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Not true. I cant install Adobe Flash IDE (not the Flash Player but that's a factor too), which I use to prototype my application development. Most of the time when I travel I feel inspired to actually do some work, so tablet wouldn't cut it in that case.

Well, that's just a limitation coming from choosing to not develop that IDE on a tablet. But lets be honest. For most people, a tablet OS does most of what they need, and for the few things it doesn't do, most people are satisfied with using a laptop, and for the few things THAT doesn't do, people can use a Desktop. I don't think this will be popular because it isn't optimized to be either a tablet OR a laptop. It's pretty much a half-way product. Android and iOS do better, as do Windows and Mac OS on laptops, because those are designed for those roles.
 
I'm all giddy with excitement ...

I'm all giddy with excitement ... not.

At this point, Microsoft can't seem to deliver anything in the right timeframe. But we'll see if the other "Steve" can muster any enthusiasm aside from his own.

Microsoft seems to be this big dumb goofball in the room, trying to impress people with what they are doing, but unable to because they just can't get it quite right.

Perhaps Windows Phone, or Zune Phone, or Live Phone, or Sky Phone or Kinect Phone, or whatever they end up calling will be of interest. I expect not.
 
If he starts going on about how "The operating system is called Windows 7" I'm going to loose faith in the company as a whole. Ballmer shouldn't be in charge anymore, he's missed the boat on so many things now.

Its a company run by crazy old men. They really need new blood but that not going to happen any time. The founders will have to drop dead like xerox for things to get better. :)
 
Ive built my own HTPC using an Intel Atom with nvidia ion 2. I have Windows 7 on it and its great for browsing the internet and watching hd videos. No slow down what so ever. Ive even played a few games on it. HL2 lost coast got 34 fps on the benchmark. Doesnt even have a fan in case and never overheats. Granted my htpc does have one of the better atom cpus and the ion2 helps a lot. If they use similar components in the new slates ill buy one asap :eek:

Your HTPC is plugged into a wall to drive all that capability.
 
I say BRING IT!!!

Competition is a good thing.

What competition? How many ipad killers are now out there, and they all are so lame. Bring a real product then we can see competition work.

Can't wait till the next Ipad know to me as "iPad Extreme" comes out. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. My new years wish is Retinal Display on the new iPad Extreme, yeah baby. ;-)

So much porn so little time :eek: could not help it.
 
Maybe on that wasteland of an OS. On Windows I've never had a Flash-related crash. And that's not just Windows 7, I'm talking since XP at least. Flash is not dying. HTML5 is getting more popular, but Flash is not even close to slowing down. Two million developers don't stop just because 5% of the market says so.

So what about Pizza Hut? What about Dominos? What about carrier pages? What about videos sent by family members? What about 70% of the web?

Flash IS dying... I would not even think about making a flash site now because it would not be mobile compatible. I don't see that mobile is ever REALLY going to support flash 100% so it makes more sense to use other technologies.

Face it.. Flash is bloated and people don't like it. Give them an alternative and they will run to it.

Click to Flash is my best friend.
 
I'm all giddy with excitement ... not.

At this point, Microsoft can't seem to deliver anything in the right timeframe. But we'll see if the other "Steve" can muster any enthusiasm aside from his own.

Microsoft seems to be this big dumb goofball in the room, trying to impress people with what they are doing, but unable to because they just can't get it quite right.

Perhaps Windows Phone, or Zune Phone, or Live Phone, or Sky Phone or Kinect Phone, or whatever they end up calling will be of interest. I expect not.

Zune phone. Coming Zune.

Sorry, I had to. :D
 
...

This tablet they will introduce will run and support Flash, and will run full Office, Firefox, and the millions of applications out there that run on Windows 7 will run on it. So you tell me which is the better window.

I have a feeling your last question isn't rhetorical, though any sane person with the thinnest grasp of recent tech history would surely urge you to make it one.

What Apple have achieved is nothing less than a tail wagging dog market. Beginning with music and moving onto phones and apps, and then books, TV programmes, magazines, movies etc. at an ever increasing pace, they have totally revolutionized the marketplace.

Providers of the above services and products now look to Apple for not just the lead, but the entire future direction of their business models. Sure, many were reluctant to begin with, very reluctant indeed, but the reality is that the model works.

So, where do you really think Microsoft fits into this scenario? Providing "the better window" - just because it does Flash?? Oh please. If your favourite pizza purveyor isn't already updating its web site to work on iOS, their bottom line will very soon tell them to prioritise the task.

As for the rest of your wish list, soured relations with Google may well be delaying Firefox coming to iOS, but the Mac development arm of Microsoft has a deal of autonomy, and has a history of keeping up with Apple's dev. programme recently. Expect to see either Word and Excel on iOS very soon, or a much improved Pages etc. As for Powerpoint, Keynote had this beat years ago.

As with the propaganda wars, perception is everything. The perception that Microsoft is no longer a player is though much more than that, it's based on reality. The massive time lag in their development programmes is now starting to show much more than ever as they have a much smarter, richer, more verbally circumspect, and much more efficient competitor - again.

But if that was all MS had to contend with, maybe, just maybe they might stand a chance. But they now have a totally random third player in the game. In a three cornered fight, the slower protagonist always loses. Why? Because increased competition, just as in time of war, increases the pace of development.

Your post is full of hope for things to be as MS would like us to believe things will be. Predicting the future used to be enough to keep a bunch of geeks and pundits waiting for whatever eventually emerged from Redmond. Not any longer. When the entire music, film, TV, book and magazine publishing world is re-aligning itself to work with Apple, it's obvious the future has already been mapped out, and the party is planned. Microsoft hasn't been invited... because Microsoft is officially dead.
 
Well, that's just a limitation coming from choosing to not develop that IDE on a tablet. But lets be honest. For most people, a tablet OS does most of what they need, and for the few things it doesn't do, most people are satisfied with using a laptop, and for the few things THAT doesn't do, people can use a Desktop. I don't think this will be popular because it isn't optimized to be either a tablet OR a laptop. It's pretty much a half-way product. Android and iOS do better, as do Windows and Mac OS on laptops, because those are designed for those roles.

Unlike most others on this forum I'm only saying what I want, what I need. I;m not trying to predict the future what will be the next big thing, or even worse, claiming that I know what PEOPLE want. When it comes to tablet, I want freedom to install any desktop application, file system, flash player, USB and a nice attachable keyboard so I can actually work.
 
LOL

Someone suggested Flash is the selling point. I saw mobile phone ads using this too. It is so silly. Flash will die soon. Or perhaps Apple has made Adobe start fixing it? Anyway that is hardly a selling point.

And I'll wager the Adobe "fanboys" are the ones hurling that label about most often. The irony...
 
Finally a proper tablet with a proper OS where I can install and run applications and not just "apps", and access the file system as I want it.

MBP for work, Windows Slate for travel, media library and ebooks, iPhone for smartphone.

MS has to do some wild hybrid version of Windows 7 for this to be successful. Just tossing a full OS on a tablet will not work as well as you think. The contols would be awkward on a touch screen. Menus too small. Item un-readable. Sort of like some of the pathetic Netbooks. Windows looked laughable on the Netbooks... now put your finger in it to navigate.

Besides... what would you do with a tablet? Email, read, light editing, listen to music, watch a video... oh yeah... all things that are good for a "non-proper" OS. :)

Just trying to make the point of what a Tablet is good for and heavy duty computing is not one of them. That's what your laptop is for.

With all that said... it will be interesting to see what they do at CES... I'm not expecting much and I do expect Apple to steal the show from afar.
 
I'm interested in seeing if they can come up with something compelling.
 
Let's be clear: what a lot of us want is the Ipad to be an MBP. I love my MBP and my Ipad. I wish my Ipad WAS a tablet MBP. One day it might be. Then, the computing world would be turned on its edge again.

It depends what aspects of your MBP you want your iPad to be. Do you want OSX on your iPad? If so, it probably won't happen for a while. Apple want to control its platform, and tightly as it can, so you'd only be able to get your apps from one source, so if your a developer, you wouldn't be able to develop your own apps, without paying Apple on a yearly basis, even if your Application isn't in the appStore.

iOS will probably grow into a platform that can perform as well as OSX, in a locked down environment, but Apple want battery life and performance so it probably won't happen for a while. The Air probably is the closset you'll get. I doubt the iPad will ever be as useful as a Macbook Pro, depending on your needs, because Apple restrict the type of software you can run. There's some gems out there that will neve see the light of day.
 
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LOL

Someone suggested Flash is the selling point. I saw mobile phone ads using this too. It is so silly. Flash will die soon. Or perhaps Apple has made Adobe start fixing it? Anyway that is hardly a selling point.

And I'll wager the Adobe "fanboys" are the ones hurling that label about most often. The irony...

Rudy, you sound like a very knowledgable person. Would you care to explain how and when HTML5 can fully replace Flash as delivery platform for apps based on custom interactive vector animation? Something Flash was doing for past 15 years.
 
why can't anyone be origional?? why does everyone try to copy apples iphone, computers, operating systems and now the ipad... seriously...

Well in short, they are like those kids who would try to bribe you to let them copy your work in school. They are just too lazy to exert the mental (fiscal) energy to do it right in the first place.
 
MS has to do some wild hybrid version of Windows 7 for this to be successful. Just tossing a full OS on a tablet will not work as well as you think. The contols would be awkward on a touch screen. Menus too small. Item un-readable. Sort of like some of the pathetic Netbooks. Windows looked laughable on the Netbooks... now put your finger in it to navigate.

My point is I'd like to have it both ways. Use it as a tablet with a touch screen, but some apps would be usable mostly only with keyboard and mouse.
 
LOL

Someone suggested Flash is the selling point. I saw mobile phone ads using this too. It is so silly. Flash will die soon. Or perhaps Apple has made Adobe start fixing it? Anyway that is hardly a selling point.

And I'll wager the Adobe "fanboys" are the ones hurling that label about most often. The irony...

I think Flash as a selling point is hilarious simply because the majority of people have no clue what Flash even is or why they need it.

It's like every time I burst out laughing for that droid commercial where "pixels whiz by at 1Ghz speeds". Its all buzzword marketing, and I understand that, but I think using Flash as your buzzword is a mistake.
 
And once again Microsoft misses the mark on what people want to do with these things. And overestimates how much people want to spend their time in Office.
 
I agree... I would not want to CREATE a long complex document, or work on a long spreadsheet or create a presentation on an iPad or any other tablet... period. Think about it. Why? Too cumbersome and too slow. Yikes.

I may want to do some light writing. I may want to adjust a spreadsheet or update some numbers and I may want to play a presentation or make a small edit. So really... I don't need any of these in full force on my iPad. I need players and light versions for minor edits.

I also agree... MS office is their bright spot. They are the standard there. But even Apple could make a clone player and editor based on what's in iWork.

we are digressing off the winpad topic but it's interesting to observe people comparing iWork to MS Office

the fact is that Office is more universal than iWork (useless to me)

the moment Pages can save to .doc or .docx and Numbers can save .xls
i would switch, otherwise iWork is just DOA

bloated ball...mer must stay on- just helping microsoft down the deep dark drain where it belongs
 
If it's more open than an iPad then I might have to get one. I also have an iPod touch so I don't need another iOS device.
 
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