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Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

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Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#661

Post by w33ble »

noveltyaccount wrote: post #242
w33ble wrote: post #209

The Windows button is oriented horizontally. That's an interesting choice. Is metro not really designed to be used on vertical orientation?

Both http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/windows/apps/hh46542... > Decide how to lay out your app in each view. Windows 8 supports landscape, portrait, snapped, and fill views. Users can put your app in any of these views at any time, and you want your app to look and work great in each one.

Yeah, I thought I read that it works both ways. This device is clearly meant to be used in a horizontal orientation though based on the ports, the cameras and the Windows button. I guess it's positioned as more of a laptop replacement than a tablet, so it kinda makes sense. It's an interesting choice though. I don't own any tablets, but I was under the impression that most people use them in a vertical orientation.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#662

Post by roc »

kooshball wrote: post #650
roc wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> People use tablets for what they're great at and desktop PCs for what they're great at. And no-one who's ever put their tablet down to use their laptop is looking at that Microsoft Surface tablet and saying "this will mean I don't have to put the tablet down for these tasks anymore". [4] I disagree. I see no reason why my mom wouldn't want a single computer to use on a couch for browsing, and on a desk with mouse/k…

Why would your mom need a desktop-side to the OS to do chat or photo editing?

Firstly, for anyone not already using at least prosumer photo-editing software, the latest iPad apps are preferred to desktop apps by everyone I've seen use them. So lightroom or photoshop users may not be satisfied, but most people looking to make a few standard adjustments are going to get the job done faster and easier by not putting that tablet down.

And for substantial amounts of text entry, sure, the keyboard is great. But you don't need traditional OSX/Windows style keyboard-mouse interfaces to handle a keyboard.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#663

Post by roc »

overgryphon wrote: post #641
roc wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

At home I use a macbook and an ipad. The ipad is a consumption device- it's great for playing a casual game, looking up a recipe, and better than kindle for reading pdf files. It isn't really usable for programming, writing documentation, or any real work (that I do). It doesn't replace my laptop, it just does some things in a more convenient way. Microsoft's Surface looks like (for me) it could replace both the ipad…

> "Microsoft's Surface looks like (for me) it could replace both the ipad and my macbook."

Things always have a way of looking like what we want them to, before we get a chance to see them. I know how it works; I spent a lot of time waiting, hoping and grumbling about Windows tablets.

And what I see here, is an ARM tablet that has a real shot as a tablet - provided the Windows side stays out of the way.

And a hand-waved x86 tablet that may or may not be notably improved over last year's Windows tablets.

From that, you seem to be hoping the best of the ARM tablet (size/battery/usability) is implicit in the x86 tablet or vice-versa (does the ARM tablet even allow keyboard/mouse style apps from third parties?).

And that's precisely what remains to be seen.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#664

Post by super_mario »

grecy wrote: post #658
286c8cb04bda wrote: post #630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you are: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD098ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY

How does one get torrented movies onto the iPad? How does one watch the movies? (which app?) (Genuine questions, I'm curious and don't have one)

You use a real computer to download the torrent. Then you use a real computer to transcode the movie for your iDumb device. Then you use real computer with iTunes to upload the transcoded movie to your iDumb device (you can skip this step and stream the movie to the iDumb device from your real computer which surprisingly is not called iAirPlay).

Either that or you purchase the movie in iTunes on your iDumb device and watch it there.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#666

Post by bicknergseng »

pcwalton wrote: post #204
bicknergseng wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HP went through 4 CEOs, bought and dismantled Palm for no reason and at great capital loss, announced and then rescinded their departure from the PC industry. It's well known HP doesn't know anything about anything. Agreed that OEMs should go away.

Why do you want them to go away? I think generally industry consolidation is a bad thing for consumers.

I don't think of it as consolidation... I think of it sorta in the way Joel describes consumer routers in his last post http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/06/because-everyone-st.... There's a lot I'm working out in my head about this, so let me spit out some points for you to consider:

- the increasing move to *aaS (look at OnLive, for example)

- the reports that MS wants to charge >$60 for Windows RT licenses even on - the difficulty companies like Google and MS have competing toe to toe with Apple's vertically integrated devices

- the existence of bloatware.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#667

Post by codemac »

weiran wrote: post #523
freehunter wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I need to set up at a desk then I'll just pull out my laptop. Then you're not in the target audience. And if it's not a full stroke keyboard then I don't see it as being very comfortable to use. Then you're not in the target audience. I also dislike the 16:9 screen. Then you're not in the target audience. Remember when Apple went on about the "post-pc world"? This is that. And that is successful. People like it. T…

> Even if you don't accept that the general market will buy this, you have to admit that a full-featured desktop Windows x86 OS running smoothly on a 10" tablet with an integrated full laptop-style keyboard that also will keep you entertained watching 16:9 movies on the flight back is a pretty appealing concept. Hold on, where is this fabled device?

They have two keyboards available for the Surface. See the "full laptop-style keyboard" from their main marketing site:

https://www.microsoft.com/global/surface/en/us/publishingima...

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#668

Post by dougabug »

romaniv wrote: post #576
abrahamsen wrote: post #548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Good point, but why label those as "attempts"? A decade ago PDAs were pretty good devices with decent amount of free apps and an interesting range of possibilities. (For one, they were extensible via cards. Something that's not available in today smartphones I know of.) You could read books, play games, use internet via WiFi, plus there was a lot of business applications for them. Heck, my old Asus MyPal has better b…

If the Palm Computing IPO didn't reflect marketing hysteria around PDA's, I don't know what does. The spinoff gave Palm a market cap of over $20B, about six times the entire value of its parent company, 3Com.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#669

Post by hackinthebochs »

huggyface wrote: post #385
jbigelow76 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just "who" is it you think they are trying to rush? Certainly not Apple, and aside from the Fire/Nook Tablet is their an Android tablet that hasn't been dead on arrival (800 dollar Xoom anyone)? If this was vaporware they were pushing in an attempt to get ahead of the market instead of playing catch up they would have put this out in 2010 instead of halfway through 2012. If they can price the thing realistically (aga…

is their an Android tablet that hasn't been dead on arrival There have been millions of Android tablets sold. In most product spaces that is an incredible success, and it's only relative to the astonishing success of the iPad could that be called "dead on arrival". And that was the rather terrible phase one. The incomplete Honeycomb, the rather terrible Tegra 2, and toothing pain hardware. I've noticed my online elec…

This is true, only if you compare every android tablet across manufacturers. People who like to tout android vs apple love to do this. But the fact is, android tablets have not been a success for a single manufacturer. There's only so long companies will keep dumping money down this rabbit hole hoping to get lucky.

Android tablets have been a success for Google. for everyone else, not so much.

Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

#670

Post by hackinthebochs »

prezjordan wrote: post #359
dag11 wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made this just for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A78RVmhoGMw Visual Studio opens in 2 to 3 seconds.

Wow that's quick. Would it be too much to ask to see video of you opening a "not-so-small" project? Maybe startup time isn't my chokepoint. But thanks for making the video. And nice title, ha.

Do you use resharper? I had a nasty issue with something involving resharper and/or mercurial and/or my SSD where it would take 10 seconds to change documents and literally 10 minutes to close after a day's work. I re-cloned my project, started working out of the new repo and it was snappy again. Went from 10 minutes to close VS to about 5 seconds.
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