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Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

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Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#491

Post by mtkd »

josephcooney wrote: post #490
tylermenezes wrote: post #485

I don't understand the "OMG MICROSOFT MADE A TABLET IT IS CLEARLY COPYING THE IPAD" reaction Microsoft's getting here. They're absolutely ahead of the curve with the blending of mobile and desktop operating systems, something which I am extremely happy they are doing, and this is absolutely the logical design choices someone in that position would make. Yes, it's very similar to the iPad in many ways. But other than…

To say nothing of the fact that Microsoft have been doing tablet PCs since circa 2002.

I worked on a Fujitsu tablet running Microsoft Windows 3.1 in 1994

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#492

Post by jl6 »

tylermenezes wrote: post #485

I don't understand the "OMG MICROSOFT MADE A TABLET IT IS CLEARLY COPYING THE IPAD" reaction Microsoft's getting here. They're absolutely ahead of the curve with the blending of mobile and desktop operating systems, something which I am extremely happy they are doing, and this is absolutely the logical design choices someone in that position would make. Yes, it's very similar to the iPad in many ways. But other than…

Those early reports of the Galaxy S3 being lawyer-ugly were overhyped. I'm typing on one now and I find it quite sleek.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#493

Post by cubicle67 »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #478
jpxxx wrote: post #469

Shit website, shit marketing, and shit video aside, I'm seriously intrigued. Microsoft has five cards to play here: - REAL Windows (TM) and Massive Microsoft Developer Mindshare - Ports, ports, ports! - REAL Microsoft Office (TM) INCLUDED FREE on the low-end model - PEN AND KEYBOARD! - Billions of dollars in cash to burn making this happen And they have three huge challenges in front of them: - Windows 8 critical rec…

> Shit website, shit marketing, and shit video aside, I'm seriously intrigued Given the last statement, it appears the marketing has done something right. It is a 'coming soon' product. All it is a tab running windows 8 so making someone seriously intrigued is a marketing win. At this point they don't want to give you all the facts to make your purchase decision. They want to build interest and excitement. Personally…

Given the last statement, it appears the marketing has done something right

No, the engineers etc have done something right. His intrigue is despite the marketing effort, not because of it

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#494

Post by nosse »

joezydeco wrote: post #360
thfc06 wrote: post #221

that video was hilarious. Microsoft really outdid themselves this time. And what was with the weird dimensions of the video player?

Who cares!?! It's world's first dubstep tablet!

nah, I'm wating for the drum and bass remix...

edit: googled "dubstep tablet", first link http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-surface-tablet-on-video...

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#496

Post by forgottenpaswrd »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #144
kulkarnic wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wa…

"they have learned the hard way that styluses are not the way to go."

No, what they learned is that requiring an active matrix behind the screen consuming battery and weighting more(and adding $1000 per device in terms of licenses), is not the way to go.

But I'm pretty sure that Apple is considering it with other technologies(like the same touch tech they use today with hi res for stylus). Not as the main input, of course, but for drawing like you can do on paper.

This is the single most important thing I need on a tablet as an engineer-designer, drawing sketches on a tablet so I don't need paper.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#497

Post by geon »

sjwright wrote: post #426
technoslut wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always thought Apple was pretty clear in the direction they were headed when Jobs made his car and trucks analogy at All Things D. The iPad is meant for the 90% of current users as their main device. The PC is for the heavy lifting for those in fields such as audio, video and science. There may be a time where a tablet can meet these needs but I certainly don't think we're close yet.

> I certainly don't think we're close yet Perhaps not for the Hacker News audience. I'd assert that an iPad -- perhaps with a bluetooth keyboard -- is already enough computer for 70% of western world.

> Perhaps not for the Hacker News audience.

I'd say especially for the HN audience.

A lot of people around here live most of their lives in the terminal, using Vi and Git. They have no reason to work on a beefy machine, as long as they can access more hardware somewhere else. It could be a server in the closet, or "the cloud".

When I bought my first laptop and started doing webdev in 2001, I noticed that all I needed was enough power to play music, edit text and run a web/database server. It worked great with win2k WAMP on a P2 266 MHz, 96 MB, 4 GB. My much more powerful desktop was suddenly left powered off most of the time.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#498

Post by seclorum »

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.

I'm reminded of my old collection of Dauphin DTR-1's:

https://www.google.at/search?q=dauphin+dtr-1&um=1&hl...

We've come a long way since those days .. but then again, maybe its the same, just .. shinier.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#499

Post by jan_g »

huggyface wrote: post #385
jbigelow76 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just "who" is it you think they are trying to rush? Certainly not Apple, and aside from the Fire/Nook Tablet is their an Android tablet that hasn't been dead on arrival (800 dollar Xoom anyone)? If this was vaporware they were pushing in an attempt to get ahead of the market instead of playing catch up they would have put this out in 2010 instead of halfway through 2012. If they can price the thing realistically (aga…

is their an Android tablet that hasn't been dead on arrival There have been millions of Android tablets sold. In most product spaces that is an incredible success, and it's only relative to the astonishing success of the iPad could that be called "dead on arrival". And that was the rather terrible phase one. The incomplete Honeycomb, the rather terrible Tegra 2, and toothing pain hardware. I've noticed my online elec…

Correct. I can see here locally that many, many Android tablets are sold on regular basis. $100-$300 price range, manufacturers that I've never heard of (yarvik gotab, goclever, prestigio, archos, ...), marketed everywhere - even with flyers in mailboxes and so on. And many people buy them.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#500

Post by forgottenpaswrd »

ConstantineXVI wrote: post #368
InclinedPlane wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Being pedantic; the stylus used here (and in the Galaxy Note, etc) isn't working off a resistive screen, but an active digitizer (likely N-Trig or Wacom).

The time delay in Galaxy Note is unacceptable for Apple(and for me, I used it a lot and I hated it).

You could do a responsible program on a Nintendo DS with 40MHz. Lazy people.

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