“AT&T will soon be the first company to use Microsoft’s touch-enabled, tabletop Surface computers as customer-service kiosks in stores,” Elizabeth Montalbano reports for IDG News Service.
“The carrier said Wednesday that beginning April 17, Microsoft Surface computers will be set up in select retail locations in New York, Atlanta, San Antonio, and San Francisco,” Montalbano reports.
“AT&T plans to use Microsoft Surface computers to provide information to customers about mobile devices and other products being sold in its retail outlets… Customers also can view interactive coverage maps and use touch and hand movements to move and work with the maps to determine the coverage areas for their wireless service,” Montalbano reports.
“Depending on the success of the deployments in the first four cities, AT&T will decide where it will install them in other cities and markets,” Montalbano reports.
Full article here.
Exactly how much Microsoft is bribing AT&T to do this in four whole cities is unknown, but the sum would probably boggle the mind even more than the concept of installing 400-pound Big Ass Tables to do a tiny subset of what AT&T staff has been able to do for nearly a year simply by reaching into their pockets and pulling out their 4.8-ounce Apple iPhones.
So what happens when you put an iPhone on top of one of these things, besides evoking the strange mental image of Albert Einstein perched atop a brain-damaged mastodon?
Microsoft’s Big Ass Table:
Direct link via YouTube here.
[UPDATE: 6:39pm EDT: Changed headline from “stores” to “cities.”]
Albert Einstein perched atop a brain-damaged mastodon
I’m dying. That was too funny. LOL
How about Eva Longoria perched on Madea from “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.”
Is that accompanying photo what the Big Ass Table will actually look like?!
Paper notes and signs attached to the sides?!
Back-wrenching ergonomics of leaning across the substructure just to see the Big Ass Table’s display?!
Wow, Jonathon Ives must be quaking in his Alfred Sargents!
Hey, come onnnnn . . . I am definitely a customer for this sort of thing.
I mean, I have a real weakness for overpriced, underpowered things with big asses . . . that also suck!
Yeh-heh-heh-hehessssss . . .
Metaphorically, a MSFT fit: Overdone and ponderous.
Can I order one with casters, so I can bring it with me wherever I go?
Is that a gigantic iphone on top of the table?
It’s just what the MS organization expects from its dependents – bend over that table and take it! And say thank you…
Well, at 400-pounds, it won’t be dangerous in an earthquake so long as it’s on the ground floor so that’s Rob Enderle’s approval in the bag.
OK, let me get this straight:
“AT&T;plans to use Microsoft Surface computers to provide information to customers about mobile devices and other products being sold in its retail outlets…”
Ooooooook, sooooooo…. AT&T;will use Microsofts BAT (Big Ass Table) to provide information to customers about the iPhone?
That’s funny, right there!
Make that “four Big Ass whole stores…”
can’t wait to carve my initials in it.
This makes no sense. Why a table? It there an advantage to bending over and touching the thing. Why not an LCD screen on the wall. It’s just wierd. I wonder how much M$ is paying to get them installed. Maybe they are free as a “demonstration project.”
i cant wait to see the BSD on one of these in an ATT store. gonna be an epic photo-opp for the oh so ‘snappy’ iphone camera 😀
For someone as picky as MDN with the parsing of other peoples words (generally only those who don’t cheerlead for Apple), the title of the article is completely misleading. 4 CITIES, not 4 STORES.
Mentioned this 6 months ago to you fanbois, keep sticking your fingers in your ears and denying what others have. Just like a good lemming you are.
Man you do not learn from history, der Fuerher Jobs kept this attitude up in the 80’s and lost to Microsoft, and now you see the same again. Give up on the “we are better than you” and realize 90% of us dont really care.
People want want results, and Apple is giving them what 4 Products? Get real.
Does this mean that ATT will be using the MS_BAT to kiosk sell the iPhone? LOL… wait… ROTFL… wait–no there is not a adequate lol!
@ChrisM…
Yup, 4 cities. A total of 12 stores. So yes, MDN is wrong but the number is still pretty small. I wanted to say insignificant, but I really think this is a good application of the BAT. Anything to keep the sales droids away from the customer is a good thing in my book.
@Crash,
Tell ’em boy. In a few short months, Microsoft has managed to grab 100% share of table computing! And that’s in the US as well as in the world. If Apple keeps up that attitude, they might lose the market for chair computers to Microsoft as well. Then the ceiling computing and so on.
“For someone as picky as MDN with the parsing of other peoples words (generally only those who don’t cheerlead for Apple), the title of the article is completely misleading. 4 CITIES, not 4 STORES.”
Ditto, Microsoft really doesn’t need any special help looking bad, just give us the facts.
They are made by keebler elves.
Give it a few more days for that MS Big Ass to grow, and you’ll need half the continent to hold that gelatinous mounds of crap.
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I wander what will happen when 4-6 customers try to use it at the same time from diff sides?
Anyone in those four “lucky” cities with the cam? That would be awesome prank video, 4 guys fighting over the table’s desktop.
I agree crash. MS will have wrapped up the entire “big assed and useless” computing niche. Apple needs to make a giant 90 inch screen version of the iPhone. Maybe it will feature a multiuser (needed to touch two points at once) interface. Be just like that part in Big
Posted from my tiny ass iPhone.
I gotta say that the “Big Ass Table” video is one of my very favorite parodies of Microsoft crap. It does a brilliant job of showing why this is such a stupendously idiotic idea.
How does Microsoft stay in business?
@ Mr. Reee:
Castors are extra ($5,000). They are the super-industrial type. Screws also extra ($500).
@Crash
Wonderful post. You seem like an expert on the MS Big Ass Table. When it FARTS will it be in stereo? Looks like it has a big enough ass to do it.
MS_BAT !!
MDN magic word “piece” as in piece of ****
@shen
Nah – it would be easier for Apple to make 4 mini legs to clip under the iPhone… hey-presto – your very own Tiny Ass Table that’ll do everything the Big Ass Table can do! Now that’s innovation.
Crash…
So you think that people want want a 400-lb table in their living rooms.
I couldn’t even get it up the frickin’ stairs, which is probably the case with most people living in a multi-floor block without an elevator.
Of course, you’re correct about the limited range of products: but, given the fact that Apple is far more profitable than nearly every other computer and consumer electronics manufacturer, it could be argued that their understanding of how to focus on a narrow range of products and services serves them well.
One could also argue that this approach is better than (and let’s pick a name out the air here) Dell’s need to rebadge a whole load of OEM products which it then claims as its own merely to present the image of a company with a multi-disciplinary capability, but – as you say – people want results which must be a comfort for all those people in Austin who are about to lose their jobs.
Of course – by having four profitable product families – Apple has at least three more than IBM (which only manufactures ISA servers now, having hived off printers to Lexmark and personal computers to Lenovo), but that hardly fits your argument now does it?
Or maybe you’re thinking of a truly profitably company like HP: I wonder how Steve Jobs will feel when you advise him that his best strategy for the future is to manufacture inkjet printers and cartridges. Because that’s where HP makes its money.
But maybe you were labouring under the misapprehension that HP makes a bucket load of cash by selling PCs and laptops, for which it pays Microsoft an exorbitant sum.
The only remaining possibility is that you believe Apple should abandon hardware altogether and instead become a software platform company: all I can say to that is Be careful what you wish for!. If Apple were to drop out of hardware and licence to HP, Lenovo and Toshiba, Microsoft would become an irrelevance within five years.
Apple has over $15 billion right now that it can use to become a software-only company, and will – within three years, be generating around $6 billion a year in profits from iPhone network operator commissions: that’s all money that could be used to build a Windows-compatibility layer (that would probably outperform Windows itself) directly into MacOS and then subsidise the rollout of that OS to around 35% of the market (btw, that’s probably the profitable 35% to boot).
You’re evidently one of those maroons who thinks that the illusion of choice presented by the WinDell ecosystem is a reality. It isn’t and it never was. You have a massively dominant business productivity product (Office) which has achieved that position through being leveraged into offices by Microsoft’s licensing schemes. The same with Exchange. The same with SQL Server.
Sure, you can extend Microsoft’s products with third-party ISV products (so long as their commercial ambitions don’t conflict with MSFT’s own – Real and Sun are just two of the companies who can attest to that as a reality) or your own private development, but that’s not really choice is it?
If MS were committed to competition and choice, why has it turned tail and run away from the Macintosh for both Internet Explorer and Windows Media? You have a think about that.
can’t wait to see the new blue table of death on display at the AT&T;store.
What happens when you place your brown Zune on the Big Ass Table? Does it do an autoflush or just wipe its own hard drive?
Think people, Public Schools, Libraries, Hotels, Airports, etc….
Wherever information is needed, this hardware can be placed. Can you imagine something like this in a casino? How about this. You go to a restraunt, order a bottle of wine, some appetizers, your meal. and to set the atmosphere a liitle music. Or how about a meeting with a client and using the interface to keynote your presentation, all while being connected to the network..
Man folks the possiblities, and you cant see them because you got your yesterday ipods plugged in your ears, while oogling over a fancy cell phone that is on a network obsoleted by other cell companys 2 years back
Man you folks deserve that twisted meglamaniac. A bunch of elitest who cant even see what is front of you for oppurtunities.
@crash
the BAT in restaurants has been done before… in the 80’s I remember playing Galaga or Centipede on a flat table arcade console. Was a real pain to bend and look straight down, not to mention uncomfortable to be unable to put your knees under the table. Some people like to sit up like adults and talk comfortably.
So while you are ordering at the BAT, iPhone users will be ordering in the cab on the way to the restaurant. Smart restaurants will invest the ten thou for one BAT into 30 iPod Touches, one for each waitress — they will soon replace all those MickeyMouse restaurant cash registers run on Windows that have one key for every item on the menu, like at McDonalds. Same with Casinos.
Interface for a client presentation? Who needs a BAT? Put a cheap flat screen on the wall by each table with video in socket — no other hardware or computer required. At the most, offer an ATV-type/wireless connection to the screen. An iPhone or iPod Touch will plug right in, and do a pres much better than whatever PC is lurking in the bottom of that tub. Your client meeting is much more comfortable at a fraction of the cost, far higher satisfaction. How was the pres going to get onto the BAT in your scenario? Somehow sync the “smart”phone with who knows what OS to the BAT, then hope the file transfers (if that is even allowed under security measures), then hope it runs without a hitch? Good luck.
Apple users do think about the possibilities. They just wonder why people can’t spend two seconds considering how needlessly bothersome most ideas are in practice.
my ip was blocked from posting comments as I was critical of MDN because they made fun of Walmart shoppers.
Really lame thing to do. Can’t take critical feedback you fake news biased, group of children. I am sure this ip address will also be blocked since they cannot accept reality.
MDN = FAKE, BIAS, Non-News, Fabricated garbage.
Look at who advertises here. I wonder why they are biased? Talk all you want about other people getting paid off by MS, look at this site and its advertiser(s). This site is all BS for the most part, and most of its commenter’s with the few that dare to be actually honest.
PS I am a Mac owner and a Fanboy. I have numerous macs in my house and at work. I think they have the best designs, products, and fans. However this site is crap and fake and is not representative of honest, thinking individuals and its use of the wording News is so far from the truth its sickening.
Might as well have an ABC news site with all Disney advertising, or an MS OFFICE News site sponsored by MS.
Crash…
So long as “wherever” is a load-bearing floor with a network connection, you’re right. As opposed to an iPhone or an iPod Touch which can be used wherever there is a cellphone connection or a Wi-Fi network.
I could go to a restaurant with an iPod touch (or even a Nokia 800/810) and set the music or order some wine. And the restaurant woudn’t have to invest a ton of cash in an absurd Heath Robinson package of lenses and projectors – just a decent Web 2.0 site with a web server and application server.
By the way, a megalomaniac (BTW, does Windows not having a working OS level dictionary? Or is giving someone the ability to spell correctly not a result worth worrying about?) is a person who is obsessed with their own power: that’s probably the kind of person who feels the need to buy 20 companies every year like Steve Ballmer.
As for being “a bunch of elitists” (it’s OK, I’ll smugly correct the errors that you make): what a load of blue-collar, chip-on-the-shoulder Rush Limbaugh-inspired bollocks. There is no “opportunity” (wow, another spelling error that would have been corrected by an OS-level dictionary) with the Big Ass Table that isn’t addressed more easily, cheaply and flexibly by implementing multi-touch on a large-format plasma or LCD.
Doing it that way, it wouldn’t weigh 400 pounds and it could be mounted on a wall – you could mount a BAT on a wall, but I suspect it would pretty soon become the floor which would depress Rob Enderle.
As a closing point, your sentence “Man folks the possibilities and you can’t see them…” is a little confusing, given that I’m not William S. Burroughs so maybe you need to dream about a computer that helps you organise your thoughts more clearly rather than a glorified arcade console. Ever thought about buying a Mac?
Fine. But does it play Pac Man?
MS loves legacy. There’s gotta be a quarter slot on this thing someplace…
I mean, I have a real weakness for overpriced, underpowered things with big asses
Run some old Madonna videos on this. You’ll be in heaven.
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Miss the point much? For all the troll boys and girls-people aren’t mocking this thing because it’s from MS-they’re mocking it because it’s f*cking retarded. It wouldn’t matter who was behind it. And Crash, the brilliantly innovative uses you have come up with for something like BAT pretty much speak for themselves. I think you need to watch the video again, friend . . .
Why is this thing still alive?
The difference is retarded Mastadons went extinct.
Thus God said to Ballmer “Satan kept me from doing Evolution should have.”
Ok, I have a feeling that I’ll get bashed for this, but in certain uses, their table computer is not a bad idea. The problem that it has is that it has nearly zero use for consumers. But for coprorate America, or even small businesses, it does make sense.
Sure, it seems impersonal to order from a table rather than from an actual person, but have you ever heard of the Training Table? Probably not, it’s only in Utah, but you order your food by phone, and then you go pick it up when it’s ready. People love it.
When it comes to certain things, people love impersonal. Sure there’re times when you’d want to have a waitress take your order, but for most people, most of the time, they’d really like to have the privacy of never talking to an actual person. That’s the world we live in. Sad, but it’s true.
I think the problem here is that everyone assumes that the BAT is for consumers, for me and you. It’s not. And if Microsoft markets it as such, they’re moronic. Really, the AT&T;thing could work well. It may crash and be junk software/hardware, because, after all, it is made by Microsoft, but on the off chance that it works well, it could actually be a good thing for shoppers.
If you guys have good arguments for why I’m wrong, I’d love to hear them, I want Microsoft to perform well like I want a nail to go through my foot, but I think everyone here is bashing the BAT because it’s a Microsoft product, and because they think of it as a consumer product, when it’s really not.
iMac + Multitouch > Big Ass Table
Oh, and it really does look like a gigantic iPhone. I mean, what’s the purpose of the little horizontal slat on the end? Because to me, it looks like a dock connector.
Perhaps ATT can use the Big Ass Table to blow up the fine print in their contract? I bet the iPhone and Mac commercials played on the BAT will look really good. Does it come with Big Ass Copy and Paste?
Seriously, if you want good experience for friends/clients, use a Cinema display with remote.
The Future has already spoken: In Star Trek all the walls on the ship Enterprise is some kind of Big Ass Console, but 90% of the time all a crew needs to do is speak to the little pin on their chest or use the Tricorder to get things done.
What happens when I set a wet, cold beer down on it or if my baby threw up his peas all over it?
This is about as yesterday as Minority Report.
A large prize awaits the first photo of the Big Ass Table’s BSOD..
Not an attack, just a question: What’s the point of going to a public place, when the goal is to avoid people? I don’t expect “Cheers”, but it is creepy to go into a place and see everyone all isolated with their MP3 players and wifi connections. Why bother going out at all? Better to stay at home and order a pizza…
As for MS’s BAT, I see a great future for these: AS TABLES. Throw a nice tablecloth over them and we’ll be in business.
Sorry to say but most of you are an embarrasment to the mac community, you really are sounding like a bunch of apple fanboys/girls.
This is definitely something apple should take into account in terms of future product development.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4217348.html
Start with multi touch imac and take it from there
Who will be the first AT&T;employee to put their bare cheeks on it?
@ Crash
All I see in front of me is a 400 pound table. While this may have some applications for hotels and restaurants, can you honestly say this is Microsoft’s answer to the iPhone? It is clear you have some emotional issue with Apple by the tone of your message, but your hate is blinding you. You are the lemming.
I wonder if Microsoft will provide the ‘Out of Order’ signs upon delivery of the table, or if the purchaser will have to buy them themselves.
I don’t know what her name is but I am sure the security tapes will make it to YouTube.
You have it all wrong … The thing is the new and improved ZUNE!
Here’s a little prediction: MS will flounder around with an admittedly cool idea for 1-3 years, then out of the blue Apple will come along and do it way better, and make it accessible to the common person as well as enterprise. Then table top computing will be the next-gen defacto UI standard and, as usual, it will be Apple that “gets” how do it.
“…and, as usual, it will be Apple that “gets” how do it.”
Yes, we will all have “portable tables” to carry around with us…
we will have these roll-up mats of various sizes (place mat, desk blotter or table cloth sizes). You roll up the membrane and stick it in a cardboard tube or down your pant leg. Then you meet your friend at the restaurant, spread out your mat and plug your iPhone or iPod touch into the little port on the edge.
You already know the Microsofties have *surfaced* pictures of their own arses
…forgot to say: the membrane will be touch screen with both input (like iPhone touch screen), and recognition/feedback (like BAT) because it will use the “every pixel is a camera” technology that Apple has filed a patent for.
For the first time ever I feel a touch of sympathy for Microsoft. They just don’t get it. Yet the table may help point people to the nearest Apple Store.
I haven’t seen one “good” argument here as to why “MS Surface” is actually a bad idea.
Perhaps it’s because you guys aren’t the intended audience.
Yeah, I’ve seen some other video of it and it’s actually pretty cool. This doesn’t compete in the same market as iPhone or even a PC, and will mainly be sold to businesses. I think this kind of surface interface will become prevalent once the cost comes down. I hate Microsoft as much as the next guy, but this technology is cool.
Here’s a video that casts it in a better light than the “big ass table”
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http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=933742930
@ appleshops.com
We’ve seen the vid. It’s not the concept of large multi-touch applications we are deriding. We are mocking the BAT because it delivers its functionality ONLY in the form of a BAT. It is a big, clunky, inelegant implementation of where we expect Apple’s multi-touch technology to go.
This thing is going to be obsolete within no time… for sure… And some people will have spent so many bucks for that… Too bad!
Bring on the BSOD pictures!
@Radius
No this is a new product line, another avenue to get technology into the hands of people. Like I was stating earlier, Apples 4-5 product lines just dont do it for most folks. And to relentlessly tout security when it is known OSX is just as vunerable as any other OS out there. Then there is the arrogance of the most vocal members here.
Man tone it down folks, youve got some good products. No better no worse than others. Good you got 16 billion dollars, start putting more in R&D;. Thats how HP, Dell keep their sales fresh and moving foward. Thats how Microsoft keeps pushing their agenda to get technology into the hands of everbody, interweaving products into our everyday lives.
You are right I am upset to see this sight, and the narrow tunnel vision by the most vocal here. Remember our freedom of speech comes with a responsiblity to give accurate info.
The problem is that while the technology is cool you would just look goofy using it.
Actually, I think it’s too quick to condemn Microsoft for their table. Sure, it’ll be an easy target, but the technology is fairly intriguing.
Imagine where Apple could take such a device, themselves? How about it? With Apple’s Multi-Touch, it has the potential to do away with terminals altogether, using gestures and a keyboard that crops up when you want it.
Perhaps this is the evolution of the iMac? A aluminum encased screen and nothing more?
“With Apple’s Multi-Touch,”
Oh please, you are talking like as if Apple invented multi-touching system.
Apple did invent Multi-Touch, actually. Heck, they even patented it!
Multi-touch is not simply the ability to touch a screen, it is Apple’s interpretation of how to use the touch-screen paradigm.
You lose.
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Wrong again. click the link http://pcjoint.com/patents-microsoft-milano-tabletop-pc-user-interface/ you will note a patent for this was discussed then here http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u;=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=18&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=Microsoft.AS.&OS=AN/Microsoft&RS=AN/Microsoft is the actual patent
Give it a rest folks.
Nobody ever said Apple invented the touch screen, you know. Apple DID invent a technology called Multi-Touch that put the Apple stamp on touch screen usability. Remember Steve’s keynote where he introduced it, implying it was the ‘next step’ beyond the mouse and click-wheel, eh?
How hard could it be to imagine an iMac that takes its cues from an iPhone. No keyboard, no mouse…
I applaud Microsoft’s attempt to at least try something new, even if Apple will transform the idea into something that works.
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@ “@ Crabs”
That’s true, it is odd to a person like you, and honestly, a person like me. I like to socialize, I like to flirt with the waitresses, but not everyone does. It’s sad, but most of the people don’t want to be bothered by a waitress/waiter. When they go out, they go for the social aspect, but not with the waitress or waiter, or whoever else. They go out ot socialize with the people they went with, that’s the point of going out. And, generally, the food’s better.
Now, in, say a bar, this would never work. Never! People go to a bar to socialize with new people, not necessarily the ones they’re with. But for a fun dinner with friends at TGI Friday’s or Chili’s, some people would prefer not to have a waiter or waitress. They just want to be with their friends. My friends would never go for this, because we like to flirt with or joke around with the waitresses when we go places.
But a lot of people don’t. A lot of people are anti-social. And for them, the BAT makes sense. So you seat them at BAT tables (yeah, I know, that says tables twice, but it’s for a reason). And for those you don’t, you give them a normal table with a waitress/waiter. It could be part of the thing when someone talks to the Hostess. “Would you like digital ordering, or would you like a waitress?” And I’d dare bet that 40% or more of the people would ask for digital ordering over the human interaction. It’s sad, but it’s true.
PS, I know I said most of the people don’t want a waitress, and then I said 40% of the people would take digital ordering. The >/=11% is old people who are afraid of digital stuff, but still would prefer to not have a waitress.
PSS, I pulled my numbers out of my butt, so don’t ask me where I got them. It’s a guesstimate.
Oh, and Andy, Apple didn’t invent MultiTouch. They developed (and patented) gestures and a UI that takes advantage of the MultiTouch capabilities. MultiTouch was developed at least in the early ’90s, Apple and Microsoft are now taking advantage of it. The one problem Microsoft may run into is if Apple is granted the patents for their gestures, as Microsoft uses several of them in their UI
What can the BAT do for phone sales that a salesperson or a web site couldn’t do?
Think about it. You can ask a sales person a question. You can look up FAQ’s on a website or google your questions.
What does a BAT do for your questions? No more than a website and probably less than a salesperson.
Do you buy a $10,000 BAT or hire a salesperson or two in todays rising unemployment, job market?
As a store owner would you want a BAT hawking your slow moving stock or would you rather have a commissioned salesperson doing it?
The BAT looks like a piece of technology trying to find a legitimate use. Good luck with that.
@ Big Al
Well it looks like they already have. TMobile, Verizon, Harrahs all have announced plans for using the Microsoft surface. Try again to denegrate to movement of this technology.
This was already done YEARS ago… 1982, in fact.
Just check Dillinger’s office, and look at his desk. The password is “master” to get into the Master Control Program…
22 stores will get cluttered with BAT.