Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Review

You never know how good you've got it until it changes to..... how good you had it.

I had an iPad, but due to circumstances I needed to be mobile and have Windows. The Surface Pro 4 sounded ideal and ticked all the boxes. I read the reviews and most were positive, they did mention not having a place to put the pen was annoying, but I thought What did you need a pen for? I prefer typing to writing anyway!". I had a Samsung note and hardly used the pen, I just played with it when I was bored.

So I looked for the cheapest price and was very happy to find an excellent price on Orange. I've always wanted to shop there. The device arrived a few days later than I expected, but I wasn't concerned because I was busy.  Once it arrived it was nicely packaged in a box that was much larger than the device and I enjoyed unpacking it. It was fully charged so I went about setting it up immediately.

The first irk was the keyboard, typing on a touchscreen means you often make typos and I've always had these little errors corrected for me. Whereas on the Surface only some apps do it, on Chrome (the app I use the most) it never happened. Even MS Edge doesn't do it.  The only app so far that I can remember is my email which is called Touchmail.

Then of course there is the pen. To browse some websites you have to have it, those menu options that the mouse needs to hover over, well you need the pen for that. Nothing happens if you just tap your finger, so you're forced to go fetch the pen.  Of course, because the pen is not securely attached to the device you need to try remember where you used it last, go look for it and when you finally find it you've been signed out of your internet banking platform.

Then suddenly, just over one month of using the device I saw a hairline crack going from the top middle of the device all the way to the left middle of the screen. I hadn't dropped it, I hadn't banged it,

You can see the crack clearly from the middle bottom to the right and up

I hadn't treated it roughly at all. The iPad 2 I had got treated badly in all sorts of ways. Towards the end we didn't really care and its corners were reshaped into a "dropped on" shape, that's how many times it got dropped, bumped and badly handled.
So, is there any way to sort this out? Of course Microsoft doesn't guarantee the screen, they know its rubbish. Therefore any of you out there with kids, DO NOT get a surface, it'll be unable to be used within the first week!

When that happened I thought I had better get the Surface keyboard. At a premium of about R2000 I never wanted to, but its better than losing the whole device. So I got one and  few days later I flipped the keyboard around the back and started playing a driving game. Immediately one of the keys came off.  So now every time I was to play a game that uses the movement of the tablet I have to remove the keyboard and plug it back in again.  Then, because of the changes there are times the keyboard doesn't register.  Another frustration to annoy you on a "busy" day.

Finally there are the freezing problems. Windows has always had problems of programs crashing and your computer freezing, but when the Surface freezes I tried to hold in the power button to switch it off.  All that happens is it sometimes comes up with a "Slide down to Shut down" screen. However you can't slide the bar down! It's extremely annoying, all I've managed to do so far is leave it until it decides it wants to cooperate again.  Sometimes that is only the next day.

Conclusion:
While the device is nice and functions reasonably well it lacks the refinement of Apple products that just make using them so easy.  They have introduced a product before properly solving the problems of differentiating between a click and moving the mouse cursor, the problem of somewhere to put the pen and delivering a hardy product at a reasonable price. The Surface Pro was very expensive and to cut costs on the most common breakage item, the screen, is absolutely annoying.

So, my rating, out of five stars, would be three stars. It's great having a PC in this small form, but it doesn't work well as a tablet. To enjoy it you still need PC accessories, and the build quality isn't suitable for this form factor.

Rating: A poor 3\5

Getting your South African Police Clearance from Overseas

Always fun trying to do something while you are in South Africa, much more fun trying to do it while you are outside of South Africa.  I'm posting this now to provide information and my experience so far.  I will edit it once I know the results, but at this point I have no clue if I even sent the application to the correct place!

The first bit of information you need is that you need to make the submission yourself.  You have to go to an approved centre for taking your fingerprints, the safest being you local South African Embassy and once the form is completed you need to send it yourself to the Criminal Records Centre yourself.  Of course, don't forget that once it is ready you need to arrange for it to be picked up.

I found quite a bit of conflicting information out there but it seems that the most recently updated and most reliable is the SAPS Website here. Here you can find SAPS bank information and that it costs R96 (I called up a local police office to check what the cost is, if you call the Police Clearance call centre all you get is a ringing telephone).  There is also an address to send the application to.  I was not able to confirm this address yet.

Once you have sent off the application keep track of the tracking number.  Once your parcel shows as received you will need to track you application here on the SAPS Site

At the time of publication the website shows the following information as correct.
First pay SAPS with the following information and print out the proof of payment
Bank Details for payment of R96
ABSA cheque account number 4054522787; Branch code 632005; Swift code ABSA ZAJJ). In the case of an electronic payment the initials and surname of the applicant should be indicated as the reference. The letters PCC must be added as reference, which will indicate that the payment is for a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC). 

Secondly download the form (called annex 23b form) and go to the South African Embassy and have them take your fingerprints and sign the form themselves.

Thirdly courier the form PLUS the proof of payment to the following address

The Courier address is
The Head of the South African Criminal Record Centre
(For attention: Police Clearance Certificates)
Bothongo Plaza West
CRC Client Service Centre
1st Floor, Room 14 
271 Frances Baard Street
PRETORIA

Fourthly monitor the application progress here

Fifthly arrange a pre-paid courier to pick up the Police Clearance from the Criminal Records office.

Hopefully soon after all that trouble you will have yourself a wonderful No Criminal Records Police Clearance Certificate!

Update:
So the Police Clearance application arrived and it is now saying that it is ready.  All I have to do is arrange the courier pickup!
Just to note for those South Africans applying from overseas.  Your ID number is not your ID number, it is simply your date of birth.  Luckily I thought of trying that.  Otherwise I would still think the application was never completed!

Second update
Don't use DHL as your courier! They are rather unorganised. I had two Police Clearance certificates to pick up and gave them very clear and direct instructions to pick up both. I only found out they picked up one when it was delivered!  Then I had to complain to get them to pick up the second one, which they did at no extra cost.

So, as you may have gathered by now, I was successful in obtaining my police clearance certificate while overseas. It took the suggested time frame plus the time for the international couriers, all in all just under three weeks.

Top Tax Tip - Home Office Expenses

I just have finalised a long audit from SARS and it has been a long and difficult process.  Some where in the middle of it I have learnt a valuable lesson and I would like to share it with you.

As mentioned already you can claim a portion of all your home office expenses as tax deductible, however, as I have discovered, this is not always the preferable method.  The moment you claim for office expenses there is a lot of extra documentation that SARS requires.  You need to submit how large your house is, you need to submit how large your office is, you need to show proof of expenses and proof of payment, plus they automatically ask for bond statements etc. This can be really troublesome.

A much easier method is to simply claim it under Other Expenses.Of course you cannot put the whole house's electricity bill under other expenses, but if all you want to claim is your internet connection then definitely.

On top of having less paperwork to submit you can also claim the full amount.  It seems that SARS automatically assumes that any cost claimed under office expenses can only be 4% of the total.  Therefore don't claim your printing costs here, put it under Other Expenses.

Written by Mark Robson