Posted on 06/20/2017 11:44:56 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
"If we're going to be able to create magical experiences with software, then the hardware will be the thing that people buy to go experience that," Microsoft corporate VP of devices Panos Panay told TIME during a recent interview. We were discussing his company's decision to release its first true laptop after years of selling hybrid computers, namely the Surface Laptop, which began shipping on June 15. "And [when] those two things work perfectly together in a seamless way, that brings elegance out," he added.
If that approach sounds familiar — using the sleek, shiny allure of new gadgetry as enticement to deeper software experiences — it should. Apple has long prided itself on the way its hardware and software work together. "People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware," Apple cofounder and former CEO Steve Jobs said as he unveiled the first iPhone in 2007, quoting renowned computer scientist Alan Kay. It was both manifesto and goad, a philosophical mic drop preaching the inseparability of form and function.
Ergo the notion, evidenced by Microsoft's shift to fully authored devices like the Surface line, that the company is finally heeding that Jobs-ian fiat. Observers have been saying so for months and in some cases years. Look a bit further and you'll notice that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer began sending up Apple-ish smoke signals as far back as 2012.
But the idea is reaching an inflection point with the emergence of Microsoft's latest computers, the Surface Laptop and Surface Studio. The Surface Laptop oozes design characteristics redolent of Apple's, from the way the notebook's lid is crafted to be easily lifted with one finger, to the aluminum finish and glossy Windows logo etched into the back.....
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Sorry. I’ll never use a Microsoft anything by choice - they lost me years ago.
Microsoft was never cool.Mac had the better platform but lost due to not understanding the marketing genius of Bill Gates (aka Satan) The first damn thing I do when I get a new computer is to download Firefox.
Lol. It’ll take them another 30 years to get the hardware right for a laptop. They should just send Windows to the Xbox team and be done with it. The only thing Microsoft has done well is finally getting Office to run better on a Mac then on Windows, and that also took them 20 years. It only started working well on the Mac about 6~7 years ago. Now it’s much more stable on a Mac than on Windows. That says a lot about their shi**y operating system underneath.
Not so long as it’s machines run windows
Maybe Apple will dust off those iconic Mac vs. PC ads, but update them to included the rainbow of 2010s “cool people”.
Those old ads were too white and too male by today’s standards (at least on the Mac side). The PC side will be whiter, older, and nastier than ever, and for the first time, PCs will be racist, homophobic, and Islamophobic, and will wear MAGA hats.
Pinging dayglored for the Windows/Microsoft list.
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Ha! Well said!! And TRUE!
>>Microsoft was never cool.Mac had the better platform but lost due to not understanding the marketing genius of Bill Gates (aka Satan) The first damn thing I do when I get a new computer is to download Firefox.
Firefox, Chrom, and Cygwin are the three must-haves when forced to work on a Windows box. Cygwin is the posix/unix “emulated” shell that basically lets you work on windows with most Unix commands just by installing some software, rather than actually install a new Unix/Linux OS.
Microsoft and hardware?!? Can you say “Zune”! Only thing MS made in hardware that was decent was their ergo keyboards.
I did that in the last week on a new Win10 Pro box. Did all the Microsoft updates, then Firefox. I’ll still use IE for Outlook Web Access, but FF for most things.
Linux is the must-have when forced to work on a Windows box.
To me, the attraction of the Surface line is contingent on how well it runs Linux. I.e, Wi-Fi, multiple displays large and dense, touch-pads. If it solves those, there is no need for Windows (except in a VM). If not, then Mac!
Microsoft is hopeless stuck in a morass of corporate think and endless money. Everything they touch turns to lead. Just look at how they managed to destroy their console device because of hubris. “You gamers just don’t know what’s good for ya...here, have a machine that advances our corporate tech footprint doing crap you don’t care about. Just shut up and buy it!” Only Microsoft could manage to make Sony cool!
I just had Windows 10 installed on my laptop at work.
It constantly guesses at what I want to do and constantly guesses wrong. Spellchecker constantly changes peoples names and street names and tech jargon after I have spelled those things correctly. Then I don’t catch the things it changes and send out embarrassing stuff and blaming the spellchecker sounds lame, even though everyone knows it is true.
It constantly tries to help me with popups. I’ve been able to turn off some of them. But many “helpful” interruptions cannot be turned off.
MS will have to do better than Windows 10 to impress anyone.
It just hit me what has been missing from the discussion of “Make America Great Again.”When you say “MAGA” you will be asked “When was America Great?” and be subjected to a litany of complaints about racism, etc, in the past. The answer is not that the things of which we can now (self righteously) complain were good, but that they were being ameliorated. The answer is that since the “Great Society” we have been
The “Great"
- Losing Ground:
- American Social Policy, 1950-1980
- Charles MurraySocietygovernment was imposed on us just when racism was about to begin to die. Through the Eisenhower Administration the seeds were planted, and progress was beginning. LBJ saved the Democrat Party by stopping that, and keeping blacks “on the plantation.”O Beautiful for patriot’s dreamAmerica was great when we were progressing. Cynicism prevents progress.
that sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
undimmed by human tears.
And oddly enough, Trump uses a MacBook.
Thanks to Swordmaker for the ping!!
I considered the new Microsoft Surface Pro, but two matters deterred me:
1. Windows 10s. This is a dumbed-down version of Windows 10 — which is annoying enough in its own right.
2. This device cannot be fixed or upgraded. If it breaks (or the battery dies) it must be discarded. It received the lowest score possible from Ifixit:
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Laptop+Teardown/92915
Where's the YouTube of Steve Jobs introducing the iPad, which (as I recall) he called a "magical" device...
LOL, now that's funny.
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