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Microsoft Surface Tablet announced

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Zapages said:
I never said that I have one of those tablets... I am just teaching assistant. My friend, who is a teaching assistant as well is working more closely with the students. She came to me with all these complaints that the students had about their new tablets. One more thing, the tablets can't print to our school's printers as they don't have drivers for them. Ie. they are ARM based.

The school's reason and Tech support of our school's reasons are that much of the drivers are still in beta/we don't have them... Hence all these problems are present. They will be rectified throughout this semester. A hint towards Surface's release.

If you want to believe me or not... Its up to you guys. :)
Click to expand...
You said your piece, not really much you can do since all we have is your word and it contradicts what the news articles/your school's website say about the program. Pictures or some other form of definitive evidence would be interesting, though.

I don't think something like this would be possible unless students had NDAs or another reason to not publicize their toys.
 
Never the phrase "Pics or didn't happen" was more apropiate, especially when you said that nobody sign an NDA. But I am sure you have a lot of convincing reasons of why you can't take pictures
 
I recently talked with someone at Microsoft and he told me that there's a very small number of Surface units. I HIGHLY doubt they are giving them away just like that.
 
I have to teach this thursday and friday... There is one thing though, I am not going to jeopardize my job over this... Also I will try to take a closer look at them when I get a chance.

Cheers.
 
This thread took a strange turn. My money is still on a misunderstanding. If it isn't, it would be a surprise and also bad news...
 
Milchjon said:
This thread took a strange turn. My money is still on a misunderstanding. If it isn't, it would be a surprise and also bad news...
Click to expand...

I can't see it being bad news though... As Microsoft is working out the kinks right now with it...

I.e. Drivers and fine toning them. :)
 
Milchjon said:
This thread took a strange turn. My money is still on a misunderstanding. If it isn't, it would be a surprise and also bad news...
Click to expand...

As I said, I've been told that they have a very small amount of Surfaces. AFAIK we are talking about limited internal use, and chances are they'll keep it that way until production starts or gets close enough.

I don't want to get into details, but whatever Zap saw, it was most certainly not a Surface.
 
Teacher: Is that one of the new Surface tablets?

Student: Yeah

Teacher: Mind if I snap a quick pic? Some people I know don't believe we have them yet.

Student: I'M CALLING THE DEAN!

It's an old, cautionary tale.
 
dejay said:
Teacher: Is that one of the new Surface tablets?

Student: Yeah

Teacher: Mind if I snap a quick pic? Some people I know don't believe we have them yet.

Student: I'M CALLING THE DEAN!

It's an old, cautionary tale.
Click to expand...

Ask if he is related to any microsoft executives first
 
Zapages said:
I have to teach this thursday and friday... There is one thing though, I am not going to jeopardize my job over this... Also I will try to take a closer look at them when I get a chance.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

Give it up. You are very confused or lying. I think just lying. You are not going to be showing us a picture at all. It is ridiculous to even entertain the thought of Microsoft giving out the Surface already.
 
I really doubt he's lying and making excuses for why he doesn't have pics/isn't very willing to take pics. I think he's just misinformed, because I cannot find any information about the Surface tablet outside of what we've known for months. If it were so easily available, wouldn't we have hands on videos that go into full detail, along with exact specifications of its inner workings?
 
Windu said:
i doubt a student would care.
Click to expand...

Privacy concerns dude...

Anyway here are my reason breakdown:

From what I saw it looked like the Surface RT for the following reasons:

1) Students can't install any of their old PC software (x86/x64/.exes)
2) they had blue colored keyboard attachment on the bottom.
3) Drivers problems ie. not being able to print from them.

Our school printers have OSX/32bit/64 bit support. So the tablets have to be ARM based if they can't print from them and are waiting for drivers from Microsoft/etc.


Regardless, I will take a closer look at their tablets when they come to class or whenever I get a chance during the week.

Cheers.
 
Kenak said:
I really doubt he's lying and making excuses for why he doesn't have pics/isn't very willing to take pics. I think he's just misinformed, because I cannot find any information about the Surface tablet outside of what we've known for months. If it were so easily available, wouldn't we have hands on videos that go into full detail, along with exact specifications of its inner workings?
Click to expand...

Someone showed him pics of the Samsung they are handling in those school programs and he say those weren't, and then someone showed him pictures of the actual surface and he said that those were correct, so it is not a misunderstanding, he is either lying or MS somehow gave a bunch of surfaces to students without even get them to sign an NDA.
 
Zapages said:
Privacy concerns dude...

Anyway here are my reason breakdown:

From what I saw it looked like the Surface RT for the following reasons:

1) Students can't install any of their old PC software (x86/x64/.exes)
2) they had blue colored keyboard attachment on the bottom.
3) Drivers problems ie. not being able to print from them.

Our school printers have OSX/32bit/64 bit support. So the tablets have to be ARM based if they can't print from them and are waiting for drivers from Microsoft/etc.


Regardless, I will take a closer look at their tablets when they come to class or whenever I get a chance during the week.

Cheers.
Click to expand...


The fuck,
this confuses me,
you are saying, some microsoft executive gave it to their kids, with out even having them understand the difference between a normal windows pc and this tablet?

mind blown
 
Zapages said:
Privacy concerns dude...

Anyway here are my reason breakdown:

From what I saw it looked like the Surface RT for the following reasons:

1) Students can't install any of their old PC software (x86/x64/.exes)
2) they had blue colored keyboard attachment on the bottom.
3) Drivers problems ie. not being able to print from them.

Our school printers have OSX/32bit/64 bit support. So the tablets have to be ARM based if they can't print from them and are waiting for drivers from Microsoft/etc.


Regardless, I will take a closer look at their tablets when they come to class or whenever I get a chance during the week.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

Show pictures of the tablet with the kick stand out and show the keyboards.

Extraordinary Claims Demand Extraordinary Proof.

Your word is not enough so dont bother. Pictures of every angle or shut up.
 
Lucis said:
The fuck,
this confuses me,
you are saying, some microsoft executive gave it to their kids, with out even having them understand the difference between a normal windows pc and this tablet?

mind blown
Click to expand...

I am not the one who is training the students and telling them about the difference between ARM based tablets vs regular windows PCs.

Then again the students last were given these for a semester: http://campustechnology.com/articles/2011/08/23/seton-hall-to-roll-out-lenovo-android-tablets.aspx

Which was disastrous as well.
 
What confuses me is not how a normal person can't figure out a difference, (heck by now even my parents knows the difference)

What confuses me is that someone got a hand on one of them in PUBLIC. I know how hard it is even in Microsoft to get one of these, even if you are working on it. Most (majority by far) do not get a form factor box.
 
Karma said:
Show pictures of the tablet with the kick stand out and show the keyboards.

Extraordinary Claims Demand Extraordinary Proof.

Your word is not enough so dont bother. Pictures of every angle or shut up.
Click to expand...

Gosh, with such friendly responses, why would he not go out of his way to appease us? lol
 
Lucis said:
What confuses me is not how a normal person can't figure out a difference, (heck by now even my parents knows the difference)

What confuses me is that someone got a hand on one of them in PUBLIC. I know how hard it is even in Microsoft to get one of these, even if you are working on it. Most (majority by far) do not get a form factor box.
Click to expand...

Maybe they're not giving them out, because the Surface is actually just some other boring tablet.

aI1Y3.jpg


Look at him! That's not an excited user.
 
Is Angry Birds even in the Marketplace yet? I'm still stuck in the Consumer Preview, but I assumed all that stuff wouldn't be there until closer to release
 
WanderingWind said:
Gosh, with such friendly responses, why would he not go out of his way to appease us? lol
Click to expand...

Try to go to the iPhone 5 thread and claim that you have one and then say that you don't have to appease noone

And Angry Birds is not in the marketplace neither, but it could be the browser one
 
PG2G said:
Is Angry Birds even in the Marketplace yet? I'm still stuck in the Consumer Preview, but I assumed all that stuff wouldn't be there until closer to release
Click to expand...

I don't think angry bird was in the market place... yet maybe?, but Cut the Rope is free. And I am talking about RTM store (shared between 8 and RT)
 
f0lken said:
Try to go to the iPhone 5 thread and claim that you have one and then say that you don't have to appease noone
Click to expand...

Come on, the Apple system war baiting is silly. Yeah, he brought it up, so he should prove it. But come on. "TAKE THE PICTURES FROM EVERY ANGLE OR SHUT UP" is just being an asshat.
 
PG2G said:
So, he is pretty much full of it from that perspective as well. Maybe the students have access to a pre-release device AND the pre-release marketplace? lol
Click to expand...
There is a web version of angry birds, probably doesnt work very well with touch though.
 
Lucis said:
The fuck,
this confuses me,
you are saying, some microsoft executive gave it to their kids, with out even having them understand the difference between a normal windows pc and this tablet?

mind blown
Click to expand...

Most people don't know what a microprocessor architecture is. The idea that an ARM chip can't run x86 software isn't something they'd even think about. They don't even know what an ARM chip is.

So, here's the problem with Windows RT: It has Explorer. Therefore, it "looks like" Windows.

If it "looks like" Windows, then by all logic, to the average person, it should be able to run Windows software.

They try to install their favourite program on it, it doesn't work... "WTF is this piece of crap? What a rip!"
 
lunarworks said:
Most people don't know what a microprocessor architecture is. The idea that an ARM chip can't run x86 software isn't something they'd even think about. They don't even know what an ARM chip is.

So, here's the problem with Windows RT: It has Explorer. Therefore, it "looks like" Windows.

If it "looks like" Windows, then by all logic, to the average person, it should be able to run Windows software.

They try to install their favourite program on it, it doesn't work... "WTF is this piece of crap? What a rip!"
Click to expand...
I'm still interested how microsoft is going to explain this. Its going to be a clusterfuck either way though.
 
lunarworks said:
Most people don't know what a microprocessor architecture is. The idea that an ARM chip can't run x86 software isn't something they'd even think about. They don't even know what an ARM chip is.

So, here's the problem with Windows RT: It has Explorer. Therefore, it "looks like" Windows.

If it "looks like" Windows, then by all logic, to the average person, it should be able to run Windows software.

They try to install their favourite program on it, it doesn't work... "WTF is this piece of crap? What a rip!"
Click to expand...
Thankfully, we can count on Best Buy and the Geek Squad to help confused customers with their troubles.
 
Windu said:
I'm still interested how microsoft is going to explain this. Its going to be a clusterfuck either way though.
Click to expand...

To me is really simple, they just have to drop the "Surface for Windows RT" and "Surface for Windows 8 Pro" for "Surface" and "Surface Pro"

And then just say that the surface is for new apps, and the pro for new and old, I even explained that to my sister and she got instantly what kind of apps I was refering to
 
PG2G said:
So, he is pretty much full of it from that perspective as well. Maybe the students have access to a pre-release device AND the pre-release marketplace? lol
Click to expand...



f0lken said:
Try to go to the iPhone 5 thread and claim that you have one and then say that you don't have to appease noone

And Angry Birds is not in the marketplace neither, but it could be the browser one
Click to expand...

My Mentor/Cell Culture/Cell Biology/Pharmacology/Signal Transduction Professor told me and the rest of the TAs about the students having the Angry Birds on their Tablet as our school's IT department was offering him one of the tablets. But he has no need of them.

Once again, its the weekend I don't get to teach the students until end of next week(Thursday/Friday)
 
f0lken said:
To me is really simple, they just have to drop the "Surface for Windows RT" and "Surface for Windows 8 Pro" for "Surface" and "Surface Pro"

And then just say that the surface is for new apps, and the pro for new and old, I even explained that to my sister and she got instantly what kind of apps I was refering to
Click to expand...
Yeah but people won't listen and will still be confused.
 
f0lken said:
To me is really simple, they just have to drop the "Surface for Windows RT" and "Surface for Windows 8 Pro" for "Surface" and "Surface Pro"

And then just say that the surface is for new apps, and the pro for new and old, I even explained that to my sister and she got instantly what kind of apps I was refering to
Click to expand...

To me it's really simple, too.

To the other 95% of the population? "What do you mean it can't run my ancient piece of software? I don't understand. I thought it was Windows."

It will take A LOT of explaining.
 
Zapages said:
My Mentor/Cell Culture/Cell Biology/Pharmacology/Signal Transduction Professor told me and the rest of the TAs about the students having the Angry Birds on their Tablet as our school's IT department was offering him one of the tablets. But he has no need of them.

Once again, its the weekend I don't get to teach the students until end of next week(Thursday/Friday)
Click to expand...
I posted a video above. is the tablet in that video what you saw?

That isnt a surface.
 
f0lken said:
To me is really simple, they just have to drop the "Surface for Windows RT" and "Surface for Windows 8 Pro" for "Surface" and "Surface Pro"

And then just say that the surface is for new apps, and the pro for new and old, I even explained that to my sister and she got instantly what kind of apps I was refering to
Click to expand...

What does RT even mean?
 
f0lken said:
To me is really simple, they just have to drop the "Surface for Windows RT" and "Surface for Windows 8 Pro" for "Surface" and "Surface Pro"

And then just say that the surface is for new apps, and the pro for new and old, I even explained that to my sister and she got instantly what kind of apps I was refering to
Click to expand...

That's an improvement but still confusing.

Most consumers are going to assume they run the same apps, just that one is faster or has additional hardware features (like the difference between a MacBook and MacBook Pro).
 
Windu said:
I posted a video above. is the tablet in that video what you saw?

That isnt a surface.
Click to expand...

The one I saw had blue keyboard thingy that attached to the tablet and it seemed like surface tablet. I saw the tablet from the side and not from the front... All this was when I was in the line waiting for my Mac Book Pro Retina to get the software installed so that it could communicate with the school's printers. That is how I found out about the printer problem.

I will take a closer look at it later on when the students come in. :)
 
dejay said:
What does RT even mean?
Click to expand...
runtime i think. They call that new application model etc.. WinRT for windows runtime. So they called the arm os Windows RT. I assume they will just market it as windows on so and so device though. Will probably never say windows rt.

Then again this is microsoft and they could actually use that name with the general public...
 
Zapages said:
My Mentor/Cell Culture/Cell Biology/Pharmacology/Signal Transduction Professor told me and the rest of the TAs about the students having the Angry Birds on their Tablet as our school's IT department was offering him one of the tablets. But he has no need of them.

Once again, its the weekend I don't get to teach the students until end of next week(Thursday/Friday)
Click to expand...

They are not Surfaces, here an article talking about it
http://seattletimes.com/html/microsoftpri0/2018777694_seton_hall_university_giving_students_windows_8_ta.html?syndication=rss

Now, according to Microsoft, the university is also giving incoming freshmen and returning juniors Samsung Series 7 tablets or Samsung Series 5 ultrabooks running Windows 8.

Seton Hall University's mobile computing program provides a laptop to all its undergraduates as part of their tuition and fees.
Click to expand...
 
Retrocide said:
They are not Surfaces, here an article talking about it
http://seattletimes.com/html/microsoftpri0/2018777694_seton_hall_university_giving_students_windows_8_ta.html?syndication=rss
Click to expand...

Even if they are not surface.

It still does not explain the problems that students are having:

Zapages said:
Privacy concerns dude...

Anyway here are my reason breakdown:

From what I saw it looked like the Surface RT for the following reasons:

1) Students can't install any of their old PC software (x86/x64/.exes)
2) they had blue colored keyboard attachment on the bottom.
3) Drivers problems ie. not being able to print from them.

Our school printers have OSX/32bit/64 bit support. So the tablets have to be ARM based if they can't print from them and are waiting for drivers from Microsoft/etc.


Regardless, I will take a closer look at their tablets when they come to class or whenever I get a chance during the week.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
 
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