“Microsoft Corp unveiled a tablet called Surface on Monday, in a move to rival Apple Inc’s massively successful iPad,” Lisa Richwine reports for Reuters.
“The tablet will come in two versions, one running on traditional Intel Corp chips, and another using ARM Holdings. Both will have a fold-out cover that becomes a keyboard,” Richwine reports. “A prototype was demonstrated by Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer at an event in Los Angeles. The tablets will be available when Windows 8 ships later this year, according to a Microsoft statement.”
Richwine reports, “No details on pricing were mentioned, except that it would be “comparable” with current ARM tablets and Intel-powered Ultrabooks.”
LOS ANGELES — June 18, 2012 — Today at an event in Hollywood, Microsoft unveiled Surface: PCs built to be the ultimate stage for Windows. Company executives showed two Windows tablets and accessories that feature significant advances in industrial design and attention to detail. Surface is designed to seamlessly transition between consumption and creation, without compromise. It delivers the power of amazing software with Windows and the feel of premium hardware in one exciting experience.
Advances in Industrial Design
Conceived, designed and engineered entirely by Microsoft employees, and building on the company’s 30-year history manufacturing hardware, Surface represents a unique vision for the seamless expression of entertainment and creativity. Extensive investment in industrial design and real user experience includes the following highlights:
• Software takes center stage: Surface sports a full-sized USB port and a 16:9 aspect ratio – the industry standard for HD. It has edges angled at 22 degrees, a natural position for the PC at rest or in active use, letting the hardware fade into the background and the software stand out.
• VaporMg: The casing of Surface is created using a unique approach called VaporMg (pronounced Vapor-Mag), a combination of material selection and process to mold metal and deposit particles that creates a finish akin to a luxury watch. Starting with magnesium, parts can be molded as thin as .65 mm, thinner than the typical credit card, to create a product that is thin, light and rigid/strong.
• Integrated Kickstand: The unique VaporMg approach also enables a built-in kickstand that lets you transition Surface from active use to passive consumption – watching a movie or even using the HD front- or rear-facing video cameras. The kickstand is there when needed, and disappears when not in use, with no extra weight or thickness.
• Touch Cover: The 3 mm Touch Cover represents a step forward in human-computer interface. Using a unique pressure-sensitive technology, Touch Cover senses keystrokes as gestures, enabling you to touch type significantly faster than with an on-screen keyboard. It will be available in a selection of vibrant colors. Touch Cover clicks into Surface via a built-in magnetic connector, forming a natural spine like you find on a book, and works as a protective cover. You can also click in a 5 mm-thin Type Cover that adds moving keys for a more traditional typing feel.
An Amazing Windows Experience
Two models of Surface will be available: one running an ARM processor featuring Windows RT, and one with a third-generation Intel Core processor featuring Windows 8 Pro. From the fast and fluid interface, to the ease of connecting you to the people, information and apps that users care about most, Surface will be a premium way to experience all that Windows has to offer. Surface for Windows RT will release with the general availability of Windows 8, and the Windows 8 Pro model will be available about 90 days later. Both will be sold in the Microsoft Store locations in the U.S. and available through select online Microsoft Stores.
Additional Product Information
Surface for Windows RT
• OS: Windows RT
• 676 g *
• 9.3 mm *
• 10.6” ClearType HD Display
• 31.5 W-h battery
• microSD, USB 2.0, Micro HD Video, 2×2 MIMO antennae
• Office ‘15’ Apps, Touch Cover, Type Cover
• VaporMg Case & Stand
• 32 GB, 64 GB
Surface for Windows 8 Pro
• OS: Windows 8 Pro
• 903 g *
• 13.5 mm *
• 10.6” ClearType HD Display
• 42 W-h battery
• microSDXC, USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort Video, 2×2 MIMO antennae
• Touch Cover, Type Cover, Pen with Palm Block
• VaporMg Case & Stand
• 64 GB, 128 GB
*Actual size and weight of the device may vary due to configuration and manufacturing process.
Suggested retail pricing will be announced closer to availability and is expected to be competitive with a comparable ARM tablet or Intel Ultrabook-class PC. OEMs will have cost and feature parity on Windows 8 and Windows RT.
Some information relates to a prerelease product, which may be substantially modified before it is commercially released. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information provided here.
Source: Microsoft
MacDailyNews Take: “Conceived, designed and engineered entirely by Microsoft employees.” Which is why it looks pretty much like an Apple iPad, except with a blurry screen, a rear and sides designed by Sony in 1985, in the wrong aspect ratio, with a logo that serves as a warning label to informed users, festooned with bunch of unnecessary ports (of course), and a silly made-to-be-broken-off “kickstand” with a bastardized Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad hanging off it in your choice of horrid hues chosen by the usual color-blind Microsoftie.
Apple iPad with Retina display and Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover
BTW: Windows “partners,” you just got PlayedForSure™. Sleep tight.
And, the best part: It’s all still just vapor. No prices. No shipping date(s). No actual sizes and weights. No nothing. 30 months after Steve Jobs first unveiled the iPad.
Oh, and “software takes center stage?” Seriously? What software? Microsoft is completely delusional.
I’ll bet Apple times its major “Apple TV” announcement perfectly, to bury this thing (along with Windows 8) in a dustbin before it’s even launched. And add “The New iPhone,” along with iOS 6 (and maybe an 8-inch iPad).
Just like Windows Phone 7, which Microsoft worked feverishly on ever since the first iPhone, was buried by iPad’s introduction.
They are missing the whole point of a tablet! They are trying to make it into a laptop!
I remember Steve Jobs sitting in a lounge chair, showing the intimate experience of surfing the web on the iPad.
Then MSFT comes out 3 years later with a tablet that is designed to imitate a laptop. Haven’t they watched people use tablets? Most people put them in their lap, not on a hard desk.
They had me at ” Integrated Kickstand”..the very crest of the MS ingenuity & sleekness. The only way they could make this more Microsoft-ish would be to give it a snap-on swivel handle & produce a ‘Zune brown’ version..
ZuneT has ” re-surfaced ” only to go back to Low sales #s and High return rates plus their tech support will be busy with complaints 🙂
iPad is the Benz of the group and it’s not even close 🙂
BUY AAPL 2015 = $1055 bucks 🙂
I’m so happy I think I just pissed down both legs! This means AAPL will keep on going on. Very little competition. Very little affect on the stock. I agree with most posters (even fanboys) in that MSFT has had time to do it right and they still fucked it up! Kudos to Balmer. May he always lead Microsoft.
Down boy. There shouldn’t have been much expectations and they sure didn’t exceed them. I’ve gone from openly mocking Microsoft to wishing they could execute something right, just for the shock of it. Please, if you’re listening (which, alas, you aren’t) just once announce a product with a specified price and availability. Extra points if said date is within a month.
Make it simple stupid. Even when Microsoft has te opportunity to sit back and take it all in from a position of market newcomer, albeit a giant brand, they make it harder than it has to be. They don’t need 2 operating systems. No need for multiple ports. Just perfect something so you can compete. Be clear. Be definitive and be serious about your products. Only then can you have the conviction that so many people praises Steve for having. It’s not surprising that once again they are trying to be too many things to too many people.
On both models. Be a little reasonable. No matter how flawed the product was, I’ll give them credit for designing both the hardware and the software. The approach was a good one, though MS still lacks Apple’s vision.
And the color of the “smarter” cover does not match when attached to the “surface”. Great attention to detail. M$ wouldn’t know a properly calibrated display if their life depended on it. And it does.
I suppose for the consumer competition is, in general, a good thing. Choice is good. However, there is not a lot of strong competitors for the iPad, the best of which inadequate in either the hardware or software departments. All of which, before this MS concept tablet, were essentially just copies of the iPad, but with more ports.
I also do not think Apple is somehow being pushed by competitors in any of their markets. I’m sure there are some minor features that Apple has introduced since other’s have, but the major product innovations they have made since the new Jobs’ era started have not bee in response to another companies product.
I’m sure that enterprise IT departments will be pushing this thing over the iPad on people ASAP. I get it – there is known path forward for managing MS WIndows in corporate environments. However, MS has positioned this thing poorly in my opinion. It is either a too-heavy tablet that will likely struggle to provide a good software experience or an underpowered ultrabook that will struggle to provide a good software experience.
I suspect that the most critical spec that was not released yesterday is going to be battery life. Apple prioritized three things with the iPad: weight, battery life, and price. Those have been critical to the iPad’s success. MS has missed on weight and could be in the right neighborhood on price. If they get less than 8 hours of battery life, I think Surface will have a difficult time with anything other than corporate IT departments and Windows fanboys.
Wow, I just looked at some of the youtube comments on this. Based on just a few pictures, all these commenters are saying how it’s the death of the iPad. Really? And they call us ‘fanboys’!
When it is your *own* ideas/preferences in play…well, it’s OK to be a fanboy because you are right. Or so the M$ fanboy thinking goes. Smart covers and magnetic latches and so on – just copying Apple like Samsung and the others.
Back in ’82 I think the closest thing to “hard” they were making was the box for their software and the printed manual. Heck, they weren’t even making mice back then.
Not that bad, considering, but MS glosses over inherent flaws such as two incompatible hardware versions. Don’t you think Grandma’s going to buy the wrong one and not be able to run Word and not understand why?
The worst for me is the aspect ratio. Horrible. Too wide. Fine for movies, but a nightmare for reading web pages and emails. Which do you do more on on a tablet? With the attached keyboard, this feels like it’s designed for landscape-only use. I use my iPad locked in portrait 90% of the time (even when using the external BT keyboard).
I’ll reserve judgement on this until I actually play around with it (which will probably be sometime next year). My initial impression is that Microsoft is trying too hard to be all things to all people and will end up not satisfying anyone. Still Windows Phone did surprise me – so who knows, maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised by this as well.
Changing the subject, I wonder how Microsoft’s hardware partners feel about this? I’m pretty sure Ballmer is getting a lot of angry phone calls from the likes of HP, Dell etc. Well, I guess they have precious little choice. Android tablets haven’t exactly set the world on fire – so they are just going to have to lump it :-).
I hate to say – the pen interaction is what I’ve been wishing apple would implement since I got my iPad. I use the thing for drawing all the time – a pen that gives precise input would be awesome.
I hope Samsung copies the shit out of it and becomes MS biggest competitor.
But this explains why they haven’t released Office for the iPad. They won’t now or ever, because that’s what they’ll use to try and sell these things. Two years ago, that strategy might have worked, but they missed the window.
Let’s see here:
Stylus? √
Dedicated ports for USB, HDMI, SD? √
Both models ≈ 2 pounds? √
Keyboard accessory? √
Catchy name*? √
Poor battery life**? √
Not available for sale for at least 4 months? √
* Surface? gimme a break. That really inspires the buying public. VaporMg? Holy cow, right off the bat MS admits to vaporware?
** MS posts battery specs as watt-hours but that doesn’t say a thing about how long a charge lasts now does it?
Also look at the bottom: Weight and size may be different?
Finally, go to the MS page at http://tinyurl.com/bme2hko and scroll down to the bottom. Look above the MS logo. there’s the word “Twit.” Does that refer to the designers of this? Or is it the web designer’s subtle opinion? Great!
• Software takes center stage: Surface sports a full-sized USB port and a 16:9 aspect ratio – the industry standard for HD. It has edges angled at 22 degrees, a natural position for the PC at rest or in active use, letting the hardware fade into the background and the software stand out.
“and a silly made-to-be-broken-off “kickstand” but from Panos mouth came the fact that the engineers thought very deeply as to how the kickstand sounded when shut. OMG
The RT version will have to be very inexpensive to compete against a retina display iPad. The specs are compareable to the iPad 2, so it needs to be south of $399.
Microsoft with the tablet of the Future! Sure your iPad can get things done now but what about tomorrow’s work? We present the Surface, the Future of tablets. This tablet will allow IT & CIO’s to put off buying anything right now and save it for the FUTURE! Think of the work you could put off for now and move it to the FUTURE! Shipping date can not be disclosed due to it being, well, you know, from the FUTURE! Void where prohibited by law.
i realize you are being sarcastic, but it makes me wonder who microsoft has really “osborned”? i think they have frozen, more or less, the sales of the hardware manufacturers who use their operating system. good going!
The Osborne Effect means you have something out there already but just you wait until the next upgrade. I think the term of vapour ware is more appropriate here. Didn’t Microsoft have the tablet 10 years ago?
You don’t, seeing all the work Microsoft obviously did to make this a quality product, it’s made me wonder: what would conduct the state of computers be like right now if Steve Jobs had never existed?
If it wasn’t for Jobs, we probably still be dealing with perfectly terrible computers, and assuming that because they are computers, they should be hard.
There’s a new renaissance of care and quality going on in computers. And whether these computers are from Apple or from anyone else, I say Apple gets a lot of the credit. Because none of it would be happening if Apple hadn’t raised the bar.
I’m more and more convinced that Apple started the “truly personal” computer revolution, then the movement got hijacked into business personal computing (where personal meant its at on your desk, rather than in a computer room), then Apple finally recovered control with the iPhone and the original dreams are being fulfilled.
(I kept hunting for the word “salad” in your first paragraph, them it finally dawned on me that you meant “word salad”;-). (“cable salad” is an expression I recall fondly)
“• Software takes center stage: Surface sports a full-sized USB port and a 16:9 aspect ratio – the industry standard for HD. It has edges angled at 22 degrees, a natural position for the PC at rest or in active use, letting the hardware fade into the background and the software stand out.”
“Software takes center stage…”? USB port, widescreen aspect ratio, 22 degree-angled edges?!? Yep, that’s right, highlight the software!
WTF does that commercial mean? They pointing out it’s magnetic (like the iPad)? The music is fun, and the visuals are gorgeous (well not the Surface, but the beads and such) but that’s a hell of a stupid ad.
Yikes! “I’ll give them a year or two before they’re turning out the lights on this painful and expensive endeavor.” Or something like like that anyway. Lol! I’d say it’s 50/50 that either one of these make it to market.
Once again, more VAPORWARE from Redmond, WA! Cost? Shipping date? Explanation for the object’s thinness in the front photo and the unbelievably THICK rear shot with the kickstand?
Yep, so proud of their center staged software that they only show a glimse of it in the last few seconds of a 60-second ad.
What a fricking waste of time. Here’re some clues to do better:
1. Ship poduct when you announce product.
2. Show what good your product can do.
3. Hire some good aesthetic/UX design folks.
4. Do your own thing.
I get it if you own Apple products and love them. Good to see the news covered on this web site. Very funny sarcasm on the “MacDailyNews Take” section at the end.
For those that haven’t read up on it, yes Word will on both models on both OS’s. Yes it seems a little awkward offering two hardware designs with two OS variants. But it may play out a successful strategy over time.
Focussing on the entry level product announced today. It will be available at the same time as Windows 8, this year. I’m happy to see Microsoft take some time and effort to bring a “pure tablet” to market at presumably a comparable/competitive price point to other ARM based tablets. I think it is important they put down a marker.
I also hope their OEM partners innovate and bring a solid range of variants to market, each offering something for what they see as clear market opportunities.
I recently purchased a “new” iPad and a Sony Android tablet. There is a lot (a real lot actually) to like about the iPad. Great hardware, very good OS and easy to get several things done. I’m not so impressed with the Android tablet. It is “OK” at a bunch of things, but just lacks a cohesive, simple, clean feel the iPad has.
I have put Windows 8 Release Preview on my laptop. It works well as the next Windows 7, and I occasionally run the Metro UX, it is fresh, fast, clean, but I’d don’t yet feel it is where I want to hang out all day on a PC.
I’m really looking forward to having a tablet with good touch hardware married up to Metro on a biggish screen, like the entry level ARM tablet Microsoft announced today. I think there is potential here and the keyboard, optional as it is (there is an onscreen touch keyboard in Windows 8), and the ability to swap files easily with USB and microSD and connect it to a TV or monitor is great.
I’ll definitely take one for a spin when it comes out.
I’m quite surprised at a lot of the condescending and negative feedback here. I agree with some points, like why do this in June if you are going to release just before Christmas? But at least the OEM partners and ISV ecosystem has been forewarned, etc.
Happy days, more innovation and more choice in the market! It will be great to see how Android tablets evolve and how Apple responds (with product innovation) not only over the next 6 months, but in this great category over the next 6 years.
well, you’re being generous. and that’s ok. good for you.
but:
– this is an Apple fan site;
– and the gushing hype today about the totally unproven, unreleased, and largely unknown Surface was absurd on its face;
– while however there is no question that MS has now strategically double-crossed its longtime Windows OEM’s.
1. That thing is f-u-g-l-y from a design standpoint. Reminds me of my Sony Vaio from 10 years ago.
2. Is it going to compete with the iPad or the Macbook Air 11″/13″?
3. Does it have a touchscreen keyboard as well as the touchpad?
I guess people who just want to buy something/anything that is not an iPad will buy this, but iPad killer???? Not so much.
Did Microsoft purposely make this the ugliest copy of an iPad ever seen, so that Apple would be too embarrassed to sue them for “look and feel” odd an iPad?
Seriously, there needs to be a law that prohibits the use of the word “innovate” when describing a yet-to-be-released (if ever) netbook-sized laptop with a stolen Atari 400 keyboard glued onto a stolen iPad cover, running a user-unfriendly OS having large, solid-colored, Playskool®, squares with micro-text as a GUI. Oh, …and a kickstand stolen from a Schwinn bicycle.
“I have found that all ugly things are made by those who strive to make something beautiful, and that all beautiful things are made by those who strive to make something useful.”
Oscar Wilde
ironic:
it’s called Surface! haha!
exactly: A superficial surface job, a facade & farce of a product.
nothing original.
all cumbersome.
legacy crapware.
Microsoft has produced nothing of original or revolutionary value since day 1, over 3 decades now, yet it was hailed as an economic superpower?!
Just like Dull Dell, it has claimed much, but only with arrogance, not brains. Michael Dell was hailed for diluting PCs?!!? humans are supposed to be proud of such genius?!
is it not amazing that Microdough has had all these years and all they can come up with with their 1million employees or brains, is to challenge Apple’s iPad with a keyboard and watch tech surface?!!? god damn. so help us God, as if that’s all we can fathom, we’re doomed as a species. no wonder the economy everywhere sucks as much as Microdough.
Steve Ballmer should commit suicide – at least career-wise. but if their board keeps him so long, they deserve to rot. shame for the rest of the employees, but then again, they choose to work there. shame for the stockholders? no, they choose to buy into ti. imagine if no one bought MSFT stock…
How am I supposed to eat and drink on top of that little tablet with a flimsy stand?
All I’m saying is, MS should to stick to what it’s good at instead of trying to chase Apple everywhere. And what they are good at is building 500 pound tables.
What is wrong with M$?
well, at least they got the “vapor” part right!
I’ll bet Apple times its major “Apple TV” announcement perfectly, to bury this thing (along with Windows 8) in a dustbin before it’s even launched. And add “The New iPhone,” along with iOS 6 (and maybe an 8-inch iPad).
Just like Windows Phone 7, which Microsoft worked feverishly on ever since the first iPhone, was buried by iPad’s introduction.
They are missing the whole point of a tablet! They are trying to make it into a laptop!
I remember Steve Jobs sitting in a lounge chair, showing the intimate experience of surfing the web on the iPad.
Then MSFT comes out 3 years later with a tablet that is designed to imitate a laptop. Haven’t they watched people use tablets? Most people put them in their lap, not on a hard desk.
Morons.
They had me at ” Integrated Kickstand”..the very crest of the MS ingenuity & sleekness. The only way they could make this more Microsoft-ish would be to give it a snap-on swivel handle & produce a ‘Zune brown’ version..
It definitely needs an integrated Blue Screen of Death mode.
And it has a stylus!
And it has that cool retro 1970’s design.
Correction, it looks like something from the 60s.
Frickin Morons. They can not even follow written instructions.
On reflection, it makes me think of something make by Playskool.
I wish Microsoft would hire some adults.
Well, the Zune needed a companion on the trash heap.
ZuneT has ” re-surfaced ” only to go back to Low sales #s and High return rates plus their tech support will be busy with complaints 🙂
iPad is the Benz of the group and it’s not even close 🙂
BUY AAPL 2015 = $1055 bucks 🙂
I have a lop-sided table that this may be the answer for!
Was that table a MS “Surface” table behemoth? You did say lop-sided, after all! : )
Yes it is. Came with 8 chairs (2 legs per chair), each chair a different height and color.
Grins sheepishly!
And yet again Microsoft lays the shaft to it’s “partners”.
They just had their ports tingled by the long USB drive of microsoft. 😉
Well, their Surface has surfaced, but it might have been better off drowning.
I’m so happy I think I just pissed down both legs! This means AAPL will keep on going on. Very little competition. Very little affect on the stock. I agree with most posters (even fanboys) in that MSFT has had time to do it right and they still fucked it up! Kudos to Balmer. May he always lead Microsoft.
Down boy. There shouldn’t have been much expectations and they sure didn’t exceed them. I’ve gone from openly mocking Microsoft to wishing they could execute something right, just for the shock of it. Please, if you’re listening (which, alas, you aren’t) just once announce a product with a specified price and availability. Extra points if said date is within a month.
Make it simple stupid. Even when Microsoft has te opportunity to sit back and take it all in from a position of market newcomer, albeit a giant brand, they make it harder than it has to be. They don’t need 2 operating systems. No need for multiple ports. Just perfect something so you can compete. Be clear. Be definitive and be serious about your products. Only then can you have the conviction that so many people praises Steve for having. It’s not surprising that once again they are trying to be too many things to too many people.
they got one tiny bit right…. Integrated hardware and software.
On which model? Looks more like a tombstone than a tablet.
“Here lies Ballmer T. Clown
He joined the Zune 6/18/12”
On both models. Be a little reasonable. No matter how flawed the product was, I’ll give them credit for designing both the hardware and the software. The approach was a good one, though MS still lacks Apple’s vision.
And the color of the “smarter” cover does not match when attached to the “surface”. Great attention to detail. M$ wouldn’t know a properly calibrated display if their life depended on it. And it does.
Fail. No sh*t brown cover to match my Zune door stop.
They “Shopped” it! In the official press photos they artificially matched the colors I referred to above…
Somebody listening?
It crashed during the demo too.
Deja vu!
Competition is good.
I’m SURE microsoft’s tablet partners feel the same way…. cough.
i agree. But this isn’t it!
I keep reading and hearing this line.
I suppose for the consumer competition is, in general, a good thing. Choice is good. However, there is not a lot of strong competitors for the iPad, the best of which inadequate in either the hardware or software departments. All of which, before this MS concept tablet, were essentially just copies of the iPad, but with more ports.
I also do not think Apple is somehow being pushed by competitors in any of their markets. I’m sure there are some minor features that Apple has introduced since other’s have, but the major product innovations they have made since the new Jobs’ era started have not bee in response to another companies product.
I’m sure that enterprise IT departments will be pushing this thing over the iPad on people ASAP. I get it – there is known path forward for managing MS WIndows in corporate environments. However, MS has positioned this thing poorly in my opinion. It is either a too-heavy tablet that will likely struggle to provide a good software experience or an underpowered ultrabook that will struggle to provide a good software experience.
I suspect that the most critical spec that was not released yesterday is going to be battery life. Apple prioritized three things with the iPad: weight, battery life, and price. Those have been critical to the iPad’s success. MS has missed on weight and could be in the right neighborhood on price. If they get less than 8 hours of battery life, I think Surface will have a difficult time with anything other than corporate IT departments and Windows fanboys.
no product
no release date
no prices
so must be more make believe in Hollywood ?
“Images are design renderings and not photographs.”
The Tentative Tablet. Rife with legal disclaimers and future promises. God is in the details, MS.
Something must be wrong with my eyes! As soon as I saw that first paragraph, I thought it was saying this:
“Microsoft Corp unveiled a tablet called Surface on Monday, in a move to rival Apple’s Lisa”
Still waiting for those new glasses…
Wow, I just looked at some of the youtube comments on this. Based on just a few pictures, all these commenters are saying how it’s the death of the iPad. Really? And they call us ‘fanboys’!
Almost as bad as the Chevy fanboys posting on the 2013 GT500 videos..despite the reality in front of them, they. just. can’t. believe….the facts.
When it is your *own* ideas/preferences in play…well, it’s OK to be a fanboy because you are right. Or so the M$ fanboy thinking goes. Smart covers and magnetic latches and so on – just copying Apple like Samsung and the others.
“building on the company’s 30-year history manufacturing hardware”
30 years? Ummm…huh?
They made those pretty successful Zune thingamabobs… oh wait… Shit. Nevermind.
They are good at making those very complicated devices, you know, keyboards.
Back in ’82 I think the closest thing to “hard” they were making was the box for their software and the printed manual. Heck, they weren’t even making mice back then.
Had to think about it for a bit, but now I remember: they would have been selling their Z80 card for the Apple II about 30 years ago.
Mice?
Not that bad, considering, but MS glosses over inherent flaws such as two incompatible hardware versions. Don’t you think Grandma’s going to buy the wrong one and not be able to run Word and not understand why?
The worst for me is the aspect ratio. Horrible. Too wide. Fine for movies, but a nightmare for reading web pages and emails. Which do you do more on on a tablet? With the attached keyboard, this feels like it’s designed for landscape-only use. I use my iPad locked in portrait 90% of the time (even when using the external BT keyboard).
Built in obsolescence.
It’s dead and gone before the first one ships.
At least it offers a pointer interface.
sooooooo I take it nobody is going to buy this masterpiece two years late to the party……….
Ok back to my iPad……………………
I’ll reserve judgement on this until I actually play around with it (which will probably be sometime next year). My initial impression is that Microsoft is trying too hard to be all things to all people and will end up not satisfying anyone. Still Windows Phone did surprise me – so who knows, maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised by this as well.
Changing the subject, I wonder how Microsoft’s hardware partners feel about this? I’m pretty sure Ballmer is getting a lot of angry phone calls from the likes of HP, Dell etc. Well, I guess they have precious little choice. Android tablets haven’t exactly set the world on fire – so they are just going to have to lump it :-).
– HCE
After the next version of the iPad?
MS, a decade late and $800 short.
It’s a tablet, it’s a ultra book it’s a …………..
OMG, the bastard child from hell !
And it crashed when they where doing the demonstration… Yep it’s from Miro-shot… Pft.
Take that, TRS 80! In your face!!!
ISIDAGTMBTTS
I hate to say – the pen interaction is what I’ve been wishing apple would implement since I got my iPad. I use the thing for drawing all the time – a pen that gives precise input would be awesome.
I hope Samsung copies the shit out of it and becomes MS biggest competitor.
I have a stylus I use with my iPad. Works pretty well and is reasonably accurate. Maybe not “fine point” accurate but it works well enough for me….
Hi blaargh
I bought a Jot Pro and it is the best stylus I ever used. It brings fantastic precision to drawing and painting on the iPad.
Best Regards
Johan Niklasson
But this explains why they haven’t released Office for the iPad. They won’t now or ever, because that’s what they’ll use to try and sell these things. Two years ago, that strategy might have worked, but they missed the window.
“I like [their] strategy. I like it a lot.”.
The keyboard attachment looked interesting.
Yes, where have I seen something like that before?…
The fact that it’s magnetic is just shameful.
To be fair, it’s not like there’s much choice for something this thin. Clip-ons or latches would be far more prone to breaking.
Let’s see here:
Stylus? √
Dedicated ports for USB, HDMI, SD? √
Both models ≈ 2 pounds? √
Keyboard accessory? √
Catchy name*? √
Poor battery life**? √
Not available for sale for at least 4 months? √
* Surface? gimme a break. That really inspires the buying public. VaporMg? Holy cow, right off the bat MS admits to vaporware?
** MS posts battery specs as watt-hours but that doesn’t say a thing about how long a charge lasts now does it?
Also look at the bottom: Weight and size may be different?
Finally, go to the MS page at http://tinyurl.com/bme2hko and scroll down to the bottom. Look above the MS logo. there’s the word “Twit.” Does that refer to the designers of this? Or is it the web designer’s subtle opinion? Great!
“Twit” is a link to Twitter. Classic fail.
USB3 AND 128GB storage. No way this thing sells for less than a grand.
Remember that M$ took a loss on Xboxes for years to buy market share, so it’s really hard to predict a price. That is, IF it ever ships…
Ugly, uselsess, laughable, clueless…
• Software takes center stage: Surface sports a full-sized USB port and a 16:9 aspect ratio – the industry standard for HD. It has edges angled at 22 degrees, a natural position for the PC at rest or in active use, letting the hardware fade into the background and the software stand out.
Software?
“and a silly made-to-be-broken-off “kickstand” but from Panos mouth came the fact that the engineers thought very deeply as to how the kickstand sounded when shut. OMG
(Yeah, I know, but I did it anyhow….)
Love it!
Its like the Zune turd but floats….to the surface
Slow clap.
Merry Christmas to Apple.
Looks better than any Android tablet I’ve seen.
People think. That intel model running mountain lion/hackintosh style would be very cool.
Am I mistaken or was the big-ass table also called Surface?
Great day for Android
The RT version will have to be very inexpensive to compete against a retina display iPad. The specs are compareable to the iPad 2, so it needs to be south of $399.
If the coffee-table Surface was the “Big Ass Table,” Is this the “Small ass Table?” or a “Big Ass Zune?”
I vote for “Big Ass Zune”.
When does Apple file the first lawsuit against MS, the cover looks like a complete ripoff of the Apple smart cover which I believe is patented.
It is not either of them. Microsoft has innovated here and you are all jealous! Hahaha!
Oh, Hooray!
It’s a laptop!
It’s from from Microsoft!
It has extra, plasticky bits attached!
How could this possibly fail?!
Oh frabjous day, callou, callay!
Microsoft’s announced another tablet.
But when it’d ship they would not say.
OK, will “Zune Tang” now become “Surface Tang”??
Ha ha ha ha
Microsoft with the tablet of the Future! Sure your iPad can get things done now but what about tomorrow’s work? We present the Surface, the Future of tablets. This tablet will allow IT & CIO’s to put off buying anything right now and save it for the FUTURE! Think of the work you could put off for now and move it to the FUTURE! Shipping date can not be disclosed due to it being, well, you know, from the FUTURE! Void where prohibited by law.
i realize you are being sarcastic, but it makes me wonder who microsoft has really “osborned”? i think they have frozen, more or less, the sales of the hardware manufacturers who use their operating system. good going!
The Osborne Effect means you have something out there already but just you wait until the next upgrade. I think the term of vapour ware is more appropriate here. Didn’t Microsoft have the tablet 10 years ago?
MS will blow Billions of their wads to shove this down people’s throats. Heck it worked for XBOX!
The Microsoft faithful are having orgasms all over YouTube. The commercial ain’t bad actually. Beats all that happy family crap Apple always shows.
That’s because Microsoft is not going after the consumer market.
A typical MS ad – a whole lot of nothing. Prettily shot though.
That thing is THICK!!!
1960s Thick.
Oh Lord, and there’s two versions running completely different OSes. How can this possibly fail??
They knew they HAD to create a fragmented market.
(have to keep sucking at Intel)
Mission Accomplished!
hah! there will be eleventy-seven versions of each operating system for each hardware version.
You don’t, seeing all the work Microsoft obviously did to make this a quality product, it’s made me wonder: what would conduct the state of computers be like right now if Steve Jobs had never existed?
If it wasn’t for Jobs, we probably still be dealing with perfectly terrible computers, and assuming that because they are computers, they should be hard.
There’s a new renaissance of care and quality going on in computers. And whether these computers are from Apple or from anyone else, I say Apple gets a lot of the credit. Because none of it would be happening if Apple hadn’t raised the bar.
Thank you, Steve jobs.
Sorry about the word salad in that first paragraph. I forgot to double check my transcription.
I’m more and more convinced that Apple started the “truly personal” computer revolution, then the movement got hijacked into business personal computing (where personal meant its at on your desk, rather than in a computer room), then Apple finally recovered control with the iPhone and the original dreams are being fulfilled.
(I kept hunting for the word “salad” in your first paragraph, them it finally dawned on me that you meant “word salad”;-). (“cable salad” is an expression I recall fondly)
“word salad” – ha! My attempt to make things less confusing made things more confusing!
“• Software takes center stage: Surface sports a full-sized USB port and a 16:9 aspect ratio – the industry standard for HD. It has edges angled at 22 degrees, a natural position for the PC at rest or in active use, letting the hardware fade into the background and the software stand out.”
“Software takes center stage…”? USB port, widescreen aspect ratio, 22 degree-angled edges?!? Yep, that’s right, highlight the software!
WTF does that commercial mean? They pointing out it’s magnetic (like the iPad)? The music is fun, and the visuals are gorgeous (well not the Surface, but the beads and such) but that’s a hell of a stupid ad.
Oh! You want it to show what it can actually DO?
HA! Ha Ha Ha ha ha ha…… (Vincent Price laugh)
Yikes! “I’ll give them a year or two before they’re turning out the lights on this painful and expensive endeavor.” Or something like like that anyway. Lol! I’d say it’s 50/50 that either one of these make it to market.
Yawn!
Fugly POS…yep, 30 years (!?!) of Microsoft hardware engineering shows.
Once again, more VAPORWARE from Redmond, WA! Cost? Shipping date? Explanation for the object’s thinness in the front photo and the unbelievably THICK rear shot with the kickstand?
Just another fsking joke from Ballmer and Bros.
Thanks again microslut, for engineering another utterly spectacular failure. Keep up the good work!
Magnesium huh? Just wait til a flaming battery ignites the whole thing…
The movie was creepy…
MS get a clue: it is going to take a lot to pry my 2+ year old iPad out of my hands. I like using it. I don’t like using my windows computer.
Another clue, I’ve had it with the aholes in IT in my company… Wonder why?
Microsoft must have seen the huge sales of add-on keyboards for the iPad and thought ‘Hmmm’.
Hang-on, what sales of keyboards???
Don’t forget the biggest flaw?
It runs Windows!!! I give it two years before it is totally forgotten about.
Yep, so proud of their center staged software that they only show a glimse of it in the last few seconds of a 60-second ad.
What a fricking waste of time. Here’re some clues to do better:
1. Ship poduct when you announce product.
2. Show what good your product can do.
3. Hire some good aesthetic/UX design folks.
4. Do your own thing.
Can someone tell me if this thing has an on screen keyboard or do you have to type on that flap???
Another piece of convoluted crap from Mister Softie! Did we expect anything else?
Wow – tough crowd.
I get it if you own Apple products and love them. Good to see the news covered on this web site. Very funny sarcasm on the “MacDailyNews Take” section at the end.
For those that haven’t read up on it, yes Word will on both models on both OS’s. Yes it seems a little awkward offering two hardware designs with two OS variants. But it may play out a successful strategy over time.
Focussing on the entry level product announced today. It will be available at the same time as Windows 8, this year. I’m happy to see Microsoft take some time and effort to bring a “pure tablet” to market at presumably a comparable/competitive price point to other ARM based tablets. I think it is important they put down a marker.
I also hope their OEM partners innovate and bring a solid range of variants to market, each offering something for what they see as clear market opportunities.
I recently purchased a “new” iPad and a Sony Android tablet. There is a lot (a real lot actually) to like about the iPad. Great hardware, very good OS and easy to get several things done. I’m not so impressed with the Android tablet. It is “OK” at a bunch of things, but just lacks a cohesive, simple, clean feel the iPad has.
I have put Windows 8 Release Preview on my laptop. It works well as the next Windows 7, and I occasionally run the Metro UX, it is fresh, fast, clean, but I’d don’t yet feel it is where I want to hang out all day on a PC.
I’m really looking forward to having a tablet with good touch hardware married up to Metro on a biggish screen, like the entry level ARM tablet Microsoft announced today. I think there is potential here and the keyboard, optional as it is (there is an onscreen touch keyboard in Windows 8), and the ability to swap files easily with USB and microSD and connect it to a TV or monitor is great.
I’ll definitely take one for a spin when it comes out.
I’m quite surprised at a lot of the condescending and negative feedback here. I agree with some points, like why do this in June if you are going to release just before Christmas? But at least the OEM partners and ISV ecosystem has been forewarned, etc.
Happy days, more innovation and more choice in the market! It will be great to see how Android tablets evolve and how Apple responds (with product innovation) not only over the next 6 months, but in this great category over the next 6 years.
well, you’re being generous. and that’s ok. good for you.
but:
– this is an Apple fan site;
– and the gushing hype today about the totally unproven, unreleased, and largely unknown Surface was absurd on its face;
– while however there is no question that MS has now strategically double-crossed its longtime Windows OEM’s.
i mean, this is red meat here. yum.
No, it literally has no chance of succeeding.
Metro is a widely reviled, catastrophic disaster on any form factor. The traditional Windows UI is a catastrophic disaster when it’s put on a tablet.
Both UIs the Surface is capable of running act as complete sales-poison towards it.
On top of that, what does it even bring to the table versus the iPad and existing Android tablets? A freakin’ kickstand?
It’s a day late and a dollar short, to put it very kindly.
Didn’t they do this a few yarins ago?
1. That thing is f-u-g-l-y from a design standpoint. Reminds me of my Sony Vaio from 10 years ago.
2. Is it going to compete with the iPad or the Macbook Air 11″/13″?
3. Does it have a touchscreen keyboard as well as the touchpad?
I guess people who just want to buy something/anything that is not an iPad will buy this, but iPad killer???? Not so much.
Surface. The one word in nautical vocabulary, that precedes OMG in significance.
LMAO! Google “Microsoft Surface”, and look what you see:
You can’t make this stuff up! 😀
Absolutely….PRICELESS!
What’s that whistling sound? I think I hear another Microsloth bomb dropping.
And THANK YOU BALLMER!! You’ve done it again. May your reign be long as King of the Microslothian Kingdom!
Did Microsoft purposely make this the ugliest copy of an iPad ever seen, so that Apple would be too embarrassed to sue them for “look and feel” odd an iPad?
Impressive. Hope battery life is good.
Seriously, there needs to be a law that prohibits the use of the word “innovate” when describing a yet-to-be-released (if ever) netbook-sized laptop with a stolen Atari 400 keyboard glued onto a stolen iPad cover, running a user-unfriendly OS having large, solid-colored, Playskool®, squares with micro-text as a GUI. Oh, …and a kickstand stolen from a Schwinn bicycle.
“I have found that all ugly things are made by those who strive to make something beautiful, and that all beautiful things are made by those who strive to make something useful.”
Oscar Wilde
ironic:
it’s called Surface! haha!
exactly: A superficial surface job, a facade & farce of a product.
nothing original.
all cumbersome.
legacy crapware.
Microsoft has produced nothing of original or revolutionary value since day 1, over 3 decades now, yet it was hailed as an economic superpower?!
Just like Dull Dell, it has claimed much, but only with arrogance, not brains. Michael Dell was hailed for diluting PCs?!!? humans are supposed to be proud of such genius?!
is it not amazing that Microdough has had all these years and all they can come up with with their 1million employees or brains, is to challenge Apple’s iPad with a keyboard and watch tech surface?!!? god damn. so help us God, as if that’s all we can fathom, we’re doomed as a species. no wonder the economy everywhere sucks as much as Microdough.
Steve Ballmer should commit suicide – at least career-wise. but if their board keeps him so long, they deserve to rot. shame for the rest of the employees, but then again, they choose to work there. shame for the stockholders? no, they choose to buy into ti. imagine if no one bought MSFT stock…
How am I supposed to eat and drink on top of that little tablet with a flimsy stand?
All I’m saying is, MS should to stick to what it’s good at instead of trying to chase Apple everywhere. And what they are good at is building 500 pound tables.
“called VaporMg (pronounced Vapor-Mag)”
Hey, let’s give it a name nobody can pronounce without written instructions. Brilliant. What next – “Wndws (pronounced Windows)”?!
Classic Microsoft: user-hostile right down to the naming.
The cover colors are repulsive.
All Hail Steve Ballmer!
Is this where they got the idea for the Surface design (YouTube):