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How much would you pay for Microsoft Surface?

Publié: août 14, 2012, 11:42pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

End of summer typically means slower news cycle and with it more ridiculous rumors and positively pathetic punditry than ever. For example, the Apple Fanclub of bloggers and journalists squirms and squeals like a pack of hogs rolling in fresh mud -- they can't get enough of the Samsung trial under way in Northern California. Then there is Microsoft and the mini-revolt over the Surface tablet. Acer whines, Toshiba gives up Windows RT plans and everybody who is no one guesses just how low Microsoft will sell its tablet.

The problem is one of conflicting objectives. Apple's iPad sells faster than bacon cheeseburgers (let's keep to the pig metaphor shall we) during the County Fair. Total shipments topped 85 million in July -- in about 27 months. Today, IHS iSuppli put Apple's second quarter tablet market share at 69.6 percent globally -- that's up 44.1 percent, or 11.5 points, sequentially. Yeah, from 58.1 percent in Q1. (Pop those eyes back your head now.) Meanwhile, Windows starts essentially from zero. Microsoft can't close distance on iPad fast enough, and sure-fire, proven way is offering a compelling alternative for much less.

So Microsoft will make its own tablet, competing with OEM partners. Hence, the conflicting objectives, since the Redmond, Wash.-based company so depends on hardware manufacturers to sell its software. Surface will come in Windows 8 and RT versions, but it's the latter that has some OEMs squealing like pigs in the slaughterhouse. Microsoft is supposed to bring home the bacon not cut up partners for dinner. Pork chops anyone? Microsoft rarely sells any computing device that takes money from OEMs, but Surface RT is sure to do this. By how much is the question.

Google chose a smaller (7-inch display), cheaper strategy ($199), with Nexus 7. Surface RT will be larger, 10.1 inches, and like other media tablets run on ARM-architecture. Pricing is anyone's guest, with $199 among the newer rumors circulating the InterWebs. No wonder Acer pleads for a more reasonable 500 bucks. Trust me, there's no margin for Acer or any other OEM at $199.

Last week, Acer CEO J.T. Wang gave Microsoft a plaintive ultimatum regarding Surface, according to the Financial Times: "We have said think it over. Think twice. It will create a huge negative impact for the ecosystem and other brands may take a negative reaction. It is not something you are good at so please think twice".

But $199 makes loads of sense to me. Microsoft needs to practically give away Surface RT to gain market share fast. iSuppli analyst Rhoda Alexander warns:

With the expected entrance of the 7-inch version of the iPad in September, Apple is sending a clear message that it plans to dominate this market over the long term. Apple’s major media tablet rivals, Google and Microsoft, hope to challenge Apple in the second half of the year, but will be facing formidable headwinds with no sign that the market leader is backing off of its aggressive strategy in the market.

Forgive my skepticism about the oft-rumored 7-inch iPad, but let's hypothetically assume Apple would release such a beast at $199 or $299. Surface will need to offer much more for much less to compete. Apple has got Microsoft's secret weapon to bear on the tablet market, too. Applications, and broad developer support, is foundation for Windows success. iPad, too.

"A major component of Apple’s success to date is the company’s well-developed ecosystem of content and applications it had in place before entering the tablet market, and its absolute control of the hardware, software and operating system,” Alexander says. “When a customer buys a media tablet, what he or she is really doing is purchasing a key to that ecosystem, not just a piece of hardware". She's absolutely right.

Microsoft's tablet is expected around Oct. 26, 2012. How much would you pay to buy entry-level model 32GB Surface RT?

Hence, Microsoft plows into the tablet market with its own end-to-end product, leveraging the existing Windows ecosystem, which actually is weak on tablets and will be until there are more native apps.

So Microsoft needs to give buyers a better reason to buy Surface RT. Lower price is it, baby, even if major OEM chief executes call paramedics after clutching their chests.

I bring the price question to you. What would you pay for Surface RT? Quick specs: 10.6-inch ClearType HD display; 32GB or 64GB storage; microSD, USB 2.0 and Micro HD Video ports; 2x2 MIMO antennae; and Office 2013. Weighs 676 grams and is 9.3 mm thick. How much would such a tablet running Windows be worth to you?

Well, $199 is a no-brainer for me, and I wouldn't think twice about $299 -- that's for the 32GB model. And you? Please respond in comments below and take our poll above.
Toshiba bows out of Windows RT, Microsoft works damage control

Publié: août 14, 2012, 10:55pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Toshiba is the third Microsoft OEM to pass on Windows RT, saying Tuesday that it has cancelled all plans for devices based on the platform for the foreseeable future. The announcement follows the very public comments of Acer CEO JT Wang, whose comments on Surface suggest his company isn't interested either, and a similar move by HP back in June.

"Toshiba has decided not to introduce Windows RT models due to delayed components that would make a timely launch impossible. For the time being, Toshiba will focus on bringing Windows 8 products to market", a company spokesperson tells BetaNews.

Toshiba's announcement timing is interesting considering the comments of Microsoft ecosystem and planning chief Mike Angiulo on Monday. Angiulo tried to calm the nerves of the community, saying the Redmond, Wash. company is doing all it can to work with partners on both Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Microsoft "worked very hard" to Support Partners

"Microsoft has worked very hard with this release to provide the tools and support to contribute to new PCs that are more reliable, faster, use fewer system resources, and have improved software loads than comparable Windows 7 PCs", Angiulo says. He lists Dell, Lenovo and Samsung as ready to produce RT devices.

There are two noticeably missing from that list, Acer and Toshiba. This omission could mean that Microsoft knew about Toshiba's announcement ahead of time, and used the blog post to limit the damage.

"Windows RT represents a significant reimagining of not only Windows, but Windows PCs and how we partner together to engineer them", Angiulo concludes. "We are looking forward to the exciting announcements ahead from Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung".

Toshiba's Decision came Recently

Toshiba's announcement can be seen as somewhat a surprise. Texas Instruments was the company's partner building Windows RT devices. The two had already shown off concept hardware, and things were going well -- as recently as two weeks ago.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, TI Windows development manager Kathy Brown describes development as "going well", saying she is "very excited" with Toshiba's plans. At the same time, Brown did admit RT development is difficult. That said, Dow Jones characterized the interview as positive.

So why the decision in such quick order? With TI nor Toshiba commenting further on the circumstances surrounding Tuesday's news, any suggestions to the true reasoning would be pure speculation at this point.

No One Reason for ditching Windows RT

It isn't clear why OEM's are seemingly running away from Windows RT. There are a few possible reasons though. The first as discussed is Microsoft's decision to encroach on OEM's turf with the Surface. These partners may feel attempting to compete with Microsoft itself is not worthwhile as consumers may see the tablet as an inherently superior product due to the fact that it's built by Microsoft.

But there could be another reason, and that's support. Since RT is built to support ARM processors, no x86-based software will work. This creates an issue for these manufacturers in that the amount of software available will be far less than its Intel-based counterpart for an extended period of time.

Photo Credit: arindambanerjee/Shutterstock
SkyDrive gets graphical overhaul, Android app, full-sized photos (finally!)

Publié: août 14, 2012, 10:44pm CEST par Tim Conneally

Tuesday, Microsoft announced it has begun a major update to its consumer cloud storage service SkyDrive, which includes a new Web interface to the service, updated apps for desktop and new ones for mobile, and some new APIs for developers.

Two weeks ago, Microsoft opened its newest webmail brand and design upgrade on Outlook.com, and over a million people signed up in the first 24 hours alone. The update to the SkyDrive interface will be similar, and it will bring the same clean appearance, and will utilize the tile-based interface formerly known as "Metro" that is common among most current-generation Windows properties.

The layout of the new SkyDrive interface will be almost exactly the same as the original "Folder View," which utilized large thumbnails for each content heading. The left-hand navigation pane remains the same, except with larger, presumably more touch-friendly icons. The toolbar across the top shifts depending upon the context of the main window. If the user is at the folder level, for example, he's given folder options, if he is deeper, he will have file-appropriate options. Searching and sorting options have also been improved.

In the mobile category, Android will be getting an official SkyDrive app "in just a few weeks." It will be similar to the existent Windows Phone and iOS versions, but will be woven into Android's sharing architecture like Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive have already done.

For developers, a couple of previous restrictions have been unlocked. File type restrictions have been lifted, and full resolution photos can now be uploaded instead of having to be compressed and shrunk like they have been since SkyDrive first opened. Additionally, the SkyDrive API now includes a Javascript file picker that lets developers add the ability to open files from, or save files to SkyDrive directly from websites.
Third-party OneNote app does what Microsoft can't

Publié: août 14, 2012, 7:41pm CEST par Tim Conneally

At the end of 2011, Microsoft released Office OneNote for iPad, bringing the cult favorite note-taking application to all of Apple's devices.

But major shortcomings with the freemium OneNote for iPad app have earned it a significant number of negative reviews in the iTunes App Store. Third-party iPad app Outline+, released at the end of July, seeks to provide fixes to these complaints. So far, the app tackles two of the major issues plaguing the iPad version of OneNote: syncing and formatting.

Syncing

The most common complaint of users of OneNote for iPad is that the SkyDrive sync feature is slow, crashy, and error-prone, frequently running into sync conflict issues. Outline+ instead syncs with Dropbox and iTunes, providing users with either a cloud-based, or hardwired alternative method for quickly uploading and downloading their OneNote Notebooks.

Formatting

Outline+ claims to be "the first and the only app on AppStore that works with Microsoft OneNote files directly. Even Microsoft's own app can't do that."

In Microsoft's OneNote for iPad, formatting issues are a frequent complaint: with organizational features like indentation, bulleting, numbering, and listing missing, and often a complete inability to display inked (handwritten) notes. As one reviewer said in the App Store: "If you've taken a lot of ink notes, you can pretty much forget using this as a stand-in for your computer even for just reading the notes."

In Outline+, all formatting, links, and images are retained, and the user can edit by typing, formatting text, creating lists, adding images, and creating sections and subsections.

The ability to ink directly on notes is still not present, but the Outline+ team is working on that. That feature isn't present in Microsoft's app, either, so things can only get better. Additional features promised in upcoming versions of Outline+ include Skydrive sync, Sharepoint and protected sections compatibility for the Enterprise version, and Math symbol support.

Outline+ includes full support for OneNote 2010, partial support for 2007, and no support for 2003. It can be downloaded in the iTunes app store immediately. Once you buy the $14.99 app, updates are free for life.
Is Microsoft planning to ditch Intel post-Windows 8?

Publié: août 14, 2012, 7:33pm CEST par Randall C. Kennedy

It's a radical thought. What if Microsoft is secretly planning to ditch Intel? With all of the recent talk about Windows RT "PCs", distinctions between the consumer roles associated with RT-based devices and the more traditional PC roles normally reserved for Intel-based systems have become blurred.

Suddenly, usage scenarios and form factors that were firmly part of Intel's territory are being encroached upon by a cornucopia of non-x86 Windows offerings. And cheering them all on is the chip maker's longtime comrade-in-arms, Microsoft. The Redmond, Wash.-based behemoth has been looking for a way out of the Wintel duopoloy for some time now, and the combination of increasingly powerful ARM designs and a tepid response to Intel's Ultrabook campaign has given the company the perfect opportunity to step out on its old partner.

The upside of such a move for Microsoft is obvious: The company gains access to a more power-efficient architecture that allows it to squeeze a variant of Windows down onto smaller form factor devices. And with BYOD fundamentally transforming the IT landscape into a sea of iPad work-alikes, the last place Microsoft wants to find itself is tied to Intel's stodgy vision of a traditional desktop/laptop computing experience.

This is why the pasty-faced brigade is pushing Windows RT hard. Microsoft has been giving its nascent ARM port the lion's share of the Windows 8 marketing buzz, including a slathering of attention on the Building Windows 8 bog.

Now we learn that there will be Windows RT PCs as well as the expected tablet-oriented iPad fighters, a subtle shift in nomenclature that signifies a more significant change in the company's overall strategy. Microsoft is no longer looking at Windows RT as a consumer electronics solution to combat Apple in the living room. Rather, it now sees RT as its last, best chance at maintaining future viability across the range of client computing scenarios.

Of course, this latest tack by its former fleet mate can't be sitting well with Intel. Any lingering questions about the company's recent warming to the Android Army have now been put to rest. The chip maker needs software to remain relevant, so if Microsoft has indeed decided to cast its client computing lot with ARM, Intel will need to forge new alliances in order to keep the bits pumping through its creaky old x86 designs. For the keepers of Moore's legacy, all roads now lead to Google.

Will Microsoft's Windows RT-strategy pan out? It's still too early to tell. And make no mistake, there are significant hurdles that have yet to be negotiated. Things like peripheral device support (lots of drivers to rework/recompile), enterprise manageability (Windows RT doesn't yet support Active Directory) and remote security (VPN support, et al) still need to be addressed. But with Microsoft pulling out all the stops to make RT a success, it's not a matter of if these gaps will be plugged but rather how quickly the company will work to fill-out the spec sheet for its new flagship client computing platform.

One thing's for sure: The days of the Wintel duopoly are numbered.

Photo Credit: antoniomas/Shutterstock
Apple vs Samsung: The defense of common sense

Publié: août 14, 2012, 6:47pm CEST par Jeremy Liu

The transpiring events of Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung divides the technology industry and hones in on several overarching intellectual property talking points and issues that far extend the perpetual "eye for an eye" battle the companies occupy. Many writers and pundits state that the lawsuit will be a primary stepping stone to IP and patent reform and will be a primary decider of the future of patent law in the technology industry.

What the trial really rises to the surface: the two differing approaches with which Apple and Samsung view the situation. Apple’s perspective hinges on protecting the intrinsic and unique value of their intellectual property, whereas Samsung focuses more on the end game of consumer perception.

What both these approaches share: none can be tied to any semblance of pure rationality or cold hard facts; there’s no way to say with certainty, for example, that the use of a certain color scheme in Samsung’s iconography directly led to loss suffered by Apple, nor can it be said that Apple’s design is generic and therefore should offer no direct or exclusive benefit to the company. Both these conclusions assume direct causation and attempt to put some logic behind something that inherently isn’t logical -- perception and behavior.

Not so Sensible

In Samsung's defense, many apologists make the common-sense argument, which is once again based purely on perception. What one deems to be common sense could be grounded in a variety of experiential factors, but nonetheless the argument of common sense and obviousness does bring to light several indisputable points.

Like the color green, for instance; Samsung has vehemently argued that the green phone icon can’t possibly go any other way. After all, green as a universal standard means "go" and if that color was to be attributed to any basic function of a smartphone it would most certainly be its namesake -- the phone.

But, of course, the common-sense argument goes much further than that and not particularly in Samsung’s favor. Based on experience and past evidence, we can conclude that it’s easy to argue common sense when it’s already been successfully implemented by someone else. After all, if a successful implementation of something proves nothing else, there is indeed at least some sense behind it.

A look at Samsung's phones pre-iPhone and post-iPhone display a fairly damning picture of this notion. Samsung’s pre-iPhone lineup is seemingly laden with devices thrown into market with the hope that something would stick, whereas Samsung’s post-iPhone lineup is the polar opposite exhibiting uniformity and purpose in form factor and design.

Nokia in their heyday, before the iPhone, were recognized for the pure variety of their handset lineup and also the mindless creativity in the design of many of their devices. Essentially Nokia defined cool in the cellphone industry, and that coupled with economies of large scale moved phones effortlessly off the shelves. Nokia’s approach of spread therefore was deemed an obvious and logical means with which to penetrate the cellphone market -- and Samsung followed suit.

Flipping the Paradigm

Apple’s iPhone literally flipped this paradigm and showed that a device that exhibited simplicity in lineup and product could move even faster off the shelves. Simplicity and fluidity in design are two aspects that make the iPhone sell, so why not emulate that? And why would you do it any other way, it’s just common sense.

Obviously these successful approaches have sense and prudence, but a nascent notion that a new-found successful way is the only appropriate way is far off base -- this point alone is the most prominent gaping hole behind the "common sense defense" that no doubt Samsung has in its card and many of Samsung’s supporters are ready to play in heated fanboy debates. Whether Samsung had or hadn’t the intention of copying Apple’s design is not the epicenter of the debate, it’s that Samsung, regardless of intent did produce a design that resembled Apple’s when other options were and are available.

It’s difficult to think laterally when there’s a standard that’s trying to be reached -- that is, Samsung would certainly have found it a mind-stretch to build a differentiated product when the iPhone in all its rounded rectangle and gridded icon glory was the benchmark to reach. It is a sound presumption that a Samsung product would brandish much more originality if the company were forced to think and develop from the ground up instead of basing thought around a readily set standard.

It doesn’t make it easier when the design that the frontrunner has settled on, despite not being the sole logical approach, is certainly one that exercises basic no-frills simplicity to its absolute core. To think of a logical and aesthetically pleasing design as simplistic as the original iPhone is a tall ask, and the case applies even more so with the iPad, which is essentially a skeletally bare slab of aluminium and glass. And what’s more simple than an evenly arranged grid of uniformly shaped icons?

Tablet Zero

Devin Coldewey of TechCrunch alludes to this point better than anyone else in his article "Tablet Zero" from December of 2011. Apple went out of their way to develop a design so generic that its form would become the start line for any manufacturer willing to join the race. As Devin Coldewey writes: "You can’t make a Xoom without making an iPad first, just like you can’t make a die without making a cube first. This was Apple’s stroke of evil genius".

Apple’s sly tactics are still no excuse and can’t form the basis of a defense for Samsung, because even though claiming ownership to a generic form factor and design shouldn’t be allowed, this doesn’t change the fact that there are still many unexplored opportunities that make equally as much sense and are equally as feasible regardless of whether they’re as simple or not. A black slab of glass is not plainly a given in smartphone hardware design and the rounded rectangle icon style isn’t any more commonsensical or intrinsically better than the tile-based UI in Windows Phone.

Sure Apple gets the perhaps unfair advantage of having their all-encompassing design immediately compared against competing alternatives, but that’s just one of the perks of getting to market first. Apple deserves credit where credit is due.

The underlying point is that there are still plenty of opportunities to make a functionally and useably better device without aligning with Apple’s plan of attack so closely. That being said, there are far too many ways for a design to be commonsensical to excuse Samsung’s phones of bearing such a level of similarity, no matter how significant the granular details. This is a gaping hole in the entirety of Samsung’s defensive case.

Photo Credit: Nomadia/Shutterstock

Jeremy Liu is a high school student who first became obsessed with technology in the 8th grade when his father bought him an iPod touch after months of begging. At a time when iPhones and the iPod Touch were spectacularly rare, the device managed to fascinate both himself and his friends. Liu now shuns the mainstream and roots for underdogs, owning a Windows Phone, Blackberry PlayBook and Sony Walkman X. Since then technology has grown from a passion to an obsession and he now directs his energies towards writing. You can find him on Facebook, Google+ and Tumblr.
Paragon releases Backup & Recovery 12 Home

Publié: août 14, 2012, 6:17pm CEST par Mike Williams

Paragon Software has released Backup & Recovery 12 Home, the latest edition of its extremely capable consumer-oriented backup tool. And while the New Features list is a little on the short side this time, build #12 does benefit from support for incremental disk imaging.

This new addition means your backups can contain only data changed since the last increment, saving time and storage space. Which is presumably what Paragon means when they slightly unclearly say that the technology “boosts efficiency of backup to the network storage up to 200 percent”.

This new release also includes Paragon’s latest backup engine, which should further improve backup performance.

And Paragon also say the program now works under Windows 8, although their official blog post about this release only says it was tested under the old Developer Preview version. That’s a little out of date now, and we’ve seen others reporting problems in this area, so if you plan on installing the program on a Windows 8 system any time soon we’d recommend you test it very carefully.

Otherwise, though, the core features here remain excellent. Performance is great, you get multiple recovery tools to help you if Windows won’t boot, your archives can be encrypted, you can back up to FTP/ SFTP, helpful wizards make it easy to run common backup tasks (saving your Outlook setup, say), and there are a stack of useful bonus tools.

The price for all this remains the same at $39.95, or $69.95 for a family licence (which essentially means 3 PCs in one household).

And if you’d like to try before you buy, the Paragon Backup & Recovery 12 Home trial build is available now.

Photo Credit: Sergii Korolko/Shutterstock