Microsoft Surface

John221us said:
They have a ready-made business application base (Windows apps). The early adoption will probably be to leverage these applications and create a relatively low cost mobility solution for many business applications (little or no development required).
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That's what some of my customers are salivating over, we have over a decade of development in one product and while the lessons learned along the way would make a port much easier (we already have a small port for windows CE) re factoring all that code to Objective-C or Java isn't on our long list of things to do. We've made a cut down version that sync's with a central database that can run on laptops but iPad is the form factor they want since this information is gathered over a period of days after a multi-mile hike into remote areas.

We've been staring sideways at the various iPad/Android things for a few years now and really couldn't pull the trigger on even developing a cut down application for it, because who knows if the iPad will be "the thing" it is now in 5 years.

If this thing will run our software out of the box, it will have saved my customer hundreds of thousands of dollars in development and at the same time giving me a little work to add some features that work better with the form factor and touch screen. I have no desire for one for personal use, business use I can see a lot of potential.
 
bartmc said:
That's what some of my customers are salivating over, we have over a decade of development in one product and while the lessons learned along the way would make a port much easier (we already have a small port for windows CE) re factoring all that code to Objective-C or Java isn't on our long list of things to do. We've made a cut down version that sync's with a central database that can run on laptops but iPad is the form factor they want since this information is gathered over a period of days after a multi-mile hike into remote areas.

We've been staring sideways at the various iPad/Android things for a few years now and really couldn't pull the trigger on even developing a cut down application for it, because who knows if the iPad will be "the thing" it is now in 5 years.

If this thing will run our software out of the box, it will have saved my customer hundreds of thousands of dollars in development and at the same time giving me a little work to add some features that work better with the form factor and touch screen. I have no desire for one for personal use, business use I can see a lot of potential.
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I have not actually done any Win8 development yet, but I have read a bit on it, and attended a few sessions on Win8 development. Here's what I can tell you, though. The WinRT version, which will run on an ARM processor, will not run the typical Windows Forms type applications, other than Office. Development will have to be in the Metro style, much like Windows Phone is now, in order to run on ARM. I'm going to guess that you can convert your UI to Silverlight pretty easily if it was done on WinCE, and be able to use the logic behind it with a bit of tweaking for the latest version of .NET.

IIRC (I haven't been paying a lot of attention to it lately, as I've been busy with a new house), you can develop for it using HTML5/JavaScript, Silverlight, or (I think) C++. Don't quote me on that, as it was last fall the last time I went to an event on it, but that's what I seem to recall.

Also, the Metro style apps that will run on ARM tablets cannot be sideloaded, unless they have changed something since last I heard on this. Apps will have to be loaded through the Marketplace, which means you have to pay the fee ($99 if it is same as phone) and create a developer account in the Marketplace.

If you're developing for tablets/PCs with intel/clones procs, I believe you can develop as you always have.

If you want to look at it, there is a release preview that can be downloaded, of VS 2012 on their site.
 
hopmedic said:
What I didn't say: Apple copied MS.
What I AM saying: When MS came up with a phone, it wasn't to copy Apple. They were SEVERAL years ahead of Apple.
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Yes, but at the time, they were several years behind Palm in useability. They never caught up and then it was Blackberry/RIM.

They've never fielded a truly successful phone.
 
denverpilot said:
Yes, but at the time, they were several years behind Palm in useability. They never caught up and then it was Blackberry/RIM.

They've never fielded a truly successful phone.
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All true.

I had a Palm III back in 98? 99? Then switched to the Handspring Visor in 00. I Was a paramedic at the time, and carried it with me, using ePocrates to look up meds when I didn't know one that the pt was on. I can't think of the other program (they were programs before they were apps!) I used, but there was another.

A partner and I came up with an idea for a movie, called Holo-Man. The guy had a PDA, and he used it to transform himself into a hologram and he could transport himself anywhere in that form, instantly. A few months later, the movie Hollow Man came out, and the similarity of the title (never seen the movie) dashed our dreams....

I think if the current Windows Phone had come out a couple years earlier, it would be booming now, easily rivaling Android. Android would be the geek's phone, not everyone's phone. But alas, late to the party again, MS, so they're going to struggle to catch up. Some predict they will beat out iPhone in a couple years, but who knows? Not I.
 
Oh - whether this will pan out or not, I don't know, but I sure did find it funny, and at least partly true when I heard it:

Android was born a bad copy of Blackberry, grew up a bad copy of iPhone, and will die a bad copy of Windows Mobile.

I had to chuckle when I heard it, because when I was into Windows Mobile, it was because I liked to tinker. Never had the same ROM on the phone as what it came with. Just like Android geeks are now. ;)
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Yup.

http://techland.time.com/2012/06/01/newton-reconsidered/

P.S.--The Doonesbury cartoon halfway down the page is classic. :rofl:
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This is funny:
The MessagePad is an example of the gadget category which many people (including Steve Jobs) have disparaged as “tweeners.” Neither truly pocketable nor capable of replacing a full-blown PC, tweeners have never gone away. Current examples include Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7.
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If Steve Jobs disparaged "tweener" devices, what the hell is the iPad?
 
Yep, I remember Gates on was it 95 or 98 where it BSOD'd on him? He did a fair recovery.
He also brought up a key issue. To me my iPad is a good entertainment device and that's why I haven't gotten rid of it. Netfix and games. My iPad replaces television, it can't replace my laptop.
 
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Microsoft's own phone was the "Kin" ... Mega flop. Some pundits have estimated that they only sold ~500.
 
denverpilot said:
Demoing vaporware always sucks. BTDT.
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Makes one wonder why it was demoed at all.

Lookit every iPad announcement: you know the price, the specs Steve wanted you to know, and is "available now" such that when the Apple Store opens online, the servers are jammed solid.

We know very little about the Surface. Except that the keyboard inside the cover looks like it could be a very nice idea.
 
A co-worker floated the idea that perhaps its Microsoft trying to get other hardware vendors on board Windows 8 faster...

"We don't normally build hardware, but if you won't..."
 
rpadula said:
Makes one wonder why it was demoed at all.

Lookit every iPad announcement: you know the price, the specs Steve wanted you to know, and is "available now" such that when the Apple Store opens online, the servers are jammed solid.

We know very little about the Surface. Except that the keyboard inside the cover looks like it could be a very nice idea.
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Because it makes news.
Because it's Microsoft.

I work for a company that is drinking the iPad kool-aid (as in going to Cupertino to feel the love). The head of our division basically stood up in front of the branch a month ago and said "our tablet strategy is ipad". All other tablets were explicitly stated as not being considered. Now, in a similar meeting 1 day after the surface announcement things aren't so cut and dried when someone in the audience asked about surface (although there's no doubt that ipad would be first considered in everything as logically it should).
 
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