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Microsoft Surface, Meet Apple iSurface

Posted by Unknown on from the apple-sues-ms-for-pre-infringement dept.

theodp writes "Responding to Microsoft's Windows 8 efforts, Apple CEO Tim Cook insisted in late April that combining a tablet and a notebook would be like converging a toaster and a refrigerator. But a patent application submitted by Apple last year — and made public Tuesday morning — proposes marrying a tablet and a keyboard to create 'a true laptop alternative,' which GeekWire notes looks a lot like Microsoft Surface (comparison pic). In its patent filing, Apple describes various ways that a tablet's cover could be used as an I-O device — as a tactile-feedback keyboard ('word processing and email become much more efficient'), to display additional output, as a touchpad replacement, and even to receive stylus input. 'The experience,' claims Apple, 'is even better in some ways than the laptop experience.'"

46 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. It's a screen with a keyboard... by Lord+Lode · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nothing new here. Move along.

    1. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by FSWKU · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nothing new here. Move along.

      But...but...it's an APPLE screen with a keyboard! That mean's it's magical, revolutionary, innovative, wonderful, stunning, and powerful! Why do you hate magic?

      --
      "So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die..."
    2. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by MrKaos · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nothing gnu here. Move along.

      FTFY

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    3. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Are you kidding? You've never been in a room full of hipster Apple fanboys have you? Try hanging out in a coffee shop in Williamsburg Brooklyn. You'll want to kill yourself.

    4. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by Nerdfest · · Score: 5, Insightful

      People hate Apple for a lot of very good reasons. Abuse of the legal and patent systems, pretending to be police, locked systems and markets, proprietary connectors, proprietary protocols, greed, and general corporate dickishness. The blind followers tend to be fairly annoying, as well as those who recognize most of these points, but still buy their products, ignoring that in the long run the direction that Apple is taking is bad for everyone but Apple. I wish more people 'hated' Apple; they might take notice and change their ways.

    5. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by ozmanjusri · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you take that as criteria, there aren't a lot companies that 'innovate' anymore.

      So why are we discussing Apple and Microsoft's "tablet with detachable keyboard" instead of Asus Padfone or Ubuntu for Android, both of which are genuinely innovative?

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    6. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by Kwpolska · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't see a lot of normal people talking in such terms.

    7. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by EEPROMS · · Score: 4, Funny

      Dam Asus an their time machine, they must have gone into the future 3 years and used that knowledge to steal the design from Apple for the Asus Transformer.

    8. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I just wish there was another laptop manufacturer around that actually cared about screen resolution. I keep finding things with terabyte hard drives, quad-core processors... and 768 vertical pixels. If you want high resolution portables, Apple is really your only option.

    9. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by AngryDeuce · · Score: 5, Funny

      The only ones that talk constant about "magical", "revolutionary", "innovative", ... - with the exception of a marketing movie when a new product has introduced - are people that are riding the iHate wave. I don't see a lot of normal people talking in such terms.

      Then you either live in a small pocket of technological illiterati, are legally deaf, or deliberately ignoring it, because I hear that kind of shit all the fucking time out of retards that honestly believe Steve Jobs invented the modern era single-handedly.

      How long before this becomes reality?

    10. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by Johann+Lau · · Score: 2

      "What the heart is full of, the mouth flows over..." .

      Same goes for empty hearts.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx7v815bYUw

      I'm sure you could do the same with Microsoft and other presentations. I'd love to see it. But still, that doesn't mean Apple isn't full of it.

      But then again, "brands" are concepts by and for fucked up people to begin with. Crap in, crap out. Hate is pointless, but shrugging off any and all brands is pretty much a requirement if your mind is to ever leave the purely receptive stage.

    11. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by SilenceBE · · Score: 3, Insightful

      because I hear that kind of shit all the fucking time out of retards

      Then you should do something about your social situations. Again I never hear "normal" people - and maybe I'm lucky - talk in that way. I say "normal" because I never understood why somebody gets so emotional about a brand

      Maybe it is a cultural thing but I really what do you want me to say ? I never heard somebody talk in those terms. That they like Apple products and they swear by them yes. But I have also friends that have that feeling about their Android smartphone, hell I swear by Android for my smartphone... .

    12. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by lilfields · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You seriously just compared not liking Apple to racism? Well, at least you were an anonymous coward about that.

    13. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by jkflying · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You obviously didn't look very hard, I've seen hi-res Thinkpads, Dells and Sonys. Of course, it isn't in the general consumer stuff, but rather in the high end. IMHO 1920x1080 on a 15" screen is dense enough dpi beyond which it doesn't make a difference... and beyond that the graphics power needed to push around all of those extra pixels gets unreasonable for the marginal benefit gained.

      --
      Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
    14. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by SilenceBE · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So why are we discussing Apple and Microsoft's "tablet with detachable keyboard" instead of Asus Padfone or Ubuntu for Android, both of which are genuinely innovative?

      Because this is Slashdot where "editors" rather post "news" that give people their daily "ranting" fix and also because it is commercial interesting. As an editor you know that posting this kinda of articles will get your number of page hits to the roof in no time.

      I see it also on other sites where they have a group of followers that have a particularly negative feeling against one of multiple brands and where you can follow some metrics. Post a article of "hated" product X or brand Y and you will see the number of comments come in in a bigger rate then the other articles.

      Pro or contra, we are all getting played for commercial motives.

      If it would be me we would have less Apple articles, less Microsoft articles, less Raspberry pi advertisement, but more stuff for nerds like the Asus padfone or Ubuntu for Android... .

      I don't see a lot of added value of this kind of news where the general discussion that follows how we hate Apple, how we hate Apple users, etc.

    15. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by Nemyst · · Score: 3, Informative

      Dislike them all you wish, but Sony's VAIO Z has a 1080p screen on a 13.1" body. There's also Samsung's Series 9 ultrabook, 900p in a 13.3" frame.

      And then if you want bigger, there's plenty of choice from companies like Sager that offer 1080p on a 15.6" frame.

    16. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by CTU · · Score: 3, Interesting

      dufuq did I just read? How can anyone compare hating Apple to Racism? I really don't like Apple stuff, but I have a reason. I have how overpriced it is, I hate how locked down it is, I hate how Apple abuses the legal system like suing everyone and the time they had people pose as cops. Mostly I hate having to use iTunes to sync any music/video to the player as I don't want to have to sort through my full library just to add a few songs because doing it that way is way slower and less covenant then just copying a few folders and moving them directly.

      The only good thing I can say is that everyone has some sort of iPod dock for everything and it would be nice to have an alarm clock that can connect to my MP3 player.

    17. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by MacGyver2210 · · Score: 2

      My ASUS from four years ago has 1920 x 1200, which is plenty of resolution for me. My HP from three years ago has 1650 x 1050 which is also a fine resolution. My ASUS from two years ago has 1920 x 1200 as well...

      What exactly was so hard to find for you? Have you heard of NewEgg? It's rather simple to find a device by screen resolution. Just don't go to Best Buy and ask for their cheapest computer(which, at $379, still had bigger than 768 vertical res, Samsung something-or-other).

      --
      If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
    18. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Man, no offense, but you REALLY need to lay off the Kool-Aid. Steve has been dead for a while. Makes me wonder how long it will take the reality distortion field to finally fade.

      They're a corporation. Their goal is to make money. They're not your friend, nor your daddy. And they are MOST CERTAINLY not a civil rights cause that needs your defense. They make products, not dreams.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    19. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by Missing.Matter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, Apple offers a 2880x1800 laptop, but you really gotta pay for that, starting at $2200. If you want anything cheaper, their other offerings have strangely lacking displays in terms of resolution, far below full 1080p even, which I see on some very cheap PC laptops. The 11" Airs have 1366x768 (starting at $999) and the 13" Airs have 1440×900 (starting at $1200). The Macbook Pro 13" has 1280×800 (starting at $1200) and the Macbook Pro 15" has 1440×900 (starting at $1800) and upgradable to 1680×1050 (again, not even full 1080p HD) for $100.

      Compare this to the HP Envy 15 for instance, which has a 15" screen and a 1920x1080 IPS display. It pretty much matches the specs and ammenities of the Macbook Pro 15", but HP is selling it for only $1250. Dell Also sells 1080p laptops in the XPS line, or even cheaper with the 15R and 17R, which both can be customized with a 1080p display. This isn't even mentioning Sony, Lenovo, Asus, etc. who all offer laptops with 1080p displays. Also keep in mind the only laptop Apple offers with a display at or above 1080p is the Macbook Pro Retina. If you want the highest resolution portable, Apple is your only option, but 1080p on a 15" display is pretty damn good pixel density for most people, and you won't find one of those from Apple for under 2 grand.

    20. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by milkmage · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not sure if MS filed a patent for theirs, and if they did, when.... But apple's isn't a direct response to it.

      The surface was supposed to be so ultra top secret that a lot of ms execs didn't know about it until the unveiling (... http://www.bgr.com/2012/06/21/microsoft-surface-apple-like-secrecy/) so it's unlikely that apples patent FILED LAST YEAR but only made public on 8/2 is a "copy"

      FTA: A patent application submitted by Apple last year — and made public just this morning — describes a flexible, magnetically attached cover for a tablet device. It’s similar to Apple’s existing smart cover for the iPad, except that this cover can also function as an input and display device. And one of the concepts described by Apple in the patent filing is an idea for using the cover as a keyboard.

      And if you look at the patent, apples is a display, and writing surface, plus keyboard, whereas the surface is just a keyboard.

      See what happens when you read?

    21. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by ilsaloving · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I pretty much agree with you, but I have to point out one thing: There ARE NO "good" companies.

      Every time a company did something that pissed me off, I vowed to personally boycott them. As the list grew I eventually realized that my position was untenable because I would reach a point where I couldn't buy anything at all. Furthermore, the average person isn't even remotely as conscientious, so my little personal victories became hollow because they didn't actually amount to anything.

      So all I can do now is, when I want to buy a product, I look at the company's behaviour to see if they've actively screwed over their customers. Either by shoddy products, or some other form of dishonest behaviour. I refuse to buy from Sony because they've released rootkits on their CDs, rolled back features on their game consoles, etc. I refuse to buy from Amazon because they have a demonstrated history of take-backsies plus other things.

      Apple, at least from the consumer standpoint, have done what they said on the tin. They provide good products, along with downright excellent service. I can buy an iphone now and KNOW that it will be supported 3 or 4 years from now. My Google Nexus One? Dropped like a hot potato less than a year after I bought it.

      I used to despise Microsoft with a passion. Now... I just don't care anymore. They make products. I use them or not as I see fit.

      I guess this was all a TL;DR version of, "Making an emotional investment, love OR hate, in something that will not reciprocate is pointless and will only hurt you the long run."

    22. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by gagol · · Score: 2

      those who recognize most of these points, but still buy their products, ignoring that in the long run the direction that Apple is taking is bad for everyone but Apple.

      It has a name: Stockholm Syndrom.

      --
      Tomorrow is another day...
    23. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by dreamchaser · · Score: 2

      You seriously just compared not liking Apple to racism? Well, at least you were an anonymous coward about that.

      That may be shocking to you, but the kind of prejudice involved is exactly the same -- people hate a perspective that they've never actually tried to empathize with, and they justify that hate by resorting to straw man fallacies to inaccurately represent the position of the parties that they hate. While in their mind or within their circlejerk that may work, it doesn't stand a chance against anyone who argues rationally.

      I post as AC now because Slashdot moderation and post quotas are retarded, making it less efficient to challenge the masses as a registered user, especially if your karma is below 0.

      Except you lost all rational argument rights the moment you pulled the whole racism comparison. There is also probably a reason your account's karma dropped below zero.

      Personally I have no real problem with Apple that I don't have with a lot of other large corporations. I also think their products are greatly overrated, and I find the antics of their fanbois (any fanbois really, not just Apple specific) to be childish and hilarious. At least you tried to cover your own bias with a pseudo rational response, minus the hyperbole of trying to equate anti-Apple sentiments with real bigotry a la racism.

    24. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by MrDoh! · · Score: 2

      Strange thing is though, we seem to be going backwards on rez. My Dell xps from... 4? years ago had a much better rez (and quality of screen) than the current Dell XPS's. Dell seem to be racing to the bottom, when, as we've seen, there IS a market for high rez pixel displays, just not on non-Apple machines it appears at this time, which is annoying, as I'd like to get a non-Apple laptop with that size.

      --
      Waiting for an amusing sig.
    25. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by Waccoon · · Score: 2

      I think this is the big problem. Most Apple fans I know don't even bother to look at what the competition has to offer. It's one thing to be loyal. It's something else to be oblivious.

      I used to work in a small camera store. I noticed very quickly that every person who came into our store felt they were really smart for paying a premium and getting their supplies from us rather than Wal-Mart. However, every one of them was rock stupid and did no research whatsoever, and just bought what we sold them (or what my boss told me to sell them). I think it's quite sad how our entire existence was owed to people who were just too lazy to do research.

    26. Re:It's a screen with a keyboard... by cavebison · · Score: 2

      Exactly. My old HP 8510p has a max res of 1680x1050, but I run it in 1280x800, because stuff is just too small otherwise. :)

      The real issue with non-Apple laptop screens is the utter inconsistency of quality. Some have LG screens, some have cheaper ones that look shite and "crystally". When I was this 8510 in the showroom, it had an awesome LCD which looked perfect at any resolution. Bought one, got it home and it had a cheap LCD which looked awful. Went back and swapped it for the showroom one which, it turned out, had an LG screen.

      I imagine when you buy Apple, they use the same suppliers so what you see is what you get. Something to be said for that.

  2. Copy Sony again? by F'Nok · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is this another case of Apple copying what Sony is doing, but publicising it better?

    http://www.xperiablog.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Xperia-Tablet_13.jpg

    1. Re:Copy Sony again? by Danieljury3 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Or the Asus Transformer http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Pad/Eee_Pad_Transformer_TF101/

    2. Re:Copy Sony again? by Joce640k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Is this another case of Apple copying what Sony is doing,

      Doesn't matter. The only important thing is who bagged the patent.

      --
      No sig today...
    3. Re:Copy Sony again? by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Informative

      Or the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard cover, or...

      The idea of adding a keyboard to a tablet is hardly Microsoft's invention; Apple released a keyboard dock alongside the first iPad, to say nothing of the old convertible tablet PCs.

      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    4. Re:Copy Sony again? by MrKaos · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Or the Asus Transformer http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Pad/Eee_Pad_Transformer_TF101/

      Not "Or", I think ASUS are the one's driving innovation in this space. The EEE pc was a game changing concept that was pretty much subverted into something it wasn't. These Eee pads are certainly a refresh of the concept that includes a pad. I've found it to be a flexible design and I don't think Asus get the credit they deserve.

      The concept of a "year of the Linux desktop" is changing to make the desktop irrelevant.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    5. Re:Copy Sony again? by satuon · · Score: 2

      Well, if iPads win, it'll be more like year of the FreeBSD tablet.

    6. Re:Copy Sony again? by binarylarry · · Score: 3, Funny

      You might want to look up what "prior art" means.

      --
      Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
    7. Re:Copy Sony again? by Nerdfest · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Since when has that mattered to the patent office or Apple?

    8. Re:Copy Sony again? by andy16666 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Huh? iOS is essentially the same OS as OSX with a different UI.

    9. Re:Copy Sony again? by chowdahhead · · Score: 2

      I think the Always Innovating Touch Book beat Asus to the tablet+keyboard market. Regardless, I'm sure Apple will receive the patent anyway, despite the amount of prior art and shear obviousness in what they "invented".

  3. toaster?? by mnemotronic · · Score: 5, Funny

    Somebody please converge my microwave with my refrigerator/freezer. Put a keyboard on it and a handy "sue everyone" button and its an iAppliance (c).

    --
    The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
  4. wait a minute... by Cyko_01 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    so basically they took a laptop and switched the positions of the LCD and keyboard? It's a fucking touchscreen laptop! they just moved the heavy stuff to to top!

  5. Re:Thieving gits... by wmac1 · · Score: 2

    The idea of attaching a keyboard to a computing device?

  6. Maybe not a bad idea by fa2k · · Score: 2

    [...]would be like converging a toaster and a refrigerator

    It seems that most household appliances exist to alter the temperature of something. It would be great if the heat from a cooling appliance could do something useful. It obviously wouldn't work to toast bread directly with the cooling ribs, but there may be room for some convergence between appliances, to increase efficiency

  7. Payback - you Apple bullies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... are people that are riding the iHate wave

    It's payback for all the abuse over the years that us Microsoft lovers had to put up with from the Apple Fanbois ...

    Microsoft has a monopoly! The courts said so!

    Microsoft controls the PC market and Apple can't get a break!

    Microsoft is keeping us down!

    Microsoft has cornered the market on clothes forcing us to wear black fake turtle necks!

    Microsoft is hurting Jobs!

    Microsoft stole everything from Apple!

    Microsoft does this!

    Microsoft does that!

    Microsoft! Microsoft! Microsoft! Microsoft!

    Do you know what kind of emotional scaring I have suffered from with all this Microsoft! Hate!! And you have the nerve - the audacity - to complain about Apple Hate?!?

    I still cry myself to sleep on occasion after reading Slashdot on my Windows PC! And when I go to get my Windows 8 machine, I'll wear sunglasses, trench coat, and I'll have to fork Firefox so that it always reports that I'm using some sort of Apple OS! Do you realize that?!

    Posting as AC because I can't deal with you Apple bullies!

    *storms off sobbing*

  8. Re:Apple copying Microsoft? BS. by lilfields · · Score: 3, Informative

    I am fairly certain that a touchscreen and keyboard combo existed way before the iPad was even in prototype stages. The first -modern- tablets were (terrible) Microsoft tablets running full fledged Windows XP. You can actually see them all over hospitals, still. They had keyboards, and styluses. That's 8 or so years before the iPad.

  9. Why does anyone put any weight behind Apple speak. by brillow · · Score: 2

    Apple has never said anything which remotely reflects anything it might do. So why do people even bother?

  10. Ha ha only serious. by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 2

    I've got a Transformer Prime and it really does the tablet + keyboard well. The dock actually adds things besideds a keyboard and trackpad - like extra battery, USB port, and SD card reader. And the latest version, the Infinity, has a 1080p screen, too. Can't see what Surface would add to that.

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
  11. Re:Thieving gits... by Overzeetop · · Score: 2

    No, attaching a keyboard to an otherwise standalone tablet. See, just as it was innovative to remove the keyboard from a laptop and give a device a touchscreen, it's just as innovative, novel, and unintuitive to a practitioner in the field of tablets to add a keyboard. You may as well have developed a way to take credit card payments online - it's a complete game changer that nobody saw coming.

    This is sliced bread and steering wheel level stuff here - not some me-too pseudo-discovery.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?