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Microsoft Announces New 'Surface' Tablet, New Hardware and Software Based on Windows 8
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I think MS has a good product here..If I could find a use for a tablet this is the one I'd get..
The RT version doesn't interest me, but the Surface Pro does. It's an instant purchase, once it is available early next year.
Wonder if the Intel version will have sufficiently standard PC hardware so that it can run Linux or if Microsoft plans to lock it down using UEFI secure boot.
This thing + Linux/FreeBSD would be a nice portable laptop like device.
Its already been announced that it will be locked down unless a third party OS developer pays a "license fee" to MS of around $80 i think i read, so far i think Fedora and Ubuntu have applied for the "keys" needed to install on these devices.
http://www.zdnet.com/ubuntu-linux-adopts-new-uefi-boot-problem-approach-7000004648/
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The Intel version of the surface is everything the Macbook Air could and should have been two years ago, Apple dropped the ball on this one, the 128GB Intel Surface with the full keyboard cover is a no-brainer purchase for me as soon as its available, replacing my Macbook Pro and iPad with a single device. Install the Windows iTunes and it does everything my iPad does now.
First time ive said this in a long time, but , Microsoft has actually produced something i WANT to spend money on.
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For me, the Intel version is more like everything the iPad should have been....A tablet with a fully functional OS that I can actually do some work on, rather than some locked down thing just designed for media consumption.
Don't get me wrong, I have an iPad and it's OK for consumption purposes, but an Intel Surface Pro in the house would mean the iPad becomes a red haired step-child.
Don't get me wrong, I have an iPad and it's OK for consumption purposes, but an Intel Surface Pro in the house would mean the iPad becomes a red haired step-child.
Yes. Steve was always right. Always. And knows exactly what every single person's use case is. Even today. He was also against an iPad smaller than the one released and an iPhone larger than 3.5"
Same, I'll most likely buy the RT as a gift for my GF, she's been hinting at a tablet.
The pro is an instant sell for me the day it comes out. I might even buy 2 just for the hell of it!
Yes, he made a big deal out of the fact that the bottom 40% of other smartphones were taken up by a keyboard.
If Steve was alive today, and making a case for the Surface against a rivaling product called iPad, he would simply say "Notice how Surface uses the entire screen for content, while on the iPad, the bottom 40% are taken up by a keyboard, leaving barely any room for content?"
1. There are at least a dozen of keyboards you can buy for your iPad
2. Comes in 12 different versions. No thanks, Microsoft and OS just don't do it.
3. QuickOffice. iWork. If you need some serious editing, no tablet is going to do it for you.
4. Available from various cases.
5. Welcome in 1995.
Enterprise will not care about these things, but Microsoft will force it on them like it did with Windows and Office licenses. That's choice in the Microsoft eco-system.
Probably not. iPad has had the support for an external keyboard since the beginning and Apple even made a keyboard dock when it debuted.
You do realise this is an old thread you've just ressurrected right ? And Ubuntu and RedHat's ways are being denounced by the FSF. I don't run those distributions anyhow, I'm a Arch or Slackware guy.
So, spend even more money, and the Microsoft keyboard looks like its a cut above the vast majority of iPad keyboards.
Comes in an ARM and X86 version, so theres really only 2 versions. There are sub versions of the X86 version. Because Microsoft is in more than just the consumer market, they're in far more markets than Apple. And they realize that different users will want different things. Does a basic user really need The Ultimate version of windows? No
I'll take it, I'll get real Multi tasking, which iOS can't do. And I'll get better productivity apps. And I won't be locked into Apples Eco System ( I'm getting the pro myself, this does not apply for the RT ).
Windows 8 is a far more capable OS than iOS.
Both of which are junk compared to office.
So, spend more money again. And put a big bulky case on your iPad, making it thicker and heavier, which is what most Apple guys seem to love for whatever reason.
So, all the things the Surface already comes with. You have to buy Extra on an iPad. Which can't even multi task.
So your saying the iPad is pre 1995? USB Didn't even exist in 1995.
Perfect integration with their Windows networks? Yes, Enterprise cares about that. Alot. Why go to extra lentghs to make an iPad work with your network and software when a Surface will already work with everything right out of the box?
I'll personally be getting the Surface Pro, I like real computers. Not toys. The surface pro is a perfect tablet for me, it has real hardware, a real operating system, and its not limited to Apples small software selection, and it'll do everything I need it to do right out of the box.
Thats also why enterprise will love it, everything they need it to do, can be done out of the box. Unlike the iPad, which straight up is a pain in the ass to manage.
"Real computer users use command line interface with a keyboard, not toy gadgets like a mouse" - someone from 1985.
A real computer has a keyboard, and multitasking, and hardware that doesn't perform like desktops from a decade ago.
I don't want to be limited to Apples ****** little eco system, and I don't want to be limited to Microsofts ****** new ARM device eco system. I want a computer that can run pretty much anything. Something an iPad or a Windows RT tablet won't be able to do.
That would be like ONLY installing first party software from Apple on my Imac, that would be silly.
Sure, just like how a GUI-based Mac is a toy that's slow, limited and only intended for people with no intelligence to use real computers
As much as you seem to hate the new wave of ARM (or any SoC based on similar architecture) tablets with a regulated/curated app respository, that's where the market is going and it certainly has a use for it and Surface Pro isn't going to change that. I've used the Samsung Slate which has a very similar to Surface Pro, equipped with Windows 8 and it's still no match for ARM tablets as a tablet. Surface RT might fare better if it's built better than others but I still don't see what makes Surface RT so different from something like a ASUS Transformer WinRT version.
Sure, just like how a GUI-based Mac is a toy that's slow, limited and only intended for people with no intelligence to use real computers
Nah, this is where we are heading
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY
* vomit *
But, I hate the ARM based Tablets because for a good one, like an iPad, or a higher end slate, or a Surface RT, your easily paying 500 dollars for one.
And your so limited on what you can do. And your basicly paying 500 dollars for a laptop without a keyboard that performs like a desktop from 10 years ago. I'm not into paying more for less.
And yeah, the market is going that way, and hell if it becomes 100% closed and all that, I'll say **** it and go to linux more than I already have.
Not sure wehat makes them different.
However, the Surface Pro to me is another animal, I can have a real computer in tablet form, with a nice keyboard, a full OS, in something that looks to be very well made. And I can still install all my legacy crap on it.
For me I cant install...anything on an iPad for example, unless Apple tells me its ok,
If I'm gonna blow 500 dollars on a tablet, I'll say screw that and go buy a laptop.
Yes, hence my response to the "If you need a keyboard you blew it" bit. The assumption being that anything with a physical keyboard is automatically a clunky and inferior solution. But that wasn't the issue Steve was addressing. His point was that blowing a big chunk of the front panel on a smartphone on physical keys is dumb since different apps need different input.
This has zilch to do with Surface vs. iPad.
Both have onscreen keyboard -- tie.
MS has built a physical keyboard into their equivalent of the iPad SmartCover -- advantage Microsoft. If you want that for iPad you have to buy a third party product like Logitech Ultrathin.
Ah but here's the problem. The $500 notebooks are generally crap. Even when they have a decent processor and a good amount of storage, their build quality and display are usually terrible. Compared to those, a $500 iPad's lack of fuss and remarkable display is really great. It might be limited but for a portable system I don't mind it as much. And I say that as a person who bought the first EEE PC (701) thinking it'd be a good idea to have a "real" computer at that size.
The problem with Samsung Slate, which on paper is very similar to Surface Pro sans the detachable keyboard, was that when I was using that as a tablet, I kept hoping I'd rather have an iPad due to the weight, poor battery life, and the lack of touch apps. When I was using it with the keyboard dock, I kept hoping for a real laptop/desktop instead because it was just awkward and for an i5 machine the performance didn't feel all that great.
I guess if you absolutely have to have everything in one package, it might be a great choice but I feel it's just not good enough of a tablet nor a laptop.
Agreed. If you shoot for versatility, endless possibilities and blah blah on something that small, all you get is a Swiss army knife. It can technically do lots of things but it sucks at all of them compared to dedicated tools. I prefer focused, intentionally limited products that work more like a machete, and I'm OK with the fact that a machete is a terrible corkscrew.
Sure it does to you, so you can use it as a validation of your own point.
Microsoft is in the business market They are in nothing else - their business industry pays for their utter failures, like Zune.
Multitasking is a dream on iOS. And you'll be locked into MS Enterprise System with failing software. You're getting suckered into it again.
Windows is fancy eye-candy without any decent thought of how people use computers. This is Vista (security nightmare) and 7 (slide something aside and all of a sudden it takes up half my screen space - thank you for this marvellous gem, Microsoft) revisited. You are getting suckered into it again.
Word sucks, Access is for only a marginal number of people. Excel is for my secretary and Powerpoint < Keynote by a landslide.
Nothing is free in Windows world - good luck losing productive time that you'll spend on repair time.
It is probably you who cannot multitask.
Well...good luck with your USB on your Surface - it sounds real inventive to have to carry something with your data on it so you can work on your Surface.
As said - the Microsoft option of choice. Gridlock users because of business deals. Which are largely illegal according to the EU.
I'll be laughing at the Surface Pro, I like real invention rather than blatant copies from a company that hasn't shaped the tech industry in more than 15 years, despite numerous attempts. Plus, I like to be productive: I do not need a machine that needs two hours of software repairs per week and will probably be out of juice after three hours of work.
In fact, my university bought 300 iPads last spring. It was a breeze to set up - printing, networking, email, software. Printing costs have gone down by 50% and productivity (measured using various proxy measures) has gone up by some 30%.
The only way the Pro will be successful is if Microsoft employs their old style - company deadlocks.
Again, you are getting suckered into it again by Microsoft's promises, promises, promises. You probably had high hopes of Zune (did you Wifi your music to somebody else??) too. Or you just might be Mr. Paul Thurrot himself.
Anyway, the Surface is another Microsoft fail in the making.
that whole post could of been summarized as "apple good, ms bad" and it would still hold the same level of intellectual discussion the original presented