Those of you that listen to TDL Mobile and in particular the show where the guys made fun of me for returning an iPad (TDL Mobile #93 – The Regurgitated Apple) will know I purchased an Acer Iconia Tab W500. As I explained at the time the reasons were that a Windows based tablet would fit more seamlessly into our household without having to repurchase applications or convert media into a formal compatible with the iPad.
The biggest reason though was because Windows 8 would work on the W500 and that is something I was and still am very interested in doing. I haven’t written too much about my experiences so far because John Hoole (Blog|Twitter) already did a great job of reviewing the hardware (Acer Iconia W500 Tablet Review) and also the Windows 8 experience (Windows 8 consumer preview on the Iconia Tab).
Now while the W500 is not one of the core touch devices that Microsoft are using to test Windows 8 (Experiencing Windows 8 touch on Windows 7 hardware) I have to say the experience has been really good with only edge based gestures causing some frustration and often requiring multiple attempts to bring up either the “charms bar” (right edge), task switcher (left edge) or “app bar” (bottom edge).
I’m not quite the driver addict I once was but given that the W500 had already received one firmware update for the touch screen, to resolve the phantom screen taps at the bottom right of the screen, I thought I’d take a look to see if the firmware had been updated again. As it turns out it had: Touch Panel Firmware 1007.2005
I haven’t been able to find any release notes but suffice to say that after I had updated to this latest firmware the edge gestures are far more responsive and my wife now finds the experience greatly improved.
Anyone else out there with an Iconia Tab W500 that is using Windows 8? Does this new firmware feel more responsive? Please let me know in the comments or better yet contact the show.
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Those of you that listen to TDL Mobile and in particular the show where the guys made fun of me for returning an iPad (TDL Mobile #93 – The Regurgitated Apple) will know I purchased an Acer Iconia Tab W500. As I explained at the time the reasons were that a Windows based tablet would fit more seamlessly into our household without having to repurchase applications or convert media into a formal compatible with the iPad.