Microsoft Surface RT IS A FAIL. Part 3: Function?

Sorry for the delay, as Rosanne, Rosanna Dana always use to say..."It's always something."

It's time to start talking about the built-in apps, provided in the RT...Mail, people, X-Box and many others.  Unfortunately, this is where things start to really get ugly, with a capital "UGH".  I wish it wasn't so, I prayed it wouldn't be so...but ladies and gentlemen, it is.

Having worked a bit with the latest version of IE on the PC, I can say that I do not dislike Internet Explorer.  IE had a horrible reputation in the past and honestly it may have earned it , but the newest iteration doesn't deserve that reputation today.  While testing Internet Explorer 9, I found it to be a capable browser, lighter and quicker than I expected.  It wasn't good enough to convince me to switch over for my daily use, but on the tablet or as occasion warranted…sure. The trouble is not Internet Explorer 9 at the core but rather what has been done to it and the shackles it now wears.

For those of you who have not experienced IE on the RT this may be hard to visualize.  There is only one app installed on the device called Internet Explorer, but it has a dual personality; a child and an adult.  If you go to that strange world of the Desktop and start IE, you will see an IE you're familiar with.  One that uses toolbars, favorites menus (bookmarks), etc.  It's all there.  However, you can only use this "adult" browser when you go through all the extra steps…going to the desktop and starting the browser there.  

Most of the time, you access the browser from the Modern UI START screen, or the browser starts automatically by default when you select a link.  Now we get the other side of IE…the "child" side.  Many functions have been stripped out, for example:  there is no support for the organization of Favorites in folders.  You can copy and paste them into the correct file (again in desktop mode…if you know where to find it) completely organized into layers of beautifully arranged folders.  In the browser however, all you get is long, long continuous scrolling line of "tiles"… which you can't see or read easily because the favicon and label are very small.  If you have more than 50 to 60 favorites…this really doesn't work.  

I also didn't quite understand why I was forced to "add" a new tab in order to access my favorites either, rather than a simple button for them.  I have noticed this trend in several browsers lately, so maybe it isn't just MS.  It's not as if the space was in short supply. In the Modern UI version of IE, you get both top and bottom application bars with a swipe…with LOTS of room for features and functions, and they aren't there.  

I have been trying like mad to figure out why.  MS gave you the entire, fuller-featured IE on the device and as part of the tablet...it's right there.  Just not handy to get to or use.  Apparently MS decided we responsible enough for the whole thing and that limiting the user to the simple, bare bones …to the point of uselessness browser was best.  Don't blame the concepts of the Modern UI either as I've heard the angry mob chant.  The developers could just as easily given you the entire browser in Modern UI.  They just...didn't.  

(I'm starting a rant now, just wanted to warn you).  I finally stopped trying to figure it all out and concluded that this wasn't just a mistake or miscalculation, but an idiotic blunder of epic proportions!  It is very simply IDIOTIC!  Strong words I know, but there is nothing…no explanation for this bizarre set up.  I can hear them in the MS offices now…"Hey, let's take away a bunch of things people need and expect, and leave a bunch of blank bars in their place…that'll really be progress."   Even if there is SOME semblance of a purpose, the designers should have found alternatives or other solutions.  Crippling such a major app is never the answer.  

I am reminded however that when iPhones and Android were first introduced, their apps were limited as well…the first browser on my Droid was a dinosaur.  Now we come to the second hurdle, at least in those eco-systems I had alternative apps in the markets early.  I really don't know why there are few to none in the Windows store..some have said that the hyper-stringent rules and requirements from Microsoft have hindered development.  Others say the developers simply aren't interested in creating a third version of their apps for the three Windows platforms.  As of this writing, Mozilla, opera and the other big players in the browser field have no RT browser in the works.  So, you are stuck.

BUT WAIT!  There is one other browser in the store called UC Browser.  It works fairly well, stable, has lots of features and a few options and has a nice Modern UI look (see MS?  They could do it).  And this boys and girls is when I began pulling out my hair.  When browsing the web in the UC browser and using another web link on a web page…the default IE opens….and opens the link instead!!!  I wrote about the issue in the support forums but didn't get much of a resolution and this may not be a wide-spread problem, but I couldn't get IE to stop hijacking my browsing.

Simple you say?  You just need to change the defaults?  Go ahead and try it.  Thus we come to another of the operational roadblocks and dead ends of the RT system.  In the four different ways of changing a default app for a file, file type, action, etc…each one stops you at some point.  You can't select a new app as the default…because it's a Modern UI Store app, and buried behind security walls…in fact Control Panel says you don't have any apps installed at all.  You can't unselect IE as the default for HTML links…blah, blah, blah.  (tell me again, why all this Control Panel stuff is on the tablet, but you can't use it).  I finally gave up.

Let me try to summarize this all.  in today's high-tech world, we should be able to expect certain things from any standard browser.  If you were Microsoft and behind the other tech players, you probably should work to exceed those needs and expectations.  Sadly, not even close.
A few browser basics I expect or need:  
*   Easy access to favorites (Bookmarks) and a way to organize them (such as folders) so I can find something fast and easy.  
RT score: D
*   Easy import or export of favorites from another browser or device.  This feature doesn't exist in either version.  You have to manually get them into the tablet memory, then copy and paste into just the right IE folder…that is buried several layers.  
RT score: F
*  Favorites and other data in sync with  IE on other devices.  I have a Windows 7 PC and there was no data sync available with IE9…no bookmarks, browsing history, saved passwords…all of which I've had for a couple of years with browsers like Opera, Firefox Mobile, Dolphin.  I can't speak to the Apple family.  
RT score:  indeterminate but possibly an F.
(and before you say it…I shouldn't HAVE to upgrade everything to Windows 8, which as I've stated I can't.  My PC, and Android browsers all share data, working on two different ecosystems.  Surely Microsoft could get their own products to talk to each other…right?)
*  A browsers job is to display websites, so then they should support whatever websites are made from, including Flash, HTML5, etc.  You can argue all you want about the death or usefulness of Flash, but it's still on at least half the sites I visit and if the browser can't or won't do the job, then it's a failure to me.  Even if planned for a future update it's still too late.  
RT score: D-  
*  Privacy mode or Private Browsing.  I couldn't find this feature in the Modern UI mode and it's ridiculous to expect someone to hassle with the Desktop version. Not critical but a very "Important to Have" It is true that you have to log into the tablet and it can support multiple users (A big plus), but it only happens once upon booting up.  Anyone can pick the tablet up and see what you've been up to.
RT score: C

This isn't everything that could be said about RT and IE, but it does demonstrate the problems and issues.

Next up…Mail, Calendar and People.  Oh the unhumanity!