Microsoft Surface.

[William769]

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/


Love it or hate it, this has me awe struck.

[Pawel K]

1. Saw it a couple weeks ago, simply amazing!

[Cronopio]

8. Demos always look amazing.

Remember, it's Microsoft. They never had the "WoW".

[Pawel K]

14. Man, can't believe there are so many nay-sayers around here

this is going to be sweet.

What exactly didn't impress you about this?

[originalpckelly]

24. Oh, I don't know, that the idea is fifteen years old and they stole it from Sun Microsystems?

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

[Pavulon]

29. It amazes me sun stays in business, really(nt)

[originalpckelly]

31. I know, with the anti-competitive tactics of Microsoft...

it's a wonder any computer company can stay in business and remain independent of them.

[Pavulon]

33. SUN competes with IBM, HP, etc

for UNIX computing space. Microsoft does not play in that arena. HPUX, AIX, and solaris are in their own little world.

[Pawel K]

47. Its just a matter of time before Microsoft gets in the unix game

if they don't they will lose a huge portion of the market share.

[BlooInBloo]

35. You're amazed that an $18+ billion company stays in business? LOL!!!

You've got some really high standards.

[Pavulon]

36. Compared with their competition, YES.

I don't have a problem with SUN. It is just an odd company. I guess java pays the bills.

[BlooInBloo]

38. LOLOLOL!!!!

[Pawel K]

45. Whoop dee do. And apple stole their os from Xerox

Then microsoft stole their windows OS from apple. And on it went.

If you think stealing is new in this industry you have a lot to learn ;-)

[Cronopio]

43. The assumption that people will want to buy an expensive piece of furniture to do computing with.

You want to see an impressive use of multitouch technology?

http://www.apple.com/iphone/

This is functional multitouch technology that works on a 3.5 inch screen, and goes with you rather than tying you to a coffee table running MS bloatware.

(And when you need to send The Surface to the repair shop, you lose the snazzy coffee table that tied your room together.)

[Pawel K]

46. I'm not sure they will be marketing this for personal use

I think it will be marketed for restaurants and other businesses.

[Bonobo]

2. It will fail.

[DS1]

4. Only software can save it

these things are always about shifting around photos. big fucking deal. I'd rather just have a nice grid system that keeps everything aligned. Oooh, zoom. :eyes:

[Greyskye]

15. i would be astounded...

...if you can't enforce a grid system of some kind. My guess is that Marketing felt that for the purposes of advertising, the 'random' affect had a bigger 'pop' factor. :shrug:

[meegbear]

5. Well that's enough proof for me ...

get that Bill, it's over!

[DS1]

3. Yeah, but it blue-screens while you're touching it

you die.

[Cronopio]

6. Everybody in ... the Microsoft prison.

What they don't tell you is that, when it core dumps, the power goes out and nuclear missiles are launched from Russia.

All part of the .NET revolution in interconnectivity.

[Wickerman]

7. Neat concept

Wonder how many versions it will take MicroSoft to get it to reach it's promise? Let's see, "we can bilk the consumer for about a decade, or 4 versions at $200.00 software update without ever really getting the thing to work as advertised. Then, in about 2018 we can roll out someting entirely different yet incredibly similar, suck up all the market share, and absorb all available funding sources so that we can stifle innovation from competitors." Sure, Mike, why not? It's worked before.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. Buffering.....

Want one of those coffee table sized things in your house so that you can look down over and move around images of pictures you have taken?

It's scary that after all this time & money it's what they have come up with. Reminds me of the Segway.

[Cronopio]

10. Except that the Segway software mostly worked. nt

[Greyskye]

12. The "Segface"

Or is that the "Surway"?

Allows you to easily move desktop images around while effortlessly balancing on two wheels. It's revolutionary!

[The_Casual_Observer]

13. There ought to be a segway picture on that coffee table.

[Pavulon]

23. I want one for a an improvement of machine interfaces

in my industry. The standard touch screen made a HUGE difference in how modern manufacturing works. The more drive into this technology the cheaper it gets.

That would be cool for a CAD station.

[BlooInBloo]

11. I think touch screens rule. My new toy, eg, kicks ass!

http://www.archos.com/products/video/archos_604wifi/tech_specs.html?country=global&lang=en

[Rockholm]

16. Way cool.

[high density]

17. Touch screens?

Erm... wow... I've never seen one of those before. :crazy:

[Duer 157099]

18. Wasn't this in the move "Majority Report"?

I could have sworn I've seen it before. Except it was vertical.

[Yukari Yakumo]

20. "Minority Report" and yes. {nt}

[Duer 157099]

37. LOL! Oops, got Sam Seder on the brain n/t

[Yukari Yakumo]

19. Pity it's not for home consumers (yet).

At a svelte asking price of $10,000 for one of these, me thinks I'll pass it up for now.

[mainegreen]

21. meh.

Yet another way to deal with digital photos.
I want the light based motherboard computer with holographic memory and a 3d holographic display with true voice based interface along with hand motion recognition.
That's innovation.

[Pavulon]

27. Gotta wait on DARPA

(doe, etc) supercomputing technology trickles down.. Governments buy them for "weather modeling" and push the industry.

[originalpckelly]

22. Also known as Multitouch and originally Sun Starfire, Microsoft DID NOT COME UP WITH THIS!

Once again, they're at their old tricks of copying someone elses design, only this is almost 15 years old:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfire_video_prototype

:puke:

[Pavulon]

25. No but they can make it cheaper

most industrial systems use touch screen, have for years. It is expensive and stagnant. The more money poured into it the better.

[originalpckelly]

28. Yeah, yeah the biggest monopoly in America is going to lower their prices...

:eyes:

This is not a simple touch screen, it is a multitouch screen which can be manipulated by multiple fingers, that's the only new thing here, and it really isn't that new.

Microsoft is an enemy of free markets everywhere.

[Pavulon]

32. Industrial Systems are designed

by a very few major players. MS is not really in that market. Pressure from anyone would lower prices. No one said it was new.

Microsoft is no different than the IBMs, CISCOs, and EMCs of the world.

[BlooInBloo]

26. Who claimed they invented it?

[originalpckelly]

30. Oh they always parade things out like they came up with something so special.

:puke: I'm so sick of Microsoft.

[BlooInBloo]

34. Ah.

[MyNameGoesHere]

42. No one forces you to use MS.

Oh well never mind it's easier to complain than JUST DO NOT USE MS

[Warren Stupidity]

41. Yeah I can buy one at walmarts.

Oh wait, I can't buy one at walmarts (not that I buy anything there.) It seems that 15 years after whatever Sun Starfire was or is, it is still nowhere. Microsoft might be a hideous evil monopoly, but they also manage to get products out that actually work and that you can actually afford to buy.

Ah - they produced a video of what such a device might look like and a paper. Perhaps you ought to look at the surface video - it is a demo of an actual functional device. 15 years later we have the computer technology that can make this happen.

[SergeyDovlatov]

39. Repetitive strain injury, back pain -- anyone?

I wonder what are the ergonomics properties of such a surface.

With microsoft surface you cannot sit straight, you have to stoop over it.
If you spend an hour or two over this surface, would your back hurt?

[Warren Stupidity]

40. It is simply cool.

It doesn't matter who makes it, there is no way to watch that video without realizing that this is a fantastic innovation.

[Cronopio]

44. Sorry, but it does matter who makes it.

This is from a company that makes a brown media player because - to quote the guy that runs the shop - "It's the color that most dirt bikers want."

http://gowest.blogs.fortune.com/2007/05/30/ballmer-well-try-harder/?source=yahoo_quote

It's a good looking demo, but it was more impressive last year when Jeff Han presented it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=esDhF9TgLPQ

And when you get beyond the demo Kool-Aid, you have to think about actually using the technology on a day-to-day basis. Think about sitting at a coffee table for 3 hours to do your taxes, or balance your checking account, or any kind of serious work. Think about the ergonomics of watching a 2-hour movie or an entire news show on a horizontal TV. Doesn't really work, does it?

MS is marketing it as a public computing kiosk because that's one of the few conceivable markets for it. From a human factors standpoint, there is nothing The Surface offers that basic multitouch and high-speed wireless technology can't do on the conventional desktop (or laptops) in a more practical way.

It would make a mean arcade game platform though. Maybe MS can update Pong for it.