So what are Microsoft announcing today?
 

Tablet?

Xbox something?

New mouse?

Large purchase of mac pros for their tech dept.

My bet is on a Windoze 8 tablet. :winkwink:

Tablet would make sense after all their talk of tablet integration with the Xbox at e3

Windows 8 is going to open a lot of eyes. They will build 'business tablets' capable of handling much more than the ipad. Wouldn't be surprised to see one with a fully functional slide out keyboard and a whole lot more processing power than tablets already on the market. They are banking on the laptop/tablet hybrid with an OS that allows complete diversity across phones, consoles, tablets, PCs etc...

Personally I think the first one to integrate phone service into a full sized tablet will be able to recapture a significant share of the cellphone device market as well.

I bet a barnes & noble flavored tablet

Have you tried the win8 beta? I don't think metro works at all on a desktop. Do you?

I can see what they are trying to do, but it just makes no sense in terms of UI. Why put a tablet OS on a desktop?

Find out soon though.

The iPad is for general users who do a little bit of surfing and Facebook. My wife has a Kindle - similar - and does Facebook on it, reads her magazines, and plays solitaire on it. That's it.

I need a bit more and I need to be able to install my own software on it. I need a computer, not a browser. I need to install programs that the iPad doesn't have, so I can work form the road.

I have a Dell inspiron flip screen. I use it mostly on the road as a small laptop, but also as a tablet here at home.

http://static.trustedreviews.com/94|...nspironduo.jpg

This is perfect - It's much smaller than a laptop, and only slightly bigger than a iPad. I can run anything I want on it.

Unfortunately for Microsoft they have a history of poorly implementing very good ideas, which later get taken over by competitors and become very successful. They had tablets out long before the iPad but they sucked mostly due to the need for a 'stylus' and the horribly complex interface. I have a feeling the final versions of Windows8 will be much more polished than failures like Vista were.

We will see if they have learned their lesson and gone with a much more simple approach. If they have they stand to make bank on the concepts, if they haven't someone else will take them and run with it. The notion of a real cross-platform OS bridging the gap between iPad and laptop is ripe for reward right now. So is the 'cellphone/tablet' device. :2 cents:

like what?

Probably Windows 8.

A useable Office suite for one...
Word, Excel, Quickbooks, etc...
Flash support would also still be nice until it is completely obsolete.
An actual keyword or USB ports for one, photoshop, etc etc

If you travel with just an Ipad your productivity is nowhere near what it can be with a laptop. If you travel with just a laptop you lose the convenience of an Ipad. The road to success for Windows 8 is bridging that gap successfully.

Pages and Numbers work fine for me for that. What didn't you like about those apps?

What on the road work do you need Flash for?

You can get a keyboard.

I don't think a tablet will ever run photoshop in a way you could use it.


Alternatively, apple demonstrated that we are in a post PC era and there is a market for people to own a lightweight computing device for when they are away from their desktop. Sports Cars and Trucks. You sometimes need a sports car and you sometimes need a truck.

MS got confused by this, as they have been failing to sell tablets for the last 10 years and are now trying to cobble together a mobile and desktop OS and I imagine it's not gonna work out too well for them.

I'm really glad you like MS and it works for you and I hope today you get the tablet of your dreams.

I kinda think MS is a little too late to the party, and isn't bringing anything anyone really wants...

Still, interesting times...

If they announce a microsoft tablet with a stylus, im gonna kick steve balmer right in the nards. That would be such a desperate and pathetic move on their part. Steve Jobs said it best, "They (microsoft) have absolutely no taste. And i mean that in a big way."

Live blog here http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/18/m...ement-livelog/

Windows 8 looks so exciting , all those big coloured Metro blocks, obviously aimed at idiots who don't know how to choose a normal icon :1orglaugh

iPad clone lol

Wow Microsoft Surface. The tablet that boasts a 4 hour battery life and bloated Windows designed to fuck up your day. Can't wait to get one of these babies. Sheesh.

Some attempt at a cloned Apple product that will be killed off in 2-3 years after nobody buys one.

At least Samsung can make good knock-off products.

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

"Unexpected error occured."

I'm actually loving the look and details on this thing.

Let's see, a tablet with a keyboard, trackpad and buttons that runs a full bloated Windows, needs fan cooling, is double the thickness of an iPad, has half the battery life, sounds alot like a Macbook air replacing the keyboard with a flimsy snap off thing that's most prevailing feature is to turn your screen the same colour as the keyboard case.

Fail!

you clearly haven't read anything about Windows 8 development

They're releasing an ARM tablet and an x86 tablet - Surface and Surface Pro.
Surface with 31W battery (bigger than iPad 3) and Surface Pro with 41W battery

Windows 8 as a whole has been gutted and uses less ram in desktop mode than Windows 7. The Window RT tablet (will only have metro tiles and apps) will have no fans. The Surface Pro has a Core i5 and is as thick as a MacBook AIR

nice try

Nah, I haven't read anything about Windows 8 development because I'm a buffoon and know nothing about computers.

What I do know is this, Windows 8 in it's beta form is broken and badly flawed. It's much more resource intensive than I am sure Microsoft have designed it to be. It will chew through battery life as a result.

These Surface notebooks with detachable keyboards are not going to be any match for Android or iOS tablets simply because they miss the point of what a tablet should be.

The only thing I can see these machines doing is to cannibalize the ultrabook market and perhaps gain a few users who seem to think that running full blown Windows on a Tablet is a thing worth doing.

This product is more expensive than any other tablet to boot with half the battery life. I don't get it, neither will most people and as a result iPads and to a lesser extent Android tablets will continue to fly off the shelves while boxes of Surface machines gather dust.

Sigh....

I'm running it on dual screens.

Had it configured for a few weeks with triple screens, using a third smaller 15" touchscreen to run the metro menu exclusively on, but the drivers weren't stable so I've put it aside for now.

It was neat being able to click a larger icon to start an app on one of the other two screens.

What I foresee is the automatic, seamless syncing of windows 8 tablets with windows 8 PC's so that you can use a tablet as a second (or third) screen that you can do exactly as I did (using it exclusively as a menu interface) in addition to being able to transfer documents and files. If the PC screens are touch enabled as well that would be neat to swipe a file back over to the tablet.

I think they should've just called it "The Zune Pad."

I really like the idea of Windows on a tablet, and Windows 8 looks promising for that.

But, it looks like a total fucking trainwreck for Windows on the PC.

This thing looks pretty gimmicky.. Guess we'll have to see. There *are* a lot of people who haven't bought into the whole tablet concept because of a lack of a keyboard. Makes sense MS would try to fill that gap rather than just compete with Apple and Samsung directly.

it's a beta OS, a preview, it's not supposed to work right. It has de-bug code still running. When it RTMs that's when it's optimized (up to that point). For me going from Consumer to Release preview was like night and day. I have 4GB ram and over 100 tabs opened in IE10 and Chrome right now along with Zune desktop, mail, tweet deck and Photoshop and it's much better optimized than the consumer preview. Around 77% used RAM

Also, you can't compare Windows RT to Windows 8 (Surface to Surface PRO)

I hate the pastel colors, the first thing I did was set metro start to dark gray since I have to choose from a myriad of shitty colors, and remove as many of these stupid pastel colored tiles as I can. I also don't like the small app icon on a tile that's almost blending with the background, it throws me off when i'm looking for something specific. And full screen on 27" monitors is just lame.

On the plus side, there are some cool metro apps and the in-app experience is very very nice, but not doing it for me on desktop. They've also improved the hot corners in the release preview, but i still trigger them by mistake. The desktop has gotten a nice refresh

I noticed that I rarely see metro start, a lot less than I thought I would so it's not all bad.

Overall it's just a transitional OS until Windows 9 comes along.

I'd still buy a Surface PRO tab, it has exactly what I want - I can get access to flash, multi tasking, can run desktop apps like photoshop in a tablet format and I can finger it or type on a keyboard

I think there are more people than you think that want to run windows apps that they have used for years and years on a tablet.

Windows 8 rocket

The trouble I see with this Surface thing is that it's a tablet/computer built by committee which usually means it wont play in any role particularly well.

In the case of the Pro unit, it will have big issues with applications that push the processing limits of the computer and users who don't know better will bitch and moan about it not being up to their tasks. Anything processor intensive will kill battery life, which will upset more people.

In the case of the RT unit might be nice and snazzy but without a rich application store users will constantly be forced to compare their experience to that of content spoilt iPad users and to a lesser extent Android users.

Being everything to everybody rarely ever works. People who find the pro unit underpowered or the keyboard crap will gravitate back to ultrabooks. People who find the RT unit lacking in content will end up going to Android or iPad.

I think Microsoft have entirely missed the point of tablets and this product will fail ultimately.

I can't wait to get one

Asus Transformer Prime

That is all :thumbsup

How is this going to change the OEM market?

So the OEMs have to buy win8, and now make something with magnets.

Or they could build an android device. Seems a simple decision when you think about the bottom line...

why is microsoft even releasing hardware? Have they run out of ideas to steal on the software end?

Although I like my Asus Eee Pad Transformer I see a lot of advantages with the Surface and Surface Pro.

It is thinner and even the Surface Pro weight less than the Asus tablets + dock. The touch cover is a simple and elegant keyboard solution imo.

Then of course difference being able to run windows programs besides apps.
If true it will be able to run Solidworks and Autodesk software (at any acceptable level), then I am sold.

Digital Ink - nice extra feature.

All in all I am excited to try one of these. The biggest issue as I see it with this early introduction is the long wait and extra 3 months delay for the Surface Pro. Hopefully a nice xmas present though.

because their OEMs have been asleep for too long
because their OEMs can't or don't seem to get out a product that not some ugly, plastic laden device
....
....

You already can on iOS and android.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...12&id=16953811

http://blogs.solidworks.com/solidwor...d-android.html

Android?
Why would OEMs make yet another Android device (most of them do that by the way Asus, Toshiba)?

Android isn't free, it comes with licensing and development costs too. Has no patent protection like they can get from Microsoft. Google will have their own tablet soon like they have a phone. And Apple is going to rape anyone if it looks anything like the iPad.

And then then you have Samsung, doubling down on their own OS...

To me if you got to bring a bunch of accessories. Minds well just bring a laptop. I got the ipad 3 its ok to read on it but it gets heavy after a while. Kindle comes out with a lit e reader, I will probably sell my ipad and get one.I got a kindle 3 and its joy to read on. Since I put a ssd in my acer timeline laptop , I avg 6 hrs on the battery. Having the tablet also is like over kill especially when you throw in the evo 4lte and couple of computers. its like how many fucking internet devices does one really need? lol

The problem I have with android is everyone puts there own face on it. So you got to learn a new system from one device from another. I had a samsung 2 then got the evo 4 lte and I know how to do nothing in it. I can buy any window computer and know what Im going the moment I turn it on.

Will take a look at these, thanks.

Because it is miles cheaper than licensing windows, and you don't need to make all the magnetic bits you need for the cover to work. It seems to me like a way to tell all the OEMs to fuck off.

Have friends that work at Apple stores.
I hear stories about "users who don't know better" every day, that bought something don't know how to use it and throwing tantrums, cussing and so on.

It will come down to the apps for sure. But Windows 8 no matter how some of us power users hate it, will still sell fairly well so developers will probably move faster on apps since they'll have access to a few hundred million customers.

Surface is a tablet, like an iPad with a keyboard addon which a lot of people seem to want

I'm reserving judgement on Surface PRO until I see specs but I will probably get one instead of an Ultrabook for the multi-tasking alone

you don't know what it costs to license Windows, nobody but the OEMs know. There are costs associated with Android too, it's not like they just download it and slap it on a device.

OEMs don't like Google buying Motorola and building the Nexus. Apple has shown them they'd go after them for every minute thing they can score a point on (and have the war chest to do it) so we're still yet to see how things would shake out