Microsoft Surface Pro 3 review Archives - A Baby on Board blog

Babies, blogging, and becoming more organised

Gillian — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 08:15:36 +0000

My quest for 2015 was to banish my new mum, baby brained forgetfulness and become a more organised person. I’ve been trying out the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 (a laptop / tablet hybrid, with a case that’s also a proper keyboard) to see if this can help. So a month in, is my house a calm oasis of zen-life peace? Do things run smoothly, and do we get everywhere on time? Well, not quite. But the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is really helping, in loads of different ways. Here’s a few of them: Babies: It can’t babysit, clearly, but it does help me better use the little free time I do have by speeding up the things I need to do, such as blogging. It’s easy to use in most places where having the laptop out is tricky (such as on the sofa trapped under a sleeping baby, and during nightfeeds). The toddler is drawn to its lovely new shininess like a moth to a flame – while I hover and worry about fingerprints – but she really enjoys things like the Fresh Paint app and that gives me a few minutes of peace. Blogging: Having two children and everything else to deal with means you don’t have any time, and before using the Surface blogging took a lot of time. I’d have ideas, lists and drafts of posts on my phone, but then would have to use the laptop to format photos and for lots of other things (like SEO and social sharing). Our old MacBook takes a while to boot up, is quite slow, and is not the most user-friendly for balancing in bed. But I can do this all on the Surface, and in a much quicker time. It’ll be great for using when I go back to work (there’s the full set of Office programmes) and I’m sure I’ll take it along to meetings and blogging conferences. Becoming more organised: you can read my five ways to be more organised here. No longer having to Google ‘what’s the hashtag on a Mac?’ 8000 times a day is a time saver too (it’s F3 if you’re wondering). And is it good value for money? The model I have is £849 and the case is £109, so it is on the pricier end of the scale. However, it can replace both a proper laptop and a tablet, so if you’re looking for something new it’s definitely worth considering (as a comparison, it costs around the same as a MacBook Pro or the higher-end Air). You can get a cheaper version at £639 with less memory. I held a Twitter chat yesterday where someone asked me if I’d ever go back to a traditional laptop. So many of the features – full touch screen capability on a laptop, for example – would be hard not to have now. It offers the full functionality I need, combined in a really portable and easy-to-use format, so I can’t imagine going back. I’m working on the organisation, but more than anything it really is brilliant to use, and I can’t imagine what I did without it. Read my initial review of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, see my unboxing video, and also five ways to be more organised, This post is in association with Argos.

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Join me for a Twitter Q&A…

Gillian — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 22:46:00 +0000

As we’re right at the end of January now, how is everyone getting on with their New Year’s resolutions? (Remember them…anyone,,,?) One of mine is to banish my post-baby brain by becoming more organised, and I’ve been trying out the Microsoft Surface Pro3 tablet to see how it can help. I’ll be hosting a Twitter Q&A about the tablet next Wednesday at 1pm, so if you have any questions at all about the tablet – how it’s helping me with my resolutions, how it could help with yours, how useful it is for blogging (very!), if it can really replace a laptop, if it will make you tea – then tweet me @gill_crawshaw using the hashtag #surfaceresolutions. If you can’t make it then let me know any questions beforehand and I’ll tweet these out during the chat. You also can see my initial review of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet, unboxing video and five ways I’m using it to be more organised. This post is in association with Argos.

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Five ways to be more organised in 2015

Gillian — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 10:15:13 +0000

Are you trying to become more organised in 2015, and looking for things that could help? One of my aims for the new year was to banish my baby brain and general all-round new mum tired forgetfulness. I’ve been using the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 for a few weeks to see how it can help me sort things out in the organisational department (unfortunately it can’t help you get more sleep, but if you have small children I’m not sure anything can). You can see my initial review of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, as well as my unboxing video, but here are five of my top tips so far: 1) Listography. Who doesn’t love a good to-do list? It’s the satisfaction of crossing things off (even if you added them specifically for this purpose it still counts, right?) The problem is I usually have about twenty lists on my phone at any one time. To consolidate all these I’m trying out OneNote, which is a digital note taking app that lets you capture all your lists and inspiration in lots of different ways. You can also sync it with your iPhone, something which is pretty critical for me. 2) Box out. The tablet desktop is made up of active boxes, and you can sort and name them. I’ve sorted these so all the things I use the most are at the start, right where I need them. I’ve also grouped together all similar things so I know where to find them. 3) Blogging. Baby brain and blogging don’t mix well, so this is definitely an area I need to be more organised. As well as using lists, I’ve downloaded all the apps I use for blogging – such as Facebook and Twitter – and grouped them all together. I can also write posts on Word so I have a back-up copy saved. 4) Another thing that is really helpful is the overall ease of use and portability,. I can use it in bed – where I do most of my work on the 3am night feed – and it means no more small screen squinting or fat fingered typing when writing on my phone. 5) Fresh Paint. This is the up-to-date version of the old MS Paint programme (you know, the one you’d always mess around on at school). In the Surface version you use the stylus as a paintbrush, crayon or pencil to create on-screen masterpieces. So what does this have to do with baby brain? Bear with me…My toddler is fascinated by anything arts and crafty, and was immediately drawn to this (despite my fear of grubby paw prints on my beautiful new shiny tablet). It keeps her entertained for a good ten minutes, time I can use for a quick bit of general life admin. Best thing of all about this app? No mess to clear up afterwards. Who has some good tips for general life organisation – online or otherwise? I’d love to hear them. This post is in association with Argos.

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My bid to banish the baby brain in 2015

Gillian — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 16:18:19 +0000

My name is Gill, and I have a really bad case of baby brain. Sleep deprived, hormonal and as a result, ever-so-slightly forgetful? Yes, yes, and yes…that’s me. One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2015 is to be more organised in a bid to banish my baby brain. Although this probably won’t make me remember what I went into rooms for, or stop me leaving whole bags of shopping on the counter, I do think this will go some way to help. And help is at hand. I’m using the new Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet to try out and see how it can assist me in keeping to my New Year’s Resolution (if you’ve not heard of the Surface tablet, it’s basically the functionality of a laptop combined with the portability and touch screen joys of a tablet – you can see the range of Microsoft Surface tablets on the Argos website). I’ve made a little video of me unboxing the tablet, and my initial impressions (it’s my first vlog! Leave me your YouTube details too so I can subscribe to your channel). First thoughts? It looks great and seems incredibly intuitive to use. The keyboard cover is such a good idea and it’ll make life a lot easier (as at the moment I type most of my posts on my phone). The active boxes on the front page will also be really useful as it means I can have everything important upfront. I also think the portability is going to be a massive help, especially with blogging. Due to having two children I only have a tiny amount of time, so it’s tricky keeping up (I currently have about 10,000 half done posts in drafts, and really long lists of things I’d like to write – sound familiar?) Having everything in an easily accessible place will be great – there’s only so much I can do from my phone or iPad, and our laptop – a Macbook Pro – isn’t the easiest to take into bed (where I do a lot of my work at 3am). I’m going to be reviewing the tablet over the next few weeks and seeing how it can help me banish the baby brain…so stay tuned. This post is an association with Argos.

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