The last we heard about a consumer-oriented version of Microsoft
Surface, Steve Ballmer was saying that the company was trying to
get it out ASAP -- which is apparently three years, we've just learned. That's the word from Tom Gibbons, the MS VP in charge of Specialized Devices and Applications, who says Microsoft can "absolutely see how" to get Surface to consumers by 2011, but that it'll try to beat that deadline if possible. Of course, the $10,000 commercial version of Surface still hasn't been released to high-profile customers like T-Mobile and Harrah's, although it's starting to make
semi-random promo appearances here and there. Still, though, 2011? We're getting pretty sick of old-school
Hungry Hungry Hippos here, people -- let's make this happen.
posted Mar 27th 2008 10:29PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY
I still think Surface isn't a consumer product when people can just use a regular computer that costs much less
Spending that kind of money, that credit card will no longer show up as "PAY $22.86".
I doubt that the end-product for Surface will just simply be what we've already seen in the videos.
I think the videos were more to show the cool things that Surface can do, rather than some of the more important and practical things that people could already ordinarily do with their desktops.
I'm guess what's coming in 2011 will be more of a "real" considerable desktop replacement. Where the OS, actually functions fully like a real computer OS, though with the neat Surface-style effects. I can't wait to see what comes up.
$22.86 would be one day of interest.
I, and the rest of America, couldn't care less about Microsoft Surface. They should spend more time making the rest of their junk work properly
Thats funny, I care about Microsoft Surface. By "rest Of America", you must mean the other people that don't care about it. I didn't know that 301,139,946 people all shared the same opinion as you. That's Amazing!
As they say in Sin City,
Yeesh
You should purchase your avatar a lap-dance; I'm sure he'd appreciate the attention.
lol nice
I and the rest of Canada don't care about surface.
And I know the rest of Canada is with me that MS should invest on android chicks, the goverment of Canada allows us to marry android chicks, have extra marital affairs with other married android chicks and be able to divorce android chicks so I can run away with newer hotter android chicks...yeah, Canada is with me on this one.
I am Canadian and I do not approve of roach's message.
Does any one else think this looks like the reactable? The ring control...
Why do companies have to announce big projects years before they're released? They seem to try and build a huge hype to a product, and by the time it comes out no one really cares anymore.
Example, when Spore was announced 3 years ago. Everyone I knew couldn't wait for the game, they thought it was amazing and revolutionary, and now, as the game nears release, no one really cares. There isn't much hype at all, and people are going to wait to see what others think about it before buying it instead of just rushing to stores in a frenzy.
Daikatana anyone?
or... Duke Nukem Forever...
Hell, by *2011* we'll all be disembodied brains, blissfully bobbing in Matrixesque jars, hugely enjoying direct-to-net connections with our pulsating primal pleasure centers and, well--in no need of yesteryear 'touch' GUI's...
By 2015, I will have invented the immortality potion, the cure for HIV/AIDS, AND teleportation. Hold your breath everybody!
If we are all disembodied brains, how will we sex robots?
"How will we sex robots?"
Easy, the ones with the boobs are females.
@abuzar
hopefully...
So it's going to run Windows 7 then? :P
you know the people who use this table are rich by the fact that they tip 29%.well , i guess rich people are the only ones that can afford a giant table computer.
I am far, far from rich and I will usually tip 21-22% or more sometimes. 29% would probably be appropriate for an actually nice place.
Um, really?? You tip that much on a regular basis? I thought 15% was pretty standard and 20% was for exceptional service. If you are going to a fancy restaurant, the server is already getting a higher tip because it's 20% on a much bigger bill.
Seems like America is moving towards more and more tipping which just causes restaurants to pay less and less, which doesn't seem wise to me, and really pisses off the Europeans who come over here and aren't used to much tipping at all.
microsoft needs to make their money in 2011, because we all know the world will end in 2012, as predicted by nostrodamus and some calendar in a south american jungle.
The Mayans or the Aztecs, and they had better have been wrong, that'd be my senior year in college.
o.O me too :D and I think we should have little to fear ;)
Exactly, I'm not fearing the end. I got this poster to calm me down...
http://flyangler.ca/forum/uploads/monthly_05_2007/post-65-1178829852.jpg
wow. Microsoft taking a long time to get a product out? Amazing? Certainly it will freeze when you try to use it also!
The Little League Coach
http://thelittleleaguecoach.com
lol I appreciate that, even though you missed and stuck it under some other dude's threshold. I'm hopin for a scholarship
If it's the end of the world, you can just party your whole senior year. Toga, toga. And just think, you won't have to pay back any of your student loans if society collapses and the world is consumed alternately by fire and floods. There's a good side to the end of the world if you look at the bright side.
Am I the only one who just doesn't care about this. Aside from kiosks and industrial uses I don't see them being a big hit.
I'm personally looking forward to seeing these in bars and restaurants.
Star Wars cantina scene, anyone?
exactly!
in 2011, more people will be eating at home...
I'm not paying 29% Tip for rancid undercooked meat!
I'll need that $22.86 to pay for the gallon of gas that it took me to get to there!
Where is my solar powered car Engadget?
I realized a while ago that Surface's major feature -- seamless synchronization of devices -- is brought no closer here than it currently is, and in fact becomes a more convoluted. Current technologies, implemented correctly, allow me to walk into my house, turn on a phone / camera / pda, and have that device instantly communicate with the come base computer, retrieiving information to connect with it remotely, making sure data between the two is all up to date... all without me needing to touch a single button. Most importantly, this can be done without even thinking about the process, or putting a device on top of a big ass table. It can simply work, simply by recognizing trusted devices and working wirelessly from there.
It's quite magical, actually.
With that in mind, Surface's biggest goody is a waste of time. The natural interface stuff is neat, but coming in at just the same time as some other neat natural interface stuff that is considerably less expensive...
In 2011 we'll be able to take out a 10k credit card to buy one of these so we can pay off our 10k+ in debt. We'll call it Capitalism.
But thats already been taken...
http://www.marcofolio.net/images/stories/fun/imagedump/demotivational_posters/homeless.jpg
your all ms haters. it is a very interesting and advanced hardware/software interaction. even if you aren't going to buy it, its a step in the right direction for technology like this. its being looked forward to by a lot of people, myself included.
Interesting, yes. Useful, no. At least in a home environment. Without an RFID chip in the credit card, this will not work for paying a bill at a restaurant or shopping online. Being a flat, hard surface, this will not work well for continuous keyboard input. Try tapping on a hard table with your fingers for a good while and you'll see what I mean.
So, how exactly are you looking forward to this? What application do you see for this in the home environment? Do you think people will actually spend several grand to bring in this large piece of equipment/furniture into their homes to resize photos on?
they should figure out a way to make cheaper products bearing the economic crisis in the US rather than figure out how to make it easier to spend money, since no one will have any in the near future.
goddamn bush.
Yeah, I have a response, "Uh, WHAT???"
fail
{{ collective yawn from consumerdom }}
By 2011, this thing will cost $15,000.
That's over $9000, correct?
Adjusted for future inflation.
Actually on sale this week for $8995...
Fail.
t('_'t)
It's probable that this will seem like old tech by 2011. Anyway, Mr. Picklesworth above said it all.
That's one heck of an expensive coffee table.
i'd like to see what apple does when it gets its hands on this technology...
like an iphone, bigger!
*macbook touch, anyone?*
do we speak here about future problems? I rather would be busy solving our problems to get at all to this future. But nevertheless I like to have future news too!
Look, you can all tell me if I'm wrong, but would it really be that difficult for me to make something like this on my own? I certainly don't think it would cost me 10,000 dollars! I just don't like feeling as if Microsoft is holding this great tech over my head and telling me that "one day it'll be ubiquitous and cheap but for right now you'll just have to drool." (my words not theirs) I suppose it's like when a guy wants a really fast sports car but doesn't feel like paying a 100k for a great car, so he just builds it himself for less and it's faster.
I've actually played with Surface (Microsoft Building 19 has one), but it's definitely not ready for prime time.
I got a chance to finally play with one of these recently. These tables are really not all that. Infact the touch at times can be not as responsive as you would like (definitely not iphone responsive)..it's an ok idea ..but after having a full hour to play with it and the photo, video, map, and game apps they had on the table...just felt like a big gimic. This has a very niche uses that are actually useful outside of standard ways today (the idea of paying on the table is cool, though I'm doubtful anyone is really going to do it with this).
I wouldn't put one in my home..really they need to switch from a projector and move to an LCD screen...the contrast was not the greatest.
too bad this is just an extremely poor copy of the iphone. yes that's right, $urface does nothing that the iphone can't, and the iphone won't be made my micro$haft so it isn't morally wrong to use it.
Yeah, not like you're comparing two completely differ-
oh wait.
Hate, hate, and more hate. Why must there be people like this in our world?
Surface, a poor copy? Are you kidding? One thing, one's suppose to be a whole computer desktop-like table, the other is for mobility. And Surface was started in 2001. What year was the iPhone being developed?
So can the iPhone use WiFi to pull photos or music out of devices? Get multi-touch from many sources of input besides fingers? Can the iPhone work with multi-users, or just one per person?
Oh, and putting the $ sign in Microsoft shows how childish you are. Isn't it amazing that MS is actually a company, and that all companies make profits, no matter what? And if it's morally wrong to use MS stuff, then I guess I could say the same for all the other tech companies out there. So if you're suggesting to go tech-free, then maybe it's best for you.
im pretty sure you cant physically place objects on the iPhone and have it recognize it and be able to upload/download information from it. you should probably learn about the stuff your trashing before you do it. the only common factor in surface and the iPhone is multitouch, which apple didn't invent either.
I never knew the surface was started back in 2001 - what the hell have they been doing for all these years, Microsoft really need to pull their fingers out lol :D
I think the surface has some good points like how it integrates with other devices and the touch capabilities, but i can't see people needing/wanting a device like this for some years to come. It's simply not affordable or desirable to have a huge table computer i think :)
And "a poster" your comment couldn't have sounded any more fanboyish if you tried XD
@Quikboy
except Surface isn't real, right now it's just a big ass table that can pull $#!%.
It's really fascinating to watch this troll just devour you guys.
I really can't wait to see what that would look like. Certainly it wouldn't be the "exact" same Surface in the videos they've post (web browsing, Office programs, etc.?), but I would love to see a "real" desktop OS, done Surface-style.
Hopefully there won't be mess ups or anything. Though if MS is making their own hardware, maybe the experience will be better and easier for MS to handle.
Though I really hope they could make a thinner, smaller, and maybe portable version worth going for. I don't like the idea of buying a whole table.
Top Ten Proposed prototype's code names:
10. "MegaZune Touch™"
9. "T-Cubed--The Table Thingy™"
8. "Minority Report--Millenium Edition™"
7. "Bloated Rodent Input-a-tron"
6. "Plane Crazy"
5. "Wacom 2011"
4. .....
3. .....
2. .....
1. .....
Um, are you in late 90's? Not to say MS never had crappy long ridiculous product names, but aren't those days kind of over? It used to be a funny joke, but I don't think it's very current to talk about ancient history, do you?
Um, are you in late 90's? Not to say MS never had crappy long ridiculous product names, but aren't those days kind of over? It used to be a funny joke, but I don't think it's very current to talk about ancient history, do you?
Oh wait, stupid question, brain sex of course.
So everyone seems to be knocking this thing.
Personally, I think it's very cool.
I would love this build into my kitchen bench.
Give it a hard surface to protect it.
While I'm making dinner, bring up recipes, my schedule for the day, play a TV show, chat with someone... flicking things around like on my iPod Touch. Who cares if Apple did it first. It's a good UI. If MS steals the idea and does it well, then great.
Flush mount a touchscreen laptop into your kitchen counter then. Why wait?
I can't wait for the day that my computer is a big ass table.
I got to use it at MIX08 in Vegas. I was trying to think of the little guy, the developers who'd have to implement this in order to make it widespread. For those who don't know, it is a cabinet that uses a projector, an infrared camera and frosted glass. It figured out what the items were (setting the cell phone or credit card down) by little dominoes-style stickers. I can't think of a single way to get it to work on a massive scale without configuring the surface each time.
I DID like how it used new WPF physics / shader programming model to make realistic water. You didn't have to touch the glass, you could get close to it and the IR cam would sense your hand being close enough and it would ever so slightly affect it.
Very cool shit. I want to develop on it bad.
Uh oh, it looks awesome. Better start finding ways to make fun of it.
It does look like it can do some cool stuff.
i can see in a short time apple will
make a smaller white surface table
with rounded edges....!
and it will be a revolution in
touch and wifi technology
and all the haters here will
say thats a new thing!!
not true, I hate Microsoft and Apple equally!!
let the battle of hand-greased screens -- BEGIN! :)
{maybe if we all drink screen cleaner, then our graceful sweaty touches might clean the screens?}
[WARNING: DON'T ACTUALLY DRINK SCREEN CLEANER]
and hate is such a strong word, more like derision. :)
@ CosterMonger mate
shut it your patter is pish!!!
look man i come on this site
to check new stuff thats out and...
people like you think your funny......
talkin gibberish blah blah blah..
about this and that.!!
you all sound like retards man
wingin about who did this and
what it does for you and others!!!!!
as if your sum sort of better
person than the rest...!!
i just laugh sumtimes wen
you lot rant on about shit!!
what a bunch of geeky virgin pricks..!
git it up yaes..!
"geeky virgin pricks..!"
starters, you reading and summiting on the comments...
whom are these "geeky virgin pricks" you type of, could it be yourself that you are referring to?
Trust me, longhorn is funny when you are in 9th grade, and it is told to you by a mate whose dad works for MS.
Yeah, seems pretty sad looking back.
(that was supposed to be in response to quikboy's reply, but obviously that didn't work so well)
so in 2011 Microsoft has finally stopped trying to lease their software,
you'll have get a "Surface" loan.
So.. I'll be able to pay for my pizza and Pac-Man game at the same time? And,where do the quarters go, banks won't give me "credit"
There is a prototype Surface unit in the recruiting building at MS, building 19.
I should clarify: it's in the lobby, so you can just walk in and check it out if you want, no badge required.
It will be available to play with at 6 AT&T stores next Wednesday. Sanfran, San Antonio, New york, and 3 others. How funny will that be to demo the I-Phone on the MS Surface?...8)
That don't sound like a bad device but a hefty price tag like that, I wouldn't buy it. I really don't think it has much to offer (could be wrong) but someone don't just fork out cash like that.
Just add the "Call Manager" button for when the waitress was a bitch and I am all for it.
yeah like...
thats funny......
erm
no....
dear engadget users: AS SOMEONE WHO HAS ACTUALLY USED SURFACE, allow me to put my 2 cents in.
i too was skeptical. but let me assure you this device is so freakin' revolutionary it's beyond description. seeing as how desktops are being phased out ( in lieu of powerful laptops and mobile devices ), this is beyond question the future of stationary computing.
the UI has a really awesome physics model where if you have an object and you touch it on its edge, it will move, and also very slightly rotate as well. you can flick things across. you can grab and stretch and zoom and move. the coolest application of this is the Maps application, as well as the photos and videos browser.
my other favorite part is the many group-based, team-based touch games that you play by touching areas of the screen. the lightbug game is simply amazing.
to me, there is no question that this is going to be the centerpiece of future livingrooms.
whoever said this is a glorified iphone has it backwards. actually surface has been in development since 2001, and theorized and described by microsoft research internally in the mid 90's. when Minority Report had that interface in it, it was actually based on surface prototypes and was designed with heavy consultation from microsoft. the reason it's taking so long is a. little bit of bureaucracy and b. a lot of hardware limitations that are just now being resolved.
it is not simply an LCD, it's a projector that projects from underneath on a special infrared-sensitive plastic material. that's how the multi-touch works; it senses heat. if you lay your whole palm down, that will be one big touch point. if you lay just one finger, that will be one tiny touch point. oh also, this thing uses some really intense graphics processing to render so many videos and 3d elements at such a high-res that smooth operation was just not available until very recently.
p.s. they also have a piano application - that needs some work :) it's not responsive enough.
so how does this thing know what drink you put on it? or a plastic credit card for that matter
The software and hardware is already available, and if you don't/can't build your own, you can request a system to be built.
If you're waiting for the surface to surface, you have a lot more faith than me.
For anyone interested in touch based or light detection based input methodologies, please visit the sites below to get an idea of how much work has already been done.
http://nuigroup.com/touchlib/
http://reactable.iua.upf.edu/?software
Let's not try to push them to go fast when what we want is something that's GOOD.