Microsoft's Response to the iPad

[Richard Kaufman]

Look here:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/micr ... es-and-de/

[Ian Kendall]

Hmmm. I wonder how it would work for a left handed user...

[Richard Kaufman]

... inconveniently.

[the Larry]

Wow. If this works as it is demoed in the video then my hat is off to Microsoft. I hate most of their products but this looks great.

[Joe Mckay]

Looks like an iPad killer to me. Personally - I think history will record that Apple dropped the ball with the iPad. It is just a bigger iPhone but without the phone. In other words - boring.

Microsoft takes this round...

Joe

[Bill Duncan]

If they put Windows on another tablet it will fail just like the others. The thing that will make the iPad successful is the decision not to put OSX on it. Simple is better for computer appliances.

With iPod touch sales over 13 million, I think making a deluxe version was a no brainer. A long time back, when I got my Kindle reader for the iPod touch, I said what I really wanted was a paperback book sized touch so I'd have both a color Kindle and a great web browsing tool in one.

A 16GB (the cheap) iPad will sit on a table next to my couch, and probably get more use than my PC. And when I go on vacation it will take the place of my netbook.

[Ian Kendall]

If they put Windows on another tablet it will fail just like the others

Not sure about that. This OS seems to be WinCE7, just as the iPad uses the iPhone OS. Cut down operating systems for these portable devices seems to be the way it's going.

Remember that there are the tablet PCs running Win7 on the way as well. I think I would get more use out of one of those, to be honest.

Ian

[r paul wilson]

I thought we weren't supposed to argue religion on this board?

P

[mrgoat]

Looks like an iPad killer to me. Personally - I think history will record that Apple dropped the ball with the iPad. It is just a bigger iPhone but without the phone. In other words - boring.

Microsoft takes this round...

Joe

To begin with, this round hasn't started yet, as neither device is on sale yet.

The iPad is a device for consuming content. The deals have been done with the publishers. All they care about is selling you magazine subscriptions, eBooks, TV shows and apps. It looks like it does all those things really well.

The Courier is a pen driven small computer. There is no book store announced. No deals with publishers in place. No magazine deals in place. No app store. And as it runs the Zune OS there are only 3 people in the world that know how to use it. Everyone with an iPhone knows how to use the iPad.

Also, Apple have a track record of releasing game changing hardware of late. iPod vs Zune. iPhone versus, um, no MS phone yet. And an iPad Versus a Courier.

WIth their track record and MS's extreme lack of experience in the hardware marketplace I would bet Apple. But it is a tad silly to say the 'round' is won and Apple lost, when neither bits of hardware are actually available yet?

You may well be right. For the first time in history, MS may copy an apple product and do it better than apple. However, seeing as they haven't pulled this off in 30 years, I wager they won't do it with this.

[Ian Kendall]

iPhone versus, um, no MS phone

Any HTC phone.

[BlueEyed Videot]

I thought we weren't supposed to argue religion on this board?

P

Ha ha! Funniest quip this year. Point goes to Mr. Wilson.

[Bill Duncan]

For my part, it's not a religious issue. I have been using MS Windows since version 2.11. I currently own three Windows PCs and no Macs. But I do own an iPod Nano, and an iPod touch.

And for the record guys, Microsoft has been in the tablet PC game for about twenty years. Apple's patents for the iPhone/iPod touch go back about six or eight years.

The problem Microsoft has alway had was trying to put "Windows" on a touch/pen system. Palm showed how to do it, but no one except Apple seems to have paid attention.

If you look at best of the Windows Mobile devices they're the ones that don't look like they're running Windows.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Still trying to duplicate Yeoman Rand's clipboard hoping Spock will notice?

Not so sure about trustworthy computing so long as in-circuit emulation ...

[mrgoat]

iPhone versus, um, no MS phone

Any HTC phone.

Oh don't confuse things by bringing android into a discussion about iPad Vs Courier.

:)

I want a nexus1, they look delicious. Just can't justify having two phones. I'm not a drug dealer.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Is it possible to get two lines working on one cell phone?
Call forwarding can get you incomming but from there... no ideas.

Suggestions?

[mrgoat]

Google Voice.

Or other forwarding services?

http://www.aitelephone.com/call-my-glob ... r-how.html

[Ian Kendall]

Oh don't confuse things by bringing android into a discussion about iPad Vs Courier

I never mentioned Android. I've had four HTC phones running windows mobile, and all are great. My current one (Touch HD) is higher spec than the first iPhones, and the HD2 (which Angelo showed me in Blackpool) wipes the floor with the 3GS.

Ian

[Magic Newswire]

It will be interesting to see what actually come of this product. Price, Availability, etc...

Remember this great Microsoft innovation?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY

[Ian Kendall]

Hands up anyone who _doesn't_ want a surface computer :)

[Ian Kendall]

Oh, and this is fun: http://techfluff.tv/2010/03/08/the-secr ... via-natts/

[mrgoat]

Hands up anyone who _doesn't_ want a surface computer :)

But why?

Ooh, it knows you have put a glass down?

Seriously, what would you do with it, if it wasn't vapourware. Kevin Rose thinks the Courier is vapourware too btw.

[Ian Kendall]

Why not?

Admittedly, it's a geek thing, but I would be very tempted to dust off the coding head and develop a Subbuteo app. Now tell me _that_ wouldn't be k3wl :)

[mrgoat]

Oh don't confuse things by bringing android into a discussion about iPad Vs Courier

I never mentioned Android. I've had four HTC phones running windows mobile, and all are great. My current one (Touch HD) is higher spec than the first iPhones, and the HD2 (which Angelo showed me in Blackpool) wipes the floor with the 3GS.

Ian

Windows mobile is [censored]. I know you know your stuff about many things, so assumed you would at least be talking about android.

:)

In any discussion about mobile operating systems most people laugh when someone talks about windows mobile. Even MS fanbois admit it's dreadful. :P

The new one, based on the Zune HD looks cool though.

Yes, the Nexus1 too is technically better than the iPhone 3GS by a long stretch.

New iPhone will be announced this month though, and available in June.

[Ian Kendall]

Windows Mobile is only bad if you don't know what you are doing. If you have a clue, it's a perfectly useable interface. Added to that, many devices now have a front end, so that the technophobes don't need to look under the hood, as it were.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Windows Mobile is only bad if you don't know what you are doing. ...

So now we need degrees in philosophy to use a phone?

[Ian Kendall]

Not philosophy, no.

[mrgoat]

Windows Mobile is only bad if you don't know what you are doing.

And Unix is a really great OS if you know how to drive a bash shell.

Shouldn't an OS for phones just, um, work?

And it's far from just me that doesn't like it:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/173272/w ... views.html

[Ian Kendall]

These devices are not just phones - they are computers with a phone app.

I've never been one to follow the herd, anyway :D

[mfamagic]

I thought we weren't supposed to argue religion on this board?

P

Funny.

[Magic Newswire]

BTW... The specs now posted on the Apple site show that the iPad will support any doc in an ePub format. I've also been haring talk of a number of magazines developing apps to supplement their hard copy content as opposed to supplying the same or enhanced content that is in a magazine.

[mrgoat]

Yes, I heard that on MacBreak Weekly yesterday. Great news.

But as Merlin Mann said, I wish I was rich enough to drop 500 bucks on something hardly anyone has seen or touched.

[Magic Newswire]

I'm with you. I'm not an early adopter. I like the idea, but will take a wait and see attitude. Kinda like Magic-Con. Sounds like a great idea... we'll see.