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Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

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Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#291

Post by tkahnoski »

greedo wrote: post #227
lazerwalker wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fo…

I came to the same thought about the supply chain at first, but Microsoft does sell hardware, the XBox (and I guess the Zune.) Certainly not the same as Apple, but they do have handle on it.

Given how a lot of OEMs are pumping Androids, Microsoft may just have to start hedging its bets.

(On a lighter note maybe we can start a red-ring of death meme).

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#292

Post by tempuser007 »

prezjordan wrote: post #263
tempuser007 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it a high quality PC or some overrated super hyped Apple workstation ? Cause on my 3 years old PC with a new SSD I just blink and I can start typing code. If it has no SSD .. it's not high enough :D. Ugly, bloated ??? Omg, youtube.com/watch?v=G1iaVD-B2IA

$2400 workstation laptop.

I just clicked again on a small project just to see the load time. I'm not bullsh*ting but it was up and ready in ~3 seconds.Quadcore 2.5Ghz on some 3 years old Asus MB with 4Gb RAM and a brand new SSD (Crucial m4 i can recommend).

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#294

Post by untog »

viggity wrote: post #273
kpozin wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

dafuq. I wondered what was going to happen to the original surface. pixelsense is an awful name.

It is, but no end-user is going to buy one of those giant devices. They're marketed to corporate customers, for whom PixelSense is probably just fine.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#295

Post by BrianLy »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #215
dannyr wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I'm very skeptical about this. They probably won't ship until the end of this year. HP & Microsoft announced the Windows Slate tablet back in 2010 & it never made it to market. http://gizmodo.com/5442200/hps-windows-7-slate-device-reveal...

Huh? I've used an HP slate, I have a friend who owns one, you can buy one right here: http://www.amazon.com/HP-Slate-500-8-9-Black/dp/B00465QM6Q

They are pretty terrible, and a dead end in terms of Windows 8 support based on my experience.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#297

Post by sho_hn »

hrktb wrote: post #281
sho_hn wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's just the edge case argument again, though. Obviously the iPad isn't a success mostly because it works great with your Siberian Dvorak BT keyboard.

Look, I'm not cheerleading Microsoft here: I'm a Linux desktop developer. If anything, I'm saying these things with a tinge of resignation (not about Microsoft specifically, but the way the market works - though I prefer to accept it as reality, and see it as a challenge).

Now, one thing that might be true: A sanctioned solution leaves less room for accessory makers, so that Siberian Dvorak keyboard may be more likely to be available for the iPad than the Surface, leaving the iPad as the obvious choice for Siberian Dvorak users.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#298

Post by Metrop0218 »

cryptozeus wrote: post #151
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…

Does the color of the windows and background changes to the color of the keyboard as soon as we attach it ? reply

Wow, that's a nice touch

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#299

Post by bobsil1 »

kpozin wrote: post #149
mattiask wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They turned .NET into damn near everything, and jam Windows in where it doesn't make sense (e.g. a tablet where apps run full-screen).

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#300

Post by greedo »

fluidcruft wrote: post #214
nilsbunger wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are letting Apple define what a tablet does, then adding "ps. it has a keyboard in cool colors". MSFT should be able to do better and show the kinds of things we can do with this that would get us excited.

Honestly (and I think I represent a certain segment here--the people that really are interested in a tablet but have to deal with Office and other Windows-shackled things) all they need to show is "Hey it's an iPod + Office so you can do your damn work sometimes without always lugging your laptop about". For the people that understand this, that's implied by the Windows logo. The closest I got to settling on an iPod/…

I wonder how large the market is for buyers with this sentiment. I believe that part of the appeal of the iPad (and iOS) is that it's not Windows on a tablet, but instead, a more intuitive computing experience.

One of the executives in my company was using Citrix on his iPad. He kept expecting the Citrix app to be, well, more app like. Instead he was stuck using a Windows application published by our Citrix farm on a touch interface. It wasn't a good experience, and now we're investigating converting a lot of our in house applications to iOS etc.

Now the Windows administrators? They're all over this type of thing, though they would never give up their workstations.

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