Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft's Risky Tablet Announcement
itwbennett writes "The New York Times describes the tablet announcement that Steve Ballmer is supposed to make in his CES opening keynote tonight as 'one of Steve Ballmer's riskiest trade show moves in years.' And blogger Peter Smith is in complete agreement. Here's why: 'Whether or not this announcement is intended as a direct response to the much-rumored Apple event that may or may not be happening on January 27th, consumers will perceive it as one,' says Smith. And if Microsoft unveils a traditional tablet then 'they'll be up against the (presumably more expensive) iTablet and the cult of Apple.' But if the device is the dual-screen Courier that we heard about back in September then it'll be up against the (presumably less expensive) enTourage eDGe, says Smith."
The huge borders of enTourage eDGe really put me off. It looks like something from the 80's and only the other screen is LCD, other one is e-ink. While you can probably get more battery power only using the e-ink one for reading, a lot of other possibilities are lost for Courier's 2x LCD screens. And I dont really need that long battery power, as I'm mostly looking for something to use on sofa or bed. I don't think Microsoft has anything to worry about enTourage eDGe.
I really hope the announcement is Courier. It looks kickass, and it would be immediate choice over iTablet or other traditional tablets. Holding a tablet that is book like while laying on sofa makes just a lot more sense and is a lot more comfortable. And when you're done, you can just close it like a book. If it's Courier, Microsoft is up for a good battle with Apple. If it's a normal tablet, meh.
So the last thing Mr. Ballmer wants to hold up is a me-too device.
Huh, and here I was thinking that was precisely what he wanted to hold up. A "Me-Too" device that is the only authorized Windows Tablet for Windows 7. And it will sync with all your Microsoft crap and even let you carry around your Microsoft DRM'd media. Just like I'm sure Apple's tablet will do the same thing with Apple replaced for Microsoft.
Meanwhile here I'll sit with my eeePC running some flavor of Linux wondering when I'll get a tablet that provides support for open source.
Whether or not this announcement is intended as a direct response to the much-rumored Apple event that may or may not be happening on January 27th, consumers will perceive it as one
Oh no! Then surely consumers will see this as Microsoft entering another market they aren't experts in and not buy the MS Tablet just like how no one bought the original XBox ... oh, wait. Well, surely all those consumers will see through this ruse just like they did when Microsoft released the Zune ... oh, wait, that's still being shoved down our throats and people are still buying it.
And if Microsoft unveils a traditional tablet then 'they'll be up against the (presumably more expensive) iTablet and the cult of Apple.' But if the device is the dual-screen Courier, that we heard about back in September then it'll be up against the (presumably less expensive) enTourage eDGe
And the fact of the matter is that it doesn't matter if the market is large enough. Take the PS3 Vs XBox360 vs Wii console war. The XBox360 wasn't as powerful or as expensive as the PS3 yet wasn't as cheap as the Wii. And yet people gobbled them up.
The sad fact of the matter is that when you're the top dog in a lucrative industry and you're generating epic revenue, you have this peculiar ability to pay people to assess markets and then simply enter them by mirroring your opponents' every move in those markets. And you know what? With a good enough marketing team and a big enough brand name, you can't fail. Two tired adages: 1) You need money to make money. 2) The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. These apply on all scales.
For how much us tech savvy people will be able to bash Microsoft's tablet, it will turn a profit. Trust me, I don't say that as a fan I say that as a fact.
My work here is dung.
This is Deja Vu all over again. They already had a bunch of pushes for Tablets. Like here:http://www.pencomputing.com/frames/tablet_pc.html Tablet PC is no go. Get over it.
I think even Apple cultists will agree that tablets are currently a niche market at best. iMac, iPod, and iPhone all serve well-defined markets that were established before these specific products were available. People have tried to push tablets over the years and, to put it mildly, have not met with much success. What is the iSlate (or whatever) bringing to the table that will have it succeed where others have failed? I've read all the rumors have have not been particularly impressed; I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Including the ability for me to skin the UI with an LCARS theme without "jailbreaking" or flashing custom firmware.
I'm serious.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
Microsoft's Risky Tablet Announcement
Even though this is Microsoft, I am absolutely overjoyed to see a reduced instruction set compu-tablet.
Yuck, yuck, yuck. (seriously though, it has an Intel Atom)
BTW, Hackers seems topical:
DADE: It has a killer refresh rate.
KATE: P6 chip. Triple the speed of the Pentium.
DADE: Yeah. It's not just the chip, it has a PCI bus. But you knew that.
KATE: Indeed. RISC architecture is gonna change everything.
DADE: Yeah. RISC is good.
I hope he throws it while chanting DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS...
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
I think the NYT is reading too much into this. First of all, Apple has it's own market. The folks who buy their products and are fans are not going to be swayed too much, if at all, by a cheaper price from MS for a similar gadget. Apple has proven that they can charge what they charge and their market sticks with them: the early adopters will pay the price. And those who won't pay the price will wait because we know that Apple will drop the price in the future.
The MS market is for those of us that are price conscious, the corporate market that locked themselves into MS solutions, and believe it or not, there are folks who actually like MS and HP products and even prefer them over Apple.
My point is that Apple is in their own league (and market) and any announcement from MS et al. isn't for their (Apple's or their users) benefit - it's for the MS fans that may want a tablet device. It also shows that MS is "keeping up".
MS isn't the power house that they once were. They're more like the obese ex-college football star that thinks they're still the big fast hunk they once were - that's another post from the Anonymous Business and Marketing Analyst.
Windows tablet pc edition is already in the wild, and nobody cares about it. This is just a poor-marketing-dept reply to apple's itablet/hugeiphone.
slashwhat?
This is going to be WAY cooler than Windows XP Tablet Edition running on the Compaq Tablet that it was introduced with. Or Vista with built in Tablet Extensions that MS demoed a while back. Yay!!!! Windows 7 Tablet!!! it will be great where the two previous attempted failed miserably because it's new!
The eDGe looks like two palm pilots glued into an ugly box. That thing got beat with the ugly stick.
ANYTHING from HP/Microsoft is going to look better than that.
sorry people, you'll all have to stand... we removed all chairs as a precaution
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Can't people just wait until companies actually announce products before writing about how good or bad they might be, or how they might change the market? Now we have this ridiculous scenario where bloggers are writing about a possible product announcement and how it compares to another possible product announcement from another company further down the road.
...why Microsoft seems to think it's in competition with Apple. Microsoft built itself on being a software company and has only recently - within the last decade - ventured significantly into the hardware market (Xbox, Zune, now the tablet, etc).
Apple, meanwhile, has traditionally been the opposite - a hardware company that occasionally ventures into the software industry (arguably the only software they make is variations of OS X for all their hardware devices).
I am ready and willing to accept naivete as a reason for my above question, but on the off-chance it's not...why does Microsoft care what Apple does? I should think they'd be better off worrying more about what Google does in response to this tablet than Apple.
"I'd just like to emphasise that taking a million years isn't a metaphor here..." -Rich Bradshaw
The NYT article is ridiculous. Granted Apple will probably release a tablet like device or at least announce it in the next month or so. However how can MS/HP announce a me-too device without there being a device to emulate? What's unfortunate is that as usual the Mac boosters in the media who believe that the Mac is the be all for all users are going to pass judgement on this device by comparing it to the mythical Apple tablet. It's like comparing a good race horse to a unicorn sure that horse is fast, but it's not a magical and can't fly. (Granted Apple may deliver a unicorn, but the point is it just doesn't exist yet however cool it may be)
But what about software for it. I think part of the anticipation of the Apple tablet is that it will be a larger iPod Touch with added functionality. If the Apple tablet can run iPhone apps it already has a huge advantage over the Microsoft tablet, more so if it can also run OS X apps.
What software would the Microsoft tablet run? Windows 7? It will have all the speed of a netbook. Windows Mobile? It will be DOA if it runs Windows Mobile.
As a side note, how much do you want to bet that Microsoft somehow tries to connect their tablet to Xbox Live?
It's called iTunes.
Tablets are well on their way to becoming the "Cloud Computing" of 2010.
We are seeing a huge amount of hype from all of the major players, but we're not getting anything that's truly usable.
Of course, this isn't the first time that many of these vendors have tried to offer a tablet of some sort. Microsoft alone has failed time and time again.
Just like with "Cloud Computing", they are taking an ancient a failed idea and trying to push it on the public once more.
We're not even a week in, and yet we know that tablets will be this year's major tech failure.
I swear that sometimes the future is stupidly obvious and these big dumb corporations adamantly try to refuse it.. A $1000 tablet may be a temporary success... but the future is cheap 'netbook' tablets like in Star Trek TNG. The point of a tablet PC is to offer a computing platform that removes the need for paper. Paper is cheap. A dual-screen tablet is the stupidest of the stupid moronic stupid things Microsoft would do..
So right now, while electronics shops cope with el-cheapo lcd screens being placed in every product, why the hell aren't these big dumb companies seeing that the el-cheapo lcd photoframes are just a few steps away from being the tablets we need? To truly remove the need for paper, we do not need speed or the latest in 3d multimedia. We need el-cheapo tablets that can be passed around while the personal information is contained in removable cards (SD? miniSD? microSD? who cares). Let me write on the screen. Convert my text to type. Let me play a video - but not necessarily a video game. Let me browse the net. Let me read an ebook. Let me write up my notes at a meeting and toss them on my boss's desk. Put this with a slow-ass cheap processor, minimum OS (fuck you Microsoft, but still XP is small enough), minimum other parts, and a touch-screen. Also, make it easily replaceable.. If I lose my tablet, lemme buy another for $200. Let the data automatically sync to my desktop computer when I bring the tablet near it. Waterproof the tablet.. should be easy, right? just one rubber compartment around the storage cards and ports.. let it borrow internet access from my nearby cell phone or my wifi..
The tablet does not need to do the following:
- charge me a monthly fee of any kind - so it should not have cell phone shit in it
- play 3d games
- rival my desktop in performance
- weigh more than 1.2 lbs
- be more than 3/8" thick
- download automatic updates
- use front surface area for anything other than a screen
- cost more than $200 ($300 in 2011, $500 in 2012 to account for inflation)
This is the future of tablet computing that I remember.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
2009 was the year of the netbook, 2010 will be the year of the tablet. The problem is, tablets are so niche... and the normal consumer doesn't know.
Oh right. You gave me the excuse to play the remix again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXhoU43lNHA
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
So what makes Microsoft think that they can make a decent tablet?
Seriously, think about it for a minute. Forget about all the hype, forget about Apple's tablet (which hasn't even been announced). Forget about prototypes and mockups. Look at what we already know for a fact. Look at the state of Windows Mobile. How much attention has Microsoft given it? Now consider what they did to Danger, and the whole Pink debacle spearheaded by Roz Ho. And look at what they're doing with Bing, trying to compete with Google. Finally, what happened with the Tablet PC? Remember those? I ask you in all honesty: do you think that Microsoft is actually capable of launching a touchscreen tablet device that is going to provide an elegant, rich, and relatively bug-free user experience? Do you think that they will put their weight behind a putative MS tablet?
The problem here is that I have serious reservations about Microsoft's competence as well as their sincerity in developing and supporting such a device. I look at their track record with past initiatives and all I see are half-baked attempts. This rumor, if true, totally reeks of desperation, and I would not go near this one with a ten-foot pole. Such a device would not only have to be freaking amazing, it would have to be available by next month AND it would need to be bug-free, and cheap. In other words, it would have to be perfect now. Not in five years. Otherwise, it'll be a joke.
"The Tablet takes cutting-edge PC technology and makes it available wherever you want it, which is why I'm already using a Tablet as my everyday computer. It's a PC that is virtually without limits -- and within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America."
Bill Gates, 2001
According to Amazon's best seller list the top *17* music players are made by Apple. Numbers 18 & 19 are Sandisks. Then comes another iPod. Zune is the 21st in popularity.
Dead, or close to it.
Yours In Novosibirsk,
K. Trout
What announcement? MS already has tablets, starting with their release of "Windows XP Tablet PC Edition".
Previous standards of tablets and touch screen devices have either been small (in size or degree of market penetration) or awful devices that never should have been made. These tablets aim to be neither of those, they aim to create a whole new market and class of device. We can't really judge them until we know more about what to expect from the hardware.
Will Microsoft use a Snapdragon chip, or Intel's new silicon? What would the ramifications of those choices be? What about data storage? RAM? And if they do use Intel processors, will there be a desktop OS, or a port of Windows Mobile? Or a whole new solution? We can only wait and see.
With both MS and Apple announcing tablets, maybe ONE of them can tell us exactly who those things are targeted at. In the age of netbooks and smart phones on the low end and real laptops on the high end, I want to know exactly who out there is clamoring to spend $1000 for a half-assed laptop with a glorified touch screen. Maybe there are some artists out there who could really use this screen for drawing or something (and some Mac fans who will buy anything with an Apple logo on it, just cause), but why would any mainstream user want one of these things?
I don't mean that as a troll. Seriously, is anyone here looking to buy a tablet--and if so why?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
This is got to be the longest-running MicroSoft joke: announcing vaporware as soon as a competitor does. Windows is the classic example: announced in 1984 when the Mac graphical interface was delivered. But not an usuable version until 3.1 six years later.
Keep in mind that Clay Aiken's holiday album sold over one million copies in SIX WEEKS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merry_Christmas_with_Love
Popularity doesn't equal quality. You can keep your filthy locked down device. I'll stay with my Zen, thank you very much.
Living With a Nerd
seems like it's the third time for Windows Tablet Edition, or whatever you want to call it this year.
first bunch of hardware around 2000 for it was heavy, clunky, slow, no battery life, and moderately Newton-like.
maybe this batch will work. especially if the batteries are user-replaceable, which is Apple's achilles heel. yeah, it's sleeker. but you lose your machine to exchange in two or three years, at 1/2 to 2/3 the price of a new one, for a simple battery.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Huh. I guess we can now see a slightly clearer picture of Apple's motivations for "leaking" a few choice details about their new tablet, weeks in advance of the official announcement: They must have caught wind of Microsoft's own development efforts and of this impending announcement, and they just wanted to make sure everyone understood that Ballmer is really the "me too" parrot, rather than allowing people to develop the mistaken impression that Jobs is the parrot.
...just like a piece of paper: disposable. It seems that a technology only becomes ubiquitous when it becomes so cheap and common that you're strange if you *don't* have one. Everybody, basically, has a cell phone or access to one. A smart phone, like the iphone or android-anything? Not necessarily, but you can buy an old-fashioned cell phone from vending machines now. Look at the history of "computers", in general, and you see the progression from a few at big companies to grandma posting her kitty pics on Facebook.
A tablet, whether it be from Apple or Microsoft or whomever, needs to be less about being personal and more about being utilitarian; if I perceive that it's not a big deal if the unit breaks or disappears, and I can just get another one relatively easily, then it's a success in my mind. And what would the tablet have to do to be better than a piece of paper? Play video and audio, do basically everything I expect a computer to do but with a simpler interface. As another poster mentioned, a tablet needs to be like the ones everyone seemed to be carrying and passing around on TNG; completely flexible in functionality, and acceptable if I didn't get it back. Maybe that's where cloud computing comes into its own; since it's all "in the cloud", the fact that my tablet fell into the blender while trying to cook something, doesn't faze me very much as I know I haven't lost any data, can replace the tablet cheaply, and only have to explain to the SO why we're ordering take out (again).
A smart phone is a bad place to start with a tablet concept; the whole point of a smart phone is that it's *yours*, it has your number, your contacts, and everything it does is a reflection of your personality and your tastes and interests. With the abilities of a smart phone, there's no need for a tablet if it's billed as simply "a bigger smart phone"; this is, I think, the point Jobs was getting at with the question "what would someone do with a tablet but surf the web in the bathroom?" A tablet needs to have its own place that is not served by a laptop or cell phone, and being an electronic piece of paper, with all the ephemeral-ness of said paper, is likely the winner.
'one of Steve Ballmer's riskiest trade show moves in years.'
Riskier than this?
"You can't allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them." [Condoleezza Rice]
You're posting on Slashdot and you can't replace the battery in an Apple device? Give me your soldering iron before you hurt yourself.
This place will sell you a kit for the iPhone including instructions and tools for twenty bucks. If you really can't do it yourself they'll do it for you for another $25.
The real problem is those damn car manufacturers, making the oil non-user replaceable. You're supposed to get that done every four months!
They're all doing it. Because they realize all of these devices - tablets, laptops, Android phones, iPhones, Boxie things, are all just different ways to consume the same digial crap, er, Content.
Just to prove a point, we should all turn off our electric gadgets for a week, go outside and have a snowball fight or something, then come in the house and read a book. A book made of paper.
Man I must be getting old.
who the hell makes a car where you can't replace the oil yourself?
More and more, Microsoft seems to me like a pack of losers.
Someone should tell Balmer that he can KILL any technology by getting behind it.
Like the Zune is a tremendous success, right?
Like we all bought Vista, right?
Like MS hasn't been found guilty of anti-trust violation. (He's not sitting in jail because we're all waiting for him to pull a "Ken Lay".)
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Changing the oil in a car takes about the same level of skill and investment in tools as it takes to change the battery in an iPhone or iPod.
Actually, changing the battery in a iPhone requires a screw driver and a knife and can be done at your kitchen table in a few minutes. Changing the oil in a car requires at least a wrench and a pail but probably also a set of tire ramps (a specialized tool) and usually you want to have an oil filter wrench or strap handy (also a specialized tool). Modern car makers also have an irritating tendency to put the oil filter somewhere non-trivial to reach.
If you want to call an iPhone battery non-user replaceable than the oil in a car is as well.
If you missed it, my statement about changing the oil in cars was sarcastic. I was going to write something about toilet maintenance, which might have been more obviously sarcastic, but I couldn't quite bring it together.
Not sure what MS is announcing tonight, but I got a free Acer Aspire 1420P Convertible Tablet PC when I attended the MS PDC in November and the thing is freaking amazing.
Some highlights:
Complete spec here.
using System.Awesome;
here's a scenario - in the john surfing naughty sites with bing - tablet blue screens - WAAH !!! OMG !!!! reboot reboot reboot reboot reboot - "you have unused desktop icons" - ah crap, there went that moment
I had not realized Apple had caught up that much. Considering the supposed market share of windows, ya I'd be worried if I were Microsoft!
I've only seen one Zune 'In the wild' (outside of store display cases) so they aren't selling well and the few that have been sold are usually hidden to hide the mark of shame of owning a Zune.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
I'm in. Please ship me a cooler full of snowballs. Or just snow, and I'll make'em.
Tablet computing has been talked about as the next great thing every year for the last 10 years. Yet it has never taken off. Why would apple and microsoft's announcement make any difference?
Tesla motor company?
According to Amazon's best seller list the top *17* music players are made by Apple
I know it's way late to ask that, but why ?!? I've listened to mp3s since before the Napster area and used mp3 players since the Rio and I don't see anything better about the iPods compared to the competition. Quite the opposite (no card reading ability for instance). So, I repeat, why are they so successful ? I find that the best mp3 player is simply my cell phone (no needless duplication of devices).
Non-Linux Penguins ?
Another shitty horrible touchscreen device with no keyboard YAY! Hey you guys coming up with these ideas, here is an idea go fuck yourself! Call me in 10 years when touch screens are a viable technology. Ive been using touch screen devices for years now they all suck, even the shitty terminals in stores at registers cant recognize the proper screen touches and the numerous cell phones from palm to windows to iphone all shit! I just recently went Blackberry and im loving the robust OS the powerful hardware and my precise roll ball! Touch screen devices ARE getting better but they are not at the point that we can all be touchy feely and ditch the keyboard.
Visit my Forums?
I can't speak for everyone, but I bought an iPod Touch for all the non- music stuff, like a great mobile browser and about 20 apps I use daily. I already had (and loved) a Sansa running Rockbox, but haven't turned it on since I got the iTouch.
It'd be silly to judge a laptop solely on its worth as a portable MP3 player. In my opinion, the same holds for iPod Touches and iPhones.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Early on, it was due to the accessories (docks on your office desk, car connections, etc). Now, it's a combination of that and inertia. Also, "everything" is an iPod now in the sense that all tissue is Kleenex.
...why Microsoft seems to think it's in competition with Apple. Microsoft built itself on being a software company and has only recently - within the last decade - ventured significantly into the hardware market (Xbox, Zune, now the tablet, etc).
Apple, meanwhile, has traditionally been the opposite - a hardware company that occasionally ventures into the software industry (arguably the only software they make is variations of OS X for all their hardware devices).
Hardware and software increasingly only matters in so far that you don't notice it and it doesn't get in the way. What's much more important is the ecosystem: How much effort have you to put into your device to get things on it? To buy an app or a game or music or a movie or a book or a magazine? If it requires more than a single tap you've lost. People (and I mean PEOPLE, not geeks) are sick of PCs and license numbers and virus-scanners and a thousand of ways to buy things and to make sure they work. People want a package, with the actual hardware just being the interface to it and the technology as invisible as possible.
If you need to know what format something is in or what resolution your screen has or on what kind of CPU your device runs, you're a geek and in the minority. People want to have things just work. They want a one-stop shop, which has their CC number and where they can buy some cheap software or a song or whatever by just doing it and never waste a single thought about how it works and what the files are named and where there are.
Apple has all this. They have worked on it for years, they are known for it and if they can get the publishers onto the wagon (with magazines and books and newspapers) and people can buy the NYT and Vogue and whatever as easy as they can buy an app or a song, both the publishers and the people will LOVE it.
It's not about the hardware and the software anymore. These are necessary (and may be hard), but they are not enough. Throwing the best hardware and the best OS at the people and nothing more is useless.
If MS and HP now announce nothing than a tablet with Windows 7 on it and some colorful UI on top, they'll not only have lost, they'll have proved that they don't even understand the problem they're facing. I can't imagine that they're that dumb, so I hope there's more to that.
And let me add one thing: Free Software and open hardware standards are important, but in the future free content and free standards to exchange content will be more important. If you're a real geek you *might* be wise to give up tinkering with hard- and software and start to tinker with content. And if this means to buy a Mac or an iPhone or an iSlate or whatever, do so and use the time you win by not fighting your devices to write and to create music and other things not being meaningful only to computers and other geeks. If we lose the people, we lose everything.
Can LINUX be installed on this platform ?
This is like the fourth or fifth attempt by Microsoft to create a tablet, and they all sucked badly. This isn't going to be any different; Microsoft seems incapable of doing anything other than a desktop OS.
Same here, im completely hooked on the apps, I was a loyal pocket PC fan but was abandoned by Dell when they exited the pda market and didnt like the direction of the Ipaq. I have since found the Touch to be the PDA i always wanted...at least so far, no its not perfect, I would still like to at least have the option of a sylus but other than that it does more than I really dreamed about before.
"Wireless. More space than a nomad. Still lame."
Say hello to my little sig.
MS is going to announce that they are providing the OS for Apples new tablet~
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You mention the PS3 vs 360 vs Wii competition... but this is the FIRST generation tablet for MS. So it should be compared to the PS2 vs X-box vs Gamecube competition.
MS never makes a good first product. Go ahead, try Windows 1. The original Zune. IE1. Their first office suit. Silverlight 1.0. The list is endless.
Oh and the X-box cost MS money. History, learn it.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Most of those 17 are different colors of the Nano, which is at a completely different price point. The Zune HD sells less units than the iTouch, granted, but Amazon won't say by how much. Personnaly, I find the Zune Pass to be a terrific subscription model, and I think that iPod owners really miss out on that.
If it's what the rumored Courier was I would not buy it, but it would be neat looking. If you are going to do the duel screens, make one a Eink, so I can read without eyestrain, and justify the price because I'm getting a ebook reader too. I really don't want to carry a laptop/netbook and a ebook reader, but both in one? Now I'm interested. 2 LED screens at first seems useful, but you later realize it's not. Battery life, extra size and weight, etc. Hell, a decent UI can do a lot with one half size screen (iphone). If you are going to do the 2 screens the device better be slick small. Like A DSlite. Fit's in my jeans or a purse.
if the Courier weight the same or less than a hardcover book, then it would be okay, otherwise, it is just another touch screen notebook.
Oh, and I hope MS won't repeat their mistake in WinCE by assuming the same user interface on Win7 would also do fine for a tablet, it won't.
Hmmm...you seem pretty firm that the iTablet is real, and is a traditional tablet, making the Courier an immediate choice over them ... I, for one, would be interested to know more about Apple's plan, care to shed some light here?
You have very good points about MS's capability to turn up a nice and good tablet, but at the end, all these won't matter, as we are still going to use it because this is the only tablet the corporate recognize as a compatible device, and you are still going to pay for all those bug fixes...
Reality is cruel and hard.
"MS has an amazing ability to fuck things up"
and previously you said
"That's not to say that MS won't show up with a mule and a paper cone taped to it's forehead with duct tape"
Should I call the RSPCA or PETA?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I know, it's not relevant to your comment. I've got to put it somewhere.
The tablet that Steve Ballmer announced in partnership with HP in his CES keynote speech will never see the light of day. It is vaporware. It does not exist. Steve-o panicked and held up a half-working concept prototype because he's scared spitless about both the Android tablets working on display at CES and Apple's announcement later this month.
There is no such thing and there will never be. It sucks so much power you need a 3 pound power brick to work it at all. It sucks juice like a diabetic 300LB hummingbird. If it was impressive he would have showed you how it worked. Microsoft is looking around for an answer to Android on Snapdragon and to be blunt, they're still going to be looking at Christmas time when you're putting those cool new Android tablets/music players/movie players/Kidsafe GPS locators/notepad computers under the tree for your kids, your spouse and yourself.
In 2010 Microsoft's innovations are going to be limited to paying people to force you to use Bing instead of allowing you to Google what you want. That's all. And in fact TFA announces just that.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I actually took a moment to look at your site. For a while I thought I was having an argument with a 15 year old boy (yea, I know, bad reflection on me) because that's the amount of intellect and maturity you display. But NOOOO, you're an adult.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You're such a loser.
(If your girlfriend asks you if she looks fat in those jeans, the answer if YES! hahahaahahahahah)
I know it's way late to ask that, but why ?!? I've listened to mp3s since before the Napster area and used mp3 players since the Rio and I don't see anything better about the iPods compared to the competition. Quite the opposite (no card reading ability for instance). So, I repeat, why are they so successful ? I find that the best mp3 player is simply my cell phone (no needless duplication of devices). --
Simple.. Known quantity and availability. Ignore any fanboy input, where the only requirement is to have an Apple logo to be the best ever anything..And you can get to the real issue. iProducts are the midi systems of the PMP world. Realistically, go into any consumer electronics chain and you have a pretty pitiful range of choices. iProducts and a few cheap models, a couple of big brand names with disappointing spec perhaps, but that is about it. And that is where it ends for most. The good stuff is really only available in online outlets. Which is possibly why many of the really cool far eastern PMPs never get outside Asia.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
Ah, I see. You're from Jersey. That explains quite a lot.
Have fun living in a hell hole!
Living With a Nerd
Ah, I see. You're from Jersey. That explains quite a lot.
You're just as wrong about that as you are everything else.
Have fun living in a hell hole!
Have fun fucking that fat girl.
You're just as wrong about that as you are everything else.
Really? So you aren't on Comcast, running Linux at 1280x1024 resolution, or using ::giggle:: Firefox 3.0.1? I see you decided to come back again this morning...you should read some articles about movies on the main site instead of just the blogs... the blogs (man I hate that word) are more like a crappy online journal, whereas the main site are short reviews we put together for fun.
Have fun fucking that fat girl.
Oh trust me, I do...she is quite good to me, and very comfortable with herself ;-)
Living With a Nerd
ALMOST everything you just said is wrong. Yea, you got Linux right, that's it.
You think you're so fucking clever, but you're not. Far from it. You're a fucking moron with a fat girlfriend and a lame ass juvenile website.
I looked awfully hard at getting an ipod touch instead of a netbook for my month long trip in south america. I ended up going with the netbook, but I looked over my options between the two devices long and hard before ending up going with the netbook. I'm sort of glad I got the netbook, I ran into some kiwis (new zealanders) who had ipod touches and one had a bricked touch, and the other had his bricked earlier in the trip. A bricked internet device is no fun when you're using it to book hostels in the next city on your trip. Had the touch included some sort of slide out physical keyboard, I might have just overlooked the bricking problem and bought one anyways.
moox. for a new generation.
ALMOST everything you just said is wrong. Yea, you got Linux right, that's it.
Stat trackers and IP logs don't lie...but that's ok, it really doesn't matter.
You think you're so fucking clever, but you're not. Far from it.
Pfft, I KNOW I'm not clever. If I was, I would have a more popular website :P
You're a fucking moron with a fat girlfriend and a lame ass juvenile website.
That may be true, but I'm a HAPPY fucking moron with a fat girlfriend and a lame ass juvenile website. My life is spent reading comics, playing video games/tabletop games, watching movies, and writing up articles for fun...all with the woman I love.
What could a lame nerdy 20-something want more than that?
Living With a Nerd
Dude that was awesome. Surprised I haven't seen that before *grins* - thanks.
Who is this delectable creature with an insatiable love of the dead?
How do you brick an iPod when you're on the road and away from firmware updates, short of physically breaking it?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
ALMOST everything you just said is wrong. Yea, you got Linux right, that's it.
Stat trackers and IP logs don't lie...but that's ok, it really doesn't matter.
There was once a time that I actually thought that I could tell someone's location by their IP address. Then I realized what a dunce I was. Don't you think it's about time you woke up too?
And what's REALLY REALLY fucking creepy is that you're STALKING me. That is utterly lame, gross and pathetic.
There was once a time that I actually thought that I could tell someone's location by their IP address. Then I realized what a dunce I was. Don't you think it's about time you woke up too?
http://www.statcounter.com/ Invaluable resource for tracking stats for websites. Since there is an official Wordpress plugin, setting it up for me was super simple and fast...been using it since the day we went live. Very useful for determining what people enjoy looking at on our site and what they ignore.
And what's REALLY REALLY fucking creepy is that you're STALKING me.
See my above response.
That is utterly lame, gross and pathetic.
And yet here you are, continuing to talk to me.
Living With a Nerd
There was once a time that I actually thought that I could tell someone's location by their IP address. Then I realized what a dunce I was. Don't you think it's about time you woke up too?
http://www.statcounter.com/ Invaluable resource for tracking stats for websites. Since there is an official Wordpress plugin, setting it up for me was super simple and fast...been using it since the day we went live. Very useful for determining what people enjoy looking at on our site
I have to tell you I'm SO glad you think you've outsmarted me. I think that's just great. Let me tell you a simple analogy about what's happening here:
You can tell (from my user ID if nothing else) that I'm not a young man. As a matter of fact, I'm an aging white man. And I REGULARLY play basketball with young black guys. Yea, they look at me and think, "Oh, old fucking white guy. I'll destroy him."
Take a WILD guess what actually happens 9 times out of 10. I kick their ass. So, you thinking you're all clever and know where I'm located (you don't) gratifies me to no small degree.
Yea, keep thinking you're smart, and that the site you use is actually giving you correct info. I'll just keep sitting back and laughing at you.
Oh, you should try basketball, or some form of exercise sometime. At the very least, get your fat girlfriend to get off the couch and do more than fetch you ice cream.
I have to tell you I'm SO glad you think you've outsmarted me. I think that's just great. Let me tell you a simple analogy about what's happening here:
Well...I wasn't trying to outsmart you, but rather bring you back down to reality so we could have a civil conversation. But go ahead, I'm listening.
You can tell (from my user ID if nothing else) that I'm not a young man. As a matter of fact, I'm an aging white man. And I REGULARLY play basketball with young black guys. Yea, they look at me and think, "Oh, old fucking white guy. I'll destroy him." Take a WILD guess what actually happens 9 times out of 10. I kick their ass.
So... I was right about the old and grumpy part then?
So, you thinking you're all clever and know where I'm located (you don't) gratifies me to no small degree.
You were already so worked up, it looked like a fun idea to get you even more pissed (which, let's be honest, worked pretty well.)
Yea, keep thinking you're smart, and that the site you use is actually giving you correct info. I'll just keep sitting back and laughing at you.
Correct info or not, if nothing else it tells me how many people come to the site and what they click on. Even if everything else is wrong, those two parts are the most important anyways. I'm glad you are taking time out of your busy basketball schedule to think about little ol' me though.
Oh, you should try basketball, or some form of exercise sometime.
I wish I could still play basketball, or any type of exercise for that matter. At the age of 25, I have vertabrae fusion (L3-L4), a messed up left knee, a rotater cuff injury, never-fully-healed navicular fractures in both wrists, and countless other aches and pains. Considering I don't take any pain meds (not even aspirin), it's a wonder I can still move. I can still get on a recumbent bike a little bit each day, but that's about it.
Hiking accidents can cause a ton of problems.
At the very least, get your fat girlfriend to get off the couch and do more than fetch you ice cream.
Considering she works 80 or so hours a week (the life of a teacher is a busy one), my dairy product needs aren't really her concern. I'm quite capable of getting it myself.
Living With a Nerd
Absolutely.