Scenes From the Surface Pro Launch at the Microsoft Store

[PUPPLESAN]

How do people (you) account for the extreme anger that seems to accompany the Apple-Microsoft "debate"? Why do many of us, myself included, sometimes suggest that fans of the "other team" are stupid or shallow or whatever. Why does a debate about electronics become so vitriolic? I mean objectively both Apple and Microsoft are very large successful corporations that produce excellent products that largely function in similar ways.

By way of comparison, I have never heard of people putting each other down for buying Proctor and Gamble instead of Johnson and Johnson. So why do they do that when it's MS and Apple? I am really interested in your opinion.

 

[okibrian]

Surface kicks the rotting core right out of Apple and onto Steve Jobs' grave! In fact it knocks all the fruit off of every tree in the orchard and then infects the denuded shrubbery with aphids and burns the whole farm to the ground!

Anyone who buys an Apple product is terrorist untermensch deserving of a slow and horrible death. Right next to my Steve Balmer portrait I have a score card of Apple's epic failz and every time another one happens I squeeze a facial pustule to celebrate.

My "mother" bough an Apple product once in 1986 and I have never talked to her since. I think she's living on the street in Buffalo these days. A lot of good that Macintosh is doing you now, huh mom! Keeps youu nice and warn don't it?

Ha! ha! ha! ha!

And by the way, I hope that with this, my latest post, I have finally lived up to the maturity level of the average troll posting here. I certainly hope so anyway.

You have issues man. Deep, Deep, REALLY F'N DEEP issues.

 

[okibrian]

Surface kicks the rotting core right out of Apple and onto Steve Jobs' grave! In fact it knocks all the fruit off of every tree in the orchard and then infects the denuded shrubbery with aphids and burns the whole farm to the ground!

Anyone who buys an Apple product is terrorist untermensch deserving of a slow and horrible death. Right next to my Steve Balmer portrait I have a score card of Apple's epic failz and every time another one happens I squeeze a facial pustule to celebrate.

My "mother" bough an Apple product once in 1986 and I have never talked to her since. I think she's living on the street in Buffalo these days. A lot of good that Macintosh is doing you now, huh mom! Keeps youu nice and warn don't it?

Ha! ha! ha! ha!

And by the way, I hope that with this, my latest post, I have finally lived up to the maturity level of the average troll posting here. I certainly hope so anyway.

You have issues man. Deep, Deep, REALLY F'N DEEP issues.

 

[okibrian]

Surface kicks the rotting core right out of Apple and onto Steve Jobs' grave! In fact it knocks all the fruit off of every tree in the orchard and then infects the denuded shrubbery with aphids and burns the whole farm to the ground!

Anyone who buys an Apple product is terrorist untermensch deserving of a slow and horrible death. Right next to my Steve Balmer portrait I have a score card of Apple's epic failz and every time another one happens I squeeze a facial pustule to celebrate.

My "mother" bough an Apple product once in 1986 and I have never talked to her since. I think she's living on the street in Buffalo these days. A lot of good that Macintosh is doing you now, huh mom! Keeps youu nice and warn don't it?

Ha! ha! ha! ha!

And by the way, I hope that with this, my latest post, I have finally lived up to the maturity level of the average troll posting here. I certainly hope so anyway.

You have issues man. Deep, Deep, REALLY F'N DEEP issues.

 

[blakbird24]

[citation][nom]belardo[/nom]In what way?[/citation]

It's very simple...anything a computer can do, Surface Pro can do. That means that the endless library of existing x86 applications that have been created over...what...30 years or so...are now game for tablets. The problem that has killed Apple since the start...incompatibility with the massive majority of available software...will kill it again. The only difference is that this time, it may not be Microsoft pounding the stake (as you said, it depends on how Ballmer's version of the tech giant plays it's cards...I totally agree with that). Regardless, Surface Pro is the start of a shift in how we use tablets. There will always be the entry-level tablet...the "smartphone-with-a-big-screen" tablet that is used for the cool factor and "media consumption". That's the current Android and iPad tablets. However, as Intel continues to roll out it's phenomenal low-power mobile platform over the next couple of years, you are going to see much cheaper x86 tablets coming out running windows (and possibly even an x86-version of Android). This is going to squeeze the iPad because of it's price point. Apple will either have to drop the iPad to the $200-$300 range to maintain sales volume, or let it fall to a niche product for dedicated fans because there will be many "Surface Pro" tablets to choose from in the $400-$600 range (where you currently see the biggest chunk of mainstream laptops selling). The other option would be for Apple to develop a Mac OS-based version of the iPad, using the same Intel hardware as the competition...maybe call it the iPro? However, that would most certainly be a $1000+ device and still wouldn't sell well since they'd be selling to essentially the same audience that buys Macbooks...and that's a very small audience. So we may not see that happen, despite the seeming natural evolution of it all.

As I always say, the "desktop" computer (or more appropriately, the stationary computer) is not going anywhere. If tablets are to ever completely displace any form factor, it will be the laptop (as we know it). There will always be a stationary form factor computer...it will however be radically different than we know it today.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]belardo[/nom]I use my almost iPad daily.... its also a great toilet device[/citation]
Great for wiping your ass on?
...
You have the gall to accuse anyone of passing positive comment on anything by MS a shill, whereas you as the most partisan person I have ever read from, negative to the max, apart from ranting endlessly I DARE you to play devils advocate and point out the good parts of Windows 8, Surface and recent Microsoft software (like Skydrive)
...
I may not be a fan of Apple the company but I can respect the good hardware and it's intended uses - the Surface has it's intended uses also and in those fields it best in class many times over
...
Performance against tablets? Ignored so you can point out battery life

Portability versus ultrabooks/MBA/netbooks? Ignored so you can say it is bigger than other tablets

Existing software catalogue? Ignored because the App Store has more entries than the Windows Store, even though over 6 million software programs going back to DOS will run, and you can now also run Android Apps on it as well

Best add on keyboard on the market? Ignored because you say it costs to much, despite the iPad not having one bundled either and it's own keyboard accessories are worse and also expensive, also despite when you add the costs together it still makes an ultrabook that can convert back to a tablet which ultrabooks can't do

Has a Wacom digitizer? Ignored or sneered at because Jobs once said "If you see a pen it has failed" whilst Samsung have been selling boatloads of Notes with 'golly gosh' a pen. The pen is not mandatory, it is optional and if I don't want to use it I don't have to, but if you want to use one on an iPad (or a Macbook for that matter) well that's just tough

Media consumption? Ignored again, you are happy to feed your self with content from the iTunes store or if from elsewhere forced to re-encode to play (good luck playing those HD MKV movies or FLAC music files to work) which you have to do on another computer (and when I say a computer I mean a real one, not a tablet toy with a toy OS), the Surface either plays the file natively, or plays with a codec pack, or with any additional 3rd party media player like Winamp, VLC, Media Player Classic, etc and if all else fails you can install any number of media converter programs and convert it to a watchable format without needing to touch another device

But it runs warm? Yep, some reviewers have said it runs warm, not hot, never once has anyone said it runs hot or even uncomfortably, but warm. With the engine of a sportscar inside I think i can forgive that, but again drawing comparisons with the world of Apple, so far the iPhone and the iPad have both caught fire and/or exploded for users. Maybe they needed to vent some heat through the case instead, better out than in
.....
The Surface does what it does better than any other machine on the market, sure it has downsides like the cost and the battery life - but only comparatively - if you compare a Shelby GT500 against a Toyota Prius you will get exactly the same results, the Shelby has shitty gas mileage and costs a whole heap more, but for all that it is far better made, goes much faster and looks WAY cooler
...
Your justification for the iPad being better? Most people will use it for browsing facebook and watching porn - thanks a lot, you just classified a product as better by saying everyone is an idiot - applying to the lowest common denominator then declaring victory - after that I think your opinion counts for jack shit, but thanks for playing, Apple shill

 

[mcbridedm]

6 hours web browsing is not possible. ZDNet got 6.5 hours if you just idle (not actually using it) and with 25% brightness. For a tablet to only get 4.5 hours of normal use, its pretty bad especially when its getting mopped up by products a year older.

We'll have to wait for the next intel chipset to fix the battery issues. I suspect the Surface 2 or whatever it is named will be a force to reckon with. Until then, Microsoft has a flop.