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I made this move earlier this year after having used Windows pretty exclusively (with a side of linux) for 15+ years. In my case, the switch was less about the OS and more about the availability/price of decent hardware given a limited time window to buy. Anyway, given your usage scenario, I don’t see any reason not to switch, nor do I see any major reason TO switch assuming comparable hardware and price. As others have said MS Word works fine for Mac, though it is not as nice or full-featured as the Windows version (true for Outlook as well—but unless you use exchange there’s no major reason to use Outlook for Mac over the native offerings).

That said, one nice feature of OSX for somebody in the google world is the native sync with Google calendar/contacts. For Google tasks you’re out of luck (there’s a couple of third party apps that seem to be mostly webwrappers) but there’s now a pretty decent android app that syncs with OSX/iOS reminders so you can use that (or Wunderlist or any of the gazillion options).

Another nice part of the OSX is the many excellent minimalist writing apps. Ulyssess III, for example, is outstanding (though only syncs with iCloud). I use Byword which is not quite as nice but also syncs with Dropbox and works with Papers (reference management software) so I can edit my texts on android and iOS and only bring in MS Word at the very end for formatting.

about 15 hours ago on Should I move from Windows 8 to OSX?

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I know you asked for android tablet specifically, but I would look for a refurbished previous generation of the iPad (full size—mini is too small to read a lot on in my opinion). The reason is that if you are a student, you will most likely read a lot of PDFs and write a lot of papers and I would strongly urge you to adopt a reference management program into your workflow. These tend to be much better supported on iOS than android. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of a single one other than Qiqqa that has an official android app (no iOS app in this case) and Mendeley and Zotero have third-party apps. iOS has the same plus quite excellent officials apps for Papers, Sente, and Endnote.

3 days ago on Best Tablet/e-reader for University 1 reply

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Please post your conclusion as I would be curious to know (intermittently Beijing-based as well).

3 days ago on Nokia 920 in China hardware restricted to (crappy) China Windows Marketplace

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Not to derail the conversation, but this scenario with the calendar/contacts is easily addressed. Both iOS and android supports EAS so whether you use Outlook.com or your work’s exchange server, it would work fine. This is actually one of the benefits of the ecosystem MS is building in that it works quite well even without a 100% commitment (a few notable exceptions, of course, are Xbox Music, Onenote, and Outlook.com on the Mac).

3 days ago on Parallel Universes. google.com and live.com

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Indeed, so if they were to implement some kind off-line function through Chrome, it would have to be device specific.

4 days ago on Saving music to device from Play All Access

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Trustin a country’s government or not has very little to do with this. It is simply to improve keeping track of people who leave/enter the US. Brits, French, Germans, Japanese, and citizens of many other countries with strong ties to the US can overstay visas, commit crimes, etc.

4 days ago on Senate committee votes in favor of fingerprinting foreign travelers at US airports

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I agree with the red bars. Can’t quite put my finger on it but if it was one bar instead of three, it might look a bit cleaner. Very nicely done overall, though, and much better than the stitched-leather-monstrosity-that-shall-not-be-named.

4 days ago on iOS 7 Calendar App Mockup [UPDATED] 1 reply

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Rdio does this and it works less well in practice than it sounds as it is completely device agnostic. That is, if you elect to keep album X on your phone, it will download it to all devices you have connected to your account.

If we are talking about pinning to the computer, I am hoping this will come soon. Deezer already does this through HTML5 so I don’t see why Google cannot do this too.

4 days ago on Saving music to device from Play All Access 1 reply

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What do you mean? They could just call it Xbox RT and everything would be perfectly clear to everyone.

4 days ago on Microserfs: a weekly community thread- Xbox predictions! (May 17 - 23) 1 reply

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I am hoping for an Xbox Roku, i.e. a cheap ($50-$100) streaming box for those of us who don’t really care about games but want the other features. The rumored 8-inch Xbox Surface would be nice as well. I’d say the likelihood of the former is pretty high, the latter is pretty low.

7 days ago on Microserfs: a weekly community thread- Xbox predictions! (May 17 - 23) 1 reply 1 recommend

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Well, Deezer is in well over 100 countries I believe and NOT the US. They, like Google, also allow you to upload your own collection and mix it with their 20 million tracks. And they have an offline web app plus iOS, Android, and WP apps.

7 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service

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I haven’t used either but the N4 is supposed to have a pretty atrocious camera whereas Sony’s cameras are usually pretty good (Endgadget gave the SP praise in this department). So if photography is an important factor, go Sony. On the other hand, who knows if the SP will be updated past Jelly Bean whereas the N4 is likely to stay current for a while. In the end it depends on what is important to you.

7 days ago on Nexus 4 or Sony Xperia SP

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You are, of course, correct. I misread the original query. Apologies to the OP.

9 days ago on Verizon unlimited data?

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Nokia.

And to answer the question re: other tones, the old Sony Ericsson one is pretty well-known and you still hear it a fair amount, at least in Europe (it is available on the Xperia phones).

10 days ago on Which default ringtone is more iconic at this point.. iPhone Marimba or Classic Nokia?

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The folks over at WP Central always praise the Lumia 720. Not sure how much it is. You can also get the Lumia 520/521 for under 200 USD, I believe, but it has pretty middling specs.

10 days ago on I need a no contract phone for 6 months - WP8? 1 reply

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No, not unless you pay the full off-contract price for the phone (in which case you wouldn’t have to use an upgrade).

10 days ago on Verizon unlimited data?

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That sucks though it is totally unsurprising. Is there a way to “flash” a different firmware on it a la Android? I believe I saw some info on this with the 900 last year and that it is possible (I had the same issue while in Beijing; my WP7.5 device broke and I wanted to replace it with another WP device but did not dare buying a Chinese phone; in the end I bought an android phone in Hong Kong).

11 days ago on Nokia 920 in China hardware restricted to (crappy) China Windows Marketplace 1 reply

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Ah, good catch. :) That should be Apple Maps, of course.

11 days ago on Which phone OS has the best international maps?

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I would say it varies tremendously. Over the last year or so, I have used Google Maps, Nokia’s offering, Apple Maps, and others (e.g. HTC Location on my old Trophy) in a number of places, including the US, several European countries (UK, France, Belgium, the Nordics), China, and West Africa. My general sense is that Google Maps is never bad, but is sometimes bested by the others. For example, in Beijing Nokia and HTC was arguably better than Google, while in W Africa Google was better (and Apple Mail was useless).

12 days ago on Which phone OS has the best international maps? 1 reply 3 recommends