Microsoft Surface

Sail

I find Microsoft's new product very impressive.

[Edit] For the Flame War version, please see this thread.

guzman

It does seem to have a lot of potential. I'm kinda of intrigued by the whole idea. Very interesting indeed.

WallyBman

If you go to the press section, under FAQ's, fourth question, fourth bullet point, it actually is making sense for the Zune to have its super limited WiFi. Or am I reading too much into that?

Churba

Hey, wait, I remember seeing one of these at a developer confrence video - Everyone was flipping out about it, about mid to early last year or so - Nice to see something Practical come of a bloody good idea.

HMTKSteve

So it's a touch screen. Whoop-de-doo!

Churba

I think the thing that they're bragging about is that it is the Multi-Touch Functionality - And the whole interface is designed around it.

HMTKSteve

This was already done by someone else.

Churba

Ah, that's not quite the Video I was talking about, but its very close - The first bloke you see at the screen is the one in the video I'm talking about.

Though a Large company purchasing someone else's hard work to make money from it - Its not like this hasn't happened before, or that its not a common thing.

Also - From the Perceptive pixel Website.

Perceptive Pixel, Inc. was founded by Jeff Han in 2006
as a spinoff of the NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
to develop and market the most advanced multi-touch system in the world.

What better way to Speed the development and market the system than by having The largest computing multinational in the world's assistance?

HMTKSteve

I'm not poo-pooing the technology. I'm just trying to point out that this is not "new". I don't know why so many people are going nuts over this when it already came out last year!

Churba

I'm not poo-pooing the technology. I'm just trying to point out that this is not "new". I don't know why so many people are going nuts over this when it already came out last year!

To the best of my knowlege, It didn't "Come out" Last year, It was only Revealed to the public last year. It doesn't Come out for purchase until later this year.

Andrew

Sorry Steve, but your wrong. Microsoft has been developing (click on origins) this far before Jeff Han even released his technology. And while Han's may have been demoed before Surface, Microsoft actually has a product which it can release and support because of its massive ability for financial backing.

It's so depressing to see Apply Fanboys immediately dismiss this. Just because it doesn't have an "i" in front of it's name, they are already dismissing it as shit. I hate close minded people. This looks awesome. I can only hope it is affordable enough for it to enter society on a massive level.

zombie a gogo

Can you imagine how often you'd have to clean that thing off. I mean touching it all the time...imagine all the fingerprints that's going to be on it.

bunnikun

Looks pretty cool, but you have to think about the functionality. Is it big? How do you type? Will it take longer to do things like go on the internet? Is it durable?

It could turn out to be awesome, but it doesn't seem all THAT useful at this point. Looks expensive, so why pay a lot when your laptop can just do the same things, with out the touch screen feature?

I'd really have to see all the features it can do, before I get excited about it. I watched the video's, but they didn't seem that informative. It definitely has the potential to be a great family-friendly product.

HMTKSteve

Sorry Steve, but your wrong. Microsoft has beendeveloping(click on origins) this far before Jeff Han even released his technology. And while Han's may have been demoed before Surface, Microsoft actually has a product which it can release and support because of its massive ability for financial backing.

It's so depressing to see Apply Fanboys immediately dismiss this. Just because it doesn't have an "i" in front of it's name, they are already dismissing it as shit. I hate close minded people. This looks awesome. I can only hope it is affordable enough for it to enter society on a massive level.

Are you calling me an apple fan-boy? 'Cause if you are you obviously do not know me well enough to judge what I am a fan-boy of.

Regardless, I do not see a consumer-niche for this product. I do see a business niche but why would a consumer want to buy this?

bunnikun

Regardless, I do not see a consumer-niche for this product. I do see a business niche but why would a consumer want to buy this?

Exactly. It could be useful for businesses, but not for the consumer, so far as I can tell.

Andrew

Looks pretty cool, but you have to think about the functionality. Is it big? How do you type? Will it take longer to do things like go on the internet?

It's not meant to be a normal PC, nor replace one. We need to move away from the mouse and keyboard paradigm and I feel this is a step in the right way. That is the whole point on why we don't use a laptop. For example, the restaurant program looks awesome and that isn't something you can do with a laptop.

Andrew

Are you calling me an apple fan-boy? 'Cause if you are you obviously do not know me well enough to judge what I am a fan-boy of.

It was a general statement (that's why it's a separate paragraph)...

HMTKSteve

Where the surface will shine:

1. As a business information kiosk
2. As an engineering design/display device
3. As a printing design/layout device
4. As a graphical design workstation
5. As an audio/video mixing device

bunnikun

It's not meant to be a normal PC, nor replace one. We need to move away from the mouse and keyboard paradigm and I feel this is a step in the right way. That is the whole point on why we don't use a laptop. For example, the restaurant program looks awesome and that isn't something you can do with a laptop.

I guess I'm looking at it as a normal PC, but I still don't see the reasoning in such a thing. If you can do the exact same things with a computer, why get this?

Although I do have to agree with you WiP, I've been waiting for a company to get into the more "interactive" design of products. It's good to see microsoft taking a step in that direction, even if their product doesn't seem all that useful to me yet.

Andrew

I could see it work on the consumer level with:

• Children's tables (good for coloring/interactive learning)
• Kitchen surface (pull up recipes/tutorials on cooking)
• House controls (Alarm controls/ AC-Heating controls)

Granted, they would have to be on a smaller level, but the technology is there.

Bronzdragon

Yes, It looks awesome, but it will just be a really awesome gadget... It would be hard to type with no keyboard, and if it's a on screen keyboard... Why bother?

So don't go selling your computer just yet... this doesn't make it any less awesome though ;-)

HungryJoe

It kind of reminds me of the interface Tom Cruise was using in Minority Report in the way one can drag stuff around. Remember in that movie how he was dragging stuff around and opening widows on a holo-screen thingie looking like he was an orchestra conductor?

HMTKSteve

I could see it work on the consumer level with:

Children's tables (good for coloring/interactive learning)


Crayons and paper are so much more economical.

Kitchen surface (pull up recipes/tutorials on cooking)

True, but it would need to be mountable on a wall and nearly flat.

House controls (Alarm controls/ AC-Heating controls)

We already have touch screen devices for this.
Granted, they would have to be on a smaller level, but the technology is there.
This technology uses cameras and such things to recognize what is on the surface. The items you describe above work with existing touch screen technology. Except for using the device as an expensive coloring book how many consumer uses exist that would benefit from this device rather than existing devices? The only thing that sets this apart from existing touch screens is the "multi-touch" component and the the ability of the device to "see" what is on its surface and act upon that information.

Churba

Just because it doesn't have an "i" in front of it's name, they are already dismissing it as shit.

Funny, I have exactly the same reaction about 98% of things with an "i" Prefix.

Edit -

5. As an audio/video mixing device

Good god, If they actually had one for that purpose, I would buy that fucking thing so fast my wallet would undergo spontaneous combustion.

HMTKSteve

The Audio/video mixing board IS the killer app for this device.

HungryJoe

I'm holding out for an Interocitor.

Omnutia

Just before you think any of this is some kind of innovation on Microsoft's part there was something almost identical to this developed by the people coming up with the light refracting multi touch screen thing. Especially with the pictures thing.
I'm not sure an audio mixing board would be highly practical with something like this as you'd really need to press down where as if you look at someone operating a mixer board their fingers only lightly brush the tops of each switch.

Come on people, this is Microsoft were talking about, stop thinking of how this could be cool and innovative and just try and work out how badly and expensively they are going to botch this.

Andrew

Come on people, this is Microsoft were talking about, stop thinking of how this could be cool and innovative and just try and work out how badly and expensively they are going to botch this.

Why do you automatically ride it off just because it was developed by Microsoft? Also, I "debunked" the notion that this is not an original Microsoft idea above. I have trouble understanding why there is so much hate for Microsoft when they finally come out with something new and original.

Apreche

Just because Microsoft makes something doesn't mean it will suck. Just because Microsoft makes something good doesn't suddenly mean the company doesn't suck.

Omnutia

WiP, before a flame war ensues allow me to show you why I'm right.
Microsoft in its current state with its current business practices is almost incapable of making an innovative product without hampering it with things that doesn't make sense, such as DRM (Zune, Vista), unintuitive (Zune media store), completely unfit for anyone to use (the UMPCs) etc...
This isn't all Microsoft's fault, the atmosphere of patents and law suits makes it very hard to do anything innovative or make any decent moves.

Andrew

WiP, before a flame war ensues allow me to show you why I'm right.
Microsoft in its current state with its current business practices is almost incapable of making an innovative product without hampering it with things that doesn't make sense, such as DRM (Zune, Vista), unintuitive (Zune media store), completely unfit for anyone to use (the UMPCs) etc...
This isn't all Microsoft's fault, the atmosphere of patents and law suits makes it very hard to do anything innovative or make any decent moves.

Oh, you mean like the DRM that iTunes still has (only EMI music has no DRM, and then it's $.30 on top of an already insane price tag)? You mean like the Newton that totally bombed? What about the Pippin? What the fuck was that? Let's not talk about the fact the Mac's use Microsoft Office products for Word Proscessing and other office tasks. What about the fact that Apple had to crumble under pressure to find a way so it's consumers can put Windows on a Mac? Look, it's easy to blow off a company because of a few mistakes. I'm not trying to say that one company is better than the other. It's much harder to look at the facts of the products they are releasing and how they compare to the market. If we all blew off companies because of a low point in their buisness/innovation, we would have passed over Apple years ago.