Microsoft's Concept Videos From 2000: Why Didn't Ballmer Build Any of It? • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft's Concept Videos From 2000: Why Didn't Ballmer Build Any of It?

#101

Post by mynameisvlad » Fri, Sep 13, 2013, 7:03 AM UTC

Maarten88 wrote: post #95

mynameisvlad wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> everything speech To be completely fair, Kinect Audio recognition is awesome.

You speak English, i'm sure. Another thing Microsoft has severely lost in the last decade is catering to the needs of customers outside the US. Case in point: Bing

Since we've just barely gotten English audio recognition at a good state (and I'm talking in general, not just Microsoft), there hardly should be any surprise that non-English recognition is where it is.

I don't see how "catering to the needs of customers outside the US" is related to "audio recognition" other than that one of them is a thing. If you didn't realize, Microsoft products are available in a dozen languages, and localization tests take a long amount of time as it is. As a company, it supports an incredibly large number of countries, more than almost all companies posted here on HN, and definitely just as much if not more than most in the world. Just because one or two products is hard to localize does not mean that Microsoft has "severely lost in the last decade to catering to the needs of customers outside the US".

Re: Microsoft's Concept Videos From 2000: Why Didn't Ballmer Build Any of It?

#102

Post by x0054 » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 7:49 PM UTC

x0054 wrote: post #93

sahaskatta wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I played with the Surface Pro for a week or two. I felt the display was actually one of the best ones I've seen. Especially considering the quality of the pen digitizer inside. Are you maybe referring to the lower-res display on the Surface RT? (I haven't played with that one much.)

Yep, the RT. Have not played with the Pro yet, I should stop by the local Windows store and take a look.

I wish the RT screen was as good as the pro. Played with it yesterday and it was great. Not as good as iPad, but so good that I think most people, including me, would not care. And I think the Windows 8 os is just marvelous, I just wish they would finish it. Right now it feels like beat still.

Re: Microsoft's Concept Videos From 2000: Why Didn't Ballmer Build Any of It?

#103

Post by sahaskatta » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 3:28 PM UTC

x0054 wrote: post #102

x0054 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, the RT. Have not played with the Pro yet, I should stop by the local Windows store and take a look.

I wish the RT screen was as good as the pro. Played with it yesterday and it was great. Not as good as iPad, but so good that I think most people, including me, would not care. And I think the Windows 8 os is just marvelous, I just wish they would finish it. Right now it feels like beat still.

In terms of PPI: -- Surface Pro is 207.82 -- iPad Retina is 264 -- Nexus 10 is 300

(The iPad Retina actually looks quite blurry to me for reading text after spending time with a Nexus 10.)

As for Windows 8. I've been using it on a laptop and have been pretty happy with it. I just upgraded to Windows 8.1 RTM and they've made tons of small refinements everywhere.

Re: Microsoft's Concept Videos From 2000: Why Didn't Ballmer Build Any of It?

#104

Post by Maarten88 » Sat, Sep 21, 2013, 1:20 AM UTC

mynameisvlad wrote: post #101

Maarten88 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You speak English, i'm sure. Another thing Microsoft has severely lost in the last decade is catering to the needs of customers outside the US. Case in point: Bing

Since we've just barely gotten English audio recognition at a good state (and I'm talking in general, not just Microsoft), there hardly should be any surprise that non-English recognition is where it is. I don't see how "catering to the needs of customers outside the US" is related to "audio recognition" other than that one of them is a thing. If you didn't realize, Microsoft products are available in a dozen languag…

I see that Microsoft can get their software translated. Yet that is very different from actually supporting a country.

Some examples of this:

I want podcast support in my Windows Phone. Because I live outside the US, I don't have it. I simply cannot understand why.

I want support for DVB-C Media in Windows, because that is the standard in my country. Because the US have other standards, my only option is using some half-baked korean crap receiver. I want to bet that the upcoming XBox One will not really work with TV in my country.

XBox Music is the new Music service from Microsoft. Guess how good the local music selection is in my country. How does Microsoft want to compete with Spotify here? Is this product even serious?

Bing is just no good outside the US. Yet it will be an important part of Windows 8.1, so I really wonder how this is gonna play out in my country when people start using it.