MS Surface

[ernie]

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

Enjoy.

[Bill Bumface]

I saw a video demo of this a while ago, I think it might have even been linked on here. Was that an MS demo, or did MS just buy it?

[cheung31]

Pretty remarkable. I heard it'll be $10k a pop, and Microsoft expects prices to fall in the coming years. Says it will be a Winter 2007 release.

[arsenal]

I think MS is just buying the technology. Looks like it is the same technology that was displayed at TED.

[GrrlGoalie33]

SMART Technologies in Calgary has been working on technology like this for years. Their website is slow and I'm too impatient to wait, but they have had installations similar to this at the UofC for close to 5 years now...hardware wise atleast.

[HelloHockeyFans]

Jeff Han's presentation was the one linked on CP before. Can't find the thread, but here's a video from the research scientist from NY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF4bSisx4pU

[Kipru]

I still don't know what MS surface is. All i see is a frustrating flash animations and bright colours. What is wrong with a few lines of text first to describe the function of this remarkable new gizmo. They should add a few pop-up windows there also and a huge java application. Well maybe people like me wont ever even like to know what that is, its probably some bs for advertising and business people.

[Flashpoint]

Originally Posted by Kipru

I still don't know what MS surface is. All i see is a frustrating flash animations and bright colours. What is wrong with a few lines of text first to describe the function of this remarkable new gizmo. They should add a few pop-up windows there also and a huge java application. Well maybe people like me wont ever even like to know what that is, its probably some bs for advertising and business people.

The BBC exists to help you.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6703249.stm

[cheung31]

Bill himself demos Surface.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/sticker-s...ble-264453.php

[Barnes]

So this was the "something totally new coming out of the Entertainment and Devices division, and it's going to change the way people interact with technology." -MS

More like "Something we bought that had no real usefulness and we cant really figure out what to do with it because the technology to make the useful applications we are showing you don't exist yet but, it will cost $10,000 and be available winter 2007"

The MS design teams are creating some interesting stuff but the execution will be watered down as usual at release if ever. The Surface website would have been a great way to showcase Silverlight yet the site was done in Flash.

[cheung31]

One more thing that came to mind. How many digital cameras are even equipped with wi-fi capabilities? You'll only be able to do those photo swaps if your camera has wi-fi.

Same goes for your mp3 player, that's why the Zune was used.

[arsenal]

Originally Posted by Barnes

The Surface website would have been a great way to showcase Silverlight yet the site was done in Flash.

Silverlight isn't quite ready yet. The alpha 1.1 was released just a few days ago. It's still really slow.
Mind you for just the videos they have, it would have been enough.

[Phanuthier]

Yeah its not that much different then SMART, it just has a MS tag to it.

[Juventus3]

some of the animations on the demo were choppy. That's nothing but bad news from the get go.