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Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

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Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#631

Post by glhaynes »

ConstantineXVI wrote: post #175
endtime wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you have a very short lap, why can't you do this? + + |ta| |kb| ---- Where the +s are your knees, "ta" is tablet, "kb" is keyboard, and the ---- is your waist.

There's no solid hinge to keep the screen at a comfortable angle. Even with the kickstand, if you move your knees, the kickstand falls out of place.

It's astonishing to me how little discussion there has been of this. One of the primary places people use a laptop is, well, in their lap, and this doesn't look to be usable for that. I can't imagine that not being hugely frustrating.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#632

Post by mkr-hn »

kailashbadu wrote: post #417
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

All that experiment proved is early 90s was not a right time for technology like Newton. Nothing more.

I'm sure someone very early in human civilization thought fire was unviable because you could only get it from lightning. Who's going to go out in a thunderstorm to secure a fire before the rain puts it out? It'll never catch on.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#633

Post by dpark »

smashing wrote: post #556
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…

Microsoft always leaves the specific details to the OEM, such as hard drive capacity, screen resolution, hardware components, etc. They may have an increasingly more advanced set within the "Minimum Specs Required", but nevertheless they only provide the licensed OS to the Hardware OEM.

This is a device that Microsoft is building (well, contracting to build undoubtedly) and selling with their own name on it. They are the OEM here, and they'll be setting 100% of the hardware specs.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#634

Post by noamsml »

rglover wrote: post #602
noamsml wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

They showed off a working physical prototype at the press conference.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#635

Post by pooriaazimi »

sjwright wrote: post #625
nitid_name wrote: post #610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

An emulator does exactly as it says: it emulates. It creates an environment that appears to a running program to be identical to the real thing. This is done by emulating the hardware (e.g. BSNES), emulating the runtime environment for a native binary (e.g. VMware), or most commonly, a mixture of both. A simulator -- at least in the world of Apple iOS development -- does not attempt to emulate iOS hardware, or even t…

Thanks a lot for bringing up this subject. I feel unimaginably ashamed for never considering iOS Simulator was in fact, as the name might suggest, a simulator!

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#636

Post by nas »

prezjordan wrote: post #87
evo_9 wrote: post #66

This is seriously one of the most heavy handed, almost laughable attempts at being hip and cool I've ever seen. I thought it was a parody for a second. Honestly could they scream any louder 'We are absolutely terrified of Apple. Please love us again.'

The fields on their specs page are killer. ‎"OS, Light, Thin, Clear, Energized, Connected, Productive, Practical, Configurable" Fire your marketing department. All of it.

I thought you were kidding. Talk about cheesy.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#638

Post by Too »

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…

Finally makes sense? The "missing" puzzle piece was just a matter of time. Laptops are getting thinner and tablets are getting faster, now they are about to blend into one and microsoft was brave enough to make the change in software before the hardware was done.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#639

Post by dpark »

dutchbrit wrote: post #495

Pros: Keyboard as cover USB Cons: Thicker (and probably heavier) than the iPad I have to say, Windows 8 is looking pretty good for touchscreen devices.

The RT (ARM) version is slightly thinner than the iPad. 9.3mm vs the iPad's 9.4mm. It is about 25g heavier, though.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#640

Post by [deleted] »

roc wrote: post #615
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…

It's pretty obvious where that reaction is coming from. As recently as last year Microsoft was singing the praises of being able to kinda-sorta-use desktop software on a tablet and pushing the notion that things without desktop operating systems were 'consumption' devices, at best. So, yes, their sudden reversal on what people want in a tablet is worth noting and easily justifies the same kind of quips and barbs that…

[deleted]
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