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With Surface Tablet, Microsoft Stands Alone
Mashable ^ | June 19, 2012 | Lance Ulanoff

Posted on 06/19/2012 8:02:28 PM PDT by SmokingJoe

With its new Surface Tablet, Microsoft didn’t just break the mold. It smashed it into a million little pieces, chucked them all into the furnace and set the temperature to obliterate. There really is no precedent for what Microsoft did this week. What was once recognizable is gone. The expected is no more. There are no rules, only supply and the possibility of demand.

Microsoft finally built the tablet it wants to use for its platform: an ultra-thin, superlight, kick-stand-sporting, brainiac-cover wearing, touch screen wonder that elicited dozens of “I wants” in Mashable’s live blog chatter.

Surface is still wrapped in so much mystery (no pricing, no availability, no processor speed) that it remains something of an enigma. On the other hand, the tablet (which, depending on how you look at it, may be a full-blown tablet or a hybrid tablet PC) is no reference design. This is not the pad Microsoft wants its partners to build.

The partners are, at least in this instance, out of the picture.

This Is the Windows 8 Tablet

Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Toshiba and others will surely deliver dozens of Windows 8-based devices this year. Many will sport Intel CPUs. Some, like Asus and Lenovo, are planning tablets and convertibles. These may or may not be well-received. This is no longer Microsoft’s problem.

Or is it?

What, for example, does Microsoft say about Windows tablet design now? Can it point to anything but its own Surface tablet as the epitome of Windows 8 design? Not likely. And what about that very smart cover with the built-in touch or tactile keyboard (take your pick)? Microsoft won’t license that design to its partners. So it’s inevitable that Windows RT partners will always have second best covers.

(Excerpt) Read more at mashable.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: ipad; microsoft; microsoftsurface; microsofttablet; surface; surfacetablet; tablet; windows8
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To: Boogieman

Gee, you win. I will so inform my XP systems.


61 posted on 06/19/2012 10:11:25 PM PDT by doc1019 (Voting for the better of two evils is still voting for evil.)
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To: Revolting cat!

Haha! Love it! I put a marker on “Windows XP, Vista, ME, 7, never crashed on me” Seriously tho, Only computer afficianado would really care about the differences between the brands, most people use the pc or mac for ordinary everyday tasks and don’t use even 5 a tenth of one percent of a computers endless possible functions.


62 posted on 06/19/2012 10:13:56 PM PDT by AmonAmarth (Wherever you go...There you are)
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To: Revolting cat!

Heh heh, good one! I like your OS Wars Bingo. I’ve had to work and code on many platforms at the system level. Unix, Windows, NT, Novell, IBM (all the way back to OS/370), Macs, 6502, 8080, and a lot most people never heard of like IVPhase. Always amazes me when people insult others based on only using one. Sort of like only using one car and hauling a refridgerator on the roof (I have 5 vehicles for different purposes). People need to get out and try multiple platforms and stick to facts.


63 posted on 06/19/2012 10:32:55 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: doc1019
Then why do I have to download security fixes once a month or better.
64 posted on 06/19/2012 11:18:22 PM PDT by LoneRangerMassachusetts (The meek shall not inherit the Earth)
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To: SmokingJoe
How about a picture of this new gadget?


65 posted on 06/20/2012 2:00:29 AM PDT by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: SmokingJoe

Their timing bites.

A couple of days after Steve Jobs died, I bought an iPad in his memory—also because I decided that a pad would do everything I needed in a laptop. I prefer the user-friendly Windows environment... but I’m not going to go out and spend a few hundred dollars when I still have a perfectly good (albeit user-unfriendly) iPad.


66 posted on 06/20/2012 3:00:30 AM PDT by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
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To: SmokingJoe

... So can I install Linux on it?


67 posted on 06/20/2012 3:05:19 AM PDT by The Duke
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To: null and void
Hyperbole much?

I prefer 'hyperbolus'.

68 posted on 06/20/2012 3:21:19 AM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (To the left the truth looks like Right-Wing extremism.)
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To: SmokingJoe

So when will it be running Ubuntu?


69 posted on 06/20/2012 3:25:21 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Let me ABOs run loose Lou!)
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To: philman_36

That keyboard looks like using it would feel like drumming the fingers on a sheet of construction paper. Even the chintziest laptop/notebook is more ergonomic than that.


70 posted on 06/20/2012 3:29:39 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Let me ABOs run loose Lou!)
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To: SmokingJoe
Windows 7 is at the very least as secure as any Apple desktop OS, if not more secure.

Depends on how you use them. If you navigate with IE (will the latest patches) to unknown websites you will eventually get zero-dayed, no doubt about it. With Safari, that is not as likely, but still possible.

71 posted on 06/20/2012 3:36:27 AM PDT by palmer (Jim, please bill me 50 cents for this completely useless post)
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To: exDemMom

I am a dedicated PC user for decades. Apple will never see my money for a desktop or a laptop. I do, however, own an iPhone and an iPad2, and my experience is that both of of them do what they’re designed to do quite well.
Could you explain to me how an iPad is “user-unfriendly”?


72 posted on 06/20/2012 4:42:51 AM PDT by Clara Lou
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To: roadcat
Are you suggesting cops are left wing wackos?>/i>

Depends what city you are in.

73 posted on 06/20/2012 5:24:20 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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To: SmokingJoe

Wow!! Not even available yet.

Umm How long has the ipad been out??


74 posted on 06/20/2012 5:49:08 AM PDT by KosmicKitty (WARNING: Hormonally crazed woman ahead!!)
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To: SmokingJoe

A convertible tablet/notebook with full desktop functionality was a giant niche waiting to be filled. It looks like Microsoft may have done it.

Regarding their hardware partners, I imagine that Microsoft will support them by keeping the price fairly high, at least initially, allowing them to develop their own comparable devices profitably. Businesses should be able to justify the cost, if it’s comparable to a high end notebook.

Why the premature publicity? Maybe Apple has something similar in the works. But Microsoft’s advantage is the business market.


75 posted on 06/20/2012 6:02:22 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas (Viva Christo Rey!)
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To: roadcat

-—People need to get out and try multiple platforms and stick to facts.——

That’s crazy talk!

;-)


76 posted on 06/20/2012 6:20:21 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas (Viva Christo Rey!)
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To: roadcat

-—People need to get out and try multiple platforms and stick to facts.——

That’s crazy talk!

;-)


77 posted on 06/20/2012 6:21:05 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas (Viva Christo Rey!)
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To: SmokingJoe
Gee, another very predictable mindless Applebot screech.

Congratulations! You barely got the initial traditional insult in the top 10 posts. 

78 posted on 06/20/2012 6:47:56 AM PDT by zeugma (Those of us who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.)
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To: Williams
Isn’t Microsoft Windows the story of M stealing A’s innovation?

MSDOS isn't done
until Lotus won't run...

79 posted on 06/20/2012 6:53:02 AM PDT by null and void (Day 1247 of our ObamaVacation from reality - Obama is not a Big Brother [he's a Big Sissy...])
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To: KosmicKitty
Umm How long has the ipad been out??

Since it was announced.

80 posted on 06/20/2012 6:57:07 AM PDT by null and void (Day 1247 of our ObamaVacation from reality - Obama is not a Big Brother [he's a Big Sissy...])
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