Microsoft Reveals their "Surface" tablet

Surface by Microsoft


[video=youtube;dpzu3HM2CIo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpzu3HM2CIo[/video]

There will be RT and full windows models

 

[whs]

Good point Jimbo - except you don't get 'touch'.

 

[Vince53]

I'll have to wait until the Surface has been n the market to see what the owners think, but even then, it will probably cost $1,000 that I can't afford.

But in my humble opinion, MS is making a smart move by designing its own computers. Apple has done it successfully, with their software and hardware engineers working together. MS has worked with hardware developers, taking advantage of the fact that competition produces a better product. SO? Now MS has it both ways.

 

[BillWindows]

I'll have to wait until the Surface has been n the market to see what the owners think, but even then, it will probably cost $1,000 that I can't afford.

But in my humble opinion, MS is making a smart move by designing its own computers. Apple has done it successfully, with their software and hardware engineers working together. MS has worked with hardware developers, taking advantage of the fact that competition produces a better product. SO? Now MS has it both ways.

If Microsoft start off at $1000 they might as well throw in the towell now. That's not going to happen, I hope.

 

[Coke Robot]

I would bet the Pro version will be sailing at 900, at the minimum. Geez, that thing is built! In the keynote address, the spoke about how precise the manufacturing of it was, and also said if you disassembled it, and put just a small piece of tape between a layer and put it back together, it would literally bulge out at that point. That is some insane precision for a tablet! Not only that, there's the touch screen that has two digitizers, the touch cover, the chipset, SSD, and the VaporMg coating.....yikes! A luxury built item at a luxury cost I see.

 

[Coke Robot]

Thinking about this, it makes sense for Microsoft. The Surface is their weapon of choice against apple's ipad. It's happened before with mac os and Windows in the early days. Back then, it took Microsoft to license their software to multiple OEMs to beat down the mac and diminish it with 95. They used software and a mouse.

The Surface is like that. Instead, they need the puter part with the touchscreen, and the software to beat down the ipad and diminish its reign. So far, NOTHING has been able to touch the ipad, not an android of course, and no competition from Windows. It's like the David and Goliath battle, it will allows happen and one side will dominate over the other, the other comes back and beats the other side down.

It's like the 80s all over again!

 

[whs]

I believe the $1000 price tag - well maybe $999. That's what those Ultrabooks (with less function) cost today and people are buying.

 

[stefalopod]

I would doubt the issue with the Desktop since you can adjust the icon size in the Ribbon, that would probably be larger for tablets by default. I don't know for sure though. In 7, that would a be a HUGE pain, but in 8 and the Ribbon, that's fairly resolved.

I think it would be really practical if they adjusted the default object size up on the tablets, but that hasn't been a feature so far of 8 CP or RP. Although, larger elements could be a feature of the new windows 8 desktop theme.

I go back and forth on increasing the object size on the desktop. It does make everything easier to touch, but if you think 8 looks like playschool, try increasing the size of the desktop elements. You'll be in kindergarten on metro, and borrowing your nearsighted mom's windows 95 machine on the desktop.

There is an added downside of increasing the size of desktop elements. This probably wouldn't be an issue on a higher resolution screen, but on a 1366x768 screen, there are a lot of win7 programs (the ones that you need to run on the desktop) that have their default size preset and unalterable. A good example is the minimum size of a program's installer wizard, or your antivirus' action panel. Increasing the DPI makes many of them larger than the screen area, and there's no way to drag them off the viewable area or minimizing them and scroll around, to get a look at the bits that are too big to fit. Those bits almost always include the "Next," "Ok," and "Cancel" buttons. You end up having to go into the properties for that program and change the scaling preset back for just that app. I don't have any trouble with that, but I think it may be a little more complicated than many users would feel comfortable with. I

Having the keyboard and track pad available at all times will obviate the need that many users would otherwise feel to have more touchable elements on the desktop.

As a touch screen user, that's really the beauty of the metro swipe actions -- you can print, go into settings, close the apps, switch apps, search, and open the start "menu" (read: metro) using elements that are big enough to touch and don't crowd the screen while you're not using them.