demagogue on 20/6/2012 at 00:18
I'd think it's worth it for the OS. Like henke said, current tablets are good for like puzzle & gimmick games, but it's not like you can pull a bunch of windows files from your desktop onto the tablet to play around with when you go on a trip -- a bunch of pdfs to read, music & videos without going through some voodoo ritual, some AAA games to play, emulators so I can play some old N64 games, a bunch of indie games, games with editors (or like Unity or Dark Radiant) so I could do some editing, or apps like photoshop & FruityLoops & Audacity so I could make some textures or music or just random crap... etc, etc... and put everything in separate folders so I could organize it how I like. I know I couldn't do much of this with an iPad; I've never played with an Android tablet before, but I don't think it could do them either. That's the selling point IMO.
Renzatic on 20/6/2012 at 03:39
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
I don't see that this MS effort brings anything good/new to the party.
I disagree, for the very reasons Dema stated above. Don't think of this as an Android/iPad ARM tablet. It's not. It's an ultrabook (can't believe I said it) as a tablet. A laptop in a much more comfortable, portable form factor. Whether it works or not remains to be seen. It might end up being a device that tries to play to the strengths of both form factors, yet fails to be a good fit for either one. Too large, overpowered, and battery draining to be something you want to use to read a book on the couch, too weak and unwieldy to be a small, powerful laptop.
What I've seen thus far has been interesting, though. Hell, even after my bitch fit hate fest initial reaction, I've kind of grown to like Windows 8. This thing could very well succeed at being both. If it does, I'll ditch my iPad and buy it, no questions asked. I'd love to use a pressure sensitive stylus on a touchscreen tablet capable of doing actual honest to God this is real Photoshop not that PS Touch BS work then press a button and watch some Netflix, all while reclining in my chair.
Or hell, just transfer files between it and my desktop without having to jump through iTunes, or jailbreak it and use Filezilla to SSH into it. I could...oh hell...I could drag and drop files on it from explorer. Holy shit, I could probably even see it on the network! THE MIRACLES OF TECHNOLOGY!
Volitions Advocate on 20/6/2012 at 05:46
The advantage of having a common OS across your devices is the main reason I got excited for Windows 8 on tablets. But like I said, Asus's Eee slate already does all this. Its a monster of a tablet that will do everything but play BF3. You can get these right now, they're just not really common because not a lot of people buy them, But i've played with them myself at Best Buy, they're pretty awesome.
Renzatic on 20/6/2012 at 06:40
There's only one problem with the otherwise superbly designed EEE Slate, and it's quite a fatal one: the abysmal battery life. It's the only reason I didn't pick one up for myself. From what I gathered about it, if you stream a movie off Netflix through it, you can expect the battery to last the length of the film, and not much longer. 4 hours is about the most you can expect out of the thing. That's...that's not good. At all.
A tablet lives and dies by its battery (olol literally and figuratively). Plugging it into a wall and running it off AC kinda defeats the purpose of using one. Now I'm not expecting the Surface to last nearly as long as the iPad. We're talking about a fairly powerful x86 computer vs. this sorta netbook but not quite thingy that is the iPad. But if the Surface doesn't last at least 6 hours under regular usage (web, office work, etc.), I don't expect it to sell all that well.
I'm sure MS realises this, and are doing their best to eek as much battery life out of the tablet as they're possibly able. But if they fall short then...well...hell. Why not just buy a decent laptop instead?
Briareos H on 20/6/2012 at 06:46
Quote Posted by Renzatic
A laptop in a much more comfortable, portable form factor.
Those have existed (
http://pencomputing.com/frames/tpc_compaq.html) since before 2002, even with a detachable keyboard. Nobody bought them. Apple comes, gets their iPad out and suddenly everyone thinks this is the future of computing.
If an only slightly bulkier computer from 2007 (my Thinkpad X61 Tablet -- which is one of the best ultraportable laptops ever made) still outperforms CPU-wise the Microsoft Surface "pro", then it means that progress in portable x86 computing has been almost nil and that people are buying into the hype more than the actual thing. Accessibility my arse, only market-criers who manage to shout the loudest when people are most vulnerable.
SubJeff on 20/6/2012 at 06:53
Quote Posted by demagogue
it's not like you can pull a bunch of windows files from your desktop onto the tablet to play around with when you go on a trip -- a bunch of pdfs to read, music & videos without going through some voodoo ritual
Quote Posted by Renzatic
Or hell, just transfer files between it and my desktop without having to jump through iTunes, or jailbreak it and use Filezilla to SSH into it. I could...oh hell...I could drag and drop files on it from explorer. Holy shit, I could probably even see it on the network! THE MIRACLES OF TECHNOLOGY!
You guys are both iPad users, aren't you? Whilst (imho) this is no killer Android tablet out there putting files onto your Android device is as easy as plugging a USB stick in. Easier. I have 4 methods of getting files onto my tablet. 1.USB cable/port, 2.Transfer over wifi, 3.Transfer over bluetooth, 4. Transfer to the cloud then back down from the cloud.
The only think that is of interest, to me, in these new things is the OS. I do think it's a great idea having a seamless environment, which is why I champion iPhone and iPad combos for Mac users.
But that's it. Unless they are powerful enough to run all my Steam games I don't see any other advantages over other tablets. I'd never do serious work on a tablet anyway, buy ymmv.
Renzatic on 20/6/2012 at 07:57
Quote Posted by Briareos H
Those have existed (
http://pencomputing.com/frames/tpc_compaq.html) since before 2002, even with a detachable keyboard. Nobody bought them. Apple comes, gets their iPad out and suddenly everyone thinks this is the future of computing.
I fell for the concept of a tablet PC around the first time saw an XP powered Archos back around 05-06. The reason no one bought them was because, quite frankly, they sucked. Good idea though they were, the initial tablets were cramped, halfassed, and awkward machines to use. Beyond the novelty of it, being able to hold the teasing hint of things to come, there was absolutely no compelling reason to grab a tablet over a proper laptop.
See, I think of tablets as being better laptops than laptops. No, they're not perfect for every conceivable situation that might arise. No one type of computer is. Nor do I believe them to be the entire future of PCs in general. But they are more portable machines than clamshell laptops. Having a tablet you can hold in one hand and manipulate with the other is (at least in my opinion) preferable to having something you have to sit down with, pop open, then lay on your lap or open on a desk to use. I can work with one quicker than the other, in a wider variety of situations.
Think about it. If you were a photographer out doing, I dunno, taking pictures of ironic crap and douchy hipster shit, and you wanted to edit your douchy hipster shots, would you rather have a laptop you have to sit in your lap and hunch over, manipulating a cursor with a mouse nub or touchpad, or something that's basically a single slab you can hold in the crook of your arm while standing up, editing your photos directly onscreen with a couple of finger and a stylus?
Also it's more likely to make you look cooler and get you laid.
The iPad isn't the revelation some people make it out to be, and didn't change everything like all the Apple advertisements claim. But it did do one thing right. It showed the potential of the form factor when someone plays to its strengths. How good it could be, given enough power and flexibility.
Quote:
If an only slightly bulkier computer from 2007 (my Thinkpad X61 Tablet -- which is one of the best ultraportable laptops ever made) still outperforms CPU-wise the Microsoft Surface "pro", then it means that progress in portable x86 computing has been almost nil and that people are buying into the hype more than the actual thing. Accessibility my arse, only market-criers who manage to shout the loudest when people are most vulnerable.
Depends on if you think that the progress of a portable CPU is measured solely in performance. These days, CPUs are considerably faster than what most people need. Hell, there's absolutely no reason for most people to upgrade past a Core2Duo and 2GB ram. That's not to say that there's no room for improvement on the performance front, because there will always be people who need that extra oomph. We videogame geek hobbyist types and the always nebulously defined and mysterious high end professional can use all the cores and gigahertz they can get on.
But instead of focusing solely on performance, why not also work on efficiency as well? That benefits us all just as well. Is a new processor generation that only performs 2.3514% better than the previous model, but consumes only half the power and resources any less of an upgrade than a new CPU generation that performs 50% faster? Guess it depends on if you're on a desktop or laptop really. But hey, we'd all love gaming laptops that last 15 hours on a charge, wouldn't we?
henke on 20/6/2012 at 08:56
Heeeey, that looks good! Not terribly expensive, wireless, awesome-looking. Seems like it's only compatible with Atari classic game packs and a few select other titles though, rather than working with everything. That's not optimal.
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
You can have a gamepad on Android tablets and lots of tablet portfolio cases come with bluetooth keyboards now.
I'll admit I'm no expert when it comes to tablets. I looked into what was available when I bought my iPad a couple of years ago, but since then I haven't been amazed by anything else on the market, untill I saw the Surface. Maybe Android-equivalents exist already but having Win 8 as the OS would be pretty sweet. I think I'll wait out the release of the Surface and see what the reviews say. If it totally sucks I'll considering looking into Android tablets.
Renzatic on 20/6/2012 at 09:02
Quote Posted by henke
Heeeey, that looks good! Not terribly expensive, wireless, awesome-looking. Seems like it's only compatible with Atari classic game packs and a few select other titles though, rather than working with everything. That's not optimal.
If you're big into jailbreaking, it'd work on all the emulators you'll find on Cydia. Just about every one of them supports the iCade stick, and this uses the same API/drivers/whatnots.
Koki on 20/6/2012 at 09:32
Inline Image:
https://p.twimg.com/Avw0BNbCAAEZXV-.jpgIt seems like all I do recently is just find pictures online and repost them on TTLG. Why did I ever bother hitting the keyboard in the first place? This is much better.
