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Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

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Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#561

Post by simonh »

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…

How can a product that hasn't shipped yet be 'ahead of the curve'? I have an iPad in my bag right now. Microsoft aren't even on the curve yet.

Apple also started blending elements of the iOS UI into OS X, such as multi-touch gestures over a year ago. Maybe MS will leapfrog them. Surface does look interesting, I'm not discounting it, but we'll have to see where Apple and Microsoft stand relative to each other when Surface actually ships.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#562

Post by rsynnott »

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…

> They're absolutely ahead of the curve with the blending of mobile and desktop operating systems

They probably are, yes. It's still far from clear that that's something that anyone wants.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#563

Post by rsynnott »

someperson wrote: post #435
sjwright wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Once Apple can get iOS working well on x86 I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that iOS already works well on x86 and has never not worked well on x86. After all, the core OS maintains ongoing heritage with an x86 OS, and every single app in the store has already been successfully compiled for x86...

> every single app in the store has already been successfully compiled for x86 Really!?

No, actually. There are a couple of third-party development tools for iOS which only compile to ARM (and which therefore can't run in the iOS simulator), notably Adobe Air for mobile, and that Delphi for iOS thing. 99.999%, though; anything written in Xcode, and anything written with the majority of third-party tools, has been run in the simulator.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#564

Post by Kiro »

Jacqued wrote: post #530
mrich wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not call the Galaxy SIII an awful product. According to many reviews it is the best smartphone available on the market.

According to yet more reports the HTC One X actually holds this title. In part, due to a level in industrial design that samsung has yet to achieve. Disclosure : I own a One X. I waited for the SIII announcement but the minute I saw the SIII i ordered my One X.

Nope, the S3 is clearly the winner according to most reports.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#565

Post by pvidler »

mtgx wrote: post #457
lotharbot wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest takeaway from the announcement was that this was a very Microsoft-like approach to the tablet market, and I mean that in a good way. When I think of an iPad, I think of something that's a natural progression from the iPod and iPhone, running bigger and better versions of the apps you can get from the Apple walled garden. It's a fantastic piece of hardware and a tight ecosystem. Microsoft isn't just trying…

The Ivy Bridge won't offer anywhere near the battery life of an ARM tablet, though. At best it will be half of that.

That's just battery life... wait until we see what the heat will be like! Seriously, even my Macbook Air gets hot under mild load -- the only reason I tolerate it is because it sits on a desk.

Fans and vents on a tablet... I just can't see that catching on for many people. The ARM model is more promising, but this competes much more closely with the iPad.

Also, the video was very funny with the pen input -- his palm interferes with the initial demo and 20 seconds later he's talking about their amazing palm rejection technology. Don't even get me started on the fact that none of the presenters seemed able to get the swipe-in-from-the-side gesture to work on the first try.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#566

Post by rsynnott »

dredmorbius wrote: post #105
kjhughes wrote: post #76

After 5 minutes of scanning their site, I still cannot find the display resolution of their offering, but I have found: "Coming Soon." "Images are design renderings and not photographs." "1, 2 Actual size and weight of the device may vary due to configuration and manufacturing process" Anyone find a better spec sheet than this one? http://www.microsoft.com/global/surface/en/us/renderingasset... Why can't Microsoft pr…

Vaporware. They're trying to pre-empt anyone for capturing the tablet/mobile space by rushing their design concept out before anyone else has a chance to produce product, and force everyone to ape Microsoft's claimed, rather than actual, featureset. Oh, wait, that was NT, 1992. Scratch all of that.

I do have to wonder if this is another HP Slate. Remember that?

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#567

Post by rsynnott »

ThomPete wrote: post #20

I think it's pretty safe to say that this is Microsoft going all in on the consumer market. 1. Video doesn't really show anything but it is admittedly well made. 2. You have to actually download the tech specs. 3. The tech specs have little meaning. (At first glance what is ClearType HD Display, some sort of Retina?) It's like they took the apple philosophy even further. Not sure how I feel about this but I guess now…

> At first glance what is ClearType HD Display, some sort of Retina?

They say "ClearType HD display" and "ClearType Full HD display". I'd take this to mean 720p and 1080p respectively, so a bit of a way off "retina" in the iPad context.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#568

Post by hrktb »

sho_hn wrote: post #297
hrktb wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 chal…

jeffgreco's reply addresses it, but just to clarify, I wasn't thinking about mirrored dvorak keyboards or stuff I don't even know exists. More things like Canadian qwerty or japanese JIS keyboards, that are main stream in each country but will need special effort for Microsoft to manufacture. The ipad avoids the problem entirerly.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#569

Post by lerouxb »

mtgx wrote: post #512
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…

Before the iPad, Microsoft was using the "PC interface", to the disadvantage of the tablets they were putting it on. Now they are doing the reverse: making a tablet interface to the disadvantage of the PC. The "all-in-one" interface for all types of devices and form factors will never work, because at best it's optimized only for one of them, and mediocre or poor for most of the others.

They could have so easily gotten around that by just calling it "Metro" and doing a clean break. Then just promise everyone that windows isn't going away and imply that there will/might still be a windows 8 which would be a continuation of windows as we all know it for PCs.

Then all the ARM devices (phones, tablets, etc) and also XBOX uses "Metro". Just Metro, no mentions of Windows. If people like it, THEN windows 8 could use parts of Metro or start to resemble it in a way. (In a manner similar to the "back to the mac" stuff in OSX Lion and Mountain Lion) If not, well they can still use windows for many years just like people stuck with XP and eventually there will be a windows 7+1 of some kind for them.

But by calling the phone OS windows phone 7 and by completely changing windows 8 people are in a panic. I can only imagine what their "enterprise" customers must be thinking.

Plus now the phone OS is "version 7" which coincides with the old pc-os style windows but it is the only thing actually using Metro and windows 8 has no mention of metro and is the only one that's new style.. so is 7 or 8 or 360 or 720 the number to associate with the new style? Should any number be associated with it? If not, then why _start_ the completely new phone OS at number 7? Why call the near complete break version 8? etc.

tl;dr: If they did a complete break and didn't call it Windows, then no one's first reaction would be "Jack of all trades, master of none."

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#570

Post by rudasn »

mattiask wrote: post #123
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…

"We heard you like tablets, so we took your tablet and made it a laptop so you can pretend it's a tablet while you're using Windows!"

I don't own any sort of tablet or ultrabook (eg. mac air) or e-reader (kindle) because I don't like throwing money around. What I want is:

- Read ebooks/pdfs - Browse the web - Work (a text editor and git)

Ideally I would also like to: - Download & watch videos/movies - Something to hook-up to my TV

There is nothing in the market that can do these things. I could get a Kindle for reading, an iPad for browsing the web, and an ultrabook for work. This device is something I would buy (assuming a reasonable price) but the one drawback I see is Windows. Maybe Windows nowadays is a lot better than before and maybe it'll give it a chance. It all depends on the pricing.

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