Screen Grabs: Microsoft Surface plots out the election on MSNBC

CNN's John King might have that sick multitouch electoral map, but MSNBC's not going down without a fight -- as dozens of you noticed, the network started using a Surface table yesterday as part of its election coverage. NBC News political director Chuck Todd will be the main handsman, using it to map out electoral votes and battleground states at first, but there are some other apps in the pipeline, according to Microsoft. Looks like the multitouch news wars have begun in full swing -- anyone taking bets on when the green screen gets totally replaced in the weather center? Video of Surface in action after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[zomg0t @ Sep 9th 2008 5:46AM]

How many Engadget users do you think will text 622639 (at the end of the video) and ignore the text messages they receive, just for the satisfaction it provides?

[JSM08 @ Sep 9th 2008 5:51AM]

Too bad it will only be used on MSNBC. Only left wing nutcases watch that channel.

[zomg0t @ Sep 9th 2008 6:10AM]

Yeah, but only people with a sense of humor watch FNC at 6:00AM... I love how the two guys that are usually on it hate when the woman tries to make a joke.

[arsonata @ Sep 9th 2008 6:24AM]

Yeah. Who needs this high falutin' multi-touch technology anyway? The real journalists over at Fox News got it right the first time when they demonstrated how Bush was able to beat Gore in 2000 by connecting the splotches on Bill O'Reilly's fat face.

[jakem @ Sep 9th 2008 6:34AM]

I seriously doubt anyone who's really left-wing would watch any network news. In case you hadn't noticed, the Democrats are only left-wing in as much as they are not as right-wing as the Republicans.

[thedesolate1 @ Sep 10th 2008 11:25PM]

We totally have to have this on Fox news then right? -_- because god knows alot of B.S Odee goes on over there... would be perfect.

[Hamidxa @ Sep 9th 2008 5:51AM]

Cool demonstration, especially the changing colors with the bobble heads towards the end.

[az1324 @ Sep 9th 2008 5:58AM]

NOT!

[Peter Kalis @ Sep 9th 2008 6:06AM]

of all the cool people who could use that... they gave it to a news station. i saw this show when i was sitting in my bank's lobby and relized that the -80$ im in debt isnt enought money to buy one of these cool boards.... argghhhh

[DreadConches @ Sep 9th 2008 9:47PM]

Wait, -$80 dollars in debt, does that mean you have $80?
Dollar signs come before the number, cent signs after.

[Stan Winsome @ Sep 9th 2008 6:56AM]

Oh sweet- Ms. Pacman cocktail arcade machine!

[fred @ Sep 9th 2008 7:19AM]

The election coverage from the BBC is still the standard.

I couldn't tell you the difference between the SNP or the Lib Dems, but the graphics they used were reason enough to watch.

[r3loaded @ Sep 9th 2008 7:32AM]

"I couldn't tell you the difference between the SNP or the Lib Dems"

Here's a tip - see the S in SNP? That stands for Scottish. Can you work out the rest for yourself? :P

[Phil @ Sep 9th 2008 8:33AM]

Pah, give me Peter Snow and the BBC News Election Night Swingometer over this any day! :o)

[Bill Kilpatrick @ Sep 10th 2008 10:38AM]

They turned the news into a god damned infomercial for Microsoft Surface. Fail.

[Charles R Hamilton @ Sep 9th 2008 8:46AM]

I'm going to miss Tim Russert and his simple low tech white board. I'm also going to miss the fact that he didn't let his personal politics drive his coverage, unlike Keith and Chris. But I guess I won't have to worry about them, they got fired! (idiots)

[Craig @ Sep 9th 2008 9:39AM]

Don't like Olbermann? There's a whole network for folks like you...it's called Faux, er, Fox News.

[Billy Gun @ Sep 9th 2008 9:01AM]

I want one surface table for my living room ;(

[randy @ Sep 9th 2008 9:14AM]

Great use of the surface. Too bad nobody watches MESSNBC.

Can any of those people standing there fix the aspect ratio on the monitor? It' driving me nuts.

[matt @ Sep 9th 2008 9:31AM]

i love how the aspect ratio is off between the surface monitor and the tv... hahahaha

[Craig @ Sep 9th 2008 9:36AM]

Why isn't Surface natively widescreen? Did they start developing it in the 90s or something and just never bother to adjust its aspect ratio to a more contemporary standard?

[James @ Sep 9th 2008 9:37AM]

I used to work there, and the second guy from the left is a total moron who's probably taking all the credit for getting the Surface into NBC. Noticeably absent is the one woman who probably did the most to get it in there, NBC's News Division VP of IT. Seriously, the guy is VP of digital media - think about that title for a second. The guy reads RSS feeds for a living and bitches up a storm when NewsGator doesn't work - in addition to being extremely rude and pretentious.

I'm not naming names here because I'm not about to get my friends over there in trouble.

[MJJ @ Sep 9th 2008 10:13AM]

"as dozens of you noticed"

The total number of viewers now is into the dozens!

[Cody @ Sep 9th 2008 10:27AM]

Don't get me wrong, I think Surface is a really cool technology and has some real potential but why do they need it at MSNBC?

[Alex Padilla @ Sep 9th 2008 10:35AM]

Why does CNN need a multitouch screen?

[c. thomas @ Sep 9th 2008 10:45AM]

Gears 2 FTW!!

[Heineken77 @ Sep 9th 2008 10:45AM]

Bee Es Oh Dee

[Harley3k @ Sep 9th 2008 12:48PM]

I personally love MSNBC for news. It is the place for politics after all.

That fault aside, I was not at all impressed with the Surface when I saw Chuck Todd using it last night.
It seemed so unnatural for him to be looking down on it. John King's touch screen on CNN seems light years ahead.

The point of the surface is that it can recognize objects being placed upon it. Which doesn't seem useful for what they're using it for...an electoral map. If you don't have that, then it's just a bulky big ass table touch screen.

[Smitty @ Sep 9th 2008 1:43PM]

Who developed to app that's running on the surface?

[SoulSolutions @ Sep 10th 2008 1:16AM]

Vectorform built the app:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=225

Developers interested in Surface it looks like it will be an SDK on top of WPF (windows presentation foundation) so it should be very easy to get into. Great little video of the SDK here:

http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2008/09/09/sufrace-sdk-and-xaml-msnbc.aspx

[directive0 @ Sep 9th 2008 2:41PM]

I'd buy a Surface if it used an LCARS GUI, had a satisfying bleeping interface and talked like Majel Roddenberry.

[KirbyMeister @ Oct 30th 2008 1:35PM]

Unable to comply. A Level 1 Security Clearance is required for that function.

[Ian Page-Echols @ Sep 9th 2008 4:08PM]

The Surface makes no sense for this purpose. What would make far more sense is a normal multitouch screen, where you can interact with the screen, not using a huge hulking computer off to the side.

What makes even more sense? Having somebody offscreen controlling the computer and having the announcer dealing with the story. They aren't supposed to be magicians, they are supposed to be reporters.

[William Cameron @ Sep 10th 2008 2:04PM]

The CNN magic board blows this thing away. No need for stratego game pieces. Plus, the overhead type perspective makes me feel like I a watching a college professor using an overhead projector. CNN's board is much more TV friendly and John King makes this guy look like and idiot.

MSNBC = Left
FAUX = Right
CNN = Middle

[frank guillen @ Oct 30th 2008 11:34AM]

The main problem for MSNBC is that people at CNN knows how to use their screen, it is amazing how they used it for the primaries of both parties, it downloaded information and show numbers in realtime, making things look very interesting, I have watched more than six people using CNN screens to demonstrate political info and none of them have suffered a glitch (something normal in live tv)