June 18th - major announcement from Microsoft!

The studio luckily offers enough room for all the ponies.
Can find any solid info besides rumours and more speculation;

'Sources tell me that a new tablet will be announced on Monday with Barnes and Noble. The two companies announced a “strategic partnership” in late April with Microsoft investing $300M into the joint business dubbed “Newco” for a 17.6% equity stake and Barnes and Noble owning 82.4%.
The event would be the first public showing of what the two have been working on and may answer the question of why the invite was so bare – because they haven’t announced anything yet and the joint operation has yet to be named. Another source says the tablet may be the first non-Xbox device to gain Xbox Live streaming capabilities, which might explain the location of the event.' link

 

The actual liveblog page: http://live.theverge.com/microsoft-live-blog-tablet-announcement/
(not sure why they stuck 'tablet announcement' in the URL as it may not be one but oh well)

I've yet to hear of any livestream unfortunately, 10 minutes left though.

 

Neowin's blog has started already, looks like a very nice day

http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-mystery-event-unveiled

 

Let's see what is the hype about.

 

Impressive...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpzu3HM2CIo&hd=1

 

'Microsoft Surface' Windows 8/RT tablets announced

Microsoft surface tablet on video, complete with dubstep

 

Indeed. Microsoft has a winner here (Surface)!

 

Hands On: Windows RT Surface

Microsoft Surface RT tablet appears to have 1366x768 display

Microsoft Surface for Windows RT features a Nvidia Tegra processor

 

Microsoft announces Type and Touch Covers

 

Let's see how things go. I got the impression that Apple's margins on the iPad are pretty high. If they feel threatened, slashing prices will be good for customers.

 

Sincerely, the latest iPad can't compete with the technology of this "beast" built by Microsoft. Surface is an astonishing device, superior in every way. Compared to it, the iPad looks dated, dumb and extremely fragile. IMO Apple needs to come up with something new and better as soon as possible - but the problem is, Apple already announced their new devices for this year! So, right now, things are starting to smell badly for Apple. The several upcoming models of Windows 8/RT powered devices from other big names of the industry basically won't give the right for Apple to set any price advantage too.

As a side note, take a look at that video made by Microsoft. It's nothing short of amazing. Looks like Microsoft finally has a marketing department that's able to compete with/outperform Apple's. I'm truly impressed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpzu3HM2CIo&hd=1

 

A walk down memory lane: http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...than-reality/2012/06/19/gJQAx2eAnV_story.html

SB looks really tense

 

Are you sure you're seeing the same photo as me? I never saw him so calm and relaxed. Look at his eyes and eyebrows.

He clearly has a winner in his hands.

 

Microsoft has made a few good design decisions towards productivity - the integrated keyboard/touchpad and the built in stand, will really help bridge the gap between current tablets and laptops (esp Ultrabooks), which are still the preference for content creation amongst office workers.

They just need to get these devices to market quick to take advantage of the oppertunity they have to make an impression in the tablet market.

Cheers, Nick

 

True. The kickstand and the Type and Touch Covers are amazing. Other impressive unique aspects are the magnesium case (world's first) which was shown to be very resistant. And the Gorilla Glass! And magnets! And superior technical aspects in every way (especially the Pro version). This is a device I'm really looking forward to buy.

Agreed.

 

I got iPad 2 for my wife and never liked iOS.

While using it( and the iPhone) I always felt myself tied with ropes. I could not even straightaway download and save things via the browser. Android was different in this respect so I liked it( though it,s UI is far less polished than iOS).

Now I think that a windows tablet will be superior to both. Actually I had already planned to get one instead of a new laptop but I was thinking of an Ausus transformer with Windows 8 but now I doubt if Asus can come out with some thing superior to MS Surface.

I am having a close eye on windows phone too. Wish they make windows phone 8 just similar to Windows RT tablets.

I will wish some things to be added though:

- retina display
- thunderbolt ports
- an extremely good battery life( at least identical to iPad or Asus Transformer prime)

My guess is that MS Surface might destroy android tablets very soon and will alsochallenge iPad,s dominance after some time.

Only way for Google to fight it will be to polish Android more and more up to the level of iOS, to support peripherals like printers etc on android tablets and to tightly control android apps to get quality apps in their app market and avoiding crappy apps.

 

Watching this -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCmudUDv3GA-. Pretty impressive.

Edit: "every micron matters" (~ 36:33) should be the pitch!

 

I wish they could kept the Surface pro tablet,s thickness and weight just equal to the ARM one( while making ARM one more lighter and thinner, just like Transformer prime pro or toshiba tablet).

 

I like it.

 

How do you propose they do that when the chipset itself is critically different? It's an x86 tablet not an ARM tablet like the transformer. It will be able to run desktop apps like games, it has to be beefier.

I could see myself replacing my laptop with one when we hear more about pricing and performance. But that's the whole point of the product, to be a laptop and a tablet.

 

A side issue was the fluency of the three speakers. No irritating humming and hawing and searching for words. The guy who moderated the Linus session (-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MShbP3OpASA&feature=relmfu-) was quite irritating even though he had notes!

 

They look interesting but it's way too early to tell, especially since no one outside of Microsoft was able to use a working version (i.e., from the comments I read, the people who attended the event were not able to use a working version, keyboard, get that close to working models, etc.).

Anyway, since this is a security forum, my question is will we need/have to run anti-malware software on these devices?

 

They were able to use working versions. And the native OS is Windows 8/RT which comes with an improved version of Windows Defender with full anti-malware capabilities (= Microsoft Security Essentials) and other security improvements like system-wide SmartScreen.

 

hopefully for Microsoft that new tablet thingie fares better than their ill fated attempt with the Touch Mouse for Windows 7.

 

It's getting a mixed reception, given that so much is still unknown:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/19/microsoft_surface_tablet1/
http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti..._worst_enemy_in_bold_tablet_move_says_analyst