New 10.6-inch Microsoft Surface tablet(s) announced, powered by Windows 8

[clonex]

Originally Posted by dalien

might be a silly question, but do all x86 apps run on ARM?

Seems only ones designed for windows 8 only

When The INQUIRER asked Visser what he meant by "most compatible" Visser replied, "Taking into acount ARM is a completely new processor architecture and what we're focused on is a couple of things to help enterprise customers embrace Windows RT. [...] All the Windows 8 apps that run on x86 will also run on Windows RT." Visser also cited inclusion of in-box drivers for PC hardware, something that is largely missing from both Android and IOS devices.

Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/1ecM3)

[csimpson]

Originally Posted by NanoDuke

How would you get 50 fingers onto a 10.6" screen? In reality it's probably the same "touch per square area" density as the Surface Table, the table probably just segments quadrants of the screen to track the difference responses. If you know what I mean... I can't quite eloquently type it out.

It's per-pixel, so it's not 50 segments as much as it is tracking a maximum of 50 simultaneous inputs. And its importance isn't necessarily for 50 different fingers, but more for 50 different bristles from a paintbrush (or similar complex input method) - much more accurate input means digital painting is 50 times more precise, for example.

[Draxonic]

Originally Posted by GetSmart

What I mean to convey is that the education sector has embraced the iTunes app store - there are apps for every subject and in abundance. These are often more user-friendly than the desktop equivalents.

I agree, on a x86/x64 system there is a lot more potential, power etc. However, most schools have the worst possible applications installed on their desktops

The education sector has embraced the iPad as a device that is inherently intuitive as well as appealing and easy for minors to use. It is a device that has many pedagogical uses and apps, but there are countless problems with the use of the device in a 1:many context that make their deployment and management difficult.

Even in a 1:1 context, the Apple App store offers no enterprise licensing model or management as it was designed specifically to target a consumer market.

I have to respectfully disagree with you and say that while the education sector has embraced the iPad as an educational tool, it simply puts up with the limitations of the app store, given no viable alternative.

[Nitephyre]

The Newton wasn't the first tablet, it was the first PDA.

Personally I see this as a great idea from MS to try and further the perception that Windows 8 is a fresh start to embrace the multi markets they obviously had in mind with Metro. WP7 was the testing of the waters.

[lithos]

Originally Posted by Draxonic

The education sector has embraced the iPad as a device that is inherently intuitive as well as appealing and easy for minors to use. It is a device that has many pedagogical uses and apps, but there are countless problems with the use of the device in a 1:many context that make their deployment and management difficult.

That's exactly what my mate at the school says: they're nice devices - on their own. But to play with other devices - grown-up devices - on a business network, it's just too much hassle.

[Rexy]

In education, the ipad is what people want. I hated them, and would suggest in MOST schools, the IT dept does not drive their uptake - it is exactly like business - non-technical senior staff demand it - sold on the sexy shiny toy factor. Most IT managers know the serious issues for managing i-devices in a network, but often have to support them anyway. They get drowned out in the i-love.

I am giggling like a school girl at the prospect of a device running win8 that can compete with the ipad and do enterprise management with group policy etc. The apple config manager is a joke. Managing itunes in bulk is a horrendous, horrendous nightmare - I can't emphasise that enough. I remember over a year ago an Apple conference where they stated the volume licensing was coming to Au "real soon now". Laughs all round - still nothing. I pity school managers who have to manage hundreds of these things. I know schools who embraced ipads early only to have reverted to notebooks once the limitations of the device were discovered. In a small primary school ipads may have a place, and the "dumbed down" interface is loved by those in special ed situations and for younger kids. In a large senior school where kids need to write essays all day? Good luck with that.

For those who know schools, the 2 big websites used are moodle and scootle. Scootle is basically thousands of licensed, specifically authored flash and shockwave files designed for Au education, across all subjects. Paid for by gov money using authoring that requires plugins that don't work on i-devices. People stating "flash is dying" are ignorant. There are millions upon millions of applets, movies, interactive tools etc designed for education and authored in a way that will never run on i-devices. HTML5 is nice, but many edu websites will never have the funding to be recoded for their use for years if not decades. I'm just hoping they will run on the pro version of the surface, even if not on the RT version. It's not the end of the world if they don't run flash, but hell it would be nice.

I've deployed hundreds of touch capable win tablets in edu, and the mere fact they are heavier and more ungainly than the surface pro is the only downside. If the surface drives touch-win devices that are half the size and twice as rugged, I cannot wait. I made a conscious choice to pay extra for touch win tablets, and am glad I did. Onenote absolutely *sings* with a touch/pen interface. Teachers love it, kids love it, using a stylus in education works, and having a keyboard, finger and touch inputs allows you to use the input method you want for any given class. Surface having all 3 in a unit half the weight/size of even the best modern tablet PCs = epic win.

I just hope MS don't screw it up. This could be epic for schools.

[clonex]

Originally Posted by Rexy

For those who know schools, the 2 big websites used are moodle and scootle. Scootle is basically thousands of licensed, specifically authored flash and shockwave files designed for Au education, across all subjects. Paid for by gov money using authoring that requires plugins that don't work on i-devices. People stating "flash is dying" are ignorant. There are millions upon millions of applets, movies, interactive tools etc designed for education and authored in a way that will never run on i-devices. HTML5 is nice, but many edu websites will never have the funding to be recoded for their use for years if not decades. I'm just hoping they will run on the pro version of the surface, even if not on the RT version. It's not the end of the world if they don't run flash, but hell it would be nice.

I always wondered what the hell do these kids do on these ipads at school, picture puzzles?
Most online inductions and training organisation online courses ive done have all always been flash-based.
I dont see flash dying in this sector

[proffesso]

Originally Posted by CREDO

Personally i have been waiting for this for a long time.
To easily hook into the home server\network, without having to "root" ect share the home printer\scanner and all the good stuff that comes with a windows household.

I cant wait, i want one, my wife wants one. everyone with half a brain will want one.

its a tablet running windows. cant go wrong.

again, there have been plenty, and are plenty of windows tablets on the market. why only now?

im guessing because of MS's big marketing push, and the iPad, since that has made tablets a household item of late

[Rexy]

Originally Posted by proffesso

again, there have been plenty, and are plenty of windows tablets on the market. why only now?

im guessing because of MS's big marketing push, and the iPad, since that has made tablets a household item of late

Yeah I wondered the same. Until I installed Win8 on a touch-screen tablet device. It sings. Took me longer to download the ISO and make a bootable USB disk than it did to fully install it and have 20 apps installed from the MS store. It's actually way better than I expected from MS, and each preview release is getting better.

I can only assume that win tablets in 2002 (and I saw them released back then) were just ahead of their time. Also, they were heavy, usually 2-3cm thicker than comparable notebooks of the time, and all had a $1000+ premium on them. In fact, as somebody pricing hundreds of them for bulk purchase, just last year the HP and Lenovo tablets had a $5-800 premium on them. Now you can get tablet PC's for under $800 in bulk. Full i5/4GB devices. Only a year ago the same style of device was $1500+.

Price and "being the right time" seem to be the key drivers of these devices. Now they're well under $1k in bulk, they just might take off bigtime. And Surface being way thinner and lighter might just make this work for the masses. As somebody who has struggled with ipads in bulk (and Apple have admitted many times the ipad was never designed for corporate/bulk/education deployments - its an individual device) the tools that have been around for management and network config on windows could make this big. Let's hope so.

[andyroo54]

Originally Posted by Rexy

Yeah I wondered the same. Until I installed Win8 on a touch-screen tablet device. It sings. Took me longer to download the ISO and make a bootable USB disk than it did to fully install it and have 20 apps installed from the MS store. It's actually way better than I expected from MS, and each preview release is getting better.

I can only assume that win tablets in 2002 (and I saw them released back then) were just ahead of their time. Also, they were heavy, usually 2-3cm thicker than comparable notebooks of the time, and all had a $1000+ premium on them. In fact, as somebody pricing hundreds of them for bulk purchase, just last year the HP and Lenovo tablets had a $5-800 premium on them. Now you can get tablet PC's for under $800 in bulk. Full i5/4GB devices. Only a year ago the same style of device was $1500+.

Price and "being the right time" seem to be the key drivers of these devices. Now they're well under $1k in bulk, they just might take off bigtime. And Surface being way thinner and lighter might just make this work for the masses. As somebody who has struggled with ipads in bulk (and Apple have admitted many times the ipad was never designed for corporate/bulk/education deployments - its an individual device) the tools that have been around for management and network config on windows could make this big. Let's hope so.

I found an old P3 XP tablet, it was the absolute slowest version of windows I've ever seen, but pretty sure something was seriously wrong with it..

[FuzzyKaos]

At first, I wasn't sold on windows 8, but after seeing the video, I am sold, as a tablet OS. Ill keep using windows 7 as my desktop os, ditch my macbook pro and get a the surface tablet.

I have been waiting for a worthy tablet, I am yet to purchase one because they all suck to me.

[Davo1111]

Originally Posted by Oppressa

FINALLY!

Something that we can actually USE in classrooms and corporate networks.

whats wrong with android devices?

edit: network policies was the issue nvm

[Davo1111]

Originally Posted by Rexy

. Teachers love it, kids love it, using a stylus in education works, and having a keyboard, finger and touch inputs allows you to use the input method you want for any given class. Surface having all 3 in a unit half the weight/size of even the best modern tablet PCs = epic win.

i agree with your post completely up to this statement. As someone who went to a laptop school, i found the touch screen to be annoying and an expensive gimmick for students. However for teachers it was great, having the ability to do maths on word (instead of the whiteboard), then save it as a pdf to look at the notes was great. For some things the pen and paper will win

[andyroo54]

Originally Posted by Davo1111

whats wrong with android devices?

edit: network policies was the issue nvm

Also, they're android. :/ I've tried to like the tablet os but it's just soooo terrible (honeycomb at least), I haven't tried the new one.

[lithos]

Well, the criticism has started, and of course, most of it's just "Waah, it's not an iPad!"