Windows 8 Device Stats: September 2014

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Every month, I highlight AdDuplex's Windows Phone usage statistics, but this month they're taking a peek at Windows device—Windows 8.x-based tablets, 2-in-1s and other devices—usage. The firm provides this kind of survey about twice a year, and it's interesting to see which devices—and device types—are actually taking off with users.

As you may remember, AdDuplex bills itself as the largest cross-promotion network for Windows Phone and Windows 8 apps, empowering developers and publishers to promote their apps for free by helping each other. And each month it provides a tantalizing glimpse at which Windows Phone (and Windows) devices people are actually using.

Here's what's happening with Windows devices this month.

Surface Pro 3 is a success. Released in July and thus since the previous May report from AdDuplex, Surface Pro 3 is already in the top 10: Its usage has already surpassed that of Surface Pro 2 and it is quickly catching up to the original Surface Pro. According to AdDuplex, about 0.92 percent of all Windows devices in use are Surface Pro 3. That's beter than the Surface Pro 2's 0.68 percent usage share, and just a hair behind the original Surface Pro, which accounts for 0.93 percent of all usage.

Surface RT/2.0 still lead the pack. Here's a shocker: Microsoft's Windows RT-based Surface devices are the number one and two most often used Windows devices on earth. Surface RT is number one with 9.82 percent of usage, and Surface 2 has 2.41 percent, so together these devices represent over 12 percent of all Windows device usage. WTH. Add in the Surface Pro devices and Microsoft now controls about 15 percent of all Windows device usage. Again. WTH.

The top ten devices. The top ten Windows devices break down like so: Surface RT (9.82 percent), Surface 2 (2.41), HP 15/Pavilion 15 (2.37), ASUS Transformer Book T100 (2.16), Dell Inspiron 3521 (1.48), HP 2000 (1.47), HP Pavilion g6 (1.09), Surface Pro (0.93), Surface Pro 3 (0.92), and HP Pavilion 17 (0.85).

Top 5 PC makers by usage. The top 5 PC makers (by usage) are HP (19.85 percent), Dell (12.7 percent), Microsoft (14.75 percent), ASUS (11.24 percent), and Lenovo (8.33 percent). As you may know, this does not correspond to PC market share at all, but that makes sense: PCs are used for many years, so usage corresponds to sales of devices from companies that used to lead the PC market (HP, Dell) and not the one that leads sales now (Lenovo). But Microsoft is the number three PC maker by usage?! WTH X2.

Why Samsung is leaving the PC market (in Europe). What's interesting is that struggling PC makers that have been in the news lately—Sony, Toshiba and Samsung—are all at the bottom of the heap. Now you know why Samsung just announced that it's leaving the PC market in Europe. It's not that PCs aren't selling. It's that Samsung's PCs aren't selling. (And bad news for Gateway: It has even lower usage numbers than those companies.) 

Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter Preview

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OK, I've had my fun with the dichotomy of Microsoft announced two separate Miracast adapters in the last 30 days. Truth be told, the newly announced Wireless Display Adapter does address some slightly different scenarios than the previously-announced Microsoft Screen-Sharing for Lumia Phones HD-10. And I'll be reviewing and comparing both.

Here's what's happening with the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter.

It's Miracast. Don't be fooled by the name. The Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter is your basic Miracast dongle. That means it's a dumb wireless wire, and not a sophisticated solution like Play on Xbox, Chromecast or Air Play.

No NFC. Unlike the Microsoft Screen-Sharing for Lumia Phones HD-10, the Wireless Display Adapter does not include a NFC pairing plate. You can still use it with your Miracast-enabled smart phone, tablet or PC, but the pairing will be a bit more of a manual process.

Power via USB. As with a Chromecast or Roku Streaming Stick, the Wireless Display Adapter draws power from a USB port on your HDTV or, if you don't have one, via a power adapter.

Wireless range. Up to 23 feet. Microsoft tells me this device has very low latency.

Supports 1080p. If your HDTV can do 1080p, the Wireless Display Adapter will support that.

Compatibility. Same as any other Miracast device, the Wireless Display Adapter will work with Miracast-enabled Windows 8.1 tablets and laptops and Windows Phone 8.1-based handsets, and Android 4.2.1+ devices.

Availability: October 2014

Cost: $59.99 in the United States. You can preorder it now from the Microsoft Store online.

Learn more: I've written about my Miracast experiences in What I Use (Home Swap): Home Entertainment and Windows 8.1 + Miracast.

Skitch Touch for Windows 8 review - the easy way to annotate images

Evernote-owned free Windows 8 app Skitch is a great way to annotate images and screenshots. It comes in both Windows and Mac OS X editions, and mobile versions for iOS and Android are available, too. And somewhere between the mobile and desktop versions comes Skitch Touch, the version built for Windows 8's Modern Interface. It has the same simple and pretty annotation tools as the other versions, but being a Modern app, offers less power and features than the traditional Windows version. See also: Best Windows apps: Windows 8 app group test.

Like many other Modern apps, Skitch Touch seems to be designed for screen in the 11- to 13-inch range. On a 24-inch monitor, it ends up displaying vast expanses of white, unused space. As you launch it, Skitch Touch shows a beautiful Create New area on the left side of the screen, letting you create a pull in material to visually annotate from a camera (presumably a tablet's built-in camera, but this feature also works with a regular webcam connected to a computer), a map, a photo or screenshot you've previously taken, an image saved into the clipboard, or a blank canvas.

Skitch review - where's the screenshot option?

Notably missing is the option to capture a new screenshot. You'll have to use a third-party tool for this, such as Screenshot Captor or ZScreen.

Once you have an image open for editing, annotating it is just as easy as on other Skitch versions. Part of what makes Skitch fun to use is that it doesn't overwhelm the user with numerous tools: There are just seven of them to master. You can draw arrows on your image, enter text, demarcate areas with rectangles, and squiggle with a marker. Other tools let you style your annotations (pick a color and stroke width), pixelate areas of the image, and crop the image. That's basically it--but really, that's all you need to get your point across when annotating an image.

When you're ready to share your work with others, click the Export button, and you can save the image as a JPG or PNG file. This isn't as convenient as being able to drag the image off the window to save it (a feature Skitch for Windows offers), but it works. To save your work as a Skitch document for editing later, click the checkmark on the top-right corner of the screen. Saving files for editing later is another area where Skitch Touch could do better: Unless you log into your Evernote account using Skitch, you only have access your most recently edited file. Once you log into Evernote from Skitch, the main part of the window shows previous files, and you can easily click through to edit them.

Skitch is a fundamentally simple tool, and it already offers mobile versions for iOS and Android, something that helps when designing a Modern app. It's also visual, which is a great quality for a Modern app to have. Thanks to these advantages, Skitch Touch offers a better Modern experience than most apps I've seen so far, and should work especially well on a touch-enabled tablet screen.

See also: Best Windows apps: Windows 8 app group test.

WinZip for Windows 8 review: Windows 8 app offers powerful zipping and file sharing

Metro, or Modern, or whatever you'd like to call the new style of applications that debuted with Windows 8, is problematic. It's problematic because it's built for touch, but forces itself on your non-touch computer, too. And because of its expanse of white (or blank, for it's often in some intense shade of colour) space and very low information density. And because it relies on hidden gestures you somehow have to guess would bring up toolbars you never knew were there to begin with. See all Windows app reviews.

I could keep counting the ways, but the point is that it's very difficult to make a Modern app that actually feels "right" on a modern desktop computer. That's the context in which I tested WinZip for Windows 8, and it proves designing a decent Modern app is a serious challenge even for a software company as established as Corel, and for a brand as iconic as WinZip.

When you first launch WinZip for Windows 8, it takes over your entire screen, of course. But it presents no buttons or menus: Only the cryptic line, "Use the app bar to start adding files/folders to a new Zip file or to Open an existing Zip file," and a vast, soothing expanse of colour. That's great, if you happen to know what the "app bar" is. If you dontt, you may find yourself randomly clicking around until you happen to right-click anywhere on the screen. This is what you need to do to pop open a toolbar that's hidden at the bottom of the screen--and that's the toolbar you need to get anything done with WinZip for Windows 8. Hiding the toolbar like this is a standard Modern UI convention, and it's just as terrible on WinZip for Windows 8 as it is in other applications.

WinZip for Windows 8: six-button toolbar

The toolbar has six buttons: Add Files, Add a Folder, New Zip, Open Zip, and all the way to the far right, ZipSend and ZipShare. You can add files and folders locally, but WinZip for Windows 8 can also plug into Dropbox, Google Drive, and SkyDrive, letting you pull files from those cloud services into your archive. Once you tell it where you want to look for files, a file browser fills the screen. Everything is enormous and touch-optimized, but the interface works. It's not without its Modern quirks, though: If you add a folder and regret it, you need to right-click the folder's name at the bottom of the screen to remove it. There's no indication that's what you're supposed to do (I just had to figure it out by trying), and I have no idea what you'd do if you had a touchscreen with no way to right-click anything. Such perplexing moments are par for the course in most Modern apps, though.

Once you add files and folders, WinZip crunches some numbers and shows the archive's vital statistics in the right sidebar. You can see its name, how many folders and files it contains, and how big it is. You can also opt to encrypt the files, and finally, you can save the file or send it to others using WinZip's ZipSend and ZipShare services. Feeling particularly savvy, I brought up the Windows 8 Charms bar and clicked Share, only to find out that I "don't have any apps that can share this content." So, instead of using the much-vaunted sharing built into Windows 8, you have to use WinZip's own solution.

If you own a conventional desktop or laptop computer, there is absolutely no reason to use WinZip for Windows 8. It's not because Corel didn't create a good product -- it's because Modern is basically unusable for any sort of real work, and archive management counts as "real work" in my book. I can hope WinZip for Windows 8 works better on a tablet with a touch interface, but as long as I have a plain old desktop, I remain grateful for the desktop version of WinZip.

See also: Best Windows 8 apps: Windows 8 app group test

How to watch US Netflix in the UK: get American Netflix content on your PC

Netflix is a lot better across the pond in the US than it is here with load for content. So, here's how to get American Netflix in the UK. See also: Netflix tips & tricks

One of the most common complaints from Netflix customers here in Blighty is that we don't have access to the same amount of content that US-based users do – especially films. Competing streaming services such as, Amazon Prime Video, Sky's Sky Store and Now TV have swept up the rights to many films exclusive – including the whole of Warner Bros' new releases. See also: The 80 best movies on Netflix UK

Netflix US also gets TV shows earlier than we do here in the UK. You can watch cult favourites such as Mad Men and American Horror Story on Netflix US – but not on NetFlix UK. Sometimes this is linked to content deals between US producers and UK TV channels that mean you can't see episodes until after they've debuted on UK – sometimes the reasoning behind this is unclear (like much of international content licensing). See also: Netflix vs LoveFilm Instant (Prime Video) comparison review: What's the best streaming service?

The oddity of licensing – coupled with that you essentially have an international subscription to Netflix rather than to Netflix UK – means what affects what you have access to is based on where you are, not where you signed up. This was brought home to me on a recent trip to the US. I opened my laptop in a hotel room in New York, logged onto Netflix and was greeted with a warm message welcoming me to the US and letting me know that things are different over there – though it mainly concentrated on ratings differences, which is good if you've got kids like me. A quick scroll down the homepage made what those changes were obvious – a heck of a lot of films that aren't available now I'm back in the UK. Bummer.

Well, kind of. It's very easy to get your hands on browser plugins that let you pretend you're in the US – which means you get the US Netflix content instead. This is officially naughty and almost certainly against Netflix's T&Cs, which says "You also agree not to: circumvent, remove, alter, deactivate, degrade or thwart any of the content protections in the Netflix service" – and could get you banned.

However, assuming you're comfortable with this, this is how you do it. It only works on PCs, Macs and Android Tablets – not with the iPad, iPhone, PS3 or TV sets or services. Read: How to watch US Netflix on an Android smartphone or Tablet: Use a VPN to view US programs on you Android devices

How to get American Netflix in the UK: Hola unblocker plugin

Step One

First off you need to download the Hola unblocker browser plugin, which works with Chrome, Firefox or the Android OS. Here we've used Firefox.

Go to hola.org and click on Download. Install the plugin. If you're using Chrome, click on options (the three horizontal bars) then Extensions. In the Chrome web store, search for Hola Unblocker, and then click the Free button in the Extensions (NOT Apps) section of the results.

Step Two

Go to Netflix. Chance are, the plug-in will notice and either offer to switch you the US – or have done it automatically. Either way, you'll soon see a whole bunch of content that's technically off limits to those of us in the UK. If the connection doesn't work, click on the little icon at the top of your browser window and there should be an option to try another server.

If you want to go back to the UK Netflix – for example, to watch BBC content that's not available in the US – just switch off Hola and reload the page. Voila.