The stupid continues

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This time with CNN’s “5 ways Microsoft’s Surface may be better than an iPad.” It’s like they are searching for things to write about today.



  • Gerry

    This thing isn’t a tablet, it’s a Ultrabook. Let’s see… it’s made by Microsoft, it runs Windows and Steve Balmer says it’s fantastic. That’s all I need to know. (Grin)

  • http://twitter.com/jonsiddle jon siddle

    You’d think this device is the second coming of Christ. Does it have a release date? Battery specs? Price? Developers other than Microsoft who are willing to develop apps for it? Right now, this is really no different than the Microsoft Kin. Or, if it actually ships to the public and doesn’t go anywhere, Zune 2.0..

    • lucascott

      Only until the iPad 4th Gen comes out. Or the REAL Apple TV. Then folks will forget about the Surface. Well the folks that might get the junior model which is targeted at the same consumer audience as the iPad.

      course with more and more schools requiring their students to bring an iPad because they are either dumping paper textbooks or massively supplementing them, a major chunk of the audience may have already said ‘meh’ to anything else

  • quietstorms

    I can’t believe what I just read.

    The keyboard is an example of why Apple is so ahead of everyone else. They complained with the iPhone. The comedy is that I’ve seen girls absolutely smoke others others on the iPad. Apple even has an example of this in one of their videos of a student on their site.

    This is a classic example of why Apple is ahead of MS. Apple is willing to let go of the past.

    • lucascott

      I think you nailed it with that girls comment. The younger generation has zero issue with the notion of the soft keyboard just like they had no issue with using flip phone keypads etc. It’s about the end result and they will adjust as needed.

      It’s their parents and grandparents that have the issue because they are less willing to change. Some of it is just the nature of things. They want to do what they want to do and don’t want to have to spend time relearning how to do it. My grandfather was happy with hand writing letters to us for years, didn’t need email etc. Until he found out that he could use an iPad and literally see his newborn great grandson that is currently in New Zealand. So now he has an iPad for FaceTime and an email address to receive photos. But he still hand writes letters and wants hard written letters back. Not because he can’t type them, he could if he wanted to. He just doesn’t want to. He prefers ‘the real thing’

  • http://twitter.com/edditnyc Eddie Maldonado

    This was my favorite bit (asterisked for emphasis):

    “If it works well, the keyboard — which I got to inspect at great length but not actually type on — is going to be the Surface’s killer attraction,”

    Great job, inspector!!

  • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

    There are definitely some positives in Surface and they hit a few.

    Size Meh. It matters but bigger is not necessarily what I want for a tablet. A personal computing device, probably, but not my tablet, per se. That might change. We’ll see after I get one.

    Power This could be huge, hence all of the enterprise posts about Surface surfacing today, and possible blow away iPad performance allowing for bigger and better apps/games.

    USB Meh. I like the idea of plugging into a printer vs random work-a-rounds like AirPrint [buy a new printer requirement] or Google Cloud Print [not the easiest for general users].

    If I have to plug this thing into external storage though, I have a problem. :) Then again, if it is a mini-computer, I may continue working from a Flash drive but still…cloud FTW here.

    SmartGlass Works on iPad/Android so not sure if this should be listed as a win.

    So not outright a poor article and, by the title, I’d give them a bit of slack since they said “may” and not “is” or similar.

    We’ll see once it comes out. I’ll be getting at least one for dev purposes.

  • Andy

    The internet definitely smells of astroturf today. Wonder how much this is costing Microsoft.

    Look, Surface could be the real deal – but as it stands it’s total vapourware. They haven’t let anybody actually play with it yet, and the thing crashed during the demo presentation. Compare that to the introduction of the iPad, where Steve demoed several highly functional apps (like iWork), and the iPad never even skipped a beat.

    They keyboard looks interesting, but again it’s like Microsoft has terminal indecision crisis: why two, different ones? Why not decide which is better and just give us that.

    • lucascott

      It would have helped if they had actually demo’d anything. Most of the talk was about materials used and accessories and now awesome they are.

      Apple on the other hand spends maybe 5 minutes on that stuff and the rest on showing the device in action, including 3rd party demos. Hell my boss finally got an iPad because of seeing the demo for Sketchbook Ink and the app wasn’t even out until like 2 and a half months later

  • MacsenMcBain

    Interesting retrospective from an AP writer: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120619/D9VG8U681.html

  • SiMBa37

    I almost vomited at the comments on the CNN page for this “story.” Its the same old anti-Apple garbage from 1997. “Apple products are shiny over priced toys that only do well because of slick marketing.”

    The revisionist history is amazing.

    • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

      They also have the same “Apple is the best, everything else sucks” mixed in with those too.

      Typical fanboy/anti-fanboy banter.

      • lucascott

        In the case of a tablet computer like device at the moment Apple is the best and everything else sucks. Which is why you see iPads everywhere, hear about this or that use for iPads everywhere etc and the best you get about the other boys is ‘shipping’ news

        • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

          I actually see more Android in my area. I use an iPad and see plenty but I mostly see Android phones, Kindle Fire’s, and XOOM’s.

  • http://twitter.com/totalipad Christopher Rizzo 

    I wonder if the Surface works in portrait mode?

  • http://twitter.com/pberry Patrick Berry

    It may grant you three wishes, which is three more than an iPad!

    This game is too easy.

  • http://twitter.com/marklopresto Mark Lopresto

    Here’s a great line spec from the author, “The Windows Pro model will run on an i5 Intel processor and come with up to 128 gigabytes of internal memory (the iPad currently goes up to 64).” Does this writer even know the difference between internal memory and flash storage?