So where is Microsoft's tablet?

???

And NO, Windows 7 based tablets/slates don't count and let me explain why.

- My mother called me last week to ask me what I think about the iPad.  My mom never cares about technology but she thinks this will be better than the netbook and the Kindle she was planning on buying.

- My wife who never cares about technology never puts her iPhone down.  Even if the laptop is in her lap she uses the iPhone to read her emails. She is also interested in the iPad.

When Apple revealed the iPhone 3 years ago and knowing about the Surface computer I actually thought Microsoft will try to leapfrog Apple with a tablet that is consumer friendly.  In the meantime nothing happend with the Surface and now we have the iPad.

This company needs to wake up.

Buy her a JooJoo

Microsoft isn't a hardware company.

Kitron, the short answer is that you won't see it in 2010, but if you haven't seen the coverage of the Courier project, you should take a look. (see: gizmodo, engadget)

ManipUni, perhaps not primarily or traditionally, but Microsoft Surface, the Ultracam, Zune, XBOX 360, Microsoft mice, keyboards, webcams, etc. (in addition to the fact that there is a division called Microsoft Hardware) do put something of a dent in your statement. 

Personally I'm hoping that MS will wait until any iPad competing device (Courier or whatever) fully supports XNA and Silverlight for development.

natelawrence said:

Kitron, the short answer is that you won't see it in 2010, but if you haven't seen the coverage of the Courier project, you should take a look. (see: gizmodo, engadget)

 

ManipUni, perhaps not primarily or traditionally, but Microsoft Surface, the Ultracam, Zune, XBOX 360, Microsoft mice, keyboards, webcams, etc. (in addition to the fact that there is a division called Microsoft Hardware) do put something of a dent in your statement. 

I can't believe people are still dreaming about Courier.

Wake up and make a tablet for kitron's mom.

CreamFilling512 said:

Wake up and make a tablet for kitron's mom.

Exactly

rhm said:

natelawrence said:

*snip*

I can't believe people are still dreaming about Courier.

rhm, maybe it's just a prototype|research project. Maybe not. I don't know that an official announcement has been made either way.

(i.e. no public announcement from Microsoft saying, "That was only for research purposes. We're not actually going to ship those.")

As to people "still" dreaming about it, the first leaked coverage was only six months ago and that was news with no confirmed announcement that it was going to be a product and therefore no announced target release date, so it isn't exactly the same as people who are still waiting for a new Sega console.

If Microsoft had any brains they'd move the "Tablet team" from the "Office team" over to the "Windows phone 7 team"....put Bill Buxton in charge, and let them wow us =)

Watch this video.

2 1/2 year old on the iPad: http://blu.is/ufc

I doubt that HP slate would be just as easy to use.

Yea so, a lot of iPhone enthusiasts are excited. Unless they read a lot of e-books, watch them play with it for a while and then get bored.

brian.shapiro said:

Yea so, a lot of iPhone enthusiasts are excited. Unless they read a lot of e-books, watch them play with it for a while and then get bored.

I still think it would be awful for reaading ebooks, there's a reason why every dedicated ebook out there uses an eink screen.

GoddersUK said:

brian.shapiro said:

*snip*

I still think it would be awful for reaading ebooks, there's a reason why every dedicated ebook out there uses an eink screen.

There's a few reasons why, but the benefits of e-ink have been massively exagerated. The industry has been going on about it for years as if it was the holy grail of display technology. In actual fact it has two main advantages: Power consumption and being readable in direct sunlight. Advocates will tout resolution also, but that makes no difference unless you're going to hold it right up to your face - most people's eyesight isn't good enough to get the full benefit of a 130dpi display at normal viewing distance. As for the direct sunlight issue, how many people read an ereader (as opposed to a cell phone) in direct sunlight? I bet not as many that read in doors in poor lighting conditions and have to use a reading light with their e-ink display. I've read a load of reviews now by people that have actually used the iPad for reading and say it's great dispite any theoretical disadvantages of LCD. The only negatives I hear is bleating from people who've invested in the e-ink myth.

In the end though it comes down to one thing - an e-ink display is only useful for passive reading. Are you going to buy a device that's only useful for reading or do you want the full Star Trek experience?

Oh, Arstechnica had 'leaked' specs of the HP Slate. Atom CPU with Intel GMA graphics and 1Gb of ran running Windows 7. That's gonna be good then...

rhm said:

GoddersUK said:

*snip*

There's a few reasons why, but the benefits of e-ink have been massively exagerated. The industry has been going on about it for years as if it was the holy grail of display technology. In actual fact it has two main advantages: Power consumption and being readable in direct sunlight. Advocates will tout resolution also, but that makes no difference unless you're going to hold it right up to your face - most people's eyesight isn't good enough to get the full benefit of a 130dpi display at normal viewing distance. As for the direct sunlight issue, how many people read an ereader (as opposed to a cell phone) in direct sunlight? I bet not as many that read in doors in poor lighting conditions and have to use a reading light with their e-ink display. I've read a load of reviews now by people that have actually used the iPad for reading and say it's great dispite any theoretical disadvantages of LCD. The only negatives I hear is bleating from people who've invested in the e-ink myth.

 

In the end though it comes down to one thing - an e-ink display is only useful for passive reading. Are you going to buy a device that's only useful for reading or do you want the full Star Trek experience?

 

Oh, Arstechnica had 'leaked' specs of the HP Slate. Atom CPU with Intel GMA graphics and 1Gb of ran running Windows 7. That's gonna be good then...

I think Bill Hill would definitely disagree with you as well as every readability study ever done.  Resolution is certainly relavent, and even on e-ink, its still far below printed words.  And backlit displays are not easy on the eyes and good for reading by a long-shot.  Sorry for buying into the vast e-ink conspiracy, but its a fact.

CreamFilling512 said:

rhm said:

*snip*

I think Bill Hill would definitely disagree with you as well as every readability study ever done.  Resolution is certainly relavent, and even on e-ink, its still far below printed words.  And backlit displays are not easy on the eyes and good for reading by a long-shot.  Sorry for buying into the vast e-ink conspiracy, but its a fact.

Backlit screens certainly don't bother me personally, but maybe some people are more sensitive to those things. The biggest factor for me in choosing eInk is you can read it outside easier. As long as it has a good frontlight for night-time reading. 

Also, its harder lugging around a fat electronic device with LCD screen , easier to do a lightweight eInk based reader.

The eInk readers I've seen operate very slowly though.

brian.shapiro said:

CreamFilling512 said:

*snip*

Backlit screens certainly don't bother me personally, but maybe some people are more sensitive to those things. The biggest factor for me in choosing eInk is you can read it outside easier. As long as it has a good frontlight for night-time reading. 

 

Also, its harder lugging around a fat electronic device with LCD screen , easier to do a lightweight eInk based reader.

 

The eInk readers I've seen operate very slowly though.

My eInk reader sped up a lot with a firmware upgrade (less than 0.25 seconds to change page because it caches the next page while you're reading the currentl one); it's now pretty much the same as turning a physical page.

I can definitely spend a lot longer reading on eInk than I can on an LCD.  Currently onto my fourth novel. I interchange between eInk and physical books with no 'context switch' feelings at all.

Herbie

CreamFilling512 said:

rhm said:

*snip*

I think Bill Hill would definitely disagree with you as well as every readability study ever done.  Resolution is certainly relavent, and even on e-ink, its still far below printed words.  And backlit displays are not easy on the eyes and good for reading by a long-shot.  Sorry for buying into the vast e-ink conspiracy, but its a fact.

What do they do on these readability studies then to prove the resolution is important? To me, something is readable if, you know, I can read it. As such a 96dpi desktop monitor is perfectly readable.  Do they shrink the text down really tiny; do they get them to read it from a long distance/strange angles, what? To me it sounds like the hi-fi speaker cable debate - is more resolution 'better'? Of course. Does it actually make any material difference to anyone? No.

And e-ink - it might be higher resolution than LCD, but it's silvery-grey on light grey colouring is a long way from being like paper. Paper is much higher contrast and isn't nearly as shiny for a start. To me it seems the e-ink manufacturers are promoting advantages that are only theoretical (save the power consumption, I'll give them that) and then delivering something that doesn't even live up to the theory.