Microsoft Surface

[Chris Harlan]

[Tim Wilson] “I’m pretty sure that this’ll be the last time I talk abou it…unless I talk about it again. Not fair to expect me to change the behavior that’s gotten me here.
“

Yeah, but if we had a little bit more time for preparation, say a road map of some kind, it would be as jarring when it does happen.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Tim Wilson] “I’m pretty sure that this’ll be the last time I talk abou it…unless I talk about it again. Not fair to expect me to change the behavior that’s gotten me here.”

😉

I didn’t mean to misrepresent.

[Tim Wilson]

I didn’t mean to say that you personally misrepresented me, just that I don’t want to be known as the guy who cares a whole lot about roadmaps. Me personally? Not the tiniest bit.

Even when I was running nothing but Macs, and running large general interest Mac user groups where we took time every week to mock everything about Windows and the clueless dolts who use it – even then, I trusted Apple not at all, based on personal experience going back to 1980.

To this day, no single computer has had the market share of my beloved Apple II. The System 6/7 transition remains the hallmark of miserable computing experiences.

Among the Apple products I personally owned that were killed, in some cases before they could be repaired or replaced by Apple with even working refurbs or something: several of my printers, a scanner, the 17AV monitor that was never grounded right, and the QuickTake camera. (Raise your hand if you owned one of THOSE bad boys. Version 1 built by Kodak as their first foray into digital photography.) I didn’t own a Newton, but I know people who did. So over $20,000 I personally spent on gear left without support or repair options.

Man, i keep thinking of more. Claris Works. AppleWorks. Did you buy Apple hard drives? I did,.including the ProDrive, which was 5 MEGABYTES for $3499. The Pippin game platform, developed with Bandai!!! Once again, raise your hand if you owned one!

9 to X? Nuff said.

Removing slots while killing compatibility with expansion chassis (thankfully temporarily on the latter).

Remember when almost nobody in the development community was ready for an OS and architecture that was so new you had to run some software under emulation not that many years ago? Apple not working with its partners boded ill…except oh yeah, they’d already killed a bunch of IO vendors, and that’s not even counting the clones…

…none of which was a deal breaker, because I’d rarely gone more than a year or two without Apple “innovating” some critical part of my workflow. I was used to it, and assumed it was never going to stop.

THERE’S your roadmap.

I’m not being anti-Apple. I’m just saying that if your 5yr business plan didn’t include Apple “innovating “ you or one of your favorite vendors, I assume it does now.

And still, I don’t think any of this reflects poorly on Apple. They’re very good at offering fair value at buying time, and their stuff mostly lasts a long time. There’s nothing else you can ask for. Well, you obviously can, but….

…back to my original point. Their obligation to you ends when the warranty runs out. No matter how badly you want or need Apple in your future, Apple doesn’t feel the same about you.

And again, I have no problem with this.

It’s not the same as a roadmap, but for navigation purposes, you now officially have more than two points that you can use for triangulation.

And to get perilously close to back on topic, for all we know now, Surface is the next Newton.

[Craig Alan]

I see two problems here:
landscape only?
so upright that it might be a problem with touch control.

The cover doubling as a keyboard would be great
IF the actual typing experience has a good tactile feel.

On the other hand, I would love it if Apple added mini-kickstands to each backside edge of the macbooks:
better typing angle,
better touch pad angle,
better heat dissipation.

Would not mind one for the IPhone though it would make the back cover less than lick my smooth seamless perfection.

MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170, Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Tim Wilson]

[Craig Alan] “Would not mind one for the IPhone though it would make the back cover less than lick my smooth seamless perfection.”

Are you saying you like the back of your iPhone? Don’t do that with your computer.

I have a kickstand on the back of my HTC Thunderbolt (OH NO!!! THUNDERBOLT!!!!), and I think it rawks. It’s oriented horizontally, but works dandily in both landscape and portrait. I use it all the time.

Since MSFT has seen this with a bunch of phones, I’m going to assume that they were thinking about it.

Stop by your local Best Buy and take a look. It’s nicely recessed and designed in a complementary way with the rest of the phone. While the back of the phone isn’t lickably smooth, I happen to find licking textural things appealing in its own special way as well.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Craig Alan]

Sounds good, but my IPhone is encased in an Otterbox Defender, which did protect it the four times it went crashing to the ground. Each time it dropped, ironically, was when the belt clip that came with the defender got accidentally engaged in the open position and popped off my belt. What is the open position for? Why it allows the belt clip to double as a kickstand. Actually, the last time it fell, something did break. The part that holds the kickstand (belt clip) in the open position broke off. Since then, it has not fallen. It works much better now as a belt clip though is still way to bulky – held out a good ½ inch from my belt. Have to admit; when someone slides a butt naked iphone out her front or rear jean pocket, I get product envy. I realize it’s the same model I have, but I still want one of those.

MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170, Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Davee Schulte]

Nah. Steve Jobs would turn over in his grave if Cook allowed the Ipad to become a mini-laptop like the surface. His whole vision was for the Ipad to be a completely new product and a completely different market. Ipad has redefined so much of how people work and consume media. I hope Apple sticks with their original vision. The day the Ipad has a kickstand, sell your Apple stock immediately.

[Davee Schulte]

Did anyone notice the guy had to switch his tablet with another one because it wasn’t working? Also, is it just me or was that most boring keynote ever.

[Steve Connor]

So they also announced Windows Phone 8, which won’t actually run on any existing Windows Phones, that really is a dumb move, they were just gaining some traction in the market as well.

Steve Connor
“The ripple command is just a workaround for not having a magnetic timelinel”
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