Sensible Erection | Microsoft Surface

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

quote [ "Contributing to an Expanded Ecosystem" ]

What? Okay, whatever. We all know about this by now, but what do we think about this tablet, and tablets in general? This one is pretty late to the party I think. Is anyone planning on getting one?

I have an Android tablet, as well as several laptops and a desktop. I now only use the laptops for powerpoint presentations.

The tablets are really great for making computing more of a mobile activity, even within a home or office where I already have a computer. I use mine for recipes while cooking, but I also find that I use my tablet in conversation, to share youtube videos, or answer questions about movies or news etc... I'm using it as a reader, music player, and porn viewer. I feel somewhat lost if I'm not holding it.

What creative uses do you put your tablet to?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/19/tech/microsoft-surface-ipad/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Surface_%28tablet%29

[sci&tech] [by spite48@6:54pmGMT] [+5 Informative]

Comments

bruceski said @ 6:58pm GMT on 19th Jun
I'm pretty late to the tablet party too (in spite of all stereotypes my mother is more tech-connected than I am). When/if I ever decide one would be useful I've got no inherent reason *not* to get the Microsoft one, depending on how it compares to whatever's available at that time.

Cakkafracle said @ 7:06pm GMT on 19th Jun [Score:3 Funny]

Cakkafracle said @ 7:08pm GMT on 19th Jun
Ok not really 'gay', cuz that would mean they are stylishly fabulous.

but Tablet sounds too my like Pablum, to me

DuncmanG said @ 7:23pm GMT on 19th Jun
You mean stylishly faaaabulous!!!

spite48 said @ 8:09pm GMT on 19th Jun
Tablet is one of those words which, used to excess, starts to seem like a silly word.

mechanical contrivance said @ 11:19pm GMT on 19th Jun
Isn't that how aspirin used to come?

willrogers said @ 10:32pm GMT on 19th Jun
I'm kind of concerned about what's going to happen to Community now that Dan Harmon is gone. Are they going to make it to six seasons and a movie?

damnit said @ 10:50pm GMT on 19th Jun
In some way or another (read as not).

Dan Harmon is too proud to admit it, but his public broadcasting of Chevy Chase's voicemail got him booted.

afrasr said @ 4:57am GMT on 20th Jun
Public broadcast of what now?

I have tried watching community, and apart from wanting to do dirty, dirty things to Alison Bree, I just can't to seem to get into it.

damnit said @ 3:34pm GMT on 20th Jun
What was a private voicemail of Chevy Chase, Dan Harmon played it to his friends (staff? maybe?). It got out on the Internet. He's apologized for the situation. But I think that's what ultimately got him kicked out.

v21 said @ 11:05am GMT on 23rd Jun
On stage, at a comedy club. Someone in the audience recorded it.

anagramophone said @ 4:47am GMT on 21st Jun
+1 insightful

afrasr said @ 7:21pm GMT on 19th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
Yeah, I'll believe it when it's an actual thing, rather than a vaporware.

GordonGuano said @ 7:34pm GMT on 19th Jun [Score:1 Insightful]
All the things you've mentioned doing with a tablet, I already do with my Android. I'm not seeing a terribly compelling reason to duplicate those functions with a larger screen at present. About the only thing I can't do is play WoW.
Oh yeah, and streaming Netflix on my phone is all kinds of awesome.

Cakkafracle said @ 8:05pm GMT on 19th Jun
I actually enjoy watching netflix on my iphone when I'm on the bus or otherwise away from my computer for a time. The resolution is so clear that it just seems that I'm sitting far back in the theatre.

now if only I had unlimited 3G bandwidth :( :(

GordonGuano said @ 8:21pm GMT on 19th Jun
Can you use WiFi from a restaurant or bus with an iPhone? Or do they all have to be your wireless provider's 1s and 0s?

eIfish said @ 8:33pm GMT on 19th Jun
You can.

But I don't, because I get unlimited data, and my data is faster than most WiFi.

iPhone 4 and up's party-piece is that it can become a WiFi router, so you can tether all your WiFi and Bluetooth devices through your cellular.

Cakkafracle said @ 8:39pm GMT on 19th Jun
Yes, I use public wifi where I can. My favorite coffee shop has a wide open router, which I find refreshing in this day of "you must sign in with a password that you have to get from that dude who can't seem to find the slip of paper it was written on this morning"

or Starbucks. fuck starbucks.

mrcucumber said @ 1:13pm GMT on 20th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
Yeah. Fuck starbucks.

the belt said @ 9:42pm GMT on 19th Jun

mrcucumber said @ 1:23pm GMT on 20th Jun
I can't do that. The screen is too damn small to watch movies. Do you where glasses for reading? My brother has since childhood and he likes to watch movies on his iphone as well.

arrowhen said @ 9:51pm GMT on 19th Jun [Score:1 Insightful]
It's that larger screen that takes tablets out of "useful tool" territory for me and into the "eh, that looks fun, I guess, but I don't really need one" range. My phone already lets me carry the whole internet around in my pocket; grabbing my phone has become part of my process of gearing up for the day -- phone, wallet, Leatherman, smokes, and I'm good to go.

Something like a tablet that's too big to slip into a pocket or otherwise unobtrusively attach to my person is never going to have that kind of instantly accessible usefulness for me; it's something I'd have to specifically decide to take with me on a given day for a specific purpose, much like my laptop. And I don't see myself getting into a whole lot of tablet scenarios where I wouldn't just bring the laptop instead.

All of these are just stopgap measures anyway. I'm waiting for the day I can get Google installed directly into my brain.

graham said @ 10:30pm GMT on 19th Jun
*notes that arrowhen always carries a knife*

arrowhen said @ 10:44pm GMT on 19th Jun
The knife blades come in handy, but it's the screwdriver I use most often. I work in a grocery store where all our equipment is falling apart and they're too cheap to replace anything, and I can't resist the compulsion to poke at half broken stuff until it either works again or breaks completely.

spite48 said @ 11:22pm GMT on 19th Jun [Score:1 Funny]
That's why the murse or man-purse was invented.

If you are concerned about maintaining some semblance of masculinity, a messenger bag works, or you can have a tablet shaped compartment added into a bandolier in between some bullets.

arrowhen said @ 11:56pm GMT on 19th Jun
Oh, sure, I spent twenty odd years carrying my entertainment and light productivity suite (i.e, a paperback or D&D manual, a couple of pens, and a spiral notebook) around in a series of backpacks, messenger bags, satchels, and the like. I have no problem hauling a bag around *if I need it*. I just don't see the benefit of buying something I'd need to carry in a bag when I get the same functionality out of something that fits in my pocket.

Nihil said @ 6:27am GMT on 20th Jun
The thing with laptops is that they're awesome for productivity, but the two-slate format is pretty awkward for reading (on the train, in bed, on the toilet, etc.), for taking notes during a lesson or a meeting, or for showing something to people nearby.

A single-slate format like a tablet's is much better for all those things, but of course lacking a physical keyboard is a huge drawback. The Surface's cover-keyboard, much like IBM's swivel laptops or ASUS's Transformer netbooks, is an attempt to combine the benefits of both formats in one.

jerv said @ 7:04pm GMT on 22nd Jun [Score:1 Informative]
That is why I have a Nook Color, rooted and flashed with Cyanogenmod, of course. It fits perfectly in my jacket pocket, and is better for some things than my phone. Surfing for porn on my phone means fapping to thumbnail-sized videos; a 7" screen is big enough to actually tell a nipple from a speck of dust on the screen.

mrcucumber said @ 11:58am GMT on 23rd Jun
You mean you can't fap to a speck of dust?

blacksun said @ 7:36pm GMT on 19th Jun
I have no interest in tablets.

Moses said @ 7:44pm GMT on 19th Jun [Score:2 Funny]
I love 'em.

Rammek said @ 7:57pm GMT on 19th Jun
Always walking around with 2 of them, aren't ya?

spite48 said @ 9:41pm GMT on 19th Jun
What about these?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_tablet

blacksun said @ 4:23pm GMT on 20th Jun
Those hipsters and their portable writing devices... I'm do just fine with my markings on my cave wall.

Spleen23 said @ 7:46pm GMT on 19th Jun
Got a mid sized tablet as a comprimise between haveing a screen large enought for reading books on and being portable.

As a alternative to a dedicated reader so I can use it for other stuff it is nice to have, for anything other then useing it as a reader I should have gone with a laptop.

spite48 said @ 8:14pm GMT on 19th Jun
There isn't much about a 10" screen or the android OS which bothers me. I cannot see myself grabbing a surface just because of a kickstand, tiny screen size increase, or cover-keyboard.

The Win8 OS itself is something I'm dreading on PCs, but might work on a tablet. I'll have to try it out.

foobar said @ 8:19pm GMT on 19th Jun
If you do want a keyboard, you're better off with an Asus Transformer. It has proper hinges that let you use it in places that don't have flat, firm surfaces.

Like the top of your lap.

graham said @ 10:32pm GMT on 19th Jun
But that's why they invented the Laptop™!

eIfish said @ 10:41pm GMT on 19th Jun
Notebook.

No-one calls their laptops laptops anymore, because if you put them on your laptop, the heat cooks your tadpoles.

mechanical contrivance said @ 11:22pm GMT on 19th Jun
Just slide it forward a little.

spite48 said @ 11:23pm GMT on 19th Jun
fringe benefit?

user420 said @ 2:47am GMT on 20th Jun [Score:2 Underrated]
No, a notebook has paper and bindings and stuff. You wright in them with a pen or a pencil.

foobar said @ 7:53pm GMT on 19th Jun
I bet those Windows Phone hardware partners are feeling pretty stupid now.

eIfish said @ 8:39pm GMT on 19th Jun
Most of the tech media seem to have taken this as Microsoft offering OEMs kind of a trailer and benchmark for the platform, much like Google did with the Nexus.

A simultaneous "This is why you should be excited, and your hardware should be at least this good".

foobar said @ 9:28pm GMT on 19th Jun
Google wisely rotates around the Nexus manufacturer, and structures Android so that it would be impossible for them to shut them out.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has a long and storied history of fucking over its partners.

eIfish said @ 10:46pm GMT on 19th Jun
Personally, I'm expecting these things to be too expensive (like the Nexus One), and only bought by enthusiasts, early adopters, and developers (like the Nexus One).

I predict Microsoft will make less money on these things than they will on licensing Windows RT, and they'd rather sell a copy of Windows RT to Dell than give one away just to lower the price tag on a Surface.

RhesusMonkey said @ 1:11am GMT on 20th Jun
They might, or they might give them away fro free to Developers. Either way, I expect them to make a limited number and use them (as Balmer stated) to "prime the pump", that is, build interest in the Windows8 platform.

As an investor, this is also (to me) a noteworthy showing of how "ready for market" Windows 8 (RT) actually is. They are going to be putting this shit everywhere (expect your next XBox to run Windows 8), so they want to be able to highlight to people what it is and what it can do, and notably, stop losing (potential) customers to Android / Apple.

eIfish said @ 7:47am GMT on 20th Jun
Current Xbox already uses Metro.

It's shit.

I can't imagine any Xbox running Windows: Original Xbox didn't run XP, current Xbox doesn't run Vista. Xbox has always run a lighter, crash-only windowsey, but not Windows OS.

It would be pretty straightforward to support managed metro apps in whateverOS, and I believe the 360 actually does (YouTube, for instance).

RhesusMonkey said @ 11:44am GMT on 21st Jun
yes true, but I see the fact they updated the UI on the 360 the be "Metro-y", along with the fact they are pushing the 360 to be more 'home entertainment center' versus just gaming console as a prelude for what's to come on the 720 (or whatever the next one is).

I also expect it to be ARM based, so more likely to see the RT version, at least kernel and something similar on the UI side; they may keep the Avatar feature.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 8:21pm GMT on 19th Jun
I'd rather have a huge smartphone, like the Galaxy Note. But I'm not really compelled to get any new smart devices either way. My old shitty HTC Wildfire can do just about anything that's actually useful and not just there to impress your friends.

eIfish said @ 8:34pm GMT on 19th Jun [Score:1 Original]

Cakkafracle said @ 8:42pm GMT on 19th Jun
This gave me a Sensible Erection!

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 10:51pm GMT on 19th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
That's the kind of shit I talk about when I say "just there to impress your friends". Yes, you can use it as the most expensive digital photo frame ever. But would you? I also wouldn't trust the velcro to hold it in place on a bike.

sanepride said @ 12:52am GMT on 20th Jun
Velcroing it to the stove while you're cooking does not seem like a very good idea.

b said @ 2:11am GMT on 20th Jun
Okay, the car thing is pretty good, sticking it on the stove is alright, but the rest are kind of dumb. I mean, wasting battery time as a wall mounted photo frame? Sticking it on the window while you, uh, check the, uh, weather? What the fuck is the point of that.

Clearly, this has some pretty rad applications (get it?), but most of them in the video were dumb.

eIfish said @ 7:51am GMT on 20th Jun
If you put a dock cable coming out of the wall, then instead of wasting power being a photo frame, it's displaying photos while being in its charging dock.

mrcucumber said @ 1:21pm GMT on 20th Jun
Unless the ipad can withstand blistering hot oil splatter, I wouldn't put it anywhere close to the stove. I guess it's glass, but there are small plastic parts...

This also seems like an advert for apple.

eIfish said @ 5:04pm GMT on 20th Jun
Are there plastic parts?

The button, I guess.

All the iPads I've seen are glass on the front and metal on the back.

That said, oil is a great way to kill a phone: it gets in it and then doesn't evaporate out. If it gets in the earpiece, it will irreversibly mute it, and taking apart a modern smartphone is not a trivial job.

azazel said @ 9:51pm GMT on 20th Jun
It must be, my daughter managed to and she's not even 1½.

mrcucumber said @ 10:31pm GMT on 20th Jun
I have exposed cabinets above my stove holding all my pots and pans. I have to periodically clean them if not used often because I have no ventilation. They get a film of grease on them, but I cook more....aggressively. I don't hesitate to get a pan smokin' hot before adding oil or browning a chunk of pork, splattering oil everywhere and into the air.

No matter how small those holes are, I wonder if they would get caked with grease if it became a regular habit.

But ah yes, the details of everyday life discussed online.

mrcucumber said @ 10:38pm GMT on 20th Jun
also, that button on the front - is it glass as well? Or the volume rocker switch? I'm guessing it's some kind of polymer, as is the on off, camera lens - and what's that black strip on the top on the back? I'd love to try to get grease caked out of the hole to pop out the sim.

eIfish said @ 11:20pm GMT on 20th Jun
I've only got an iPhone to hand, but its buttons and switches are metal. The camera lens is glass, presumably aluminosilicate like the rest of it.

Not sure about the button, though. Probably plastic.

Looking at the teardown of an iPad 3, the plastic bumper is stuck on top of the metal case; you could remove it without damaging the iPad, if you really wanted to. The buttons are plastic-over-metal, apart from the power button which is just plastic.

Shrike96 said @ 4:39pm GMT on 21st Jun [Score:1 Informative]
3M's Dual Lock is much better than Velcro. Holds more, and more securely. Velcro's still the best stuff for cable ties, I keep a roll of velcro cable ties around, very useful for having electronics around.

yunnaf said @ 8:42pm GMT on 19th Jun
Some Android tablets are now on clearance.
Seems like Android versions fly faster than Microsoft Windows versions, 2.3, 3.1 now 4.0.
Anyone have experience with Ainol Novo or Zenithink ZT-280
Seems Cyanomod is able to keep their Rom's up to date.
Went shopping for Droid apps, only one free office suite, no noteable notepad or spreadsheet. speech to text seemed sketchy.
Can't tell if Droid products will ever mature or just get junked.

ahPook said @ 9:52pm GMT on 19th Jun
Are you talking to yourself?

mechanical contrivance said @ 11:24pm GMT on 19th Jun
No, he's talking to Elvis. Elvis.

RhesusMonkey said @ 1:17am GMT on 20th Jun [Score:1 Informative]
Android "versions" creep up faster because it is good marketing, and because the feature release is incremental. I have an Acer A500 that launched with Honeycomb, had one in-market update to HC 3.2 / 3.3 or something, and now is running ICS. I noticed exactly zero new features with 4.0 for my tablet, but the UI had been overhauled to use a new font... whoopie. I run Ubuntu at home so am used ot there being a ~6 mo upgrade cycle on Linux interspersed with multiple patches, so this model doesn't really surprise me.
I also own a PlayBook, and that (since I bought it) has had about six in-market upgrades (from 1.3 to something like 1.7, then 2.0, then 2.0.1). That's more than my Android, but does that make my PB the better tablet? no , not really. NB: I do think my PB is the better tablet, just not because it has had more updates.

eIfish said @ 8:21am GMT on 20th Jun
Android versions creep up faster because they roughly correspond to Windows service packs, except that windows service packs don't require you to buy a newer Dell or move to CyanogenWindows.

Jaxon said @ 9:01pm GMT on 19th Jun [Score:1 Interesting]
This is interesting to me in two ways:

1) Microsoft is now directly competing with the same people they sell OEM Windows licenses to.

2) It makes me wonder what it would be like if MS didn't have such a public beta program and so many distribution partners. They'd be able to do the same stuff Apple does. When they announce products they can tell you when it is available, usually now, and give you an exact price. From what I understand, these things weren't even turned on when the press were able to "demo" them.

spite48 said @ 9:47pm GMT on 19th Jun

structured_spirits said @ 10:00pm GMT on 19th Jun
I don't really like tablets compared to laptops, they're nearly as portable and you get a lot more power and versatility for your money. Also I've never much liked the touchscreen concept, who want to constantly be putting smudge marks on the screen you're trying to read?

eIfish said @ 10:40pm GMT on 19th Jun
It works a lot better than you'd expect.

Laptop screens are made of pretty ordinary glass, or coated plastic. Phone screens are made of borosilicate or aluminosilicate ('gorilla') glass, with an oleophobic coating. It is pretty cool to see the coating in action: water droplets bead up and roll off, IPA won't form a sheet on it at all, and fingerprints don't stick, spread out into a flat, invisible sheet, and can even be wiped off with a finger. The glass itself is near-impossible to scratch: only very hard metals (including, annoyingly, cupronickel (currency), and tool steel (keys)) are hard enough, and it takes a lot of force.

All this engineering means that the surface stays flawlessly smooth, and fingerprints are invisible, in all but the strongest frontlighting.

You need a high-end phone, though: iPhones and iPads have the good glass, but iPod touches don't. Expensive androids have the good glass, while androids your carrier gives away don't..

spite48 said @ 11:26pm GMT on 19th Jun
My kids use my tablet all the time, and they haven't managed to scratch the screen, and their greasy fingerprints are easily wiped away.

They have managed to purchase apps however, despite being barely literate.

structured_spirits said @ 3:49am GMT on 20th Jun
Aluminosilicate? You mean, like, transparent aluminum? It's nice to hear the screens don't smudge. I still don't see the appeal, especially at twice the price, and there doesn't seem to be much screen real-estate, my laptop as set up has a 1280x800 primary along with a 1024x768 secondary. I'd hate to give it up. I've grown rather attached to watching videos while drawing, typing etc. Of course I could always just use another device, like a tv etc. In other words if you have the money for both more power to you, but as for one vs the other, tablets still have a long way to go.

Scotty said @ 6:54am GMT on 20th Jun
Aye. Transparent aluminum.

I had this whale transportation issue you see...

pleaides said @ 11:39am GMT on 20th Jun
I'm not surprised. Whales are fucking HUGE.

eIfish said @ 8:09am GMT on 20th Jun
iPad3 is 2048x1536. Most Androids have larger screens, but are only ~1600x1200. While physical size is an issue, tablets blow away everything but the new MacBooks (which are, eww, macs) when it comes to pixels. When a big screen is needed, you can replicate them onto a TV, either wirelessly or with HDMI.

As to your use-case, I think it's a little perverse. For a screen that usually plays videos, but sometimes extends the desktop, most people would use an AppleTV or XBMC with a television, and use Vista/7's remote display when it was to be a monitor.

Do you stick your laptop on a desk and plug it in to the other monitor? Or do you use two monitors and a keyboard? When I'm actually doing work, I need a desktop. Not just for the keyboard, but two monitors is necessary for getting things done.

If money made me choose one or the other, I'd probably take tablet and desktop over a laptop kitted out to be a desktop replacement. The only reason not to, I think, is if you really need to do serious work (more serious than Word and Outlook) on the go.

structured_spirits said @ 5:10am GMT on 21st Jun
Yeah my laptop is basically tricked out to be a desktop replacement. Originally I was against laptops over desktops because of durability concerns, but I've been pretty impressed other than the tiny hard drives seem to die more often. And on the low end of the market, which is where I live, you can get a laptop for less money than a desktop, around 350 bucks or so. I had an old sun flatscreen that sits to the right of the laptop behind the trackball and plugs in via vga port. There's also an s-video out which I could connect to tv but don't bother with. I've gotten used to watching from close up and prefer it now over watching a 36' tv maybe 8 feet away. speakers sit behind the laptop, I use eithernet which also plugs in the back, dvd burner is on the left side, so everything is handy. I also hate how hinges work on the newer laptops so that the ports have to be on the side now so it can be a bit thinner. That will screw with my setup next time I upgrade.

eIfish said @ 7:29am GMT on 21st Jun
Maybe for your next one a business laptop and a dock might work?

Dell's docking stations have changed, I think, three times in the past twenty years - buy a D-dock, and you can just place your laptop on the desk (the connector's on the bottom!) to connect all that hardware. They also make a full-size dock with a slot you can put a desktop graphics card in.

aliron said @ 11:56pm GMT on 19th Jun
I find reading comics and PDFs much easier on a tablet. Easier to pinch to zoom in and out and to navigate without a mouse and keyboard. If my bluetooth keyboard arrowkeys worked with an office Android app for spreadsheets, the tablet would've replaced my laptop altogether.

aliron said @ 11:58pm GMT on 19th Jun
Note: I am, however, running a laptop from 2003. lol. So the tablet replacing my laptop might not be the case if I had a modern laptop.

structured_spirits said @ 3:55am GMT on 20th Jun
I love MangaMeeya for reading comics, because you don't have to extract zips, just point it to the directory and it's open every file and put them in order. If you're on a tablet I imagine you'd be reading some type of epubs. I still don't know how I feel about those either. They're a pain on older windows machines as I use my web browser with a plugin to view. Anyone know any good free epub readers?

aliron said @ 6:11am GMT on 20th Jun
Android has free apps that read cbz and cbr.

For an epub reader on a PC there's calibre, which is free.

eIfish said @ 8:19am GMT on 20th Jun
Would you believe there are comic readers for mobile that don't require you to laboriously convert everything to some type of epub?

sanepride said @ 12:58am GMT on 20th Jun
Yeah, I pretty much thought exactly the same way, until I actually got a tablet. I only bought it because it was cheap (fire-sale HP Touchpad), now I can't imagine not having it.
Interestingly it can get pretty smudged-up without significantly impacting display quality. And when it does, a quick wipe with a micro-fiber cloth and no more smudges!

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 10:01pm GMT on 19th Jun
Depending on the price point, they may have a shot. On the other hand, products priced lower than iPad have done nothing to Apple's marketshare.

The thing with tablets...sort of like PCs vs Macs back in the day. Macs were tres cool.....but all the important software were on PCs. Now, iPads are tres tres cool....and they have a huge edge on apps. So will you pay the same, or less, for a tab that has 1/2 the available apps?

jerv said @ 7:12pm GMT on 22nd Jun
From what I hear, the RT version will be priced comparably to an Android tablet or iPad, while the full-on Win8 version will be priced like a premium notebook (whatever that means), so I would guess $600-ish and around a grand respectively.

pleaides said @ 10:37pm GMT on 19th Jun [Score:1 Funny]
I sincerely hope we don't see a repeat of the spate of deaths caused by the release of the $35 Indian tablet, that was horrific.

damnit said @ 10:56pm GMT on 19th Jun [Score:1 Funny]
Microsoft is too slow to market these things. They started this probably in 2006.

I found this youtube video from 2007... Hello 360p:

RhesusMonkey said @ 1:21am GMT on 20th Jun
Marked "Funny" because I'm sure you noticed that MS rebranded their "old" Surface program to PixelWorks, and that product (which can be purchased for about $8k) is a totally different one from the tablets just announced.

Aphex808 said @ 11:54pm GMT on 19th Jun
Tablets are great, I've found that most people who don't like them haven't spent much time with them. (This is a generalization.)

These new tablets? Look fantastic. We're getting closer to the point where a laptop is simply pointless. I approve.

scojam said @ 11:58pm GMT on 19th Jun
I don't know about this but watching a couple of teens texting suggested that in 25 years or so, the cell phone and other hand held perpherials are going to be much larger than they are today as the mid life folk will have developed massive thumbs from all the exercise they give their thumbs, such that the peripherals will have have much larger keey pads to accomodate them.

As compared to my oversized right arm versus my relatively underdeveloped left arm due to all that masterbating when I was young.

sanepride said @ 12:45am GMT on 20th Jun
Sure I'll get one...after they pry my Android-rooted/WebOS HP Touchpad from my cold dead hands.

mfchill said @ 1:44am GMT on 20th Jun
Sorry no one mentioned Zune, The Zune HD or MS's abandonment of the Zune. See the future in the past.

Aphex808 said @ 2:16am GMT on 20th Jun
Yes, because once one thing happens reflections of it will continue to happen through eternity, with no variation whatsoever. No one can ever get better at anything. Ever.

Nobody has mentioned the Xbox 360 either, I don't think, and I think that's a good counter-example to your Zune hatred.

the circus said @ 2:35pm GMT on 20th Jun
I can't play Halo or Phantom Dust with my friends on XBox Live with my XBox anymore! I don't have an XBox 360.

eIfish said @ 4:59pm GMT on 20th Jun
Or Steel Battalion: Line of Contact.

But put yourself in their shoes: you're trying to run an online service; how long do you keep backwards compatibility with every device you've ever made? Even when it's a device used by a tiny fraction of your userbase, even when a tiny fraction of the users of the device used it online anyway?

PS Halo got a re-release and it's amazing. It does the same trick as R-Type, where you can switch between old and new graphics while you're playing. It was always the best Halo anyway.

the circus said @ 5:08am GMT on 21st Jun
Backwards compatibility with every device you've ever made? We're talking about XBox Live; that means one device, ever, the XBox. Conversely one could say that Microsoft never maintained backwards compatibility ever for any device it's ever made for XBox Live, because we're still only talking about one product, at least until something succeeds the 360.

But what you appear to be promoting is the stance some people assume of Microsoft and that make some people leary of them -- that as a business they should immeadiately bail on any enterprise the moment it ceases to be profitable and abandon everyone who may have invested their money in it and expected the service or product to keep working, and that building customer loyalty and trust has no value. That perception may or may not be inaccurate of Microsoft, but they haven't done a good job combatting it if it is inaccurate.

eIfish said @ 7:21am GMT on 21st Jun
I don't think you appreciate just how old and backward the Xbox is. It has 64MB of RAM, the 360 and iPhone have 512. It has an 8GB hard drive (smaller than a smartphone), on which around 300MB is available for putting apps on. Half its 'OS' is burned into a 256k flash rom, the other half is statically linked into every game. (All 'updates' do on the Xbox is replace the 'dashboard' app and the 'sign up for LIVE app). Like DOS, the OS runs no threads of its own, but merely provides system calls.

Say you want to make a change that does anything whatsoever to the LIVE API, you'd have to update every single game with LIVE support, or ban every game that's not updated (which would be tantamount to retiring the platform anyway, because who's going to update Project Gotham Racing), or develop an increasingly baroque shim between LIVE and Xbox-from-2002-Land (which they probably did for at least five years).

Whereas on the 360, LIVE is handled by the upgradable OS, so these kind of updates are easy. You're expecting Microsoft to move a mountain, just to make something no-one uses work.

kichijoii said @ 2:07am GMT on 20th Jun
I got an old ipod touch so that I could access my university's wi-fi anywhere on campus, assuming the computer labs are closed or something. It's not as fast as the newest stuff, but it does the job, and it fits easily into a bag or pocket. I check email, get directions, or do impromptu internet research.

The Surface is very late to the game, and it doesn't seem to add anything new to it. Its telling how comments are focused on Microsoft's processes rather than the product itself. It'll sell, of course, but I doubt it will be phenomenal.

Spaceloaf said @ 4:02am GMT on 20th Jun
For travel and being on the go I have an Android phone.

For work, I'm required to use a laptop (although I wouldn't mind getting one of those sleek Ultrabooks so I'm not lugging around a 5lb Monolith everywhere).

At home, I have a decked out quad-core system with a $500 chair, $2000 sound system, etc.

Maybe I'm a Luddite, but I have zero interest in owning a tablet. There's pretty much no aspect of my life that would be improved by one.

If I could ask for anything, it would be better laptops (lighter, thinner, and more battery life).

With that being said, all of these new products are awesome because they keep me employed even if I don't personally care for them.

ckfahrenheit said @ 8:22am GMT on 20th Jun
No tablet. I thought tablets specifically meant the Wacom things, so I was surprised to find out a few minutes ago that they were talking about small mobile computer-like objects all this time. Not using anything wireless either.
Have a laptop & it's *OK*, but I haven't yet found a laptop keyboard that I'm remotely comfortable with, so I use laptops reluctantly.
Also no mobile phone. Yet. I forget the name but there's one that I can have for occasional calls, for like $5 a month or something; that could be useful. When I'm not at work, I only use the phone about 4~8 times a month, tops.

I'd prefer a device to cope with music editing, photoshop, typesetting, or gaming. If it can't do at least two of those things I dunno if it's worth it for me, though I suppose I could use one for an excellent jukebox. Or a handheld video feed from a microscope eyepiece.

CapnSilver said @ 9:54am GMT on 20th Jun
I have an Asus Transformer 101 and It's pretty great. I use it for electronic uni readings, comics and recently GTAIII. GTA motherfucking III.

For just tooling about on the net in between classes, for having the lecturer's slides when I can get a wifi signal, for playing World of Goo when the lecture is boring, it's awesome. It turns out I don't like my notes when I type them, I much prefer to hand write them and find them more useful later. Also- doodle in the margins.

kimbo said @ 12:10pm GMT on 20th Jun
I commute for nearly 4 hours on the train every day. There's a bunch of people these days who have tablets, and it's kind of interesting to note what they're doing.

Some play games, some read, some work, some browse the net, and some watch movies. Those things could be accomplished on a phone or laptop - in fact, a fuckload of people DO just stare at their phone screen, and occasionally there's someone tapping away at a laptop.

But I suspect that if you're watching movies/reading/browsing on a device for 20 hours a week, you would appreciate the size of a ten inch tablet. And it's more portable/convenient/battery-efficient than carrying round a whole laptop.

Supreme_Coconut said @ 2:41pm GMT on 20th Jun
I'm not a fan of tablets, overall. I have a smart phone that does everything that tablets can do. Hell, it's even a Windows phone and has some Office apps built it so the tablet this article is about really doesn't do much for me. I can watch Netflix (which I don't) on my phone, check Facebook, check e-mail, check scores with an ESPN app, play games (mainly just sudoku on the train), but I can also do more since it's a phone. You know. Like call people or send text messages. Maybe as an e-reader but I have a Kindle. When I worked downtown and had a 30-minute commute, I used it on the train. Now I have a 15 minute commute that's half train, half walk so I just read at home. And if I'm at home, why bother with a tablet when I have my desktop right there with all my games, music, videos, etc.?
There's just very little reason for someone like me to own a tablet. If other people want one, that's their prerogative.

Croatia said @ 9:08pm GMT on 20th Jun
I am so glad to be the first person to post this.

BEHOLD! THE WORST M$ PRODUCT LAUNCH SINCE THE WINDOWS 98 BSOD!!

Croatia said @ 9:08pm GMT on 20th Jun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1zxDa3t0fg

Croatia said @ 9:13pm GMT on 20th Jun

Croatia said @ 9:13pm GMT on 20th Jun
HTMfaiL - Seppuku is only remaining option.

eIfish said @ 11:22pm GMT on 20th Jun
Irony aside, how does pressing 'share', 'embed' on YouTube, and then copy/pasting go so horribly wrong?

Kat said @ 9:55pm GMT on 20th Jun
I grow weary of a market where smart phones are constantly made smaller and PC's are sold as tablets with the main selling point being a screen bigger than a smart phone.

Supreme_Coconut said @ 1:01am GMT on 21st Jun [Score:2 Funny]

Ha!

anagramophone said @ 4:46am GMT on 21st Jun
most ipad users have no inkling of the history of human-computer interfaces. additionally, neither the ipad nor the surface (i'm guessing) are stylus-based.

anagramophone said @ 4:52am GMT on 21st Jun
i.e. 'tablets' these days aren't actually tablets, in that they were not meant to be written or drawn on.

anagramophone said @ 4:54am GMT on 21st Jun
...so the idea of being creative on a 'tablet' remains a laughable one in my mind (though i have no doubt there are some lovely fingerpainting apps at the appstore).

eIfish said @ 7:37am GMT on 21st Jun
Please at least google, so's you sound less ignorant...

anagramophone said @ 4:40am GMT on 27th Jun
nope.

foobar said @ 8:50am GMT on 21st Jun [Score:1 Informative]
Nope. Surface has a stylus.

Ankylosaur said @ 11:10am GMT on 21st Jun

anagramophone said @ 4:45am GMT on 21st Jun
you know what really took computing mobile? the handheld calculator, in 1970.

Ankylosaur said @ 6:56am GMT on 21st Jun
What about the slide rule?

eIfish said @ 7:38am GMT on 21st Jun
I'd say the wax tablet or the abacus. The slide rule's more of math coprocessor.

jerv said @ 7:16pm GMT on 22nd Jun
How about just using your fucking brain?

sensibleb said @ 8:54pm GMT on 22nd Jun
Don't be a jerv.

yevelse said @ 7:53pm GMT on 24th Jun
All the above doesn't matter. Real question is: will it run linux?

eIfish said @ 7:55pm GMT on 24th Jun [Score:1 Insightful]
Funny you should mention that...