Microsoft just unveiled its first laptop — and claims it's twice as fast as a Macbook Pro

Business Insider ^ | 10/06/2015 | Lisa Eadicicco and Matt Weinberger

[SeekAndFind]

Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled its first laptop: the Microsoft Surface Book, a 13-inch touch-screen device that also comes apart to become a tablet.

"This is the ultimate laptop," Microsoft's Panos Panay said.

It has two processors and a dedicated graphics-card system. Microsoft says the laptop is twice as fast as a Macbook Pro.

Pricing starts at $1,499, and the laptop will be available on October 26.

As with many devices in the Surface line, the Surface Book can detach from its keyboard to become a tablet. The keyboard can then dock on the back of the tablet to keep it all together. It also uses the Surface Pen stylus that comes with Surface tablets.

It's designed to add more power than the Surface Pro 4, also announced Tuesday. It's for gamers and any enterprise worker who needs more graphical horsepower under the hood. In fact, the Xbox team contributed its graphical expertise, Panay said.

Panay showed off how smoothly Windows 10 games like "Gears of War" and "Gigantic" ran on the Surface Book, even while using video-editing software to record game footage.

Interestingly, the graphics card lies in the keyboard unit, which means you will lose some horsepower while it's unplugged — at a likely gain to battery life.

Plus, it has a super-quiet, backlit keyboard, Microsoft promises, with a great typing experience. It also sports a promised 12-hour battery life.

[dhs12345]

Yup. I think that it is called the free market system. :)

[Grampa Dave]

Windows 10 Devices Impress, But It Won’t Matter Because Microsoft’s Mobile Ecosystem Is Crumbling
IBT ^ | 10/7/2015 | Paul McDougall
Posted on 10/7/2015, 2:57:55 PM by catnipman

The fact is, the mobile purchasing decision for most consumers is now more about buying into, and sticking with, an ecosystem than it is about a particular device — no matter how well crafted. And Microsoft’s ecosystem can’t yet compete with what’s on offer from Apple, with its iTunes store, Beats 1 streaming radio, Apple TV and other cloud services. Phones that run Google Android, meanwhile, boast more than a million apps and seamless integration with a host of services like Docs, YouTube and Gmail.

Microsoft’s problem is that most users in the U.S. already are on Android, which holds 51.4 percent of the mobile OS market, while Apple’s iOS commands 44.2 percent. Microsoft, more than a year after acquiring Nokia for $7.2 billion, holds just 2.9 percent of the market

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3345946/posts

[Loud Mime]

You have a point with the ergonomic keyboards. I started on a real typewriter, graduated to teletype in the military, then to an IBM Selectric. My wrists welcomed the ergo-keyboard.

Some day, the laptops will move toward them.

[Fresh Wind]

The best thing about the ergonomic keyboard is that you can have a plate of food in front of you as you type!