Microsoft announces dual-screen Surface Neo • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft announces dual-screen Surface Neo

#31

Post by smush » Wed, Oct 02, 2019, 5:32 PM UTC

DerJacques wrote: post #7

When the Courier concept was first shown, I almost couldn't contain my excitement. Now, ten years later, it feels like most challenges the Courier (and now the Surface Neo) tried to solve have been solved by bigger screens, better multitasking and great pencil support. New note taking and productivity apps benefit from the big screen and fluid resizing of apps that the iPad Pro and similar tablets provide. The separa…

I'd buy a Courier as shown in that video right now, and all it is is a OneNote appliance.

I love the idea of being able to write new form-factor-sensitive apps as needed for a tiled window manager that resizes to accomodate a keyboard, or a ZUI on one screen, CLI on the other, or the traditional browser in one screen, terminal and VS in the other.

IFF they don't lock this down so much with Windows Lite/Windows 10 X (apparently 10 is now glued to the word Windows no matter what), Centaurus / Surface Neo has the potential to be an excellent device.

Edit: and am I glad it wasn't cancelled, not sure if I want to handle another Booklet PC being cancelled on me after getting excited about it.

Re: Microsoft announces dual-screen Surface Neo

#32

Post by WorldMaker » Wed, Oct 02, 2019, 6:15 PM UTC

Donald wrote: post #16

Will be interesting to see Microsoft return to the smart phone market. Satya Nadella's organization is much more geared towards catering products towards their demand signal instead of repeating Ballmer's blunder of always acquiescing to the Windows fiefdom.

Microsoft is a software company first, and is supposed to only be in hardware for "aspirational" reasons. It doesn't seem clear what the Duo will encourage (Android) OEMs to "aspire" to, and at least from the announcements so far doesn't seem to give much reason for software innovations either. As a return to the smart phone market, it is hugely underwhelming for Microsoft's stated goals.

Re: Microsoft announces dual-screen Surface Neo

#33

Post by WorldMaker » Wed, Oct 02, 2019, 6:17 PM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #2

This is huge... but the biggest thing remains if the Windows platform will be ready to meet this hardware. It's painfully obvious that Andromeda and Centaurus and all this hardware has been there and solid, but that Windows' true universal platform structure hasn't been good enough to meet it.

Presumably why fast-track Windows Insiders have been testing 20H1 for months already, if most of the platform guts have to go out in 20H1 for these devices to meet shipping goals.

Re: Microsoft announces dual-screen Surface Neo

#34

Post by ousta » Wed, Oct 02, 2019, 6:52 PM UTC

zyang wrote: post #13

Hardware aside, I’m not a fan of the delivery. The presenter comes across as fake humble and insincere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fssZICsV4Rg have a look at this. best marketing feature video in years for a product.

Re: Microsoft announces dual-screen Surface Neo

#35

Post by ocdtrekkie » Wed, Oct 02, 2019, 7:28 PM UTC

WorldMaker wrote: post #33

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #2

This is huge... but the biggest thing remains if the Windows platform will be ready to meet this hardware. It's painfully obvious that Andromeda and Centaurus and all this hardware has been there and solid, but that Windows' true universal platform structure hasn't been good enough to meet it.

Presumably why fast-track Windows Insiders have been testing 20H1 for months already, if most of the platform guts have to go out in 20H1 for these devices to meet shipping goals.

20H1 of Windows 10 is essentially a different operating system than Windows 10X. My understanding is that the 20H1 focus is around standardizing what's running on Azure with what's running on desktops.

Re: Microsoft announces dual-screen Surface Neo

#36

Post by WorldMaker » Wed, Oct 02, 2019, 8:18 PM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #35

WorldMaker wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably why fast-track Windows Insiders have been testing 20H1 for months already, if most of the platform guts have to go out in 20H1 for these devices to meet shipping goals.

20H1 of Windows 10 is essentially a different operating system than Windows 10X. My understanding is that the 20H1 focus is around standardizing what's running on Azure with what's running on desktops.

I think it behooves Microsoft today to brand 10X as a "different operating system", but it's not like it is an entirely independent fork. Some of the same "OneCore" improvements Azure needs on the one side are likely what 10X needs, so 20H1 can be (and probably is) for testing both. Microsoft can test two things.

Re: Microsoft announces dual-screen Surface Neo

#37

Post by lostmsu » Wed, Oct 02, 2019, 8:47 PM UTC

basch wrote: post #25

illnewsthat wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This device (Surface Neo) does not have a partnership with Google. It's a Microsoft device running a flavor of Windows. The other device they announced (Surface Duo) is Microsoft hardware running Google software (Android). Makes sense, as it's really the only way to get into the phone market and still have an app ecosystem.

its a very Microsoft thing to do to name a Microsoft product built on (aka extending) a Google product after a different unrelated Google Product. If my friend has a Microsoft Surface Duo and I say "open your Duo" do I mean to unfold the phone, or open the google video calling app?

Somebody is actually using Duo the chat outside Google?

Re: Microsoft announces dual-screen Surface Neo

#38

Post by libso » Wed, Oct 02, 2019, 8:53 PM UTC

basch wrote: post #25

illnewsthat wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This device (Surface Neo) does not have a partnership with Google. It's a Microsoft device running a flavor of Windows. The other device they announced (Surface Duo) is Microsoft hardware running Google software (Android). Makes sense, as it's really the only way to get into the phone market and still have an app ecosystem.

its a very Microsoft thing to do to name a Microsoft product built on (aka extending) a Google product after a different unrelated Google Product. If my friend has a Microsoft Surface Duo and I say "open your Duo" do I mean to unfold the phone, or open the google video calling app?

# of users of Duo calling app is small and tending to zero. It is laughable to think that MS would name it Duo for this negligible benefit.

Re: Microsoft announces dual-screen Surface Neo

#39

Post by Marsymars » Wed, Oct 02, 2019, 11:08 PM UTC

lostmsu wrote: post #37

basch wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its a very Microsoft thing to do to name a Microsoft product built on (aka extending) a Google product after a different unrelated Google Product. If my friend has a Microsoft Surface Duo and I say "open your Duo" do I mean to unfold the phone, or open the google video calling app?

Somebody is actually using Duo the chat outside Google?

I recently started using it. It's nice because it comes with E2E encryption and is usable on desktop. Alternatives all have various limitations: Skype (no E2E encryption), Signal (no calls on PCs), iMessage (only usable for Apple users), Wire (requires additional program installation and account creation).

Re: Microsoft announces dual-screen Surface Neo

#40

Post by pthatcherg » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:38 AM UTC

Marsymars wrote: post #39

lostmsu wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somebody is actually using Duo the chat outside Google?

I recently started using it. It's nice because it comes with E2E encryption and is usable on desktop. Alternatives all have various limitations: Skype (no E2E encryption), Signal (no calls on PCs), iMessage (only usable for Apple users), Wire (requires additional program installation and account creation).

I haven't used the desktop Signal app, but there appears to be one:

https://signal.org/download/