I don't the media was allowed to play with one of these Surface tablets. I think they were for show only. Remember, the one presenter had his first Surface not work for the demo, so I don't think they are ready for people to play with them. It seems like it is a pre-production prototype so that the hardware PULLS the software towards the future.
Maybe... but Ed Bott says "....bla bla bla... I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these sleek new devices for more than 10 minutes." Which may just be a journalistic slate of hand... but from a journalist.... I expect that he had say, close to 9 or 10 minutes with the device... and had nothing really good to say about it.... or else he surely would have.
Yes I read the one in bold yesterday. Did you dare glance at the comments? Now that's a fun read! )) Perlow is literally ran down with a cyber-pitchfork and skewered by the rabid MS fans wanting this all to be true, and not the Barnum-Bailey-n-Ballmer Circus routine.
Yeah, the comments don't surprise me in the least. The Windows fanboys are treating this Surface as their new Savior as they desperately believe it will take out the iPad and MacBook Air in one clean sweep and bring mobile supremacy to Microsoft; any hint to to the contrary is treated as sacrilege. The problem is Microsoft eventually has to deliver the working goods to the faithful masses and at a price that Windows fanboys demand - if they try to pawn it off a pricey ultra-book, we'll see how fast the fanboys turn on Master Ballmer.
microsoft released two new products... windows surface tablet for its customers, and windows knife for its partners. grab the wrist and twist it, guys.
And what happens if you want to use the keyboard in portrait mode? Will it go in portrait mode with the kickstand?
No where in the presentation or the materials released 'til now, show the Surface being used in "portrait mode". Not sure if it's there... or even going to be there.
It appears this really is an Ultrabook with touch as a "cool feature to have"... with a definitive 16:9 Full-HD screen for movies without bars.
For 90% of "assumed" usage as presented, it will be using the kickstand, with the keyboard and a mouse for "serious work" (remember AutoCad, Photoshop, MS office quote).... to also play movies on the coffee table at your leisure.... and that's what it's supposed to be and do. Period. I don't recall games being mentioned, or included GPS or gyroscope or... much of anything else.
Get with the game dude: it's about the "click" of the kickstand and the keyboard! You ask too many questions.................................... )))
The signature feature—one that probably has some Apple product designers wondering “Why didn’t we think of that?”—is the magnetic cover that snaps firmly into place and doubles as a keyboard.
They probably did, Ed... and it had fail written all over it.
The whole piece by EB was truly pathetic! And they call us Fan-Bois?!?
I can't wait until Saturday when the Macalope over at MW gets his game on, and just rakes these guys with his antlers, and a swift hoof in the kiester with his Kick-stand... all 4 of them
Ballmer would still push it out the door. Guaranteed.
He is that desperate. I could hear it in his presentation.
What I noticed is that MS didn't actually redefine or re-imagine the segment (as they should have, because they had every opportunity to do so.)
What they did was create a compromise device that looked and worked different, for the sake of working and looking different . . . as a reaction to being so far behind in this new market, and as a reaction to the pressure MS was made to feel to release something, anything.
The whole presentation, as you remarked, just smacked of desperation. MS didn't really introduce anything. Nothing re-imagined. Nothing re-defined. They tried to turn a PC into a tablet, but while inexplicably keeping bits and pieces of the traditional computing paradigm bolted on. MS is still stuck on "computers." It's this weird Frenkentablet that doesn't seem, at this juncture, to truly do justice to either segment. Nor does it appear to be an effective marriage of both segments. It neither challenges the iPad nor the Retina MBP, or any MBP, for that matter. And as for creating an entirely *new* segment, others who have done a similar device have had little to no success. Then you get the idea of running Windows 8, which is *already* a problematic proposition.
After witnessing the way in which Apple has succeeded with their products, their formula, how they have approached tech, and what others have tried to do and failed, this Surface device looks like a catastrophe in the making.
[quote]Get with the game dude: it's about the "click" of the kickstand and the keyboard! You ask too many questions [/quote]
You must have been reading Gizmodo's laugh wrenching article titled, "Why a Keyboard—not a Processor or Screen or Anything Else—Is the Only Way to Beat Apple" Those poor slobs are still grinding the axe against Apple over the stolen iPhone.
although PC makers Dell and Lenovo both voiced continued commitment to Microsoft as a valuable partner.
What are they going to do?! Develop their own desktop OS? Not going to happen. MS can start their own PC hardware and no one can do anything. All they can do is pay to get Window on their PCs and accept it.
Why not?
Didn't stop the guys over at Android from doing the same for mobile OS.
Maybe... but Ed Bott says "....bla bla bla... I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these sleek new devices for more than 10 minutes." Which may just be a journalistic slate of hand... but from a journalist.... I expect that he had say, close to 9 or 10 minutes with the device... and had nothing really good to say about it.... or else he surely would have.
This is from the engadget review:
Quote:
As for performance, we'll be honest: tech press were treated to about two minutes at each of several stations, some of which demoed design, and not so much the power that lies inside that thin frame. ... Still, in our brief hands-on ... Now if only we could see the Core i5-powered Pro model in action. As for pen input, it's very possible, including PDF mark-ups and all, but we didn't get to see that demoed today. ... Unfortunately, we didn't get to see a working demo of the keyboards. As in, we weren't permitted to type sample sentences and feel what it's like to hammer out characters on a flat keyboard, or on keys that have just 1.5mm of travel.
So, I think Ed Bott, unless he got special treatment, was engaging, as have many other "reviewers", in a bit of poetic license with the use of the phrase "hands on". It doesn't seem like there actually was any "hands on", not 10 minutes or even 10 seconds, just demos, and not even demos of the "keyboard".
I think even "pre-production prototype" (used by someone above) overstates what was shown. I think "design mockup" is closer to the mark.
What I noticed is that MS didn't actually redefine or re-imagine the segment (as they should have, because they had every opportunity to do so.)
What they did was create a compromise device that looked and worked different, for the sake of working and looking different . . . as a reaction to being so far behind in this new market, and as a reaction to the pressure MS was made to feel to release something, anything.
The whole presentation, as you remarked, just smacked of desperation. MS didn't really introduce anything. Nothing re-imagined. Nothing re-defined. They tried to turn a PC into a tablet, but while inexplicably keeping bits and pieces of the traditional computing paradigm bolted on. MS is still stuck on "computers." It's this weird Frenkentablet that doesn't seem, at this juncture, to truly do justice to either segment. Nor does it appear to be an effective marriage of both segments. It neither challenges the iPad nor the Retina MBP, or any MBP, for that matter. And as for creating an entirely *new* segment, others who have done a similar device have had little to no success. Then you get the idea of running Windows 8, which is *already* a problematic proposition.
After witnessing the way in which Apple has succeeded with their products, their formula, how they have approached tech, and what others have tried to do and failed, this Surface device looks like a catastrophe in the making.
Imho, Ballmer promised the moon... not that MS is ever going to make these things but, instead, rather that MS was hoping to slow down the iPad juggernaut enough with this presentation to give the MS OEMs a bit of breathing room to make some Metro tablets and get them to market when Win 8 is introduced.
Ballmer introducing the Win 8 Surface looked, to me, like the Wright Brothers promising a 747 within a year.
The time frame promised for the Win 8 tablet is right around the time the iPad v4 will be introduced. Hmmmmmm...
OK. I have to step back here... because I'm really coming across as an abhored Fan-Boi.
I just wanna point out that an the announcement thread here at AI, I and many others were really pulling for MS. While we could only guess what they were going to demo... there were a lot of posters with good ideas and expecting MS to come to the table with something... well.... at least different.
No one... but no one... was expecting this train wreck of a presentation, for so important a device to the well-being of not only MS, but it's partners as well.
While I also get caught up in a bit of schadenfreude... I still consider it very, VERY SAD... and it appears that this isn't the end of this sorry Tale yet.
So, I think Ed Bott, unless he got special treatment, was engaging, as have many other "reviewers", in a bit of poetic license with the use of the phrase "hands on". It doesn't seem like there actually was any "hands on", not 10 minutes or even 10 seconds, just demos, and not even demos of the "keyboard".
I think even "pre-production prototype" (used by someone above) overstates what was shown. I think "design mockup" is closer to the mark.
I don't like Engadget much, so thanks for that bit of news. I really can't say what is worse at this point. I can make the claim to "guessing" they were all prototypes. If so... again... I'm just shaking my head here.
Can any of you imagine the horror if you did that at your jobs?! And those other guys were really "all in"!
Unfortunately up to their neck in Ballmer's....<beeeeep>!
Well the Windows 8 Phone Summit is live; get ready for a barrage of pundits bleating that Microsoft has just set a new bar of wonder and greatness as they lap up every promise as though it's being delivered today.
No senior executives heard about the news last week," an Acer executive said, noting that the company is still seeking details. "We're quite surprised."
Acer should thank their lucky stars that they have their hotel business to fall back on:
It's starting to get a bit ugly now... or was it ever pretty, or just homely?
Mary Jo Foley - Ed Bott's collegue... who if I'm not mistaken, switched to an iPad about a year ago and is hence now considered just "The Witch".... so what ever she's writes is probably not being taken seriously. Well I found a few eye-opener Tid-bits.
It seems the Surface is a pretty decent hardware device, but I fail to see how the RT version is fundamentally better than an iPad. I think the tablet in the consumer space has been decided. Sure, you'll still get the low end Android devices but I don't see room for Microsoft in that space because they won't to be at the same price point and feature set as the iPad. But the question will always be "why would I get this instead of the iPad?" For the Pro version, the conversation could be more interesting. I suspect a lot of corporate environments will try them, trying to answer the demand for tablets from t he users while still hanging on to their legacy management tools (and the control that corporate IT seems to desire). I fail to see how that addresses the consumerization of IT in the workplace. The pressure will continue, as users don't want a tablet. They want an iPad.
I will say that there was one thing that personally looked of interest to me .... the dual digitizers - one for touch and the other for pen. I would like that on an iPad for the pure purpose of taking notes. That's it. I sure wouldn't switch from my iPad for it, though.
I’m not convinced the Touch cover will work given it’s pseudo keys, although attendees of the event assure me it works just fine.
...and within the comments, he says:
It's (Windows Surface RT) now slated to start delivering the end of June. We'll see. Someone at the MS press event yesterday told me you can use those KB covers in the lap, they are that steady.
Re: my post above: if true about the release date... which is supposedly only 2 weeks away.... why didn't MS state specs and prices? Jeez. These MS Guys are whipped!
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by drblank
I don't the media was allowed to play with one of these Surface tablets. I think they were for show only. Remember, the one presenter had his first Surface not work for the demo, so I don't think they are ready for people to play with them. It seems like it is a pre-production prototype so that the hardware PULLS the software towards the future.
Maybe... but Ed Bott says "....bla bla bla... I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these sleek new devices for more than 10 minutes." Which may just be a journalistic slate of hand... but from a journalist.... I expect that he had say, close to 9 or 10 minutes with the device... and had nothing really good to say about it.... or else he surely would have.
Remember this:
It did not work because they tried to make a Tablet that ran Windows Software
They try again. Will they never learn. Windows software was not ment for Tablets.
Yeah, the comments don't surprise me in the least. The Windows fanboys are treating this Surface as their new Savior as they desperately believe it will take out the iPad and MacBook Air in one clean sweep and bring mobile supremacy to Microsoft; any hint to to the contrary is treated as sacrilege. The problem is Microsoft eventually has to deliver the working goods to the faithful masses and at a price that Windows fanboys demand - if they try to pawn it off a pricey ultra-book, we'll see how fast the fanboys turn on Master Ballmer.
microsoft released two new products... windows surface tablet for its customers, and windows knife for its partners. grab the wrist and twist it, guys.
Quote:
Originally Posted by drblank
And what happens if you want to use the keyboard in portrait mode? Will it go in portrait mode with the kickstand?
No where in the presentation or the materials released 'til now, show the Surface being used in "portrait mode". Not sure if it's there... or even going to be there.
It appears this really is an Ultrabook with touch as a "cool feature to have"... with a definitive 16:9 Full-HD screen for movies without bars.
For 90% of "assumed" usage as presented, it will be using the kickstand, with the keyboard and a mouse for "serious work" (remember AutoCad, Photoshop, MS office quote).... to also play movies on the coffee table at your leisure.... and that's what it's supposed to be and do. Period. I don't recall games being mentioned, or included GPS or gyroscope or... much of anything else.
Get with the game dude: it's about the "click" of the kickstand and the keyboard! You ask too many questions....................................
Quote:
Originally Posted by island hermit
One of my favorite lines:
The signature feature—one that probably has some Apple product designers wondering “Why didn’t we think of that?”—is the magnetic cover that snaps firmly into place and doubles as a keyboard.
They probably did, Ed... and it had fail written all over it.
The whole piece by EB was truly pathetic! And they call us Fan-Bois?!?
I can't wait until Saturday when the Macalope over at MW gets his game on, and just rakes these guys with his antlers, and a swift hoof in the kiester with his Kick-stand... all 4 of them
Quote:
Originally Posted by island hermit
Ballmer would still push it out the door. Guaranteed.
He is that desperate. I could hear it in his presentation.
What I noticed is that MS didn't actually redefine or re-imagine the segment (as they should have, because they had every opportunity to do so.)
What they did was create a compromise device that looked and worked different, for the sake of working and looking different . . . as a reaction to being so far behind in this new market, and as a reaction to the pressure MS was made to feel to release something, anything.
The whole presentation, as you remarked, just smacked of desperation. MS didn't really introduce anything. Nothing re-imagined. Nothing re-defined. They tried to turn a PC into a tablet, but while inexplicably keeping bits and pieces of the traditional computing paradigm bolted on. MS is still stuck on "computers." It's this weird Frenkentablet that doesn't seem, at this juncture, to truly do justice to either segment. Nor does it appear to be an effective marriage of both segments. It neither challenges the iPad nor the Retina MBP, or any MBP, for that matter. And as for creating an entirely *new* segment, others who have done a similar device have had little to no success. Then you get the idea of running Windows 8, which is *already* a problematic proposition.
After witnessing the way in which Apple has succeeded with their products, their formula, how they have approached tech, and what others have tried to do and failed, this Surface device looks like a catastrophe in the making.
[/quote]
You must have been reading Gizmodo's laugh wrenching article titled, "Why a Keyboard—not a Processor or Screen or Anything Else—Is the Only Way to Beat Apple" Those poor slobs are still grinding the axe against Apple over the stolen iPhone.
Why not?
Didn't stop the guys over at Android from doing the same for mobile OS.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ThePixelDoc
Maybe... but Ed Bott says "....bla bla bla... I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these sleek new devices for more than 10 minutes." Which may just be a journalistic slate of hand... but from a journalist.... I expect that he had say, close to 9 or 10 minutes with the device... and had nothing really good to say about it.... or else he surely would have.
This is from the engadget review:
Quote:
As for performance, we'll be honest: tech press were treated to about two minutes at each of several stations, some of which demoed design, and not so much the power that lies inside that thin frame. ... Still, in our brief hands-on ... Now if only we could see the Core i5-powered Pro model in action. As for pen input, it's very possible, including PDF mark-ups and all, but we didn't get to see that demoed today. ... Unfortunately, we didn't get to see a working demo of the keyboards. As in, we weren't permitted to type sample sentences and feel what it's like to hammer out characters on a flat keyboard, or on keys that have just 1.5mm of travel.
So, I think Ed Bott, unless he got special treatment, was engaging, as have many other "reviewers", in a bit of poetic license with the use of the phrase "hands on". It doesn't seem like there actually was any "hands on", not 10 minutes or even 10 seconds, just demos, and not even demos of the "keyboard".
I think even "pre-production prototype" (used by someone above) overstates what was shown. I think "design mockup" is closer to the mark.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quadra 610
What I noticed is that MS didn't actually redefine or re-imagine the segment (as they should have, because they had every opportunity to do so.)
What they did was create a compromise device that looked and worked different, for the sake of working and looking different . . . as a reaction to being so far behind in this new market, and as a reaction to the pressure MS was made to feel to release something, anything.
The whole presentation, as you remarked, just smacked of desperation. MS didn't really introduce anything. Nothing re-imagined. Nothing re-defined. They tried to turn a PC into a tablet, but while inexplicably keeping bits and pieces of the traditional computing paradigm bolted on. MS is still stuck on "computers." It's this weird Frenkentablet that doesn't seem, at this juncture, to truly do justice to either segment. Nor does it appear to be an effective marriage of both segments. It neither challenges the iPad nor the Retina MBP, or any MBP, for that matter. And as for creating an entirely *new* segment, others who have done a similar device have had little to no success. Then you get the idea of running Windows 8, which is *already* a problematic proposition.
After witnessing the way in which Apple has succeeded with their products, their formula, how they have approached tech, and what others have tried to do and failed, this Surface device looks like a catastrophe in the making.
Imho, Ballmer promised the moon... not that MS is ever going to make these things but, instead, rather that MS was hoping to slow down the iPad juggernaut enough with this presentation to give the MS OEMs a bit of breathing room to make some Metro tablets and get them to market when Win 8 is introduced.
Ballmer introducing the Win 8 Surface looked, to me, like the Wright Brothers promising a 747 within a year.
The time frame promised for the Win 8 tablet is right around the time the iPad v4 will be introduced. Hmmmmmm...
OK. I have to step back here... because I'm really coming across as an abhored Fan-Boi.
I just wanna point out that an the announcement thread here at AI, I and many others were really pulling for MS. While we could only guess what they were going to demo... there were a lot of posters with good ideas and expecting MS to come to the table with something... well.... at least different.
No one... but no one... was expecting this train wreck of a presentation, for so important a device to the well-being of not only MS, but it's partners as well.
While I also get caught up in a bit of schadenfreude... I still consider it very, VERY SAD... and it appears that this isn't the end of this sorry Tale yet.
<<<sadly shaking head>>>
Quote:
Originally Posted by anonymouse
This is from the engadget review:
So, I think Ed Bott, unless he got special treatment, was engaging, as have many other "reviewers", in a bit of poetic license with the use of the phrase "hands on". It doesn't seem like there actually was any "hands on", not 10 minutes or even 10 seconds, just demos, and not even demos of the "keyboard".
I think even "pre-production prototype" (used by someone above) overstates what was shown. I think "design mockup" is closer to the mark.
I don't like Engadget much, so thanks for that bit of news. I really can't say what is worse at this point. I can make the claim to "guessing" they were all prototypes. If so... again... I'm just shaking my head here.
Can any of you imagine the horror if you did that at your jobs?! And those other guys were really "all in"!
Unfortunately up to their neck in Ballmer's....<beeeeep>!
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
No senior executives heard about the news last week," an Acer executive said, noting that the company is still seeking details. "We're quite surprised."
Acer should thank their lucky stars that they have their hotel business to fall back on:
It's starting to get a bit ugly now... or was it ever pretty, or just homely?
Mary Jo Foley - Ed Bott's collegue... who if I'm not mistaken, switched to an iPad about a year ago and is hence now considered just "The Witch".... so what ever she's writes is probably not being taken seriously. Well I found a few eye-opener Tid-bits.
It seems the Surface is a pretty decent hardware device, but I fail to see how the RT version is fundamentally better than an iPad. I think the tablet in the consumer space has been decided. Sure, you'll still get the low end Android devices but I don't see room for Microsoft in that space because they won't to be at the same price point and feature set as the iPad. But the question will always be "why would I get this instead of the iPad?" For the Pro version, the conversation could be more interesting. I suspect a lot of corporate environments will try them, trying to answer the demand for tablets from t he users while still hanging on to their legacy management tools (and the control that corporate IT seems to desire). I fail to see how that addresses the consumerization of IT in the workplace. The pressure will continue, as users don't want a tablet. They want an iPad.
I will say that there was one thing that personally looked of interest to me .... the dual digitizers - one for touch and the other for pen. I would like that on an iPad for the pure purpose of taking notes. That's it. I sure wouldn't switch from my iPad for it, though.
Quote from James Kendrick at ZDNet:
I’m not convinced the Touch cover will work given it’s pseudo keys, although attendees of the event assure me it works just fine.
...and within the comments, he says:
It's (Windows Surface RT) now slated to start delivering the end of June. We'll see. Someone at the MS press event yesterday told me you can use those KB covers in the lap, they are that steady.
Re: my post above: if true about the release date... which is supposedly only 2 weeks away.... why didn't MS state specs and prices? Jeez. These MS Guys are whipped!
<edit>... maybe he meant end of June next year?!