Microsoft “is finding the task of bringing the [Surface] tabletop computer to market a little rougher than it anticipated,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News.
“The software maker’s initial plan was to get partners with the touch-screen machines up and running as early as this month. Now it estimates it will take until spring before the devices start showing up in locations like Sheraton hotels, Harrah’s casinos, and T-Mobile retail locations,” Fried reports. “Part of the holdup has been in developing the custom software each of those partners needs, as well as making sure the hardware is suited to their locations.”
“The product, originally code-named Milan, looks a bit like a 1980s sit-down Ms. Pac Man machine, but uses infrared cameras and a projector to create a touch-screen that can respond to multiple users’ hand gestures, as well as interact with other objects,” Fried reports.
Microsoft’s Big Ass Table:
Direct link via YouTube here.
Fried continues, “In a recent interview with CNET News.com, Bill Gates spoke about the potential of surface computing to go far beyond the tabletop, once the costs come down. The initial units are expected to cost in the range of $5,000 to $10,000, but the company still hopes they will fall to a price affordable to consumers within three to five years… ‘It can be in every desk,’ Gates said. ‘It can be in every table, it can be in every whiteboard, every mirror. Give us a 5- to 10-year time frame and we will wonder why our tables used to just sit there and not do anything for us.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MacVicta” for the heads up.]
Does Gates – who obviously lost his mind years ago (if he ever really had one at all) – expect us all to collectively forget that tables have been providing places upon which to eat, work, worship, etc. for thousands of years?
While he’s working diligently to, uh, “redefine the table,” plus figuring out how to pack that jumble of cameras and junk into a friggin mirror (which, we must admit, would be just perfect for Blue Man Group), Apple will have lapped his sorry, visionless assemblage of wasted talent up in Redmond many more times over.
Just check into that Vegas hotel, Mr. Mediocrity, get to work growing those fingernails, and give us all a break finally.
Microsoft’s Surface was never going to be available as they promised. It is nothing more than a Rube Goldberg concoction that attempts to divert the attention of the gullible by shouting “Hey, look over here, ignore that Apple multi-touch stuff! No, really, look: it’s a $10,000 Big Hairy Ass Table!” Microsoft’s Surface video is a mock up – the thing doesn’t even do half of what’s shown. In fact, it does nothing, as it’s still vapor.
Meanwhile, Apple’s been selling affordable multi-touch technology that fits in your pocket (not sits in the corner of Pizza Hut) by the millions since early summer.
Every time there’s iPhone news (see Germany and the UK today), Microsoft trots out some “news” about their Big Ass Table (good or bad, it doesn’t matter) to try to suck some oxygen away from whatever Apple’s doing with real products. It’s the same sad, empty tactic as talking about “the next version of Windows” every time Apple releases a new Mac OS version while Microsoft’s sufferers remain stuck clinging to an aged, 6+ year old, upside-down and backwards fake Mac OS because their latest bad fake of a past Apple Mac OS is a laughable mess. About the only thing Microsoft does well is produce an endless litany of empty promises designed to keep their sheep in the pen.
Look at iPhone vs. Surface today: a better illustration of how far Apple’s ahead of Microsoft would be hard to find.
Bill Gates: “Give us a 5- to 10-year time frame and we will wonder why our tables used to just sit there and not do anything for us.”
IOW even Gates is admitting it’s gonna take MS another 5-10 years to make the thing functional., which is absolutely pathetic.
Even the worst automakers can deliver new product within 3-4 years. And that includes the nontrivial job of tooling factories to build the product!
Sad when a metal-stamping company can outclass a technology giant….
can I eat it?
Someday everyone will look in the mirror and think they look like the BSOD.
“If Apple made it then you all would be blowing each other to get one”
No, we wouldn’t, because Apple wouldn’t make one, because it’s a dumbass idea to start with. And even if they did, they wouldn’t show it 5 years before it’s ready and when they did show it, it would actually work.
“Why all that hate? After all, if it doesn’t work that well (and the infrared cams are broken), one can still use it as a table!”
To paraphrase mitch hedberg…
When the Surface gets the BSOD, then then it just becomes a table. We are sorry for the convenience.
“MacDailyNews Take: Does Gates – who obviously lost his mind years ago (if he ever really had one at all) – expect us all to collectively forget that tables have been providing places upon which to eat, work, worship, etc. for thousands of years?”
Woooo Hoooo Great Take MDN. Gates never had any brains, he’s stupid. He created one of the most successful corporations in the history of this planet. But he’s stupid, not smart like Steve Jack, an unemployed bum with an ad laden website…
Mr. Jack, you may not like Mr. Gates’ OS and company, but he created one of the most successful companies in history. He understands the “science” having written the companies 1st product himself.
Your childish rants some like something a 10 year would come up with. You’re a bum with a website running a FREE script with 200 ads all over it….
Who has no brains..
“Oh shit, I just spilled Fresca all over your new table. I am SO sorry.”
@ shoeman
umm may be you’d better study MS history a little more. The IBM deal was done without ANY product whatsoever. Then they bought QDOS for $50k, renaming it MS-DOS. Gates did nothing but sell vaporware. At least he is consistent.
for more info: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa033099.htm
Actually, you don’t get to be the richest guy in the world by being dumb. Made some brilliant moves early on the sunk Apple and Jobs. Unfortunately for him, Steve learnt from his mistakes and came back and took numbers. I have to say, I have a lot less bad things to say about Gates than Ballmer. Gates does give billions to charity and whether you agree with his charities or not, he is doing many great things for women in third-world countries. Ballmer is a monkey. Regardless, it’s great they are working on this tech. Apple can then swing in when people are actually ready to use tech mirrors/tables and develop practical and easy to use applications for us all!
Mr. Fusion, I think you’d better go back and read your own link.
Shoeman is correct and I completely agree with him on this.
Ya know, some people like to SIT on tables. I can’t help but wonder what would happen if that person accidentally farts. Would you see ripples on the screen synched to the speed of the smell?
What if someone with a truly fat ass sat on it like maybe Balmer? Oh wait, he could probably write a letter using the stick that’s already in there.
On the other hand, Hollywood could use it as a prop in a movie and have Angelina Jolie or Scarlet Johannson lie on during a sexy scene.
“Input…MORE IIINNNNPPUUUTT!”
I think that what Shoeman was actually refering to as Gates ‘first product’ was ‘MS Basic — which Bill copied with Paul Allen, on stolen computer time — and not MSDOS — in which Bill Gates bilked a nasty cloned version of CP/M from Tim Paterson.
Gates told IBM he had a product under way, he didn’t. Gates told Gary Kildall that he’d never do OSes, which he did. Gates promised Paterson more money, which the court made Gates eventually pay.
Some men adore Bill Gates as being the most succussful business man to ever live. They admire his ‘philanthropy’.
Other people see a Bill Gates: who actually knows little about the technology he steals then sells; who gives to the downtrodden with tax deductible medicine — of which he owns the patents; who easily over-charges for shoddy products, because he’s killed competition.
BTW, tax deductible donations by rich people — means the middle class pay.
The middle class bought the ‘great’ MS software; which gave MS the power to kill MS’s competition, which gave MS the power to overcharge for their products, which gave Gates the resouces to buy medical patents, which gave Bill the leverage to ‘donate’ medicine to poor countries, which allows Bill to make a deduction of his total payable tax, which is billed to the Feds and collected from…
The Middle Class!
Anyway, try this:
http://www.mackido.com/History/Gates_a_Genius.html
http://www.mackido.com/History/IBMs_choice.html
http://www.mackido.com/History/History_DrDos.html
There’s also links at the bottom of these articles.
…when Bill couldn’t take his eyes off Ethan Allen someone crapped themselves. The last time he stared hard was at Ballmer ..and Ballmer started to dance ..he danced like a madman. It’s said Bill’s been staring at random employees on the Redmond campus ..lots of spontaneous panic attacks there …and a few have awakened in their own jelly ..just like neo. Bill can’t let that happen. Bill can never let that happen and the answer ..well that one is simple ..coffee tables ..and maybe some nice coasters.
@ MPC Guy
I call a lot of people unimaginative assholes, so I don’t remember the specific incident in question. Do you have it coming?
>ChrissyOne wrote: I call a lot of people unimaginative assholes…
Nah. You’re just pretty loose with the insults. Many on this board are like that, unfortunately.
Oh well… no biggie. Have a nice day just the same.
I think all the negativity stems from this project being showcased too early. It’ll take a while for all of us get used to something this advanced.
A table that acts like a TV, computer, internet device, audio system, etc… that is controlled via touch, communicates and transfers information without wires and is ubiquitous.
It sounds like something we see in futuristic movies all the time! Does it not?
Just try imagining a little harder. I’d like to see a portable version of this, as would many. However, not every piece of useful machinery needs to be completely portable.
And… Surface doesn’t itself imply that it only operates in a horizontal position.
The MDN Take on this article is priceless!
A table that acts like a TV, computer, internet device, audio system, etc… that is controlled via touch, communicates and transfers information without wires and is ubiquitous.
A problem looking for a solution, designed by the world’s most inept company and running the world’s worst OS.
Methinks Gates has spent too much time staring at the ground lately, likely wondering why MS can’t get anything right. Why else would you want to digify something you look down at?
Rats. Make that a solution looking for a problem….
Gates is silly.
Everyone knows: Tables are for working on. Chairs are for throwing.
“@ mr fusion
umm may be you’d better study MS history a little more. The IBM deal was done without ANY product whatsoever. Then they bought QDOS for $50k, renaming it MS-DOS. Gates did nothing but sell vaporware. At least he is consistent. “
umm maybe you ought to study YOUR MS history a little more Mr. Mindless Fanboy. I said that Gates personally wrote microsoft’s 1st product. That product, little boy, was Microsoft Basic written for the Altair in 1975.
But of course, as a Mindless Apple fanboy you just choose to believe whatever you wish…
shoeman,
BASIC for an Altair does not magically change the fact that IBM was sold a renamed DOS that Microsoft did not create, that parts of the antiquated Windows even today still incorporates.
IBM’s mistake with a weasel plunged the world into The Dark Ages of Personal Computing for two decades and counting.
Someday, just like us Mac users have always done, the world will look back on the Gates/Microsoft era, shake their heads in disbelief and laugh heartily at how the tech naive were swindled into the exactly wrong product and company.
I rather liked the reference to Howard Hughes. I giggled.
Hey, am I the only one that thinks that Microsoft’s “Surface” technology has great potential. If they shrink it down to size of an iPhone and put music on it, they may be onto something. –and quit complaining about the $10,000 price. When measured in price per pound, the “surface” is actually cheaper than an iPhone!
> Barrister wrote: Someday, just like us Mac users have always done…the tech naive were swindled into the exactly wrong product and company.
Wow… how what high opinions you have about yourself.
Much of the world, through the technologies offered by Microsoft, have done tremendous things like built businesses small and large, conducted scientific research, designed buildings, and even enjoyed a game here and there to ease some stress.
… and a bunch of whiny keyboard warriors can’t seem to get over a couple of Apple blunders years ago!