Microsoft has no innovation?
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/projectnatal/
http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/pr/projects.aspx (there are a few gems in there that have yet been "announced")
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/projectnatal/
http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/pr/projects.aspx (there are a few gems in there that have yet been "announced")
All their products constrain, rather than enable me.
Like Picasso said. Good artists borrow, great artists steal.
The Windows 7 Beta seemed pretty good when I used it.
You mean the things like where you could put your credit card down on the table at a restaurant and divide up a bill between people easily, and pay, without involvement from a waiter.
Or the part where you can place phones down on the surface and interact directly with them via the touch screen interface?
What about object recognition that the surface does?
It's not your average touchscreen. It has potential. It's just a damn shame the technology is so damn expensive to gain much traction.
As for Project Natal, I can think of some very good ideas off the top of my head that it can be useful for - not just gaming. It could end up being one of the things that turns the 360 from a gaming console into a central home computing platform and communications tool for you and your family (like was alluded too in one of the advertising videos)
Microsoft attempting to commoditize 3D cameras like they are could make interfaces like you see in minority report a reality much sooner than was previously thought.
How does it do this, and when, and where? Are you sure it's not just some fiction from a demo video?
Or the part where you can place phones down on the surface and interact directly with them via the touch screen interface?
Because it would be easier than interacting with the phones' own touch screens?
What about object recognition that the surface does?
What about it? :)
What is it actually capable of now? If there's no useful concrete application for that feature now, does it even matter?
I've seen a "demo" video from Microsoft with graphical illustrations and animations of things that would be exciting if they were real.
But before those things are actually happening, the video amounts to nothing more than just a video.
I keep getting surprised by the Microsoft-Love that's present even here on HN. It should be painfully obvious to everyone, especially here, that they really don't deserve any admiration as a company.
No, it doesn't matter if their R & D department is tinkering with something interesting. It's what the company does in general that matters.
I saw it in the demo videos, but I thought I should also give real world examples. Quoted from Wikipedia.
"Partner companies use the Surface in their hotels, restaurants, and retail stores. The Surface is used to choose meals at restaurants, plan vacations and spots to visit from the hotel room. Starwood Hotels plan to allow users to drop a credit card on the table to pay for music, books, and other amenities offered at the resort. In AT&T stores, use of the Surface include interactive presentations of plans, coverage, and phone features, in addition to dropping two different phones on the table and having the customer be able to view and compare prices, features, and plans"
From what I saw in the demo video when it first came out, you were able to place the phone down on the screen and do things like access the phone's memory and upload/download media/images by using a simple drag/drop interface with your fingers.
"What is it actually capable of now? If there's no useful concrete application for that feature now, does it even matter?"
"I've seen a "demo" video from Microsoft with graphical illustrations and animations of things that would be exciting if they were real."
Well, it's already in use - in retail stores, doing actual interesting things like I mentioned above.
"I keep getting surprised by the Microsoft-Love that's present even here on HN. It should be painfully obvious to everyone, especially here, that they really don't deserve any admiration as a company."
Actually my position isn't Microsoft love - it's far from it. I'm just trying to provide a counter point to all of the apple-linux fanboyism (for the sake of fanboyism) and MS-hate that's prevalent... especially when MS are are making actual attempts at real innovation coughoperaunitecough, yet people seem to just want to ignore those facts and instead provide biased opinions.
It's all well and good to dislike something, but at least have a good, up to date reason for disliking something. Holding grudges for past slights is never cool.
Disclosure: I'm an Ubuntu Jaunty user.
I'm just trying to provide a counter point to all of the apple-linux fanboyism (for the sake of fanboyism) and MS-hate that's prevalent...
Well, there's a reason why MS-hate is prevalent, but it's not prevalent enough. This seems to be a fairly good chronicle of the reasons why: http://boycottnovell.com/category/deception/
( Yes, I just saw that site today, from a link on HN )
especially when MS are are making actual attempts at real innovation coughoperaunitecough, yet people seem to just want to ignore those facts and instead provide biased opinions.
Opera's hyping of Unite really has been a new low for the company.
But I don't see how acknowledging all the evil MS has done is in any way "ignoring the facts" or "providing biased opinions". I use the word "evil", because despite possibly sounding silly, it's an appropriate word here.
It's all well and good to dislike something, but at least have a good, up to date reason for disliking something. Holding grudges for past slights is never cool.
That's just it. Microsoft's outrageously slimy and evil practises shouldn't become "history" in a week or two.
Those countless past "slights" are perfectly good reasons for disliking, or detesting Microsoft. People just keep forgetting them.
"Partner companies use the Surface in their hotels, restaurants, and retail stores.
I wonder what these partner companies are, and how exactly do they use Surfaces.
"Like this: " ? The Surface is used to choose meals at restaurants
Is it?
You don't need a big-ass tub of a computer for that though. It could be done with a smartphone too. Did I just innovate?
plan vacations and spots to visit from the hotel room.
Would this functionality - eg. planning vacations - somehow be a part of the Surface, or would it just mean using it like a computer (or a smartphone, again)? The idea of a specific Vacation Planner application included in every Surface sounds silly, so it must be the latter.
Starwood Hotels plan to allow users to drop a credit card on the table to pay for music, books, and other amenities offered at the resort.
The operative word here is plan. I plan to sleep with Megan Fox.
How would the Surface use your credit card? Take a picture of it with its magical cameras, decipher the card's number from the picture, and then charge it?
In AT&T stores, use of the Surface include interactive presentations of plans, coverage, and phone features
I bet the AT&T website includes interactive presentations of plans, coverage, and phone features too.
Or again, would every Surface include a specific application for this AT&T -specific functionality? If not, then this is not a feature of the Surface, but just a use case for a computer.
in addition to dropping two different phones on the table and having the customer be able to view and compare prices, features, and plans
Once again, cameras and specific software for the task?
Again, even if pulled off, this wouldn't be more impressive than just using any computer and a website.