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Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

arstechnica.com

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Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#171

Post by edgarvaldes »

NamTaf wrote: post #170
NolF wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do people not set up the room 15 minutes before the session starts just to sort out those kinds of issues? That way it's only 15 man-minutes rather than 15*n man-minutes. Seems unprofessional.

Not when the people in the meeting prior are still in the room 3-4 minutes after the hour/half hour and then they all shuffle out laughing about how they are "sorry" they've gone over time but not really because if they were they wouldn't be the same people doing it again and again and holy shit I want to bury an ice pick in their faces.

Or when some guest is going to deliver the presentation and comes 5 minutes before the scheduled meeting, with an old laptop that refuses to work in that exact moment.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#173

Post by fragmede »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #127
agumonkey wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did watch 2 videos of ~10min. It didn't seem as amazing as I imagined. Most of the features are remote + ink then mail. Nothing that revolutionary. Maybe I missed other demos (I can't find a video on MS website, I used youtube, various sources) I think my comment was too easy to interpret as lazy sarcasm, I'm just trying to get a picture of what was the setup before.

> I'm just trying to get a picture of what was the setup before. The setup before was Skyping with a spare laptop or smart TV, and often having to call each other on cell phones because the service isn't working. There's huge value to good integration. It doesn't matter if the specs don't compete to building your own with a projector, computer, custom webcam. Because no one else has actually built it, and if you do a…

Also Slack, which (curmudgeonly) is "just" IRC with a pretty front end, as if teaching the marketing/design/billing/every non-engineer about screen and tmux was going to be a productive use of everyone's time.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#174

Post by threeseed »

Zombieball wrote: post #156
xzel wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't say it did anything amazing/revolutionary. At the end of the day its just a giant TV with touch features. The key bit is they got 95% of "it" right, the "it just works" factor is huge. The integration with remote desktop, the feel of writing with the stylus, quality and feel of the plastic hub, skype integration, pulling off white board sessions to email, etc.

Does the fantastic integration hinge upon using Windows as your primary OS? A lot of MS software (Outlook, SharePoint, Lync) is not that great on OSX vs. the Windows version. Im curious how well this works in an office of people using different operating systems.

Have to agree with this.

It's getting ridiculous the OSX support for those three apps and frankly bizarre given that BYOD is very popular these days.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#175

Post by threeseed »

NolF wrote: post #168
youdontknowtho wrote: post #89

If it solves the problem with every meeting where the first ten minutes are spent trying to get the screen setup and the conference line open...it should make a gazillion dollars. Every meeting, every time...How does this work? Which remote? Is the projector even on? Can you see my screen? Which connector do I use? It's painful.

Do people not set up the room 15 minutes before the session starts just to sort out those kinds of issues? That way it's only 15 man-minutes rather than 15*n man-minutes. Seems unprofessional.

Sorry but do you actually work in a real life company ?

Nobody is coming 15 minutes early to a meeting. That's unheard of in all of the enterprises I've worked.

And with there being more and more meetings often you are literally running from one room to another.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#176

Post by Groxx »

youdontknowtho wrote: post #89

If it solves the problem with every meeting where the first ten minutes are spent trying to get the screen setup and the conference line open...it should make a gazillion dollars. Every meeting, every time...How does this work? Which remote? Is the projector even on? Can you see my screen? Which connector do I use? It's painful.

I love it when the room just has an HDMI cable that we can plug into. Remote viewers can't see it without the normal song and dance and sacrifice to nyarlathotep, but when it's just local... bliss.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#177

Post by pzone »

iNate2000 wrote: post #163
komali2 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I disagree that iPhones are big, but cmon, "the biggest business on earth?" This is a planet that has Oil business, Telecom business, medical products, rice, coffee, fish, illicit drugs, pharmaceutical drugs. There are other businesses that are in a class well beyond a mere consumer electronic device, iPhone or no.

AAPL, GOOG, and MSFT all have market caps larger than XOM http://dogsofthedow.com/largest-companies-by-market-cap.htm

Saudi Aramco blows all of those out of the water.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#178

Post by dkhenry »

threeseed wrote: post #175
NolF wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do people not set up the room 15 minutes before the session starts just to sort out those kinds of issues? That way it's only 15 man-minutes rather than 15*n man-minutes. Seems unprofessional.

Sorry but do you actually work in a real life company ? Nobody is coming 15 minutes early to a meeting. That's unheard of in all of the enterprises I've worked. And with there being more and more meetings often you are literally running from one room to another.

So here is some career advice, go be that person. You know the one who shows up early and sets up the conference equipment, be the one who publishes an agenda for their meetings and actually takes notes to send out as a recap. You will be amazed at how far the signal you are sending g will reach

Also dont make it a habit of just fixing the A/V _after_ the meeting has started, all that signals is your are a good proxy for IT help. If you know a colleague doesn't prepare show up early to help but dont continually swoop to the rescue

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#179

Post by NolF »

threeseed wrote: post #175
NolF wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do people not set up the room 15 minutes before the session starts just to sort out those kinds of issues? That way it's only 15 man-minutes rather than 15*n man-minutes. Seems unprofessional.

Sorry but do you actually work in a real life company ? Nobody is coming 15 minutes early to a meeting. That's unheard of in all of the enterprises I've worked. And with there being more and more meetings often you are literally running from one room to another.

I work for a very large organisation. I book rooms 15-30 minutes before my meetings start time and depending on what it is rock up then or 15 minutes early. I use the time to set up, manage any glitches, and then make any last minute preparations such as preparing handout material, water, etc... Sometimes I get 5 minutes of rest and that's nice too a busy schedule. Then people start rocking up and you build rapport with them until it's start time.

Coming prepared has saved me far more time that rocking up just on time and then trying to set it up only for windows to update. People also learn that my meetings matter because they have a purpose and we get right on it, saving up on people showing late etc...

Investing those 15 minutes of my time really goes a long way for everyone else which benefits me too.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#180

Post by TheGrumpyBrit »

NolF wrote: post #179
threeseed wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry but do you actually work in a real life company ? Nobody is coming 15 minutes early to a meeting. That's unheard of in all of the enterprises I've worked. And with there being more and more meetings often you are literally running from one room to another.

I work for a very large organisation. I book rooms 15-30 minutes before my meetings start time and depending on what it is rock up then or 15 minutes early. I use the time to set up, manage any glitches, and then make any last minute preparations such as preparing handout material, water, etc... Sometimes I get 5 minutes of rest and that's nice too a busy schedule. Then people start rocking up and you build rapport w…

You're lucky. In my building, you're lucky if you can find an available slot long enough to accommodate your meeting. Finding a slot long enough to book 15 minutes before would be near unheard of.

Then there's the perception thing. 20 people twiddling their thumbs while a meeting is set up is totally acceptable, but a single person monopolising a meeting room just to mess about with a laptop? Rude.

We're pretty impressed with our surface hub. As others have said, it "just works". The twin cameras are pretty good at picking up who's speaking and following them if they move around, and even though it's really not doing anything spectacular, it does it well and has that all-important "fancy new technology" feel that exec's love.

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