Anyone using an Intel Atom Z2760 powered tablet with Windows 8 and Logos 5?

Logos recommends an i5 processor, but I wondered if anyone has tried Logos 5 on one of the new Windows 8 tablets with the Intel ATOM Processor Z2760? Acer offer the W510 and Samsung the ATIV Smart PC and I wondered if these might be ok for reading and highlighting while away from our desktop PC?

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Jeff Miles

I have been using Logos 5 with a Dell Latitude 10 tablet, which has the same specs as the Acer W510, the Samsung ATIV SmartPC, ASUS Vivotab Smart, Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2, and others, with the Atom Clover Trail chip set.

Logos 5 does run on it. However, it is very slow. And, what is even worse is that Logos 5 is very touch interface unfriendly. In fact, it may be the worst software I have ever tried to use with a touch interface.

This is really unfortunate, because virtually all other office type software works beautifully on these new tablets. Logos is the exception.

If you are going to use Logos on one of these tablets, I suggest you do it with a keyboard and mouse, or as a minimum with an active stylus. (A passive stylus will not be much use.) Why an active stylus? Because then you can take advantage of the hover pop-ups in Logos, similar to when you hover your mouse cursor over hyperlinks.

Highlighting, in particular, is very slow. This is very disappointing to me, since I have typically relied a lot on the highlighting feature of Logos 4 and 5.

Logos does have a Windows 8 app too, which works really well on these tablets. Unfortunately, it is missing many of the features that the iOS and Android versions have. Hopefully, it will get feature parity soon. If that happens, then this would be the way to get around the performance limitations of Logos 5 running in Desktop mode.

Bottom line: Logos 5 is usable on these tablets, but it is slow. It requires patience on your part, and using a keyboard and mouse will improve your experience quite a bit, since Logos 5 is devoid of any touch support.

Darren Loechel

Thanks Pistos. When using the Windows 8 app, is highlighting still too slow, and does the app solve the touch interface problems?

Darren Loechel

I just tried the Windows 8 App on my daughter's tablet and was very disappointed - but it is early days yet! I can't find any information on the website or the blogs about it though. Has anyone heard any plans for the development of this app?

Jeff Miles

This is the forum that discusses info regarding the Windows 8 App... http://community.logos.com/forums/108.aspx

Yes, the current Win8 App is pretty basic. But it is functional for reading. Ideally, it would as a minimum support highlighting, but that feature does not appear to be too high on Logos' priority list of features. If they follow the same course that they did with the Android app they will add a bunch of silly things that have little value first, rather than the things that are genuinely useful to a professional like highlighting and note taking and clippings, etc.

Jeff Miles

I already answered the win 8 app question, but regarding highlighting and Logos in general, the biggest problem is there is no right-click menu after selecting text which gives you access to highlighting when using a stylus or your finger. So, you have to have the highlighting tool window open the whole time taking up valuable screen space and generally slowing everything down because it is one more window requiring redrawing by the machine. The only work around at present is to have a keyboard attached so you can use keyboard shortcuts, but that kind of defeats the purpose of using a tablet. :-/

If Logos would add highlighting to the right-click menu it would make the use of a tablet so much more usable, no matter how fast or slow a tablet is at running the Logos software. This is simply a usability issue with pen and touch support in Logos.

Jeff Miles

I should probably add as a response to your original question that after spending more time with Logos on this little tablet, I have learned how to accommodate the limitations of both the Logos software and the tablet hardware and find it to be quite useful, even in its current state.

As a comparison, I also have a Motorola Xoom tablet running Android, and have used the Android Logos app on it quite a bit. But I prefer using this Dell Latitude 10 with the full version of Logos 5. It is definitely slower, but it gives me access to the tools that I use most often and allows me to customize the setup to the way that I prefer to work.

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

I have been using Logos 5 with a Dell Latitude 10 tablet, ... Logos 5 does run on it. However, it is very slow.

Concur with slow. Dell Latitude ST has Windows 7 with an Intel Atom Z670 CPU @ 1.50 GHz with 2.1 experience index: 2.1 for CPU, 2.9 for Graphics, and 7.4 for disk. The Solid State Disk (SSD) is fast, but CPU and graphics are not.

Thankful for stylus having AAA battery that improves pointing. Personally use on-screen keyboard with book abbreviations for Bible navigation.

Before using quick installation to clone Logos 5 to tablet for offline use, turned off visual filter highlighting.

Keep Smiling [:)]

Mike Childs

Logos 5 does run on it. However, it is very slow. And, what is even worse is that Logos 5 is very touch interface unfriendly. In fact, it may be the worst software I have ever tried to use with a touch interface.

That is my prime hesitancy to consider a Windows 8 Tablet of any kind for Logos. Until the software is redesigned to be touch interface friendly, I think that using Logos 5 (or 4) on any tablet would be a very frustrating experience, and a step down from even the iPad app. The very existence of a Windows 8 "app" ought to tell us something about that.

Currently, I doubt the market share of Windows 8 tablets justifies the cost of a rewrite of the software.

Though I note that in later posts Pistos is happier with the performance. That is encouraging. Please keep us informed and many are interested in this.

Jeff Miles

@Michael: Each to his own, but you do realize that I am the guy who made the statement you just quoted and I am also the guy who made the follow-up post just before your comment. As I indicated, I have learned to work with the current state of the application and it has become quite useful.

I will say without reservation that I much prefer my set up with full Logos 5 on my Windows 8 tablet over the iPad or Android apps. There is no comparison in the level of functionality. I have the full version of Logos, with all features and abilities at my fingertips on a light, portable, tablet that I take everywhere with me. With the iPad and Andoird apps, I am stuck "poking around" in a dumbed-down glorified reading app version of the software. I appreciate having the quick nimble feel of the iPad/Android apps. I have never liked the compromises in lost features and depth of the apps.