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You are living in a pipe dream.
499.99 is the absolute bottom of the barrel for the 32 gb version; probably 599.99
They said priced competitively; looking at the market, competitively means something in that neighborhood.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
here's an idea
don't announce a product when it's nowhere near ready
Yeah, that part made me laugh. You could tell he was not pleased with having to go grab the back up unit. I wonder what caused the trouble though? Was it just the machine not wanting to cooperate? Sweaty fingers not transferring to the touch screen well?
Battle.net: Fireflash#1425
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I have memories of Bill getting slammed with a BSOD at an event ages ago, and Steve Jobs having to ask everyone in attendance to turn off their wifi hotspots because their demo was trashed by them... these things happen; chaos during live events is a hell of a thing.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
No, they are portents of a failed product. [/sarcasm]
That's the thing though. The BSOD (it was windows 98) happened because it wasn't ready. The Surface crash happened because it wasn't ready. The iPhone demo wifi thing happened because of outside interference (wifi dogpile), not because it wasn't ready.
So yeah, don't announce and show off stuff if it isn't ready. It lowers your chances of this happening to you.
And it looks super dumb when you can only let journos touch it for half a second.
Useful diagram:
That's what I've been saying.
And it would still be a pointless diagram because, as far as I know, everyone in this thread already knew it was a tablet and not a laptop, so a diagram pointing out that it is a tablet instead of a laptop seems like the exact opposite of a "useful diagram"
I mean, I'm pretty sure. Maybe Falken didn't know it wasn't a laptop so he needed the diagram?
I'm at a loss.
And a bad tablet, because in order for the ZX81 hot pink edition to be useful, you need to pick the x86 model... which means you're running desktop windows. On a tablet. Because that's worked so well in the past.
If you hate the product so much and claim not to be a troll why are you still here?
To point out why it sucks?
Microsoft has gone forward and admitted themselves that they are releasing a fragmented product and have no idea how they are going to get people to buy into it. What dev is going to go and build Metro apps when Microsoft itself puts out a nearly identical x86 device that runs everything on the desktop, plus Metro. So if people keep going for x86 apps on their tablet, who is going to buy the WinRT model, which can't play any of the cool kid x86 stuff, other than those that want the thin model? Those that do go for the thin model (cuz it looks nice!) will find out they have crap all to do with it because their friend over there bought into the "Surface for Windows 8 Pro" edition despite it being a bloated whale. That guy with the thin model will go to the forums and complain about what crap the tablet is and why he can't load up steam and play Terraria on it and all he could do was play last years game of cut the rope and (maybe) Angry Birds Space.
Anyway!
Microsoft would be stating a far stronger statement if they put out just 1 version (either arm or x86) and 1 type of keyboard (the thin 3mm touch) and laid off on specs other than saying it had a retina like display, had hours of battery life and hey look, cool apps. Instead we got an un-charismatic CEO waving around some nice individual ideas without anyone to glue them together into something cohesive. I would've been sold if Ballmer came out and waved around Surface x86 and said, "Look! We made something nice! It's a fat Zune HD but it can run everything! And it's $500! It even has our exposed screws industrial design!" with the metro ui and that awesome thin smart cover that doubles as a keyboard. But I'm not sold because he waved 4 divergent things around and two very different (even if they look the same) platforms running on them.
Because, you know, MacBook Air and iPad. Except in this case, both form factors are (theoretically) better portables.
The Pro $900 (speculatively!) beast is for people who know what they're getting, and will probably be gotten by who know exactly what they're getting. The other one is for people who probably don't have old applications/care if they work, and there are numerous people who fall into that category. My wife doesn't care what version of Office she has on her computer, as long as it works and as long as it gets on the internet she could give two fucks about everything else. The person you describe who plays Minecraft/Terraria is more than likely going to be informed on what will play or work on which version anyway, unless clueless people have started playing niche geek games.
The "power user" will get the x86 version and be well-versed on what will work and what won't. And as for "bloated whale", the 13.5mm thickness is still thinner that the Air at it's fattest part by a hefty margin and still below most ultrabooks on the market. Whether it will be more valued that something like the ASUS TaiChi is yet to be determined, but it is by no means oversized. It isn't a consumer tablet, it's a laptop replacement/daily driver, it's got an i5 with an Ivy Bridge and it's a productivity machine.
And as for who would develop for a Windows 8 marketplace... man, I dunno, do you think the limited Windows userbase can churn something out? /s
He's furiously trying to impart how it looks like a ZX81 keyboard, even though they look nothing alike.
It's a flat, unmoving membrane. I could compare it to the controls of a microwave if you'd prefer?
Form factor would too.
It's really the case of two products that look super similar but for the thickness issue. The iPad vs Air really helps that out too - the OS on each can't even be mistaken as the same and both products are iconic in their own areas.
The two versions of surface do not share that - other than thickness they look alike right down to the OS... and that is the problem. As a dev why would I want to support the metro framework? it's already a pain that apps from WP7 aren't that easy to port due to MS changing things yet again, while if I target x86 at least I get more flexibility and can target more customers, especially those that are not upgrading
If Microsoft came out with one model it would be easier to commit with their vision. Saying one is for productivity and one is not doesn't work - enterprise had had no problem with adopting the ipad in far greater numbers than the air or mbp and it doesn't have any of the high end specs.
That's why my argument is that it would have been far stronger going out the gate with a single strong vision of what a Microsoft portable device is. I like the product but I hate the fragmentation before it is even released.
The amount of "mobile" Windows dev is actually very limited, look no farther than WP7 for that. I don't question x86 devs, there is awesome support for that and they would need convincing Microsoft is willing to support the arm platform.
do i have to make airplane noises
First:
WP7 market is growing at a healthy rate, so that's sort of a moot point. Windows 8 will probably be on more computers in a few years than the total number of smartphones in the world. There simply is no shortage of audiences for Windows 8. Even if it sells 25% of what Windows 7 did, that's 150 million. That'll best Android in a year, maybe 18 months.
It's the largest ecosystem in the world for apps, and it's completely untapped.
It's going to take people not wanting to buy apps or download apps at all for this to be a complete and dismal failure. The audience and market numbers for Windows just blow everything else out of the water, so much that even if it's a massive bungle they've got more than enough money and power to outlast a potential flopped release and weather it until Windows 9.
well win8 is superposed to be out mid-late this year, and the surface pro about 3 months after that from what I've read. so December might happen.
Why they announced this thing with 6 months+ until it's available is really dumb, they should take the Apple approach of "on sale in 10 days" from the press conference.
Satans..... hints.....
A tablet with full OS support?
Really?
All of a sudden I'm interested.......
I mean, yeah, tablets are cool. But for a long while they were just a fancy media consumption device.
I'd also say Microsoft is missing out on a big opportunity if the thing doesn't have built in hardware to sync with 360 controllers.
This does not give me hope. I think they are trying to sweep it under the rug with the rest of GFWL, even though that controller and adapter is the absolute best part of that whole exercise.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Don't assume bad intentions over neglect and misunderstanding.
The Wireless Receiver is basically treated like...the rest of Microsoft's PC office hardware which, for all intents and purposes, it is. Microsoft has almost a dozen different computer mice out at any different time, introducing new ones for whatever "specialized purpose" and retiring the old ones a few months later, with a few models persisting longer. Same for keyboards. The wireless adapter has been treated the same, since nothing is stopping you from buying a USB controller--still fully supported and immediately usable in Windows 7.
Given how they manage any one accessory, why exactly should they give a crap about a +5 y/o accessory for an accessory that a cheaper alternative already exists for? And that's before the working generic knock-off? Don't get me wrong, I like my Wireless Adapter, but with every wired Microsoft Xbox 360 controlling device using USB...not a lot of reason for it. Technically, if I wasn't periodically playing my PC in my living room, and within that, occasionally using a controller, I would never be required to use it. A wired controller could do everything potentially better.
So if me and three other people want to play Super Mario Brothers X or Sailor Moon R in the living room, then it's useful. For a purpose the generic knockoff does as well.
I know people love to hate on GfWL, and not without reason, but that's an entirely separate matter of Microsoft's disinterest in peripherals for peripherals. The controller is great. And by design, the wireless adapter is basically a tiny, tiny aspect of that. Would it be nice if they cared? Yeah, it would be, but the wireless controller has been around for coming on seven years. That particular peripheral is not equivalent to it. The only way I could see it being tied to GfWL would be the argument that Microsoft has completely turned its back on PC gaming, which is a whole other matter, but assuming it was true, then they have even less reason to give a shit.
It's not like the DS3, which replaced feels-like-cheap-crap plastic Sixaxis.
As I mentioned, there are a few rather specific cases that only the wireless adapter could meet (well, that and the generic knockoff). But given how Microsoft handles peripherals nowadays, the behavior seems completely normal for them, and for corporations as whole. I mean, I wish MS manufactured the Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 still, but the fact is, there's not a huge market for it either. As well as having alternative options (albeit substantially different and inferior, unlike the wireless knockoff).
If I didn't do most of my gaming on the couch with my 360, I'd have wired controllers.
But opinions, olo
:winky:
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
It's a popular controller for that reason. Microsoft, unsurprisingly, has given way more support to it than Nintendo and Sony have with their controllers combined. Last time I checked, not only was getting a DS3 a bitch to be detected by a PC (requiring either blutooth or a driver hack to go through mini-USB), the actual driver support is nonexistent.
And don't get me wrong, I would have that additional finger space that's taken up by the battery pack--but I prefer the added weight. If I could have both....