Surface 2

The book I read to research this post was My Surface 2 - 2nd edition which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

There haven't been many books written on the Microsoft Surface 2 the new tablet from Microsoft that uses Windows 8.1 and the hardware is a considerable upgrade from the original version. If you have the original Surface you can upgrade the version of windows on your tablet in the form of a free download. The Surface 2 still downloads updates on a regular basis and although occasionally you might need to restart to complete the download they are mostly done in the background and you are unaware of them. Unlike some tablets the Surface 2 isn't compatible with miracast a standard used by many HD televisions to project video from a tablet, without a 3rd party device. When you first turn it on it will normally want to connect to your wireless network and you can't connect from your computer to the tablet without special software for security reasons only the other way around. Windows 8.1 features start tiles which you normally press the screen to operate although you can also use the flat surface keyboard or proper keyboard which are available as extras. These tiles are called live tiles because they display information which is updated whenever you are connected to the internet. If you do what is known as pin a tile to the start menu it won't generally be a live tile so you won't see updates. If you go to

http://familysafety.microsoft.com  you can set up a service which will work with either a computer or surface 2 where you get a report of your childrens internet usage and can also ban them from using certain types of website and this integrates with Windows 8.1. You can download apps to work on your tablet many of which are free & on the side of the screen of your tablet are some commands that work with most apps called charms. You can download or stream video and music to your tablet. Note when you delete either music or video from your surface 2 you have to buy it again to put it back on. You can also download xbox games to your tablet. Microsoft also lets you integrate it with skydrive where you get I think it's 15 GB of free storage which you can use with your tablet or computer network and many people stream music from their account. You can buy a music pass with xbox live which gives you unlimited streamed music for $9.99 per month and you get 10 hours per month free anyway. Of course some pop stars remove their music from this streaming service so you have to watch that.