Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table? - Gizmodo Comments

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

Will_USA — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:51:21 EDT

Are you guys not capable of seeing where this is going? Think 5 years down the road when this technology has progressed, gotten smaller, cheaper and has made its way to the tablet PC. Version 1 of anything is always overpriced and expensive. Need examples from history? How about the Beta-Max VCR? The first DVD players? The 286 IBM machines that ran close to $6,000? Scoff all you want, but I'm intelligent enough to see great potential in this product, unlike many of you.

Will_USA

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

Cleverboy — Wed, 30 May 2007 05:41:30 EDT

This is a bit annoying. The demonstration LOOKS great. It LOOKS very cool. But so did the Longhorn preview. DeepFish also LOOKS nice as a technology for mobile browsing, yet a year after its surfaced, no ship date. Microsoft needs to STOP RELEASING VAPORWARE. When they mentioned a product, either say it ships "tomorrow", or... god forbid... in 6 months. This whole "imagine the future" BS has got to go, because its already given them a blackeye. Just look at the oFone fake commercial. Looks like it could even ship, and yet its a joke product. Apparently these forward-looking videos and presentations are very easy for Microsoft to turn out.

Cleverboy

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

bunny_rabid — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:59:25 EDT

Chief John Anderton from "Minority Report" called and said he wants his UI back.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find out whoever makes Purell and buy a bunch of their stock, because the future looks like I'll be putting my fingers on the same surface as your fingers, and I have no idea where your fingers have been. LOL

bunny_rabid

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

quikboy — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:27:40 EDT

Microsoft Surface? I like the thing itself, but not the name. I hope they'll change it.

quikboy

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

bunny_rabid — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:27:30 EDT

Thanks xxdesmus.

Surface.com is up now.

bunny_rabid

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

habookale — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:23:33 EDT

www.nuigroup.com

there are instructions there to build your own version of this thing. they've been there for a loong time, and there's some software for it. i even built one, and it only took me 5 hours or so. i'm not impressed, microsoft...

habookale

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

mattnyc99 — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:23:26 EDT

Extensive VIDEO and commentary (including by Jeff Han) from Popular Mechanics, which was the first to see Surface: http://www.popularmechanics.com/surfacecomputing

mattnyc99

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

xxdesmus — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:18:45 EDT

it's out,

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/may07/05-...

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/may07/05-29M...

surface.com is password protected right now...how stupid.

xxdesmus

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

Justin D — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:18:29 EDT

This will fail miserably, just like LCDs in taxi cabs and consumer-oriented tablet PCs. =D

Justin D

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

rglenn — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:17:58 EDT

www.surface.com is the site

rglenn

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

testuser — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:14:44 EDT

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

testuser

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

jason724 — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:14:41 EDT

boooo

thanks for the link though...

jason724

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

LoopTrack — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:09:57 EDT

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070530/microsoft_coffee_table_of_t...

LoopTrack

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

jason724 — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:06:09 EDT

tick... tock.... tick... tock

jason724

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

mrsalty — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:05:07 EDT

Ok, so it's like midnight already!!!

mrsalty

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

mrsalty — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:58:38 EDT

Here was our original crusade, only problem is one got away...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KNrxwl59I0

mrsalty

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

wetworker — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:57:02 EDT

vista home sp.1
vista business sp.1
vista ultimate sp.1
xp home sp.1
xp pro sp.1

..........zune 2.0

wetworker

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

lschofield — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:51:22 EDT

Only Microsoft would replace a very trade-markable and brandable name like "play table" and replace it with a emotionless, only-a-dork-would-love "smart surface".

More to the point, Microsoft hopes to capture the arcade hardware market now that its a fraction of what it once was. Or, Microsoft wants to dominate the embedded entertainment cabinet from what is now mostly cabinets with a Windows box running in them.

Or maybe just pulling out something in the lab that seems close to the Wii since Wii is killing everything for being new and exciting.

lschofield

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

xxdesmus — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:49:48 EDT

@RustyBones

So true. Just about any site on the web at this point has turned into a meet and greet, followed promptly by a circle jerk for Apple fanboys. They are by far the most obnoxious and outspoken (ala nut job Tom Cruise) group around the web these days. I think we need to have a good ol' fashion Crusade :P

xxdesmus

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

RobotVampire — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:40:28 EDT

$10k for 1024x768?! For that kind of change the thing should be at least 720p. Thanks again Microtard!

RobotVampire

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

davere — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:34:37 EDT

A touch sensitive table? Like the Philips Entertaible?
http://www.research.philips.com/newscenter/pictures/entert...

davere

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

yoshi — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:19:33 EDT

I guess Microsoft is the first company to release a "multi-touch, gestural- and object-recognition interface technology."

Break Through Technology!
Revolutionary!
Cool!

Start Your Copying Machines, Apple!

yoshi

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

RustyBones — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:16:39 EDT

Apparently someone forgot to tell me that Gizmodo is now just Apple fanboy circle jerk. I'll hand my nick and password in at the door.

RustyBones

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

adamgamble — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:07:12 EDT

I just want this to play real time strategies on. That would be so awesome.

adamgamble

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

graydon — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:06:24 EDT

A very expensive table that the only people that can afford it are people like... Bill Gates and that sweaty ape Balmer.

I simply can't wait to see a blue screen that big... or hear the screams when the CC recognition screws up with some virus and *poof* all your funds are gone. And all in a casino of all places.

On a side note the announcement will make a $500 iPhone seem like chump change to almost everyone. Thanks again Microsoft!

graydon

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

bdkennedy1 — Tue, 29 May 2007 22:46:00 EDT

A table. "Hey, honey! Let's go buy a Microsoft interactive table!"

Sometimes I can't believe Microsoft even came up with the XBox.

bdkennedy1

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

jbhitter24 — Tue, 29 May 2007 22:25:09 EDT

could've sworn i commented already, but...

although the playtable is pretty steep at $10000 right now, i cant way to see how its implemented into MS's products. iphone multitouch got nothing on this baby...

jbhitter24

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

quikboy — Tue, 29 May 2007 22:12:40 EDT

@VisualVillain83:

Apple has bad ideas?

quikboy

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

strider_mt2k — Tue, 29 May 2007 22:00:37 EDT

Perhaps if they made a large electronic Badger...

strider_mt2k

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

jbhitter24 — Tue, 29 May 2007 21:34:27 EDT

might be $10000 right now, but i see alot of potential for this interface. everyone raves over the iphones 'multitouch', but i see this play table as a far more practical and also expandable way of using multitouch systems.

jbhitter24

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

VisualVillain83 — Tue, 29 May 2007 21:26:36 EDT

@kevin100SuperStephenson - they probably took it from the dumpsters where Apples bad ideas went haha

VisualVillain83

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

crackalacker — Tue, 29 May 2007 21:01:06 EDT

Ok... so I swear you guys posted this about 9 months ago, it had 2 projectors and a digital camera, you could hold a picture to it and then edit it, all auto like. In one of the comments someone put a link to the one at TED. But I can't find it, I dunno what to say.

crackalacker

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

CptPoland — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:59:24 EDT

yup tony had it right

CptPoland

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

Roflgoat — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:44:19 EDT

You know that the tip-off is a bunch of hooey, right?

Why would MSFT unveil something that is Apple-esque in front of Jobsy?

Roflgoat

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

kevin100SuperStephenson — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:38:36 EDT

interesting!? i wonder when Apple will come along & spoil Micosofts party?

kevin100SuperStephenson

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

NeoXY — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:38:21 EDT

10,000 a pop?

FTS...

NeoXY

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

Sternfan91 — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:28:41 EDT

I see that Fry thing from Futurama from a Myspace.....speechless

Sternfan91

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

corneeeeelius — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:18:33 EDT

Cornelius/Neil Coons

corneeeeelius

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

habookale — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:15:28 EDT

lame! i built one of these on my own. this is shit. microsoft has yet to impress me.
go check nuigroup.com
it's a group of people who builds these exact screens. it took me only a few hours to do build a 12"x12".

if microsoft wanted to do this right, it wouldn't be a projection screen. that's crap. low res, and cheap. 10 grand my ass. my screen cost less than 50 bucks. granted, all i could do was very basic stuff.

fuck you microsoft... pretty much every feature of the software they're including with this is available for free on nuigroup.com

god... i'm going to the university of illinois at urbana-champaign next year and studying computer engineering. apparently microsoft hires more kids out of there than any other institution in the world. says a lot about my fucking school.

habookale

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

aR-Tard — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:14:06 EDT

So...hardly a mystery product..since most of the people reading this site won't be buying any $10,000 equipment in the near future...

I guess it's the usual bedtime tonight; thanks for the heads-up Wilson.

aR-Tard

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

cannibalrock — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:13:07 EDT

so when are they going to actually come out with something geared towards an end user...possibly an end user with a 35k a year job...do i really need another reminder of how poor I am?

gadgets...my major downfall.

cannibalrock

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

dollarbill — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:06:37 EDT

And what if you have one hand?

No, im kidding. This looks GREAT!!! Just think of what you can do with interactive porn.

dollarbill

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

dollarbill — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:04:48 EDT

And what if you have one hand?

No, im kidding, this looks awesome. Just think of what you can do with interactive porn!

dollarbill

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

Karttikeya — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:00:58 EDT

*Sigh*

I was looking forward to buying something new.

Karttikeya

Microsoft's Mystery Product Is... A Touch-Sensitive Table?

TonyRockyHorror — Tue, 29 May 2007 19:49:38 EDT

HAH! I was right! i posted about this in the other thread about MSFT's big announcement.

score!

TonyRockyHorror