Microsoft Surface Tablet announced

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In this thread: hilarity.

Why someone isn't allowed to be genuinely excited about a product, or why someone has to choose a "side" is beyond me. If you are dismissing the Surface as it was announced yesterday out of hand you are beyond insipid.

We may get more information (battery life / price) to make a final opinion later, but to make assumptions merely to shoot holes in something people are clearly interested in is...well...being the internet I suppose. But this whole thread is out of hand. Ick.
 
In this thread: hilarity.

Why someone isn't allowed to be genuinely excited about a product, or why someone has to choose a "side" is beyond me. If you are dismissing the Surface as it was announced yesterday out of hand you are beyond insipid.

We may get more information (battery life / price) to make a final opinion later, but to make assumptions merely to shoot holes in something people are clearly interested in is...well...being the internet I suppose. But this whole thread is out of hand. Ick.

I think most of us are reserved yet optimistic.
 
It looks thick because the edges taper off at a 22 degree angle, compared to a bigger angle on the iPad 3 which makes it appear not as thick.
 
No one but Intel makes chips at 22nm currently. That 22nm is the IVB in the pro just like it is in every other IVB machine.
Apple has moved to 32nm in the iPad 2 where the iPad 3 is still 45nm.
 
1000% agreed. MS should have had the balls to just go with Metro on the RT Tablets. Having a desktop there is just stupid stupid stupid. There's the Pro model for that shit. They need to push a cohesive message with the RT model, getting kicked back to the regular desktop when you launch Office is so goddamn stupid on an ARM tablet. It's more of a hinderance than anything. So Office for Metro isn't ready yet? Fucking wait until it is before putting it on the tablet, the world can wait. Imagine if Apple released Mac iWork for the iPad that kicked you to an OSX desktop because the iOS version of iWork wasn't ready yet. Do you think they wouldn't get crucified for that? This is the only major flaw that I've seen with the RT tablet OS, it could poison the whole well.

Maybe I missed it, but where did they show desktop running on the RT? I thought RT/ARM couldn't run in desktop mode? :S
 
The Desktop is there purely for Office. When you're actually using Windows RT, you can barely tell that the desktop is there at all. You simply use the start screen to switch apps, just as though they were Metro apps, and they can run in full-screen with a single click.

WinRT (the development platform) simply isn't robust enough for something as massive and capable as Office.
 
Really?

A link to those sources?

Well someone mentioned an article confirming it a few pages ago, but looking into it, it's from gizmodo so I dunno about the credibility of that. Otherwise, people, such as Shog have said the pen looks to be wacom tech based off of the tip.
 
The dang touch keyboard is pressure sensitive. It would be a huge, weird mistake if the stylus wasn't.

I'm not surprised people are down on the desktop mode of RT but I think it's a big selling point over similar products. Metro versions of the programs should be there but having the ability to plug an ARM tablet into a monitor and getting a traditional Microsoft Office interface is pretty awesome.
 
I think most sources have said nothing is really known about the specs.

True, the tip does look like wacom's though.


The dang touch keyboard is pressure sensitive. It would be a huge, weird mistake if the stylus wasn't.

I'm not surprised people are down on the desktop mode of RT but I think it's a big selling point over similar products. Metro versions of the programs should be there but having the ability to plug an ARM tablet into a monitor and getting a traditional Microsoft Office interface is pretty awesome.

The keyboard and the stylus don't really have anything to do with each other.
 
I think most sources have said nothing is really known about the specs.

"the sources" was me speculating based on 3 things:

1. look of the tip

2. "600 DPI" figure is closer to Wacom's 500+ lines per inch than NTrig's 2500+ PPI

3. Dude flipped the pen and used the eraser. That's a Wacom only feature.
 
CEO Steve Ballmer sent out a company wide email about Microsoft's new Surface tablet.

Todd Bishop at Geekwire got a copy.

For the most part, it's a pretty bland rah-rah email.

However there is one funny little zinger where he makes fun of Google+: "We made search more social (and we did it the right way!) with a significant redesign of Bing."
Google has been trying to cram Google+ into its search results, which has infuriated the tech pundits.

Here's the rest of the letter:

From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 4:31 PM
To: Microsoft – All Employees (QBDG)
Subject: Big Day, Big Year

I love this company.

I love that we have brilliant engineers with brilliant ideas. I love that we aren’t afraid to make big bold bets. I love that we are persistent – after all it’s our passion and tenacity that bring our dreams to life. And right now, I love how so much of our hard work, passion and tenacity are coming together in the products we are bringing to market.

Today, we made an exciting and significant Windows announcement — we revealed Microsoft Surface — a new family of computing devices from Microsoft. Surface complements the work of our OEMs and fulfills the Windows 8 vision. You can learn more and watch the event video tomorrow on the Microsoft NewsCenter.

This great news comes on the heels of an incredible few months. Just think, we celebrated the one year anniversary of the Skype announcement. We shipped the Windows Release Preview. Dynamics delivered key updates, and continues to crank out double digit growth. We made search more social (and we did it the right way!) with a significant redesign of Bing. We announced that we’re making entertainment more amazing with Xbox on the phone, PC, tablet and TV with the coming releases of Halo 4, Internet Explorer on Xbox and SmartGlass. We shared our vision for a new era of cloud computing with Windows Server 2012 and important advancements to the Windows Azure services. And in the next few weeks we’ll see more great news and momentum from the Windows Phone Division and the Microsoft Office Division.

Our plans are well underway to unleash an incredible pipeline of new devices and services that consumers love and businesses need. Our work is getting noticed and our customers are excited.

We still have a lot of hard work to do. But today, I encourage you to pause and reflect on how far we’ve come over the past few years and how much further we’ll go in the next one.
I’m incredibly proud of the work this company is doing and incredibly optimistic for what’s ahead.

http://www.businessinsider.com/stev...he-launch-of-the-surface-2012-6#ixzz1yIlm7hej
wonder if that is a hint at more devices or just the surface.
 
"the sources" was me speculating based on 3 things:

1. look of the tip

2. "600 DPI" figure is closer to Wacom's 500+ lines per inch than NTrig's 2500+ PPI

3. Dude flipped the pen and used the eraser. That's a Wacom only feature.

God that would be awesome.

Is the eraser a wacom thing only because of patents?
 
The dang touch keyboard is pressure sensitive. It would be a huge, weird mistake if the stylus wasn't.

I'm not surprised people are down on the desktop mode of RT but I think it's a big selling point over similar products. Metro versions of the programs should be there but having the ability to plug an ARM tablet into a monitor and getting a traditional Microsoft Office interface is pretty awesome.

The stylus is presser sensitive, according to Gizmodo.
 
God that would be awesome.

Is the eraser a wacom thing only because of patents?

Not sure. It just might be no one else wants to spend the money for an extra pressure assembly in their pen. Also, most competitors use battery in their pen, so space is constrained back there, and it's another battery drain.
 
The desktop mode of RT I think is the main differentiator between it and the iPad...having full MS Office preinstalled is a pretty big deal. For many people, they really could replace their computer with the Surface RT if Office is what they mainly use on their computer (for example, I think it would be much more feasible to send someone to college with a Surface RT to write papers on than an iPad)...

To put it another way, Microsoft sees Office as the killer app for the Surface, and has engineered the device accordingly (hence the attention paid on the two keyboard covers, etc.)...I think it's a valid strategy, it will definitely be interesting to see how it's received.
 
I think another big part of Microsoft's strategy needs to be having special features tied into with the next Xbox and Windows 8.

I was at a friends house and they are all Apple fans, they have the newest iPad's, iPhones, Apple TV, etc., and I loved how you can watch something on the iPad and flick it on the TV. Stuff like that is something Microsoft needs to do to create an ecosystem. They can do some really cool stuff with a tablet, the next Xbox, and the Kinect or Next Kinect.
That's what Smart Glass is for. It's the evolution of Windows 7's 'Play To'

Moreover, the rationale behind WinRT is to get variations of the kernel running on everything (720, Apollo, etc). That way, many of the apps and basically all of the services will be everywhere, and all sharing the same data.

While it will take a while to get everything running, MS is poised to actually have a larger, cohesive ecosystem than Apple.





I'm hoping the Pro comes with Haswell if it isn't coming until 2013.
Well, they did say it's a new chip.

And if the rumor's true that RT is actually using Wayne, I'm shocked they aren't making a bigger deal about it. That thing is going to melt faces. Granted there's plenty of time before launch.





Do you think Microsoft has sent Google scrambling in any way today? They seem to be the ones that have the most to lose from Surface.
It hurts the argument for higher-end Android tablets certainly ... but if it's true Google's 'Nexus' tablet is that lower-priced ASUS model, I'm not sure it matters all that much as far as the upcoming Google announcement. They're targeting a very different pricing tier with a smaller form-factor (~7") tablet.

Would have been amazing if B&N or Amazon showed off the new Nook/Fire this week though :D

Actually I've been arguing pretty much since Windows RT was announced that I just don't see Android having a serious long-term presence in the 'full size' tablet market. Where I think they'll continue to do the most damage is in the ~7" market. And while I'm a proponent of 'vanilla' Android for phones, I actually think think the forks like Nook and Fire stand a better chance. Basically more focused devices instead of the everything-to-everyone-but-kind-of-sucking-at-it-all state of things. Android's OS and ecosystem for tablets would need to change pretty dramatically to convince me otherwise.
 
i wonder if the Pro model can be hacked to run OS X
Hahaha oh wow ... hadn't thought of that :D





Amazon will get the Fire down to a disposable price soon enough and it will become a stocking stuffer. The only thing it is going to kill is the traditional e-reader.
That gave me an interesting thought. Thinking long term, once high-refresh color eInk displays become available, will that actually replace the small-scale tablet? I could see a focused 'tablet' ala Nook/Fire that has a week or two battery life pretty much killing off small tablets.





anyone know the graphic power of this thing?
Not really?

They seem to be implying it's some new generation or custom version of Ivy Bridge for the Pro. So at worst, look to how the HD 4000 performs.

For the RT unit, rumors are pointing to it actually using Wayne (Tegra 3+), which looks to be an incredible ARM SoC. However there aren't benchmarks for it since it too isn't complete.





This seems like microsofts wakeup call to the pc hardware manufacturers out there..


Guys.. stop making your plastic garbage with no design thought. Youre ruining our software business!
better late than never :D





I think it's all very interesting in that this is probably the biggest shift toward being more like Apple that MS has ever made, primarily by embracing the integrated hardware-software solution. Taking that holistic approach is always what has put Apple ahead, so it's going to be very interesting to see MS follow suit. I think I'm right in saying that this is the first time that Microsoft has designed and built and marketed a complete PC under its own brand name, right? That is a huge, seismic change.
Yep, first time.

And it certainly is a huge deal, though obviously they aren't moving directly into Apple territory. For the most part, this is more akin to how Google handles Nexus products than anything. They aren't moving away from an OEM model.

The one area where things get more interesting however is in their tight handling of HW specs for Windows Phone and Windows RT. That's the more interesting move IMO (though it's been discussed for a while via WP7). What's more amusing is no one has really bothered to comment much on Intel's entire Ultrabook specification which is pretty tight as well. Especially given most see the Ultrabook (and related hybrids) as being the future of laptops.





The only thing that concerns me, and its pretty much out of Microsoft's control, is the device's (tablet) software catalog. There's only so much Microsoft can do on that front, and unless the device catches on in a big way, that's always going to be an aspect that iOS and Android find themselves superior within.
The genius move MS made in all of this was to include WinRT in Windows 8. Since there's an automatic userbase, expect app development to escalate faster than it original did for other ecosystems 'starting at 0'.





It's like an iPad... except it's for adults.
Apple - the OT Nintendo





if it is indeed a tegra 3+ its a 28nm 4+1 big.little setup, so i can believe it

if its the normal tegra3 thats available now... its a piece of shit and its only redeeming factor should be that you can get it for under $200.
A bit extreme, but I feel ya'. Tegra 3 was always supposed to involve a die shrink, but delays prevented it so they went forward with kludge-fest anyway.

The interesting thing for nVidia though is that this will actually help the marketing for Wayne. The jump is going to be pretty insane given it involves the move to Cortex A15's, and entirely new GPU design, and a die shrink from the previous model.





sounds about right. will tegra 3+ even make it out this year though?
3rd quarter





Hrmm, something has been bothering me about the kickstand. I hope its adjustable and not always at a certain angle, or I could see it being a problem.
22 degrees only. Could be a problem for some use-cases. The good news is the screen has fantastic viewing angles, so if that's your concern don't worry.





Building an OS that can work on both tablets and desktops is... not something you can pull out of a hat. It took a long time for Microsoft to get Windows 8 and they're not only betting the farm on it they're risking the desktop goodwill they build with Windows 7 and they're letting Windows Phone 7 die in favour of Apollo (which I bet my left nut is a WindowsRT device) and the jury is still out on how Windows 8 will actually do. And they are still risking confusion between the RT only devices and the full Windows 8 ones.

If this actually works the way Microsoft wants and Windows 8 does indeed beat both iOS and OSX at the same time then this will have been a software marvel and one of the best tech plays ever.
Yes all signs point to Apollo running the WinRT API, but that's hardly 'letting it die'.

You need to separate the UI and feature-set from the kernel and API. The change that's happening is Apollo is dumping the Win CE kernel in favor of NT, and utilizing the WinRT API. The rationale is simple. MS is basically moving all of the consumer devices to said kernel and API in order to allow app compatibility and services sharing. They are going after a single ecosystem and UI to chase Apple.

If anything though, WP7 heavily influenced WinRT. The UI, overall design language, even app contracts are all evolutions of WP7. And Apollo is not going to look all that different from WP7. So really it's kind of the opposite. While the underlying codebase may be changing, the core front-facing experience will remain and its basis is expanding to all parts of 'Windows'.
 
So, the Surface for RT spec sheet says it includes Office 15 apps. Am I crazy, or did it previously say Office Home and Student 2013 RT?

Hopefully it includes Outlook.
 
So, the Surface for RT spec sheet says it includes Office 15 apps. Am I crazy, or did it previously say Office Home and Student 2013 RT?

Hopefully it includes Outlook.

Office 15 will be named Office 2013. Windows RT will come with Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote. No Outlook.
 
Not really?

They seem to be implying it's some new generation or custom version of Ivy Bridge for the Pro. So at worst, look to how the HD 4000 performs..


It will be interesting to see what it is , it could end up being haswel

Haswel has dx 11.1 , a new cache design , 40 eu's vs 16 of ivy bridge , new power saving systems and 64megs of cahce for the gpu. This will most likely rival trinity parts in graphics performance and the cpu should be way faster.


Its supposed to hit anywhere from march to june. So if we look at the time line ms said 3 months after windows 8 launches the surface pro will hit. So if we are looking at the middle of Oct for windows 8 then middle of January for surface pro. I can see intel being able to supply enough haswels to MS for it and it would make sense for MS to be coy about the cpu
 
"Implying"? They said at the event that it was an Ivy Bridge i5.

He also says it delivers more power than todays i5s .... todays i5s are ivy bridge.

So lets see what happens. Its 9 monthstill this launches most likely and it makes little sense for ms to wait till 2013 to launch this and not use haswell which hits in march of 2013.
 
He also says it delivers more power than todays i5s .... todays i5s are ivy bridge.

So lets see what happens. Its 9 monthstill this launches most likely and it makes little sense for ms to wait till 2013 to launch this and not use haswell which hits in march of 2013.

He said "3rd generation i5", which would not be Ivy Bridge strictly speaking since Ivy Bridge is part of Sandy Bridge generation, but he also called it Ivy Bridge by name as well, so I think it's Ivy Bridge and he was just confused about which generation that falls under.
 
It will be interesting to see what it is , it could end up being haswel

Haswel has dx 11.1 , a new cache design , 40 eu's vs 16 of ivy bridge , new power saving systems and 64megs of cahce for the gpu. This will most likely rival trinity parts in graphics performance and the cpu should be way faster.


Its supposed to hit anywhere from march to june. So if we look at the time line ms said 3 months after windows 8 launches the surface pro will hit. So if we are looking at the middle of Oct for windows 8 then middle of January for surface pro. I can see intel being able to supply enough haswels to MS for it and it would make sense for MS to be coy about the cpu

If it will be using Haswell, great, but then I don't know why they announced the surface Pro a year before its ready to be released.

And in a year, convertable Ultrabooks with Haswell CPUs will be smaller as well, and probably eliminate the need for a surface pro type of device altogether.
 
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