WrkInProgress

In what way is the Surface RT more comparable to the iPad 2 and not the iPad 3.

The new iPad has a Retina display but beyond that ? (I'm talking about hardware)

You can't even buy an iPad 2 with more than 16GB anymore.

It will not run Windows Desktop Apps.

What you are looking for is Surface Pro which will be available in a few months. Or you could buy any one of the Windows 8 (not Windows RT) convertible tablets/hybrids that will be available from the likes of Lenovo, HP, Acer, Asus, Samsung, etc after Windows 8 launches.

Do you have a source for that ?

For some reason I find that hard to believe: that the most expensive iPad is the most popular one as opposed to to the 16 GB WIFI only version.

The Surface Pro may be coming out 3 months later but there will be full fledged Windows 8 devices from other companies in November.

You do realize that Microsoft is going to release exactly that in a little under ten days.

The "desktop" is a tile on the Start Screen.

Great to see a Canadian submission. Very nice design and the product seems to work well.

I really liked the ease of signing up and the friction-less way of adding the subscription.

I notice you are planning on adding other services. I assume those will be standalone products under the monogr.am brand ?

Edit: Never mind, I realized they will additional "plugins".

A quick note, the default page for a new site isn't responsive (not sure if that's be design or ...)

Super interesting. Not sure how this fits with Moo current core business or what their plans for flavors.me is ...

Flavors.me looks like a really well built and designed product but the barrier for entry in this space is practically nill.

Wonder how well they were converting paid users with their freemium model, even though it seems shockingly cheap ($20 a year)

There's no mention of the storage on these Asus tablets.

The article compares to the 16 GB "new iPad" but if it has 32 GB or 64 GB, it's actually priced in line with the respective model on the former and $100 cheaper on the latter.

I was under the impression that Google does have licensing agreements with OEMs, for the use of Google apps like GMail, Maps, Navigation, Play Store, etc.

I'm sure it's not $85 per device for the license but the point still remains.

How is Surface any different than Google`s Nexus line .....

Aren't you essentially describing the Nexus line of devices, minus the the tad unrealistic 5 years of software updates ?

I think there are more than enough Android phones out there.

You might have a point on tablets, but while Android tablets aren't even close to the iPad in terms of success, they still sell several million of them.

A quick critique on the video.

1.) The screenshot of the prolifi.cc landing page has the large black coming soon banner.

2.) At the point where you show the creation of a blog post, I think the left pane with all the markdown instructions is so visually distracting. Perhaps the video can just focus only the right pane...

I really liked the fact that you stated "you don't have a blog and you don't need one.." I think that really reinforces the concept and value of your product.

Just my $0.02.

Well, you will have the option to keep the original size "live tiles".

I do agree that many of the examples of the new home screen, looked quite the mess.

And the quarter before that ... the entertainment & devices division made $528 million.

Here are the last six quarters prior to Q3 2012, all profitable

http://betanews.com/2011/10/20/microsoft-q1-2012-by-the-numb...

http://betanews.com/2011/07/21/microsoft-q4-2011-by-the-numb...

http://betanews.com/2011/04/28/microsoft-q3-2011-by-the-numb...

http://betanews.com/2011/01/27/microsoft-q2-2011-by-the-numb...

http://betanews.com/2010/10/28/microsoft-q1-2011-by-the-numb...

Whenever MS does one of these presentations, they always seem to get 90% of the way there in terms of polish, focus and message.

Why are they even bothering with branding "Windows Phone 7.8" ?

They should have just named the update "Windows Phone 8 Legacy" and the actual WP 8, "Windows Phone 8".

Did they mention if Windows Phone 8 apps can run on Windows Phone 7 ?

I know they mentioned that the opposite is possible ....

They are bringing some features from WP8 to current devices (at least it seems so), like the new start screen, etc.

So besides support for NFC, dual core, new resolutions - it appears that most of the software based updates are coming to current devices in the form of WP 7.8

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/20/3096945/windows-phone-7-8-...

I should have read the article completely first.

I was thrown off by the comparison to iMessage in the article title.

WhatsApp is also based on your phone number and it works across all major mobile platforms (iOS, Android, WP, BB)

Maybe this is just a teaser video. It certainly seems that way. They are revealing the product right now .....

Look at the video they have for the consumer preview of Windows 8 ... it's more in the vein of what you are talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM5pFkNQ7no&feature=plcp

It's something like 9 mm "thick" for the Windows RT version.

It is atrocious. When you move the images "inline", they end up being 100 px by 100 px thumbnails.

The Verge liveblog is much better: http://live.theverge.com/microsoft-live-blog-tablet-announce...

Some of the ideas behind passport are available in other apps or on other platforms. Windows Phone 7.5 has something very similar for boarding passes/departure information via live tiles.

The downsides to the Windows Phone approach is that it's for specific apps and specific airlines.

What do you mean by "Android apps can't easily fill that space, because they'll all have different standards." ?

Passport looks very similar to part of the features already available in things like Google Wallet and Square's Card Case.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this doesn't have the potential to be great for Apple, iPhone users, retailers, and iOS app developers ....

Here's an official video/ad that highlights some of the ways people will use Windows 8 in Microsoft's eyes.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/release-preview

At first glance, that number across as absurdly high but they do mention "covers content created for the site".

It could very well include the cost of creation of video content, contest giveaways, promotional prizes and such.

Once you add all that all up, $30 million doesn't seem as far fetched .....

It's something they borrowed from Windows Phone 7, which has allowed you instant access to the camera (albeit via a mandated hardware button) while the phone is locked.

Not be to a debbie downer but isn't this a solved problem on certain smartphone platforms ?

I can't speak on iOS (which is what they seem to be targeting at least initially. Based on the picture of the iPhone on the splash page, along with mention of Instagram) because I haven't used an iPhone daily since the 3GS.

I used to use an Android device, but now use a Windows Phone and a lot of this stuff is automatically integrated into the default contact application in Windows Phone. Information can be pulled from Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Gmail, Outlook, and Windows Live. It also shows my history interaction with a contact (MSN messages, phone calls, e-mails, facebook chat, text messages, etc).

I seem to recall that on certain android devices (i.e. those HTC sense and Moto Blur) similar options were available. I know vanilla Android had some decent integration with facebook with Froyo.

Heck, even my mom's blackberry running OS6 has quite a few of these features (social network integration, history, etc).

Am I missing something here ?

Here's another Canuck who can't wait for this to come to Canada.

It looks promising, although for a SaaS startup, once you add a recurring billing provider like Recurly, it can be pricing for under $20 per month apps.

A quick note, the 8 minute tour from here https://samurai.feefighters.com/developers

.. links to a youtube samurai movie clip via the image link and the 5 minute rails demo from the text link.

I was under the impression that you can't have a clickable link in a post submission (or maybe a specific type of submission).

You have to rely on someone posting a reply with a clickable link (most Show HN:'s have this format).

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To the OP, I took the survey. All the best.