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Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

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Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#281

Post by hrktb »

sho_hn wrote: post #250
mfarris wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPad doesn't come with a BT keyboard, but there are quite a few keyboard/cover combos available. It's not something that you have to "schlepp around inconveniently": http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31747_7-20091329-243/keyboardin...

But these all look rather clunky and unattractive, and the point about needing to select among them still stands. They'll always be niche accessoires for that reason. The Touch Cover is a sanctioned, obvious choice. It's simple to grok. The iPad doesn't have that yet. It doesn't even matter if the clunky-looking ones perform better, or serve an edge case better. This is Microsoft learning from Apple. What you're doin…

Looking the other way round, any BT accessory created in your language/preference works with the iPad. I'm not holding my breath to see Microsoft covering every keyboard layout flavor existing around the world at launch of the surface.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#282

Post by notatoad »

balloot wrote: post #173
IanDrake wrote: post #155

My client has started outfitting their sales reps with ipads complete with covers that double as a stand. After a few weeks, they wanted keyboards, after keyboards they wanted a stylus. Personally, I think MS nailed it. This could be just a tablet to some people, but it can be a whole lot more to the enterprise. Now to see the pricing...

So your client gave its its sales reps iPads when they needed laptops? :)

Sounds like it. Which is exactly what microsoft is going to salve here: users demand iPads, no matter what it is they actually need. I'm sure IT didn't just decide that the sales reps all should have iPads, the reps got iPads because that's what they asked for. Microsoft has a product here that does what people need, while actually possibly being what people want as well.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#283

Post by Maascamp »

ameyamk wrote: post #252

After reading several reviews, and looking at MS Surface website, I am still not clear what this is. Is it going to run full featured Windows OS? Whats the price point going to be? Is 10.2 inch keyboard really going to make it possible for me to type things fast? (Remember those notebook keyboards? I could not really type on it). Is Microsoft going to build hardware for this? If no, who is building it? When is it goi…

If you read "several reviews" and still don't know that it will run Windows 8 then you have issues beyond what tablet to buy next.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#284

Post by greedo »

IanDrake wrote: post #231
balloot wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your client gave its its sales reps iPads when they needed laptops? :)

No, they had laptops. The problem that Microsoft will solve is that people want to have a low powered device that can be a laptop sometimes and a tablet other times.

So these people want to have a low powered laptop? A Netbook? With a confusing split-brain interface?

It's not about how powerful the hardware is, but how powerful and responsive the applications are. If they try to emulate a full blown Windows desktop on a low powered device, then the buyer has the worst of both worlds.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#285

Post by photon137 »

flatline3 wrote: post #265
photon137 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because usually there is a browser-based layer which runs that HTML/JavaScript. Here it is Metro UI (via HTML5) powered using JavaScript (running natively on Windows) - equivalent to a C++ native app with a Metro UI.

I don't really understand why this provides a better environment for producing top-quality media applications over the platforms on the market today.

It doesn't - it provides a perfectly equivalent platform.

In all cases, it will be the codecs registered with the OS that would be used - so the quality of the media cannot be better/worse.

Where this differs is from a developer perspective - you don't have to learn a non-standard UI API (XAML/WinForms/MFC/COM/ATL/Qt/Gtk/Swing/awt/whatever) or a language you're not familiar with (C#/C++/Java - pick any). But you can be sure that the experience will be precisely the same - no API hacks to achieve something specific, nothing at all.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#286

Post by NormM »

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…

This would have been great a couple of years ago, but it's too late to bring out something that's almost as good as an iPad, but without the momentum or ecosystem. This was clearly designed by people who still don't understand why the iPad has been such a big success, and think the world is just waiting for an iPad running Windows. This is a desperation move, like the Zune, and will have the same effect on third party tablet hardware partners.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#287

Post by objclxt »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #174
galenward wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy the complaint about CPU or RAM - featuring specs is not the way things are done anymore.

Waving shiny gadgets in the air without announcing price and (imminent) availabiilty is also not the way things are done anymore. And we do have Apple to thank for that.

Exactly - I'm trying to think of a recent Apple product launch where they didn't give the price up-front. Both the iPad and the iPhone, which were announced several months before they were launched, were given prices at the keynotes.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#288

Post by msg »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #152
endtime wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you have a very short lap, why can't you do this? + + |ta| |kb| ---- Where the +s are your knees, "ta" is tablet, "kb" is keyboard, and the ---- is your waist.

I have no idea what that diagram is trying to convey.

It is a bird's eye view of a human holding a laptop in an armchair, said laptop composed of a touchscreen docked into a keyboard/case apparatus thusly.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#289

Post by stcredzero »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #191
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #144

Earlier 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…

That was an era of different technology. Stylus alone (resistive touch) is not a good general purpose input system but works really well for inputting hand writing or drawing. Capacitive touch lacks fine resolution so it's not good for drawing but it's fantastic for UI because it supports multi-touch. Today we don't have to be shackled by the technological limits that held the Newton back. The Surface has both types…

Wile E. Coyote makes for an interesting roll model, considering that he's not round at all, but his body does seem to be able to adapt to a rolling mode when enough force is applied.

Also, he is a SU-per Geeen-ius!

I agree, that a good stylus would be a good addition to a tablet. A crappy stylus is worthless, though. It has to be a good one.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#290

Post by untog »

NormM wrote: post #286
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…

This would have been great a couple of years ago, but it's too late to bring out something that's almost as good as an iPad, but without the momentum or ecosystem. This was clearly designed by people who still don't understand why the iPad has been such a big success, and think the world is just waiting for an iPad running Windows. This is a desperation move, like the Zune, and will have the same effect on third part…

but it's too late to bring out something that's almost as good as an iPad, but without the momentum or ecosystem

Are you suggesting that Windows doesn't have an ecosystem?

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