Alright, Microsoft: we take it all back. It was wrong, just wrong of us to impugn your promotional filmmaking skills. That
Bruce Springsteen parody? Spot on.
Awkward Vegas flirtations? True pathos. And now, to promote the launch of your latest version of the Surface table for Sheraton Hotels, you've crafted the touching story of a curious kid, a smug photo-twirler, her tardy date and a loving asian family. We don't want to spoil anything, but complications ensue, folks, and this is one nail-biter worthy of a sequel. Do they all end up going to dinner together? Or are they destined to troll Craigslist that evening, seeking their missed connection...
You: Cute family.
Me: Sultry Surface spokeswoman.
My date was a disaster, and now I'm all alone for the weekend, let me teach you how to pair your phones with the table over Bluetooth, and then we can all go get ice cream together!
Heartbreaking, simply heartbreaking. Video is after the break.
posted August 12th 2008 9:29PM
Wow, all I seem to feel from engadget now is "Snarkity, snark, snark." This is like a fountain or a weekend show. It doesn't need to really do anything, just look cool and attract customers. If it does do anything useful, then that's a plus.
Same here. It seems like the majority of articles now are extremely snarky or incredibly jaded. Then occasionally Ryan Block pops up and denies that Engadget is biased before mentioning the iPhone in a completely unrelated article.
Actually, when I walk into my local shopping mall the already have a touch LCD screen that does much of this. Tap on the screen to find a shop, get a map to show you where to walk...
It's not multi-touch, and it is a single purpose application rather than a bunch of stuff as we see in the video, but the tech is already sort of out there and being used.
one of the malls i go to, Westfield SF, has one of those and it is quite useful if u don't kno the layout of the mall, which is huge and semi-complicated.
Tracking blobs is a much more difficult and interesting task than a single point on a resistive display.
You get a lot more flexibility and complexity (and processing power) in this kind of setup. The technology itself doesn't even remotely resemble the old style touchscreens. Most of that software just uses a single point touchscreen is just regular software and the touchscreen simply emulates a mouse. Surface doesn't do anything like that.
your avatar should be aimed at Steffen Jobbs
Instead of waiting for the kids to stop playing with the zoom feature I think I'll just do all of this on my iPhone, like I've been doing for a year.
you do that, and hopefully u wont be charged to update ur software in the future =D
its just an extremely large windows version of the iphone/ipod touch.
It lacks an app store though.
.. that multiple people can use simultaneously.
As said before This is something Microsoft has been working on for years. I like apple a lot but just because Microsoft came up with it doesn't mean it blows.
What's the added value? Don't people have all those things not already in their pocket? I can see those things end up in casino's but at a sheraton being nothing less than a computer with very limited tools??
I'm guessing its for people who
a)don't have an iPhone
b)dont' have an iPod touch
c)dont' have a laptop
*shrug
So, what you're saying "mike"... is homeless people? What person who stays at a any hotel doesn't have at least a laptop or some way to browse the web? What "business traveler" isn't going to have a company laptop that they will communicate with their associates to coordinate meetings, etc.
As far as I can tell, Surface is turning into the fork at the side of your cereal bowl:
It's fun to look at
It has sharp edges and pointy things on it
...and when it all boils down, it's just about as useful.
That looks like a pretty cool device in theory. Not sure if I'd want some family-type strangers sitting down while I was trying to go through some porn collection, though. I'd have to tell them to beat it and wait until I'm finished. I really don't like people peering over my shoulder when I'm trying to concentrate.
It seems it might be good for team collaboration while working on a group project. I'm not a team player so I'd pass on using the Surface. It might also be nice for a musician or video editor. They'd have a lot of space to set up digital tools and stuff. I guess it has an onscreen touch keyboard to input info into documents. They always just show people moving stuff around. It would leave a heck of a mess when it crashes unless it remembered all the open documents and their positions.
I can't blame MS for trying, but to me it appears no better than HPs TouchScreen Personal computers. Unfortunately, I don't really spend all that much time just moving lots of open files around. I don't multi-task all that much.
Ok, I was attracted into an ATT store the other day by a Surface banner on the outside of the store. I had previous knowledge to this technology and was very excited to come in and use it. The guy said this was one of the only stores that was using it, it was kind of like a test run. Guess what? They were buggy as hell. One of the cool things he said it could do was you could drop two phones onto the device and it would compare the specs.. It didn't work well at ALL. I was very disappointed. The quality of the screen was reasonable AT BEST......
Hopefully they do a better job here.
I have to hand it to Microsoft. They've made something that I truly want to use and have some time with. I hope it makes its way to other businesses too.
YARANAIKA
Cool! Next time I'm in San Francisco, I'll have to check it out.
What would be the killer app for this thing?
I can't get that interested in anything there except the hardware.
List of NOT exciting elements that will be there at the Sheraton...
-Postcard images of the area (Sheraton snapshots)
-Sony playlist (DRM music store?)
-List of local corporate Disneyland crizzap and restaurants (Concierge)
-Maps (No keyboard so be prepared for some serious 'exploration')
-Kids
Wait until the first victim accidentally pairs it up and brings up all those party pics from the "Pizza and Hookers" social after the big halfwit tech conference the night before. Oh the lawsuits!
I THINK THIS VIDEO NEEDS MORE ETHNIC GROUPS.
oh wait.
Are you saying we need fewer ethnicities? That's racist.
I THINK THIS VIDEO NEEDS MORE PARAPLEGIC PEOPLE.
oh wait.
The right answer is "troll Craigslist". The right answer is always "troll Craigslist".
And yes, I know they meant "look through Craigslist", but I didn't.
:)now imagine the desk and all virtual objects to be real ones and then you go wow that`s so amaazing.. and so cheap on electricity! welcome to wonderland! what a comedy, non?
till you try to stretch the pictures.
The dad is the same guy from the Media Center intro video with the other couples playing pool...he's been cheating on his wife! Unless it's the same girl, can't remember. ;)
wow, u have an amazing memory...or a crush...OMG!
Video stops after 5 seconds for me...anyone else have this problem?
I'm not very familiar with Live Maps as I barely use them, but the maps feature on the Surface looked a strange lot like Google Maps. I think =P.
Looks like Live Maps to me. How many different ways are there to do a maps interface? You got streets, you got labels, you got a path for directions. Those streets don't rearrange themselves!
PS-
I've been pleasantly surprised by Live Maps. It surpasses Google Maps in my opinion. You should check it out if you use maps often enough to be familiar with Google Maps.
Like Miguel, I've too been really please with Live Maps. Does Google Maps have:
- birds-eye view of major areas?
- 3D earth within a browser?
- building in 3D and COLOR
- explorer other user collection by zooming and panning around?
- allow you to change colors of lines and area? Or even types of lines?
- make a collection without making a Google Account?
That's just some of it. Live Maps also did a few firsts, that I noticed nobody even mention, like traffic data, making a collection of points, and even closing the darn large left pane. I also like the look and style of Live Maps more. If only they put in some more features...
People ought to check out Live Maps. It's one of Microsoft's better internet services. Too bad it's always going to be Google this, and Google that.
ok engadget, i could deal with your mindless readers bashing all non apple products in their comments, but now that the articles are so clearly biased against any thing that isn't apple related i think i'm done reading off this site. its really unfortunate that such a good site had to go down the tubes to support inferior products to gain readers.
I have to agree with Device.
The video is a bit cheesy, but so are all those Apple videos. Mac/Apple guy stopped being clever the third time around.
But sometimes the articles on Engadet are so Apple biased it is discouraging and makes me wonder if this is a place to really check for good gadget news. I would like to see more neutral reporting.
And I am not anti Apple either. I just don't care to hear about so many Apple updates (isn't that what tuaw is for?) yet no one reports on major Window's or Linux updates here.
Surface looks pretty darn cool. I think it is more than just novel and I KNOW that Apple will have their version of it soon too. The fact is, when the technology comes to, say, put surface on the door of your refrigerator... it's going to be there. I would totally dig that. Actually there are lots of surfaces in my home I would love this type of interface on with the addition of all the new networking and communication ideas I have heard with Surface's future.
The only difference is when Apple announces theirs, Engadget will cover every last little news story in huge detail. We will get reports on it every 15 minutes. And even when it fails to match what Surface already has been delivering, it will be hailed as the best thing in the world.
I say this being a PC and Mac user and a proud owner of an iPhone. The iPhone is a great example... Microsoft, Apple.. they both produce bling I want that when I get it, it runs like crap anyway. But I spent the damn money so I might as well defend it eh? So I love my iPhone, even when the battery dies in less than a day of heavy use and my 3G reception sucks and my old smartphone truly has more features, which I pretend not to miss cause I like the shiny new interface.
And isn't that what surface is? Just a shiny new interface?
Oh puhlease. Anti Apple bashers are everywhere. Where have you been looking?
http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/07/iphone-hacker-says-the-device-calls-home-to-apple-allows-apps/
Cool, it's a map of downtown Seattle. I wonder if this was shot in the Seattle Sheraton?
(*is from Seattle*)
I think it would be lot better if they showed it with Google Earth or something like that 'cause zooming the images is no big deal I mean u dont buy a new system to just see the images in a more detailed way ! Hope its not just a touch surface .
@ Brian!
U r so true . This site is all about Apple . Did u ever find them talking against an Apple-made gadget ? and they dont feel ashamed of it!
So how much did MSFT shell out to place these in the hotels? According to Ballmer they've been flogging this horse for seven frikkin' years, and all they have to show for the time and effort is a few prototypes in an upscale hotel lobby? As a MSFT shareholder I'm embarrassed at how much money has been wasted on Surface. Some heads need to roll over in R&D.
The production values in this promo piece are lame and totally'90s. You'd think they could hire someone better than the 4-man shop next to the dry cleaner to do this kind of work.
Ben Folds Live ftw.
Wherever the big-ass table surfaces, it brings upon us TOTAL ETHINC DIVERSITY. Never has doing pointless stuff in a messy manner brought people together more effectively. Nevertheless, I second the notion that certain groups are not properly represented. They should add a very obviously French Canadian female to cover lots of ground in one go. While the kid could get another opportunity to display bottom-wetting excitement clapping like a holluschick, she would elegantly flip over a video of say... dancing people in India (the pretty & colorful kind, not those appalling poor folks) that everyone, including a very Middle Eastern passerby, ooh-aahs about.
In the end, the only question remaining is whether MS Surface is dolphin friendly.
Yes, I've seen that misspelled ETHNIC too.
As has already been implied elsewhere in the user comments this just looks like a blown up iphone, once again it seems apple have beaten Microsoft in launching something that is truly user friendly and a whole lot more private than a table in a hotel lobby!
Sheraton (hotels in general) could just launch an application for the iphone that acts as a concierge service - now that would be a truly cool way of doing it!
Viva la Apple revolution!
this is an old commercial. saw it a while ago. man engadget is slow
but i still love them
You sure they are really using the Microsoft surface tables? Or is this just an advertisement? Anyhow, this is seriously cool, as it does fit into the high class image the hotel is trying to project :)
Visit and read my blog at http://drett.com where I write about how I make money online.
True.
But I bet they still charge for wifi.
Damn them.
YAY HAPPY BUNNIES EVERYWHERE!!!
I LOVE YOU MICROSOFT YOU LYING CHEATING STEALING GREEDY JERK WHO IS TOO IGNORANT TO MAKE GOOD SOFTWARE!
Misplaced your meds, huh?
I'm waiting for a new parody like this one from the original video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY
I do think it looks cool though. I just thought, what kind of restaurant or bar would have these as their tables? Food, drink, heaven forbid vomit all over them? Im not sure id want to touch them. The potential for drinking games is awesome though.