

Microsofts dual screen tablet PC - jrwoodruff
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/microsofts-and-norhtec-tablet-pcs-impossible-and-possible?partner=homepage_newsletter

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StrawberryFrog
_But that's if it actually does surface. Do you believe MS, still hobbling
along after its Windows Vista disgrace, can really pull off such an apparently
revolutionary machine?_

Maybe I'm too close to MS (my posting history here indicates that may be so),
but these two sentences really struck me as arrogant and dismissive. What has
the OS software division in MS, who delivered Vista in November 2006 got to do
with a hardware team shipping a new product, probably in 2010? How does
Vista's poor reception hobble them? It doesn't even seem to be hobbling the
Windows 7 (AKA the Vista do-over) push. How exactly would that "hobbling"
work, shortage of funds due to poor sales of Vista? I didn't hear of MS being
that short or R&D funds.

Do MS have history of vaporous hardware announcements?

A pre-announcement must serve some purpose. With an OS or hardware launch, it
is probably advance warning to get third parties on board to create compatible
software. Does this seem to be the case? Either that or there's a leak due to
the increasing number of people who know about the product as it gets nearer
mass manufacturing and retail.

~~~
chaosmachine
Microsoft Hardware doesn't exactly have a strong track record. Xbox 360 had a
failure rate of 54%. And then there's Zune:
<http://www.google.com/trends?q=frozen+zune>

Anecdotally, I recently bought one of Microsoft's new bluetooth mice, and it
stopped functioning correctly after 3 weeks.

~~~
roc
My experience has actually been the opposite: with the notable exception of
the launch 360s, Microsoft hardware has been well designed, fairly priced and
long lived.

I'm still using the Microsoft natural keyboard and optical mouse I purchased
in ... 2001? The sidewinder joysticks were always excellent. My original XBox
is going strong; the Duke being perhaps the best designed and built gaming
controller to date. The 360 controllers are similarly excellent (though I miss
the Duke's size). The wireless notebook mouse I bought 2 years ago is the best
wireless mouse I've used, period.

I can't speak to the Zune, having never owned one.

I assumed that with that track record, the accusation that "the 360's
reliability problems were known but allowed to slide in blind pursuit of
launching first" made the most sense. It was deeply disappointing, but I do
give the hardware group itself the benefit of the doubt.

~~~
electromagnetic
SquareTrade only reported a 16.4% failure rate, 60% of which was attributed to
RRoD and 40% are other failures, which include overheating and consumer
related damage including the use of cooling pads (ironic). This means
Microsoft's failure rate for 360s on a hardware standpoint is ~10%, which is
slightly above industry standards but certainly isn't deserving of the class
actions. Personally I'm wondering what Microsoft has been holding back, the
class actions happened _way_ too fast after these "studies" came out meaning
MS never got to make an announcement on their own findings. I have a feeling
they have a silver bullet in case the class actions ever get to court or they
would have already attempted to court sympathy with the public.

I'm wondering if Microsoft will have a leg to stand on arguing that consumer
demand for environmentally friendly products negates their claim for defective
electronics as high-density electronics are hard to solder efficiently using
non-lead based solders. If they can get a judge to side with them that the
consumer demand for 'green' products means a higher defect rate could get the
entire class action kicked out, but then the 360 wasn't exactly advertised as
environmentally friendly (like MacBooks are) so if this would fool a judge or
not is a wonder.

The current 'jasper' model 360's have a RRoD rate of less than 4% which is
actually significantly _better_ than the industry standard of 5-8% for
hardware failures in the first year.

~~~
roc
You don't think the generous warranty service in the first two years and then
an extension to 3 years for RROD and av plug issues was an attempt to court
sympathy?

~~~
ben_straub
A company is giving its customers good service. Is this fact altered by their
motivations for doing so?

------
nirmal
"There is one glimmer of proof that Courier is actually a real machine: Over
at BeingManan, there's more _leaked_ Microsoft information about a research
product dubbed Codex. It's based on Microsoft's tablet-UI-rethink InkSeine
technology"

There is nothing _leaked_ about this work. The work has been done and
published by Ken Hinckley for many years. <http://research.microsoft.com/en-
us/um/people/kenh/>

That being said, I think that the InkSeine work is great. Hinckley uses it
everyday and often uses his technology when presenting his work.

~~~
maukdaddy
I'm thinking the same thing. This is an awfully convenient "leak". High
quality images, video, details. This "leak" is just clever marketing at work.

~~~
idm
The Codex work was presented at CHI 09 this year:

[http://www.google.com/search?q=codex+a+dual+screen+tablet+co...](http://www.google.com/search?q=codex+a+dual+screen+tablet+computer)

I don't have any idea how that could be construed as a leak. It's not even
clever marketing - it's just a conference presentation.

~~~
maukdaddy
Sorry, I was referring to the courier tablet device, not the Codex work.

~~~
idm
No worries - I was mostly being critical of the original article anyway.

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proee
While most Microsoft products are pretty lame, there's one exception in my
book: ONENOTE. I've used about all the notebook variants on the market and
Onenote is the best by far in terms of flexibility and collaboration. I've
been using Onenote on dropbox and it's a great way to sync all my thoughts
across all my machines.

This little digital notebook could essentially function as a hip version of
ONENOTE where you could archive all your digital goodies, and hopefully sync
them to the cloud via an always on 3G/4G connection.

The future is looking bright for us hackers!

------
panic
I'm holding out for the second revision, "Courier New".

------
symesc
"Real artists ship."--Steve Jobs.

~~~
NathanKP
Looking at the conceptual video one would think they were seeing a new Apple
product. Who would think that Microsoft could produce something that
impressive? I don't want to sound pessimistic but I don't know if I can trust
Microsoft to design something that good. ;)

But I guess I'll wait and see. If Microsoft can pull it off then more power to
them. Apple is either going to see this movie and laugh, then design the
device themselves and release it before Microsoft does, or they are going to
get pretty scared.

~~~
symesc
Yes, I hear you. I'm not sure Steve Jobs actually said that quote verbatim,
but here's where I first learned of it:

<http://counternotions.com/2008/08/12/concept-products/>

What's interesting about this dual-screen "prototype" is that we're in the
midst of huge speculation about the Apple Tablet. And yet Apple isn't talking,
isn't doing demos, and isn't mocking up prototypes for public consumption.

They do this for marketing purposes of course (free advertising), but they
also do it for competitive reasons (don't show your cards in poker) and for
brand-management reasons (don't show your cards AFTER a hand in poker either).

My team at work has tons of great ideas. We ship only a small percentage. Our
annual reviews don't have a line that says "Good ideas that weren't
delivered." :)

~~~
NathanKP
_yet Apple isn't talking, isn't doing demos, and isn't mocking up prototypes
for public consumption._

Yeah, it usually isn't a good idea to make big brags showing experimental
mockups before you have anything in reality. Apple seems to like to show the
finished product.

This demo video is going to disappoint a lot of people if the real device is
released and it isn't quite as spectacular as people originally thought it
would be based on the video.

~~~
rbanffy
"Yeah, it usually isn't a good idea to make big brags showing experimental
mockups before you have anything in reality. Apple seems to like to show the
finished product."

Unless, of course, you never intended to release the product anyway...

------
83457
<http://www.google.com/search?q=olpc+xo-2>

~~~
NathanKP
[http://www.thoughtoffice.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2008/05...](http://www.thoughtoffice.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2008/05/innovative-design-olpc-xo2-thoughtoffice.jpg)

Direct link to an image of an open OLPC XO 2. Now we know where Microsoft
stole the design from. ;)

------
rbanffy
Notable that while the article shows a real working prototype of a shippable
product, the title is still about Microsoft's vaporware product.

And, as usual, the real product is nowhere near as amazing as the fantasy one
;-)

~~~
uigbygb
It shows a video of mock-up screens on a rendered 3D cad model.

~~~
rbanffy
I don't think it's even a CAD model, unless we are willing to extend that D to
meanings it was never supposed to take. I think this model never quite
ventured out of the comfy environment of 3D Studio, an environment where you
don't care about clearances, materials or thermal dissipation.

------
roc
Having a pen-dominated UI is also a huge usability mistake. The pen is a great
_optional_ peripheral. But UIs that require pens have been rejected time and
again.

~~~
weaksauce
Probably because they weren't done well enough to be of use (i.e. too small of
a screen, terrible ui, wrong use pattern.) The use case of a book style tablet
pc like this would be more akin to a moleskin on steroids. It would have a
camera, internet, notes, etc.... Not too many people would use this as their
primary device and if they did it would be a different use case than that of a
power user.

~~~
litewulf
As someone who owns a tablet PC I disagree. I have two convertible tablets,
one pen only and one with touch and pen.

I almost never use the pen unless I am in note taking mode or doodling in
OneNote. There is a certain level of conscious effort required to take out a
pen, which limits its overall use. The laptop with touch I find myself tapping
the screen to hit links and buttons on a semi-regular basis.

Essentially the pen is super comfortable for a very small niche, but is too
big for me to want to carry it all the time. (Its the size of a paper
notebook...) I am not the type to carry a moleskin around though, for what
thats worth.

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chasingsparks
Inspector gadget much?

