Yes? No? Maybe?
There are two versions coming out, one smaller, ARM version running windows RT and the other intel version that's slightly thicker, more expensive, has vents and will be coming out several months later (IE, DOA)
Personally, it depends on price although i'm curious to see what you think?
and suddenly Winfail 8 makes a modicum of sense, by ramming Intel x86 onto the tablets regardless of any screaming or kicking that might produce.
if Microsoft honestly think that a tablet-cum-ultrabook is going to replace the corporate workstation they got another thing coming though.
the precise reason the Microsoft ecosystem is so strong today is because it's hardware independent and laid out in a human friendly manner when it comes to administration, couple that with the real source of the lock-in, namely office (specifically Outlook) and you got a endless money machine, if they are seriously going to make the hardware for that thing they are going for the "single vendor" apple style, and that's not attractive from a price point of view in the long term. (look at what apple charges for a bunch of intel components, now assemble the same box yourself via Dell/HP/Fujitsu and add the discounts)
that thing is just a thinly veiled attempt to leverage the tablet market into the same eco system.
as for windows RT, if you honestly think that's going to receive long term support you deserve a giganticthe primary reason nobody is running away from Windows is because A : its backwards compatible with EVERYTHING made for it the last 20 years and B : nobody in the FOSS environment seem to grasp that outlook, while a incredibly cruddy piece of software and a gigantic heap of fucking fail fills out a vital and important niche (unified communications, people dont WANT to deal with seperate applications for meetings, basic task list and what have you, and why should they ?), and the only viable competitor is Lotus notes, that is to say a product widely known to cause suicide rates spike and generally being even shittier than Office and all the inherent fail that brings.
so no, colour me unimpressed and desperately wanting a good reason to toss windows down the drain due to the constant "lets reinvent the user interface every 5 years" they have been pimping the last eight years now.
Maybe. For the low end tablet i'm reluctant because WinRT strikes me as a bag of dicks. It's not going to be as battery life efficienct as android or ios, isn't going to have the initial app support, is always going to be windows-lite and is always going to involve a cost markup over android. The high end tablet is going to have to pull out some pretty serious magic too. Between a 42WHr battery, an i5 cpu and windows 8, I really can't see it having the battery life to attack the tablet space, while it's almost certainly going to be short of the specs of the ultrabook space.
As baseline devices (a la nexus) to get the big hardware players into shape, i think they could be extremely interesting, but from what we've seen of these as devices in their own right, i think it'll be a couple of generations before they're worth buying.
whatOriginally Posted by Liare
FYP
x86 is a terrible terrible architecture, and its ONLY around because of the Windows legacy baggage train, i would not be surprised if "WinRT" is dropped entirely within the next couple of windows iteration while microsoft and the OEM's relentlessly attempt to leverage the intel tablets trough the entire market spectrum.
after all, taking away the OEM discounts from a company like HP and Dell is going to flat out destroy their profitability and kill them off in short order, so the OEM's will bend over and they will say "thank you, do you want another?" after the big burly microsoft bloke has zipped up his pants.
it is my personal fervent hope that we will see some sort of ARM based desktop systems in the near future, preferably coupled with the tools required and allowing easy cross compilation between ARM and x86, that would require somebody pick up the ball and invest heavily in the Wine project to allow legacy applications to move with a minimum of fuss.
XP->Vista had major changes, to the extend that a relearning from scratch was required for many non technical userswhat
Vista->7 had minor refinements
7->8 tosses out everything in favour of the tablet heaven known as metro, the old school desktop is kept to allow for backwards compatibility and is in most ways treated like a second class citizen.
i have hopes for it, but we have to wait for costs and availability before i can judge, this has great potential both to be great or terrible imo
I agree that Windows RT probably has a limited lifespan, but precisely because x86 is not a 'terrible architecture' and within 2-3 years x86/x64 processors will be offering better perf/watt than ARM designs and WinRT will be pointless. Intel's Medfield platform is already very competitive and it's just their first serious attempt at a phone/tablet level SoC.
The big problem with x86 tablets is that MS just completely pissed off every major OEM, most of whom are already hastily dialling back their Windows tablet plans. They'll have to compete with Apple and OEM Android designs all alone, not a trivial task for a company not exactly renowned for innovation. I also have a feeling the public has already made up their minds on this, as they have with phones; mobile means iOS or Android, everything else is a rounding error.
From a consumer and less tech wiz perspective I see this having potential. My problem with tables has always been that I've seen them as some techy gimmick that really does nothing useful between a smartphone and a laptop, other than offering the smartphones capabilities on a bigger screen. Yes it might replace the pc in the living room of some people who don't need a desktop but it in no way hooks into the needs of someone who wants to be a bit productive. They seems to have blended the laptop and tablet here perfectly with the keyboard acting as a softcover and a stand allowing you set up a workplace quickly. It doesn't need a whole lot of processing power to run internet, word processing and outlook like applications. So having this all from the get go is very very functional. If they start offering these things at campuses when you roll in, I can see them selling at massive numbers everywhere.
All it depends on is the price and when more technical specs are released, because if they take too long it is going to phase out of everyone's memory. Unless they manage to slowly build a hype, but that is hard seeing as how big the news was surrounding this.
Which doesn't mean I am not skeptical, I see the potential in this product but they have to pull it off really well. Which I hope it does, because this is exactly something I might like next to my desktop and somewhat ageing laptop.
Eve on my tablet? Yes please!
Imo this will blow every other tablet line out of the water, after all what is an iPad or other compared to a full windows tab? Nothing more than a glorified smartphone that doesn't fit in your pocket...
Ill be getting one.
Whats the story with the RT model? Will it be able to run standard windows software or will they need to recode everything to work on that architecture?
Last edited by Ted Breakers; June 20 2012 at 05:58:43 AM.
If MS can magic a plausible battery life into the Pro tablet, I'm there. The specs look great, and the tablet is gorgeous (well, the RT one is at least).
No, and yes.
Last edited by Navigator Six; June 20 2012 at 07:09:11 AM.
Domination.
Vote Lark for CSM
Context:
Of course we should remember that PC themselves overtook entrenched predecessors like minicomputers and mainframes which themselves overtook business computing systems based on adding machines, typewriters and slide rules. This is the cycle of disruption and there is nothing new about it.
However, it always seems to take people by surprise. This is because it happens in unforeseen ways and at unpredictable rates. And so it is that we are surprised by Microsoft’s seeming abandonment of a business model that has sustained it for three decades.
http://www.asymco.com/2012/06/19/the...g-value-chain/
I'm kinda conflicted. At work, (currently the BBC) most of the people are hot desking with MBA's and tablets. Even my desk is pretty much right next to whatever producer or art director I'm working with at the minute, and this idea of desktop computing and Outlook = god seems remarkably distant. Sure, most organisations suck, take ages to change etc etc. But this product isn't for them. If they're still running office 2007 on windows XP, it's bloodily unlikely they would have cared much for an incremental upgrade unless there was massive productivity gains. SO in a way, the bitching about compatibility is somewhat redundant. AND it's kinda pointless to ask any business just to quietly servicing it's one golden goose until extinction. Computing massively, pandering to the late adopters gets you no where and so many companies (RIM, Nokia, HP) are realising this to there cost.
But then again from another perspective, I like being immersed in my content, the idea of being confined to a 10" screen all day horrifies me, and although I could imagine it being a generational transition (from fixed to hot desking) and accept that very few people need screen space to work, or value the trade off in mobility in that way - I do think that people who are exposed to large screen displays, whether it be mobiles, desktops or TV's, find it exceptionally hard to go back. With that in mind, I was hoping Microsofts announcement was to be the their re-imagining of the desktop - something that complimented mobile computing as well as specialised in that enhanced, IE a chance to rejuvenate the desktop market. Ironically, if you've seen the skunk works style lap MS has going on there, I feel there, they probably have something in the pipeline, but I wouldn't be supprised if apple got there first.
Last edited by Pattern; June 20 2012 at 10:23:14 AM.
Not happening on the one they showed you the other day.
Compared to a full Windows tablet? Lighter, thinner, higher resolution, better battery life and with 100% touch-focused apps.Imo this will blow every other tablet line out of the water, after all what is an iPad or other compared to a full windows tab?
You seem to be forgetting/ignoring the fact that Win7 interface is hugely improved from XP. Changing things is okay if it's for the better.XP->Vista had major changes, to the extend that a relearning from scratch was required for many non technical userswhat
Vista->7 had minor refinements
7->8 tosses out everything in favour of the tablet heaven known as metro, the old school desktop is kept to allow for backwards compatibility and is in most ways treated like a second class citizen.
That isn't necessarily a good thing. Unless you need to touch the screen on average only once or twice per minute using a touchscreen has horrible ergonomics compared to keyboard/mouse. An iPad is likely (depending how "open" you need it) a better consumer device. But for actually doing something halfway complex (Eve is actually a good example here) you won't get very far. You could in theory do everything there with a touchscreen but it would be a) slower and b) require far more hand movement. And lets not even start to talk about more complex software which relies on combined keyboard and mouse input.
A "hybrid" tablet which you can use in tablet mode for lighter stuff and in the (maaaaybe touch-assisted) traditional way for the more heavy stuff would be far more versatile. Likely the best way would be a docking station solution where the tablet gets a bit of a CPU / graphics boost and gets used as secondary screen and tertiary input device.
Wrong. The RT model is lighter and thinner than the new ipad, the full model has comparable resolution and they havent commented on battery life yet.
Apps are for my mobile phone why would i want them on my pc??? As aram said Mouse + Keyboard > all for most tasks.
Last edited by Ted Breakers; June 20 2012 at 11:08:59 AM.
Talking to hipster-users who normally ask me things about Mac's (sigh) it seems as if this thing is going to end up doing pretty well
All of them that i actually bothered to listen to went "omygoshohmygoshohmygosh", meaning that at least the trailer has or have potential to strike home with the clueless mob
Personally, i kinda want one to replace my netbook
Touchscreen for tablet, keyboard for when you need to be useful, full version of windows that needs to middle-hand to work with your other computers/systems, ok looks for when you roll up in a meeting and need to impress some potential customer
On another note, while i get the whole "lol win 8 is terrible metro is worst" thing, it's much like the new eve-ui, shit for the first few min but as soon as you get the basics of it it really is quite epic, the hate just seems more based on the fact that it's different more then anything else
The RT model isn't full Windows.
1920x1080 vs. 2048x1536. The iPad has 50% more pixels right now.the full model has comparable resolution
It's reasonable to infer from existing i5 devices.and they havent commented on battery life yet.
You are aware that app is short for application which is pretty much a synonym for program, right? Besides, "apps" on your PC is Microsoft's central selling point for Windows 8.Apps are for my mobile phone why would i want them on my pc???
The windows suckage cycle means it HAS to be horrible.
Win 98 - Win ME - Win XP - Vista - Win 7 - Win 8
It being good would cause the universe to implode! Do you really want to get imploded?
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