Microsoft Confirms Four Windows RT Partners

[exfileme]

Windows RT development has been a collective effort despite Microsoft's own secret Surface plans.

Microsoft Confirms Four Windows RT Partners : Read more

 

[belardo]

Yawn if you don't care... fart if you do.

 

[damianrobertjones]

The comment above mine is pointless and I wonder why belardo bothered.

HD video playback: 8 hours to 13 hours of scenario run time
Connected standby: 320 hours to 409 hours of scenario run time

Weight 520g to 1200g
length 263mm to 298mm

Source: wpcentral.com

 

[damianrobertjones]

Whichever Arm device has a stylus will get my money!

 

[AndrewMD]

This is really exciting news. Actually, I use to own an Asus Transformer, however the Android OS was terrible on it so it was returned. Now that Asus will put WinRT on it, this unit should be a hot seller!!

Too bad current Asus Transformer units cannot be flashed to use it...

 

[boiler1990]

Anyone who thought Asus would balk needs to get their head out of the sand. They have one of the best slate/keyboard dock implementations out on the market right now, and it definitely was an inspiration for the Surface concept.

Another interesting concept would be similar to that of Motorola's lapdock strategy. If you could make a Windows Phone device using an Intel SoC and x86, you could run a stripped down version of W8 (x86/x64). Dock that in a lapdock, and you've got a fully-fledged laptop running in your smartphone that is compatible with basically all available software.

The same thing could be done with RT/WP8, but then what's the point if the slates already exist?

The possibilities and concepts are endless. We will have to see what the OEMs come up with

 

[daglesj]

Oh no....no Acer!


Or several other makers of crappy laptops with added bloatware.

 

[jay2tall]

I will be anxious to see what Asus and Samsung bring to the table over the OEM Microsoft Surface. Asus has the slates which are awesome and obviously Samsung has been in the tablet market already. Dell and Lenovo I will be less interested in.

 

[teh_chem]

[citation][nom]damianrobertjones[/nom]The comment above mine is pointless and I wonder why belardo bothered.[/citation]
Meh, most of their posts are drivel anyway.

As long as ASUS isn't supporting the software (or as long as they get extensive support from MS), I'm all for it. They must have the worst android-support team ever. How many times did they break Android in moving from Honeycomb to ICS on their TF's? My TF101 suffered through at least 4 of the updates since Honeycomb until they finally got ICS stable, and it's not like it was a fast process either--literally months of having a quasi-useless tablet that succumbed to screens-of-death, random reboots, and battery-drains galore.

Hmm...no Acer there?

 

[GreaseMonkey_62]

The ASUS version looks a lot like that Transformer with the keyboard dock. If it's the same price I could definitely get on board with that.

 

[teh_chem]

The ASUS version looks a lot like that Transformer with the keyboard dock. If it's the same price I could definitely get on board with that.

I was thinking that. I have a TF101, and was wondering (more like hoping) that they used the same dock connector, and even more wondering (hoping) that the TF101 dock is compatible with the windows tab.

 

[ojas]

Engadget's reporting that the surface RT version will start from $199. Brace yourselves.

http://t.co/IbJn3NbJ

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]john_4[/nom]Liked the Acer Timeline series, no bloatware because the first thing I did after I bought it was wipe Winblows off it and allowed Ubuntu to have the entire drive.[/citation]
So if you think Ubuntu is a good OS, do you think the Surface Pro hardware is sufficiently nice enough to have an overhaul to Linux? Just saying because most of the negative comments about the Surface tend to be about Windows 8 or RT, rather than the actual tablet.

 

[bystander]

[citation][nom]ojas[/nom]Engadget's reporting that the surface RT version will start from $199. Brace yourselves. http://t.co/IbJn3NbJ[/citation]

I think MS might we wise to leave plenty of profit margin on their version, assuming it's well built, so that their partners don't have to struggle to compete price wise. I hope that price doesn't squeeze their partners.

 

[eddieroolz]

I just imagined two people tapping a 11" tablet together, and immediately thought

"dorky".

 

[Guest]

I thought the whole problem of WinRT tablet is what software are you gonna run on it? There is practically no existing application now except those few made by Microsoft.

For Apple, initially they sell a mp3 player, then a phone. And the early adopters are buying the mp3 player or the phone while the app market grows to a suitable size to launch iPad. For Android, it starts off as a phone. What does WinRT have to make it a seller, no matter how good the hardware is?

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]So if you think Ubuntu is a good OS, do you think the Surface Pro hardware is sufficiently nice enough to have an overhaul to Linux? Just saying because most of the negative comments about the Surface tend to be about Windows 8 or RT, rather than the actual tablet.[/citation]

Ubuntu is not an OS. It is a distribution of Linux. Linux is the OS that Ubuntu is built on. Ubuntu is just a collection of software on top of a Linux OS. This is one of the most easily confused aspects of Linux, usually by people who are unfamiliar with it.

 

[teh_chem]

[citation][nom]eddieroolz[/nom]I just imagined two people tapping a 11" tablet together, and immediately thought"dorky".[/citation]
LOL, worse than a nerd high-five. Or better yet, will it become the new nerd high-five!

Yeah, not really getting the need for NFC in a tablet, unless you want to do some neat at-home projects with NFC.

 

[teh_chem]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Ubuntu is not an OS. It is a distribution of Linux. Linux is the OS that Ubuntu is built on. Ubuntu is just a collection of software on top of a Linux OS. This is one of the most easily confused aspects of Linux, usually by people who are unfamiliar with it.[/citation]
Here I am to point out a trivial simplification you stated in order to establish my intelligence and your lack thereof! But what's this?! Oh, wait, the Ubuntu website itself contradicts you: http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
[citation][nom]Ubuntu's website[/nom]the Ubuntu operating system powers millions of desktops, netbooks and servers around the world.[/citation]

You really ought to give the authors of their work a piece of your mind, and tell them that they're lying to everyone and not accurately explaining what their product is. Sounds like they're not familiar with their own work...

 

[alextheblue]

[citation][nom]tabletman[/nom]I thought the whole problem of WinRT tablet is what software are you gonna run on it? There is practically no existing application now except those few made by Microsoft.For Apple, initially they sell a mp3 player, then a phone. And the early adopters are buying the mp3 player or the phone while the app market grows to a suitable size to launch iPad. For Android, it starts off as a phone. What does WinRT have to make it a seller, no matter how good the hardware is?[/citation]Well first off, the built in software and the few apps available for it already handle most of what the average tablet user needs. Power users will want to get an x86 device anyway.

Regarding future app availability, Windows Marketplace is going to end up on a TON of Win8/x86 devices. Many apps on the Marketplace will be available for both WinRT/ARM and Win8/x86 devices. There's a lot of common ground between the two platforms, with the tools/libraries/runtimes/etc devs have access to it isn't hard to do. It won't take long for the Win Marketplace to be packed with apps for WinRT.

On a semi-related note: Valve. Valve is upset because the new Win Marketplace finally gives them some real competition, plus Steam is trying to branch out into non-gaming software. I like Steam, but it took them many agonizing years to craft it from a steaming pile of crap into something decent. Even to this day I have my qualms about Steam. But basically if Valve doesn't like it, well, make a Steam app for WinRT. I'd hit, I mean, run it! For full x86 Windows 8, the existing Steam/Steamworks platform still works fine.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]teh_chem[/nom]Here I am to point out a trivial simplification you stated in order to establish my intelligence and your lack thereof! But what's this?! Oh, wait, the Ubuntu website itself contradicts you: http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntuYou really ought to give the authors of their work a piece of your mind, and tell them that they're lying to everyone and not accurately explaining what their product is. Sounds like they're not familiar with their own work...[/citation]

They can say what they want to. Ubuntu is a derivative of Debian, a distribution of Linux, not a true OS in of itself. Linux itself is an OS and Ubuntu is a whole lot of software and such on top of it. Stating this is not an assault on your intelligence nor evidence of nor against mine, it is simply stating a fact that clears up some confusion and I did not do it with any malicious intent to insult you. This is comparable to how memory manufacturers rarely tell you the actual frequency, but simplify it instead. For example, DDR3-1600 memory is actually not 1600MHz, it is 800MHz memory that can transfer data on both the rising and the falling edge of a clock cycle, yet they call it 1600MHz. That doesn't make them right.

 

[ojas]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]They can say what they want to. Ubuntu is a derivative of Debian, a distribution of Linux, not a true OS in of itself. Linux itself is an OS and Ubuntu is a whole lot of software and such on top of it. Stating this is not an assault on your intelligence nor evidence of nor against mine, it is simply stating a fact that clears up some confusion and I did not do it with any malicious intent to insult you. This is comparable to how memory manufacturers rarely tell you the actual frequency, but simplify it instead. For example, DDR3-1600 memory is actually not 1600MHz, it is 800MHz memory that can transfer data on both the rising and the falling edge of a clock cycle, yet they call it 1600MHz. That doesn't make them right.[/citation]
Hmmm...i think you're probably right. Though i guess that implies that Android is a linux distro too? :O

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]ojas[/nom]Hmmm...i think you're probably right. Though i guess that implies that Android is a linux distro too?[/citation]

Technically, Android is just a Linux base for Java if I remember correctly. Maybe I'm wrong about that one, but I'm fairly sure of its accuracy. However, it could be considered a distro, but I think that it is primarily a java based system and might be arguably called an OS that is virtualized on a Linux distro.