that video was hilarious. Microsoft really outdid themselves this time. And what was with the weird dimensions of the video player?
Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
221–230 of 697 posts
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the x86 one, sure. On the ARM one, no. OEMs are not allowed to enable user key enrollment on ARM devices.
Um, not necessarily with UFEI and firmware locking. I'd say until someone gets their hands on one, that it's a big unknown.
The UEFI spec calls for allowing user enrollment of keys, or at the very least disabling the checks. It can be done, this has been discussed to death here already.
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/12368.html
edit: recoiledsnake makes an interesting point above.
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 wa…
On the other hand, nearly ever doctor or professional I've seen using a tablet was using a Thinkpad with a pen rather than an iPad with their finger. Screwing around with iTunes and doing work are two completely separate use cases, and it seems that Microsoft is more interested in "the Enterprise" than Apple is. So with that in mind, they're trying to accommodate all use cases. (I did have one doctor that insisted on…
My comment is a question for greedo, couldn't reply to him directly:
Just curious, was this the Miami Children's Hospital? I actually built their whole check-in on the iPad experience in their hospital :)
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#224So 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…
I don't think MS is going after MBA. sure, keyboard may be nicer than bt keyboard for ipad, but that doesn't make it a laptop replacement. the os -- windows rt -- may be as restrictive as ipad is, quite different from the windows for desktop. There is nothing inspiring in this product, at least they didn't answer a question: is there something new we can do with this tablet?
You're making a bunch of key mistakes there:
a) Only the ARM version is running Windows RT. The Intel version I wrote about is using "Windows 8 Pro", which contains the regular Windows desktop.
b) A BT keyboard for the iPad is something you need to select separately, and schlepp around inconveniently. A cover goes together with the device. Stuff like this matters.
As for whether it's doing anything new, dunno. The thing is that with products like this, it's a matter of degrees and refinement - at some point you cross a threshold and a concept works. That's why the iPad works, but Tablet PCs didn't.
The product most similar to the Intel-powered Surfcace + Touch Cover is the Android Transformer Prime with the optional keyboard dock. But the keyboard dock isn't as svelte as the Touch Cover, and Android doesn't have the application base of desktop Windows when used as a laptop replacement. And yet the Prime garnered a lot of interest. Microsoft seems to be in a unique position to offer this refined version of the idea.
Will anyone want it? Time will tell.
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 wa…
On the other hand, nearly ever doctor or professional I've seen using a tablet was using a Thinkpad with a pen rather than an iPad with their finger. Screwing around with iTunes and doing work are two completely separate use cases, and it seems that Microsoft is more interested in "the Enterprise" than Apple is. So with that in mind, they're trying to accommodate all use cases. (I did have one doctor that insisted on…
For a great look at iPad use by doctors read this Wired article. "Canada’s Ottawa Hospital uses close to 3,000 iPads, and they’re popping up everywhere — in the lab coats of attending physicians, residents, and pharmacists. "
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/12/apple-ipad-doct...
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#226I generally hate Microsoft stuff (including Windows 8), but this is a refreshingly original and good design (personal opinion, of course.) Since Zune and XBox, Microsoft seem to have sharpened their game to the point where they are capable of delivering small, compact, and useful hardware which functions well. Some people mocked the Microsoft Mouse in the initial stages of the presentation, but come to think of it, most people I know prefer Microsoft's ergonomic laptop mice to Apple's Mighty Mouse, which, quite frankly, is rubbish.
Priced at the right point, this could take aim at a number of different devices, which it seems to fit at the smooth spot between:
- Stylus-capable tablets you can actually write on (IBM x series)
- Small media-capable tablets like the iPad/Kindle Fire (for consuming eBooks, media and the Web).
- eBook readers like the standard Kindle. I don't know what digital Ink capable means, but if it goes any way towards making eBooks more readable than they are on the Fire/iPad, consumers will buy this device just so they don't have to buy different things for watching videos and reading books with lesser eyestrain.
I bet that both this and the Lumia and other Windows phones are going to be massive in markets like India, which know Microsoft and Nokia well, and have never seen much of Apple tech.
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#227Microsoft has a big event, announces new hardware and doesn’t announce price or availability?
I hope I'm wrong, but not mentioning a price says to me that they know they won't be able to match the entry-level iPad $500 price point.
I'm not sure they can. They don't have the supply chain advantages that Apple has developed over the last five years, they won't have the volume to drive component prices down, and unless this is really a reference design that OEMs will be producing and distributing, they'll irritate the beejeezus out of their partners.
I don't blame them for trying to vertically integrate, especially after seeing what it has done for Apple. But I think they're too late to the party.
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#228Just 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?
>Question I want to know is, "can you develop" applications for the tablet, on the tablet? Yes, on the Intel version, no on the RT tablet.
So they're releasing two versions that look much the same, but one of them can run all of your existing (x86) applications, and one of them can't? That sounds like confusion waiting to happen.
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#229While a horrible launch approach (no price, no availability, no info on cpu or ram) I will be keeping my eye on this, and looking for a chance to test drive in a brick/mortar. This could become an amazing travel device, but not holding my breath.
I don't buy the complaint about CPU or RAM - featuring specs is not the way things are done anymore.
Who said?
Assuming that Apple and the iPad is "the way things are done these days", then there's plenty of in depth specs available: http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
Exact pixel resolution and ppi of the screen.
Number of CPU cores and the precise CPU model.
Exact listing of wireless protocols and bands supported.
Megapixel counts of the cameras and video recording format limits.
It would be nice to have even this data for the Surface.
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the other hand, nearly ever doctor or professional I've seen using a tablet was using a Thinkpad with a pen rather than an iPad with their finger. Screwing around with iTunes and doing work are two completely separate use cases, and it seems that Microsoft is more interested in "the Enterprise" than Apple is. So with that in mind, they're trying to accommodate all use cases. (I did have one doctor that insisted on…
My anectdata trumps yours. I took my daughter to the pediatrician yesterday, and the entire practice was equipped with iPads.
-tejaswiy
No, I'm in the Midwest, far from the sea. Unless you consider cornfields a sea of sorts.