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Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

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Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#601

Post by spiralpolitik »

s_henry_paulson wrote: post #580
Shivetya wrote: post #559

One word : Fail. They have gotten better at presentation, but they missed one key point of Apple presentations. Apple has learned that "Ships Today" is as important as the technology being sold. So who cares what it CAN do, its not available now. Its not even available tomorrow, its available soon. All they did was give Apple a bigger opportunity to undercut their buzz.

If you're marketing only to consumers. Corporations who tend to purchase this sort of thing typically plan their purchasing months in advance. I can almost guarantee many companies who might have been thinking about laptop purchases are going to wait a few months. Also the release date for the device is tied to Windows 8, which is looking like October, and then the pro version will follow 3 months after. Since produc…

Two issues:

Firstly most corporations are just finishing up their multi-year Windows 7 rollouts so will probably be sitting out Windows 8. Given that corporate IT likes to do evaluations, certifications and such you are probably looking at least 12-18 months from now before any of these tablets are deployed on a large scale.

Secondly a lot of corporations are scaling back from providing anything more than the basic desktop or laptop and embracing BYOD for everything else. Even if its a knock out product its going to be difficult to justify spending money to roll it out especially given the other potential upgrades required (new monitors etc).

If they had announced and launched this 2 years ago I think a lot of corporations would have sat up and taken note. Announcing it now and with it not shipping for up to six months it's too little too late.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#602

Post by rglover »

noamsml wrote: post #428
rglover wrote: post #259

How you can tell they don't get it in one sentence (tucked in the bottom right corner): "Images are design renderings and not photographs."

Oh come on. That is possibly the most absurd criticism I've ever heard. They "don't get it" because their marketing team used a design rendering instead of a photograph? Clearly, a product shouldn't be judged on features, user experience, price, reliability, performance, or potential for changing the market. It should be judged on whether the little glossy pictures on the website were photos that were 'shopped until…

It's not absurd. It's premature on their behalf. What was preventing them from waiting until they had a physical prototype to show off? Nothing. In this light, it looks like an idea that may exist, not something consumers can actually get their hands on. Further, no, it should be judged on more than just the pictures. I fully agree with all of the others comments that elicit disappointment for a lack of feature/spec lists and pricing. The whole thing is botched.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#603

Post by batista »

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…

>I don't understand the "OMG MICROSOFT MADE A TABLET IT IS CLEARLY COPYING THE IPAD" reaction Microsoft's getting here.

No, it's merely another try to bite into its market. Microsoft had tablets before the iPad too, but not like that.

Yes, it's very similar to the iPad in many ways. But other than some of the marketing, it doesn't seem to fall any closer to Apple than any of the Android tablets we've been seeing for the last year.

That's because those are already too close.

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.

Ahead of what curve?

They FINALLY have a me-too mobile phone platform, but with horrible market reach, and they are updating their OS into an old (Windows)/new(Metro) mixed UI monstrosity, generally met with "Metro is kinda nice, but what where they thinking?" reviews.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#604

Post by prezjordan »

steverb wrote: post #592
prezjordan wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A+ for following through, thank you. I wish my experience weren't so sour.

And here I was, all prepared to think bad thoughts in your direction and you have to go and be all reasonable. What has the internet come to?

This isn't r/technology ;)

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#605

Post by _mayo »

tmzt wrote: post #449
dsrguru wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like the main advantage of the Surface will be Windows 8's ability to be used both as a mobile OS and as a desktop OS. In your case, Android doesn't let you run unported Linux programs and Debian, if you booted into it, wouldn't support touching the screen. If the Linux kernel supported the Transformer Prime's touchscreen, and if a touchable lightweight window manager were designed for mobile use, and if the…

Guys, it needs a lot of work to compile, but I ported X as an android app a couple of years back intended for this use case: github.com/tmzt/androix

Wow, this is awesome. How well does it work?

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#606

Post by roc »

krashidov wrote: post #277
spiralpolitik wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the big takeaway from this. Microsoft knows that Windows 8 has to succeed. Clearly it does not trust Dell, HP, Lenovo et al to build machines that shows the OS in its best light to help it succeed. So long and thanks for all the fish OEMs. Right now Meg Whitman is probably regretting deep sixing WebOS.

"Clearly it does not trust Dell, HP, Lenovo et al to build machines that shows the OS in its best light to help it succeed." Who could blame them? Third party laptop vendors have been manufacturing crap for the last decade. The only exception is the thinkpad line(I own one), which mainstream consumers see as ugly. Hardware wise, every other laptop manufacturer has done little to impress or innovate, they're all about…

> "boy was the Original Xbox a disaster with the RROD."

The original Xbox, the one the MS bureaucracy left alone, was as solid as any other consumer electronics device. The Xbox 360, the one the MS bureaucracy pushed through manufacturing despite known problems solely so they could 'beat' Sony to market, was the disaster.

And that raises an unfortunate concern: did the MS bureaucracy rush this out to 'beat' the heavily-rumored first-party Google tablet?

Because user-acceptance of the schizophrenic OS may still be an open question, but it's not going to be remotely answered if this thing shows up with build problems.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#607

Post by freehunter »

grecy wrote: post #369
flyt wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Xbox is a good product.

If you ignore the RROD

In which the return was handled pretty well. It was a fairly painless procedure when I turned mine in, call them up, spend 5 minutes on the phone, they send you a box with free shipping and another one is dispatched to you as soon as they receive the one you sent. They then redesigned it to prevent the issue happening again.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#609

Post by nitid_name »

abrahamsen wrote: post #548
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…

This is Microsoft's third or fourth attempt on a tablet PC, the earlier attempts all pre-date Apple's creation of the market. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_for_Pen_Computing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XP_Tablet_PC_Edition#Tablet_PC_... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_PC

I had an HTC Windows Mobile phone and a Gateway XP Tablet with a Wacom screen. Other than being bulky, they were great devices.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#610

Post by nitid_name »

masklinn wrote: post #463
stcredzero wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every app that has been run in the "simulator" has been compiled on x86. The simulator is not one. It's really a cross-compiling trick.

> The simulator is not one. It's really a cross-compiling trick. Uh? No, that's the exact opposite, the simulator is exactly a simulator. What it's not is an emulator : it does not emulate an ARM device, it simulates an iPhone by running iOS/x86.

Possibly a naive question: what's the difference between a simulator and an emulator?

Presumably an emulator copies the actual instruction set, while a simulator... only pretends to copy the instruction set?

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