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Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

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Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#141

Post by ConstantineXVI »

msbarnett wrote: post #109
aswanson wrote: post #61

Microsoft had the touch-surface interface back like a year before the iphone came out. But they rolled it out as a $10000 restuarant/menu interface instead of a computing/consumer device one. Classic good tech/bad customer targeting failure. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2007/may07/05-29ms...

That Surface, the table thing, was based on multiple IR cameras tracking finger interactions. It was never miniaturizable to a portable device. Not good tech, wrong market -- totally different tech, niche market. (also it debuted 5 months after the original iPhone, for whatever that's worth)

I believe the current round of e-readers actually use IR-based touch sensors. Still wouldn't compete on a phone for marketing reasons (thanks to the need for a sunken-in screen), but definitely shrinkable.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#142

Post by aik »

SpikeDad wrote: post #73

How'd this get to #1 post so fast?

Are you suggesting this isn't newsworthy?

The company behind the most used OS by the mass market on the planet is announcing their own hardware for the next version of their OS. Their own hardware for their own OS is something they haven't done in their ~30 year history. How is this not major news?

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#143

Post by InclinedPlane »

bootload wrote: post #132

Just noticed from the Win8Pro version, "Pen with Palm Block" a nice innovation Apple hasn't bothered with yet. Question I want to know is, "can you develop" applications for the tablet, on the tablet?

The answer has to be yes, at least for the intel version. It runs full Windows 8 Pro on an x64 cpu. There's no reason you won't be able to fire up Visual Studio on that sucker (other than perhaps performance considerations).

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#144

Post by Samuel_Michon »

kulkarnic wrote: post #122
sho_hn wrote: post #83

So they're not just going after the iPad, they're also going after the MacBook Air: The Intel version + Touch Cover was repeatedly shown with the regular desktop and apps on it, and generally spun as a sort of light laptop. Ambitious, and finally makes sense of their Metro/desktop combo OS strategy to a degree. The hardware to go along with it was a missing puzzle piece, and I guess shows just how important it can be…

Pen+touch+type seems like a great idea. It is something no other manufacturer has tried to do. I think the devil will be in the details, but this sure is interesting, because Apple's strategy is "people should buy multiple devices-- iPad, Macbook Air, Mac Pro...". MSFT wants one device that is a lot more versatile.

Pen+touch+type seems like a great idea. It is something no other manufacturer has tried to do.

Apple Newton MessagePad, 1993. It had a stylus, handwriting recognition, you could use it with just your fingertips, and you could connect an external keyboard.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/atow/4314242537/

That was almost twenty years a go. Newton was a very expensive experiment for Apple, and they have learned the hard way that styluses are not the way to go.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#147

Post by uvTwitch »

fishbacon wrote: post #65
xelipe wrote: post #34

Does anyone know the estimated retail price for it?

Probably in the iPad range, I can't imagine a successful tablet being more expensive than the iPad.

I'd expect to see at least the pro variant in the ipad-laptop price range, since it fills the role of both a laptop and a tablet.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#149

Post by kpozin »

mattiask wrote: post #102
alaskamiller wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it makes you feel better, ClearType was a brand Microsoft has used since the late 90's/early 00's. I know it as some weird pixel display thing designed to make text look sharper in WinXP. But, it was a hidden option that required third-party software to reveal to me. In Microsoft's world, they assume themselves to be the sun and thereby everything revolves around them and their cheesy need to synergize jargony thi…

Thats what made it so funny. I can see the Microsoft meeting: -Hey so everyone talking about this Retina thing how are we going to compete? -Let's make up our own word! Do we have anything lying around we can use? -Developer: Well, we have this ClearType thing but it's really more about software... -Marketing Guy: Software Hardware, what's the difference. ClearType Display it is! -Developer: I quit

They've also co-opted the five-year-old "Surface" trademark, which is now called PixelSense: http://www.pixelsense.com

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#150

Post by zacharycohn »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #64
bosch wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean how like Apple was so original with an MP3 player?

You mean a compact music player with a 2.5" HDD, room for 5GB of music, with 20 minutes of skip protection, a FireWire port for 50MB per second transfer, a click wheel for navigation, and a user friendly interface? Yes, that was pretty novel in 2002.

I had an Archos before the iPod came out. A tiny bit bigger than the iPod would be, but a 30gb hard drive, usb 2.0, and a much better way to find music than a wheel.
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