the apple stuff? I would like to find at least one unique use case.
So far I put on Netflix and Plex and that's about it.

Any ideas?

Djeet

Does it come with full-blown Windows or Windows RT? The device I find when I google that has a BayTrail processor and can run the Windows desktop OS.

If you bought it for the O365 subscription then you're already in the green.

IMO the Windows desktop OS (and all the apps it can run, since there are bajillions of them and the MS app store is 3rd on the list for mobile app development) is the "killer app" that this device can do. Use it for any app that you want to use that runs on Windows XP-8.1 that won't run on (or is not well ported to) your iPhone or iPad. If all your needs are met already in iOS, then sell it.

wunderbar

honestly, just use it to screw around with windows for the first time in forever. If you believe Windows 2000 was the best windows you....need to update your knowledge base. I'm not saying Win 8.1 is in the pinnacle of modern OS's, but yea.....Win2k is 15 years old.

Also, the thing gets a free update to Win10 soon. It's honestly worth keeping essentially a free tablet just to screw around with windows.

Gaslight

Djeet wrote: »

Does it come with full-blown Windows or Windows RT? The device I find when I google that has a BayTrail processor and can run the Windows desktop OS.

Looks like it has 8.1. There were only like... five devices ever made that used RT.

useless4

Yea it's full Windows and I am hoping Windows 10 will work without hassle. I am also in the green since I hadn't gotten VM installed on my newest desktop so I can just vnc into this if i need Windows and don't feel like futzing with USB and monitors etc

I was just hoping someone knew a good metro app that isn't otherwise available on other platforms to play with

darren66

useless4 wrote: »

I was just hoping someone knew a good metro app that isn't otherwise available on other platforms to play with

There's no such thing. Microsoft is in 3rd place in that arena, and thus anything that would be on Windows Metro would have already been made for iOS or Android.

Still, having used all 3 I think Windows offers the best tablet UI.

wunderbar

yea there honestly aren't many super great metro exclusive apps, yet. that could change with Windows 10 and universal apps model. I run more metro/universal apps now than I ever did on 8.x because on my 24" desktop I can run them windowed, so they become useful.

The only metro only app that I can think of that's any good that isn't on another platform is Tweetium, which is a twitter app, so only relevant if you're into the twitters as I am.

Frem

There are a number of touch-enabled games on Steam, including Civilization V (which isn't on iOS or Android; they just have a stripped down Civ-2-like thing). You also can use GentureWorks to add a touch overlay to a lot of games that don't have native support.

The one major advantage your Windows device has over iOS right now is that you can run any PC application since like 1980 on it with no gatekeeper. In the past I've wanted to play some old strategy games on my iThing, but Apple doesn't allow DOS emulators in the AppStore. Windows users just grab DOSBOX and they're set.

wunderbar

Frem wrote: »

There are a number of touch-enabled games on Steam, including Civilization V (which isn't on iOS or Android; they just have a stripped down Civ-2-like thing). You also can use GentureWorks to add a touch overlay to a lot of games that don't have native support.

The one major advantage your Windows device has over iOS right now is that you can run any PC application since like 1980 on it with no gatekeeper. In the past I've wanted to play some old strategy games on my iThing, but Apple doesn't allow DOS emulators in the AppStore. Windows users just grab DOSBOX and they're set.

yea....he's not playing any games of consequence on a Winbook tablet. Especially Civ V.

Frem

wunderbar wrote: »

Frem wrote: »

There are a number of touch-enabled games on Steam, including Civilization V (which isn't on iOS or Android; they just have a stripped down Civ-2-like thing). You also can use GentureWorks to add a touch overlay to a lot of games that don't have native support.

The one major advantage your Windows device has over iOS right now is that you can run any PC application since like 1980 on it with no gatekeeper. In the past I've wanted to play some old strategy games on my iThing, but Apple doesn't allow DOS emulators in the AppStore. Windows users just grab DOSBOX and they're set.

yea....he's not playing any games of consequence on a Winbook tablet. Especially Civ V.

Oh, pity. I saw a review saying that it could handle Civ V on low settings when I was looking at picking one up a while ago; that's why I mentioned it.

jothki

Are you running it with a keyboard and mouse, or like a tablet? If you're using it as a PC, there are things that you can do to make it more like an older version of Windows. I'd recommend Classic Shell, if you get the latest release (4.2.3) you can just bring that directly over to Windows 10 if you decide to go for the upgrade.

wunderbar

it's an 8" tablet, you won't even want to run it with a keyboard and mouse.

jothki

Oh yeah, that'd be pretty tiny.

useless4

I vnc into it if I want the desktop experience. I was mainly interested in tablet stuff