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[Windu]

i think $800 is the low point for the intel one, the Acer 700? i think that was that it is called has similar specs and they are saying 799-999.

 

[Alchemy]

how well does OSX run on low powered machines anyway?

Runs smooth on my Mac Mini that has a Core 2 Duo in it and 2GB of RAM. Use it mostly as a HTPC, it pushes 1080p video fairly well.

 

[Windu]

Runs smooth on my Mac Mini that has a Core 2 Duo in it and 2GB of RAM. Use it mostly as a HTPC, it pushes 1080p video fairly well.

ah ok. thanks.

 

[adelante]

In our lifetime we'll have machines far more powerful than this, that are no thicker than the KICKSTAND.

And those machines, will have its own MICROTHIN KICKSTAND

 

[szaromir]

In the future you are the computer.

 

[xtop]

The first Surface Pro Hackintosh is something that would be relevant to my interests. You know it won't take long.

well there's something i hadn't even considered. i was already sold on the pro, but this would really be something

 

[derFeef]

And those machines, will have its own MICROTHIN KICKSTAND

Invisible kickstand, power by actual airflow.

 

[eznark]

In the future you are the computer.

I'll pass on the kickstand

 

[SUPREME1]

I'll pass on the kickstand

You buy the kickstand, the computer is thrown in for free.

 

[derFeef]

I'll pass on the kickstand

Wait a minute...

 

[Gary Whitta]

well there's something i hadn't even considered. i was already sold on the pro, but this would really be something

No touch support so it wouldn't really work as a tablet but with the keyboard cover it'd be a very nice ultraportable laptop, even smaller than the MacBook Air!

 

[jagowar]

MS really needs to price this competitively, $499 for RT and $999 for Pro sounds about right, even lower would be better, that would shake up Apple

That's is my guess for the price.... and would be quite reasonable imo.

 

[Troll]

I'll pass on the kickstand

but they look so good

 

[eznark]

http://www.ecoolgadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Temporary-Prosthetic-for-Lower-Leg-Injuries.jpg[/IMG


but they look so good[/QUOTE]

.....that's not where it will come out of

 

[Azih]

Here's a question. Could Microsoft make it's own phone?

 

[Windu]

No touch support so it wouldn't really work as a tablet but with the keyboard cover it'd be a very nice ultraportable laptop, even smaller than the MacBook Air!

not really worth it imo, the air is pretty damn thin already, just about as thin as this tablet.

Here's a question. Could Microsoft make it's own phone?

They will probably let Nokia do that.

 

[Troll]

.....that's not where it will come out of

...... Yeah. You're probably right.

 

[Gary Whitta]

not really worth it imo, the air is pretty damn thin already, just about as thin as this tablet.
They will probably let Nokia do that.

True. <3 my 11" i5!

 

[Troll]

Here's a question. Could Microsoft make it's own phone?

0/10

 

[Windu]

True. <3 my 11" i5!

you could always buy a touch ultrabook with a flip around keyboard like the Lenovo Yoga.

 

[Dark_AnNiaLatOr]

Honestly after this announcement, all my desire for an ultra book is gone. This is the ultra ultra book.

 

[Raistlin]

the keyboard is one of those simple idea's that should have been obvious but hadn't been done yet. Unfortunately, they just showed it off at least 9 months from when they are going to launch. Everyone is going to knock that off in the meantime.

lol wut

Gamers?
Have you tried gaming on a ULV i5 laptop with integrated graphics?
At best it'll run your 2D games and pre-2005 PC games, all the while blowing it's fans like crazy and sucking your battery completely dry.

hyperbole much?

Well, for what's worth, the Surface Pro has a 42Wh battery. For comparison, the Air 11 uses a 35Wh one while the Air 13 clocks at 50Wh.

The processor is gonna be the same as in the Air 11 most probably, a 1,7ghz dual core ivy bridge, so that's equal. Screen is smaller but higher res, so more power-hungry.

My estimation: 5-6 hours of battery life, supposing W8 is as good with power management as Mac Os X.

Actually the reason for the delay is they are using a next gen or custom Ivy Bridge (3rd generation), so it may be slightly better? But in general, that seems like a logical estimation.

So the Surface Pro seems like a pretty stellar device...but I can't shake the feeling that it's just an Ultrabook in Tablet clothes.

+ Digitizer for you pen-inclined folks
+ Great keyboard cover idea
- It's 2 pounds (heavy for a tablet...people already don't love the 1.4 pounds of the iPad)
- The keyboard cover is useless on your actual lap
- No announced battery specs
- No announced price

...other than this, it's just a Windows 8 tablet like every other. It's basically just a heavy/powerful tablet with digitizer for the few people that would want one with a great portable keyboard solution for desks (not laps).

I was incredibly impressed with Microsoft at the conference announcement, but again, I can't shake the feeling that this is just MS achieving above our expectations, but not actually delivering a product that makes sense for the everyday consumer.

Businesses will likely leap on these. Consumers, I'm not so sure.

It is a hybrid ultrabook ... but some (including me) expect that long-term this is the next paradigm in computing generally speaking.

Obviously this has a sweet form-factor and materials, but it's not particularly divergent from other offerings. What's important here is the marketing this has established. Historically MS has simply left it to OEM's to drive awareness and push form-factors. And unfortunately that hasn't really worked vs Apple. They're somewhat taking a page out of their book in order to push things forward here. So far, seems like it's working - at least in terms of media exposure.

Yes it does. That's exactly what it means. You need to get over this argument.

Actually that isn't necessarily true, unless there's a concrete definition of what 'under-use' means.

If it means people that literally do not use anything that does not have a suitable tablet rev ... then sure. However I imagine there are plenty of people that 'under-use' their PC (as in, not using tons of features and capabilities), but still are using some items not well represented or suited to current tablet/mobile-only OS's.

If this product is well made, and there's any justice in the world, this will completely eat Apple's lunch. It's a macbook air combined with an iPad, and strictly superior to either.

Apple had every chance in the world to do this with the iPad, but their approach was so lazy. An iPad is just an iPod touch scaled up. They didn't give you an actual powerful computer with a fully featured OS, they didn't give you fully featured hardware with USB and so on, and they didn't give you the possibility of a laptop form factor.

We might want to wait and see about that

There are some areas it's already known to be deficient in, and plenty of things up in the air. What it really is hoped to be is an excellent example of merging the two together ... I wouldn't expect it to necessarily best them separately. It doesn't really need to either.

How many of those 200 million will have touchscreens or even want to use metro apps in the first place when they have full blown windows available?

It seems we want it both ways. On the one hand people say most people only use their computers for a limited amount of tasks on a regular basis ... and on the other we have people saying that wouldn't want an interface that makes doing those simpler?

How do you use a multitouch gesture based app on a device with a keyboard and mouse without a touchscreen?

Metro is designed to work with touch, keyboard, or mouse.

If OSX could run iOS apps, do you think that would make a difference in their sales? Do you see people dying to run iOS apps on their macs?

Plenty of people have requested just that.

That said, it's not quite as useful. W8 live tiles makes having apps on a home screen much more useful that static apps. Which again is why I see desktop users taking advantage of them for common tasks.

 

[derFeef]

Here's a question. Could Microsoft make it's own phone?

Nah.

 

[krypt0nian]

And many of them do stuff with laptops that iPad doesn't do well. Thus iPad isn't full replacement for laptop. It can replace it for some people, but not for others.

You said it as if it were universally true. Of course there are some where it cannot replace it, but again for many (most) it easily can. I think you're out of touch with what most people use their overpowered laptop for.

You've listed 3 things that an ipad and laptop can do. There must be hundreds of more basic things that laptops can do that the ipad can't. This is what Microsoft have come up with, for that reason.

Yes again things that most people never do which stil makes an iPad easily a replacement.


I never said it was a replacement for everyone. Just like the Surface isn't.

 

[SKINNER!]

MS really needs to price this competitively, $499 for RT and $999 for Pro sounds about right, even lower would be better, that would shake up Apple

The initial price of the HP Touchpad was $499. I'm hoping that MS do a better job at convincing the buyer that it's worth every penny.

 

[Zabka]

how well does OSX run on low powered machines anyway?

I used to have OSX on a first generation MSI Wind and it was actually pretty damn good. Much better than XP was.

 

[Gary Whitta]

you could always buy a touch ultrabook with a flip around keyboard like the Lenovo Yoga.

I could. But as you say what's the point when you've already got an MBA? sogood.gif

 

[Izick]

Nah.

Is that your Nokia Lumia 900? How do you like it?

 

[Windu]

I could. But as you say what's the point when you've already got an MBA? sogood.gif

dat touchscreen though.

 

[Milchjon]

0/10

Wait, is that really what the UI looked like? I kinda dig that.

 

[Windu]

Wait, is that really what the UI looked like? I kinda dig that.

supposedly it would have been a decent device if it had a non-smartphone data plan. but that ui looks like a mess.

 

[Gary Whitta]

Wait, is that really what the UI looked like? I kinda dig that.

Seriously? Looks like a fucking mess to me.

But yes it was the ridiculous data plans that killed it.

 

[Troll]

Wait, is that really what the UI looked like? I kinda dig that.

Zune HD says hi.

 

[derFeef]

Is that your Nokia Lumia 900? How do you like it?

It's an 800, love it
ninja edit: I would love a Zune-like WP8 from MS. Hopefully tomorrow.

 

[fluffydelusions]

Honestly after this announcement, all my desire for an ultra book is gone. This is the ultra ultra book.

++ as well as my desire for that Nexus tablet next week. Well I dunno still may be interested if less than $200 just to hold me over. I still love Android on the phone and my gf already has an iPad 3

 

[VPhys]

I've invested several hundreds into the iOS app ecosystem before I realized that I didn't care for 99.9% of the apps.

Really, the only app that I find I must have is the bank app for checking my account balance and that app costs $free.99

I have to agree with you there, I love my iPad 3 but the only apps I use consistently are my bank apps and Flixter.

 

[Tobor]

There's no version of this with LTE, right?

 

[Milchjon]

Seriously? Looks like a fucking mess to me.

But yes it was the ridiculous data plans that killed it.

Just looked up a video review. Yeah, not that great. I guess I just like green a lot ;-)

 

[Windu]

There's no version of this with LTE, right?

correct

 

[Troll]

There's no version of this with LTE, right?

yet

 

[f0lken]

There's no version of this with LTE, right?

It doesn't seem so, but it has usb port so you could use one of those data sticks

 

[fluffydelusions]

yet

yeah but it has a USB port so...

 

[brotkasten]

Data sticks are ugly as hell. I'd rather drain the battery of my tablet and phone twice as fast by tethering via WiFi than using one of those things.

 

[injurai]

Data sticks are ugly as hell. I'd rather drain the battery of my tablet and phone twice as fast by tethering via WiFi than using one of those things.

Beauty is pain?

 

[VanMardigan]

The iPad can be a laptop replacement for a lot of people because all they do is surf, chat, play angry birds, read email, play with a few apps, and go on Facebook. In other words it doesn't need to have all the applications that a regular laptop has. This argument (which I feel is valid) is being made in this thread by the same people who will turn around and argue that WinRT is inadequate despite doing all those same basics as an iPad. The reason: it doesn't have all the iPad apps. It hurts my head sometimes when I read posts from some apple fanboys.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

After having LTE on my iPad 3, I'm not sure I could go back. It's so great to have not on ly an always on connection, but one with that speed!

 

[PhatSaqs]

The iPad can be a laptop replacement for a lot of people because all they do is surf, chat, play angry birds, read email, play with a few apps, and go on Facebook. In other words it doesn't need to have all the applications that a regular laptop has. This argument (which I feel is valid) is being made in this thread by the same people who will turn around and argue that WinRT is inadequate despite doing al those same basics as an iPad. The reason: it doesn't have all the iPad apps. It hurts my head sometimes when I read posts from some apple fanboys.

lol. Truth.

 

[krypt0nian]

The iPad can be a laptop replacement for a lot of people because all they do is surf, chat, play angry birds, read email, play with a few apps, and go on Facebook. In other words it doesn't need to have all the applications that a regular laptop has. This argument (which I feel is valid) is being made in this thread by the same people who will turn around and argue that WinRT is inadequate despite doing al those same basics as an iPad. The reason: it doesn't have all the iPad apps. It hurts my head sometimes when I read posts from some apple fanboys.

Which people?

 

[Hoo-doo]

The iPad can be a laptop replacement for a lot of people because all they do is surf, chat, play angry birds, read email, play with a few apps, and go on Facebook. In other words it doesn't need to have all the applications that a regular laptop has. This argument (which I feel is valid) is being made in this thread by the same people who will turn around and argue that WinRT is inadequate despite doing al those same basics as an iPad. The reason: it doesn't have all the iPad apps. It hurts my head sometimes when I read posts from some apple fanboys.

You think the apps are insignificant? I humbly disagree.
The iPad is literally a touchscreen platform for anything people can think of, it's the biggest selling point of the device.

 

[Gary Whitta]

The iPad can be a laptop replacement for a lot of people because all they do is surf, chat, play angry birds, read email, play with a few apps, and go on Facebook. In other words it doesn't need to have all the applications that a regular laptop has. This argument (which I feel is valid) is being made in this thread by the same people who will turn around and argue that WinRT is inadequate despite doing al those same basics as an iPad. The reason: it doesn't have all the iPad apps. It hurts my head sometimes when I read posts from some apple fanboys.

I don't know who's been saying this in this thread but they're not wrong. If you don't think a vibrant app market is vital to a platform's success you haven't been paying attention. Metro has a LONG way to go in this regard.