Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Wants You To Care For Your Surface Like a 'Luxury' Handbag (theverge.com)
sqorbit writes: Microsoft has some fancy Alcantara fabric on its Surface keyboard. How well does it hold up to the use and sometimes abuse that portal devices go through? Well, Microsoft wants you to care for it like a "luxury" handbag. Pete Kyriacou, Microsoft's general manager of Surface Engineering, said in a statement provided to The Verge: "Just like anything luxury that you buy, like great handbags or a pair of shoes or even expensive cars, there is a care that's needed for the device. And so from the materials perspective, we will ask customers -- specifically customers who might stain it or drop something on it -- to go ahead and wipe that right away. There's a simple way of doing that with a microfiber with a soap and water solution on it. You don't need any special chemical and you can wipe it off. Then just care [for it in the same way] that would go into anything that luxurious. That's more of a periodical thing, not super frequent, something you might look at doing every six months or something. And so if you think of the livelihood of this laptop, somewhere between four and five years, it's not that often you have to do it in terms of taking care of it." Would you walk around with a device requiring that much care?
Shit, I wipe my phone screen several times a day and Lexol my $120 leather messenger bag monthly though I may only carry it once or twice a month. I suppose my monthly keyboard cleanings (de-crumbings, that is) are also too much for most people?
We really and truly have become a throw-away society, haven't we?
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Dban boot-and-nuke.
Let me think about this for a second.
Ummm, no
Design a better tablet
The surfacd book is a turd that can't be polished
I use my tablet to view only the finest pornography.
It seems that the intepretation of Kyriacou's comments seems to be twisted. Seems to me he is saying a Surface, like any luxury, requires some care to be taken with it. But he highlighted that it is quite easy to care for, as far as comparing it to other luxuries. I didn't realise that people were complaining about getting their surface dirty? I have owned the Surface Pro 3 for years, and I have never had that problem. I use it a few times a week, at a minimum, and I keep it in a simple bag when it isn't in use.
I hope the fabric keyboards are made of better material than the surface cases themselves.
Go to any high school where Surfaces have been forced upon the classrooms (generally the more gullible schools with too much money), and notice the kids have, as kids will do, covered the backs of them with stickers. Then note the ugly gaps where stickers clearly used to be but have fallen off, taking the top coating of the case with them.
This shoddy design is typical of Microsoft engineering - looks (arguably) nice in a store and falls apart shortly thereafter.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I don't want or own a luxury hand bag either.
Then they shouldn't have put Windows 10S on it.
was literally just cleaning my old Original Surface Pro, and i just noticed how screwed up my screen is, mostly caused by the flip hardcase keyboard thing. i really wish i had taken better care of it. like that bump on the j and f keys, there are now scratches in the screen from them and me having thrown it around and stuff on top of it. at least it all works still. but still.
Why they would use a material that that's stainable on a device that will get handled and used as a matter of function is... stupid.
handbags are carried by the straps and only occasionally touched.
People care about expensive items because replacing them costs a lot of money. If you want your chromebook knock-off to cared for then you should price it like it's valuable. If you can't do that because it doesn't seem valuable then people will treat it like that soon-to-be-trash that it is.
People also care about things they love because they have gained sentimental value. If you want your chromebook knock-off to cared for then it needs to be nice enough that people love it. If you can't do that because people only tolerate your OS then people will treat it like that soon-to-be-trash that it is.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Alcantara is not luxury, is a fake leather or fake suede made with plastic polymers.
Not a device that runs Windows. :P
But in the case of fads they can change as fast as they come out, computer hardware can't.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
is brain dead.
Patriots' head coach Bill Belichick taking care of his luxury product.
These will be dingy and grimy 90% of the time.
How about you want people to buy them in the first place before you worry about how they treat the fine corinthian leather?
The awesome system will only download and install patches for vulnerabilities if and only if User clicks a checkbox indicating that he has cleaned it sometime within the last 3 weeks or so. Moreover, if the system queries the User for his diligence with respect to cleaning and the User giving an affirmative, yet the system's sensors detect dust, dirt, grease, or some other surface or internal contaminant anyway, then the system will start rolling back previously installed security fixes and randomly browsing dubious advertisement-laced websites with scripting and plugins enabled for all origins.
Substitute "luxury handbag" for "Apple product" if you want to understand what Microsoft are really saying. Of course, Microsoft can't come out and say that.
This is why fabric is the wrong material for the job. A device like this isn't a fashion statement. It's a device that you use and carry everywhere with you is going to get some bumps and knocks. You want something strong that you can wipe clean like glass, metal, steel, titanium, aluminum. If you really want to consider handbags, my wife has a bag that she uses for her everyday stuff that gets banged around a bit and some nice ones that are just for going out. Who wants to just take their surface out on a special occasion? Just because Apple devices have been a fashion statement doesn't mean designing your device like a piece of clothing will make it one.
I take good care of all of my devices. They last longer that way. I have found over the years that its better to try not to let devices get dirty. I clean them when they need it using microfiber cloths. As for Micro$haft, they can FSCK themselves! I won't let the Win10 Spy-Virus near any of my devices!!
To bad then Windows looks really cheap.
Given the usefulness of the Surface, I'd guess the same amount of touching applies here.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Do not touch the operational end of The Device. Do not look directly at the operational end of The Device. Do not submerge The Device in liquid, even partially. Most importantly, under no circumstances should you ^^/-#+$*./#^+\?
Some idiot in our $COMPANY's higher echelons has been talked (wined&dined?) by a Microsoft marketdroid that having mumble365 and forcing that down our throats would be a good idea.
The ones trying to work with that load of crap are, of course, not the ones having made the decision.
So I'll never buy anything Microsoft in the first place. In the second place, It'd be a pleasure to put my foot through any Blah Surface while unobserved.
Is that what the question was? Would I own a device I should wipe down when I spill something on it? Yes. Yes I would, and yes I do.
The media is falling over themselves over wording here. There's nothing on the Surface line that requires more care than any other device. But as they are marketing it as a luxury item of course the product directors will use those words.
Situation Normal Everyone Panic For No Reason.
SNEPFNR is the new SNAFU.
He doesn't know why the engineers chose it. Alcantara is a motorsport fabric. They use it to cover steering wheels for christsake. It's more hard-wearing than the plastic that most laptops are made of.
"There's a simple way of doing that with a microfiber with a soap and water solution on it."
So a special cloth, soap, and water is "simple" -- as opposed to when I get something on a plastic or metal laptop and I can wipe it with just a single napkin or paper towel?
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I don't use screen protectors or cases on my smartphones because I don't treat them like shit. I can count on one hand the number of times I have dropped them in the last 10 years. My 3 year old Dell Latitude E7440 doesn't have any scratches. It's in mint condition and I use it 5-6 days a week or more.
I don't care if it's my device or my companies device. It is going to last for it's designed lifespan and then some.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
I didn't know such luxury laptops had to earn their livelihood for four or five years. That might offset the maintenance (or not, depending on the line of work and kind of stains...).
Sure enough, the pic at amazon shows fabric palmrests.
The keys themselves don't seem to be fabric.
To quote Alfred E. Neuman, "yecch".
I guess if MS can convince people to chuck 'em and buy an new one every few months it's not a problem.
As I'm not trying to impress people with a luxury handbag, Mr. Neuman's most famous statement comes to mind.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
...as soon as this Surface can be out on a shelf for 6 months and when I take it, it has do do its task, without complaing about virus checks, important patches and other stuff making apparently the sky fall down.
My handbags never do that, not even the non-luxary ones.
I have never had a wireless Microsoft Mouse last more than a year. The wired mice were solid. I still have some 90's era models. After the 3rd MS wireless mouse crapped out, I said "never again", and have soured on MS branded products. I have zero interest in a Surface anyway.
Holly Golightly gets off the bus. She takes a few steps onto the sidewalk and reaches into her luxury Microsoft handbag and pulls out a danish. She bites it then sips some coffee in a foam cup. She saunters over to the window and gazes wistfully at things she will never have, like the displayed iPad on a velvet podium.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
... (Besides, more of the stuff I want to read is now available ...
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
What is MS trying to do here?
- Attempt to instill a perception of more value to muscle in on Apple's fanboi market?
- Cover their tracks on a shoddy supplier product?
Either way, DO NOT WANT!
The existing market is for low-cost consumer products. I don't need a luxury device, or a status symbol. I don't need shoddy components that are a liability.