Or is it a Ouija Board running Vista?
Microsoft unveiled a coffee-table-shaped “surface computer” on Wednesday in a major step towards co-founder Bill Gates’s view of a future where the mouse and keyboard are replaced by more natural interaction using voice, pen and touch.
Microsoft Surface, which has a 30-inch display under a hard-plastic tabletop, allows people to touch and move objects on screen for everything from digital finger painting and jigsaw puzzles to ordering off a virtual menu in a restaurant.
They haven’t said that it will place calls for you; but, their “partner” is T-Mobile. And you can change your ringtones with it.
Microsoft shunned its usual PC manufacturing partners and decided to take control of the surface computer’s hardware production using an undisclosed contract manufacturer. It will run the Windows Vista operating system.
The company is selling the Surface for between $5,000 and $10,000 each, but aims to bring prices down to consumer levels in three to five years and introduce various shapes and forms.
When young and brash, I will admit to occasionally bragging that I could sell blue sky – or ears to an elephant. I could sell this – and I know exactly the people to sell it to.
No, I wouldn’t buy one for myself, though. Or sell one to a friend.
This would be great for a bar but it seems all-wrong for home or work.
A table is where I put stuff. If I want to see or do stuff, it is usual up at eye level.
The same idea for the wall of a cubicle, for instance, would be much more ergonomic.
its so big and clunky. the interface response seems not really multitouch either but just kind of a semi-interactive piece of m$ crap.
Eideard, saw this on the NBC Nightly News (and web) yesterday, and it sure looks cool. Multiple simultaneous touches allowed is a neat tech. $5K to $8K is a little much right now, but maybe the prices will come down soon, it would make a great bar top.
Hmm, I don’t know what is going to be a bigger flop, this or the Palm Folio.
gquaglia:
Heh, I suspect tomato flavored jello would be more of a success than the Palm eFolio. The eFolio wouldn’t even make a good April Fools joke.
Im waiting for someone to spill HOT coffee into it.
Just as M$oft seems to be getting media center OS working right, they lurch off into a silly hardware direction. I think Apple TV – and future versions – are a better hardware direction for a media PC. And all of the reasons concern dollar$.
Everyone already has a TV set. So, you add a $299 box to communicate with your existing TV. If I had a spare $5,000 to spend in the living room (cripes!), I’d buy a bigger and snazzier HDTV. Not a new coffee table.
I can imagine putting your feet up on the table and it says, “you’ve got corns!”
Or you set a beer on it and it says, “how can you drink that horse piss?”
Or your girlfriend sits on it and it says, “that is a lot of yeast, you should make some bread.”
You know why those computer desks with the display beneath the surface never worked out? People hate that.
RTA – It’s meant for casinos and restaurants, worldwide.
So they might actually be able to sell a few hundred units.
#8 Well here in Canada, the beer comment would be almost good stuff and in Germany now you’re drinking!.
In one of the videos you see the assembly. Much like touch screens I used to help install in golf clubs, it’s pure glass. Water / coffee won’t affect it. It’s a capacitive touch screen, only a hammer can harm it.
You haven’t lived until you’ve played Solitaire on a capacitive touch screen . . .
If you want to see where M$ got it’s “vision” watch the sci fi movie “The Island”. The director’s desk is one of these 10 to 15 years out.
Yeah, anything from Microsoft must be ridiculed immediately. This is more software than hardware, and could be a big success.
I do not think it will be successful, a few years ago the local college had touch screens on the computers used for registration, they eventual went away because all the different people touching them, they were constantly dirty, and people were grossed out from it and would refuse to use them.. And this was even after they were cleaned.
Peoples hands are not the cleanest thing around.
-TO
So John, how many of these has Leo ordered?
#10,
It is not capacitive touch. It is a new system that Microsoft developed. There are a bunch of cameras inside the table that photograph the surface to figure out what is happening. The demo only touched what it is capable of. Not only is that touch screen, it is also a real time scanner.
The top of the table is ground flat tempered glass. That means no scratches (like will happen on the iPhone with the pyrex glass) or finger prints.
For people looking for stock tips, look for a company developing a lcd technology with ccd sensors mixed in with lcd sensors. Also, it looks (to me at least) like MS is running the image mask processing on the computer. There are a number of companies that are already making DSP chipsets for the purpose of processing image masks. IMO, those are the technologies that are needed to make this portable and or a product for the general consumer.
Also, looks like the WPF additions to Vista are going to see lots of use. Time for you developers out there to start learning silverlight and how to use the silverlight designer.
Also… We now know why Leopard was delayed. Apple had to hold off and make Core Animation something that could somewhat compete to what the WPF is capable of. Only, with that ancient double buffer tech that Aqua uses, I wonder if they can pull it off?
10,
1. Glass on GLASS… Ever see the Old Pinball machines?? Ever see that Class shatter?? I HAVE.
2. Kids, and Spills… A Sealed BOX with no ventilation?? I REALLY dought it..
3. Drunks and Spills… as in 2…DITTO. And dont forget 1, and a GOOD SLAM of a empty mug.
4. Bar or resturant, Lady with her NICE Diamond ring, Taps the surface and chips it a few times….
If the M$’s Surface becomes a flop, the mac heads will say “It was a bad idea from the start.”
If Apple’s version of the Surface becomes a flop, the mac heads will say “It failed because it was way too ahead of its time.”
A lot of you are talking about how this isn’t such a cool thing and predicting its eventual failure.
What’s wrong with you people? Didn’t you read the article? IT CAN CHANGE YOUR RINGTONES!!!!!
I could see using this for playing tabletop wargames or RPGs. Can’t imagine it would be inexpensive enough to make that practical.
But if it was apple who had announced this, the tech world would be abuzz with how ‘innovative’ and ‘revolutionary’ it was.
Because it’s MS, the ‘hip’ bloggers feel the need to rip this…hilarious.
BOB anyone?
My prediction – Microsoft will find a way to mess this up. It will be convoluted and filled with incompatibilities. Every try networking in windows mobile? Ever wonder why there are two separate address books in outlook?
Besides, they can’t do easy. They can do stupid, but not easy. When was the last time you saw something from Microsoft that was intuitive and worked well?
Unless of course this is a just a platform and they leave it to others to develop the interface.
But honestly I wish they would reinvent the mouse first. Why do I have to touch the screen, why can’t I just point at it.
I can’t believe I beat Angel to this riposte:
#23 – with what do you intend to point? 🙂
#23
This may be what you’re looking for…
#22 – Microsoft that was intuitive and worked well?
Every time I boot up. XP is intuitive and it works well. (like most MS products other than Outlook, Media Player, and Halo)
25 missing link?
And actually yes, Windows XP is tough to beat. It is my second favorite only to Access, the most misunderstood MS software.
Too bad it doesn’t do 3D holograms. Maybe that is the next version for half the price.
a) Ouch – my neck!!!! Work with this bent down for an hour and spend the next day at a chiropractor’s getting your spine straightened.
b) My wife’s first response: “Yeah right, 5 minutes of the cat on top of that chasing the cute icons and all our files get deleted… wonderful idea!”
First that ridiculous portable and now this? Whoever signed off on this obviously has no idea what people do in the real world. Both concepts have the look to me of something some insanely rich geek like BG would dream up. He could put it in one of 100 rooms in his mansion he only uses once a month. What focus group would give positive feedback on this? Most of us use tables for… PUTTING STUFF ON! THIS WOULD GET IN THE WAY OF THE PRIMARY USE OF A TABLE! HOW ABOUT A TOUCH SCREEN FOR THE SOLES OF YOUR SHOES TOO?
Somebody said it can’t get fingerprints on it, how exactly is that possible?
Excellent point about the touch screens, within a month they always look gross no matter well or often you clean them.