The Microsoft Surface Tablet . . .

Jun 21, 2012

Gerry Wasiluk
By Gerry Wasiluk

 . . .  sounds interesting on paper.  Most early reviews seem positive--and it plays Flash and Office. 

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/19/microsoft-surface-5-reasons-to-pay-attention-to-this-ipad-chall/

http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/microsoft-surface-rt/4505-3126_7-35332494.html?tag=epicStories

So one might expect Storyline content may play okay with it and work with a LMS?  If so, interesting  . . .

May be an uphill battle with Apple and Google but with Office on it, I might at least consider it if I need to replace my iPad2.  For healthy competition reasons only, hope it's not another Zune. :)

61 Replies
Gerry Wasiluk
almost 12 years ago06/21/12 at 11:29 am (UTC)

Phil Mayor said:

It plays flash on sites that Microsoft allow it to, it will not play flash on all sites

Hey, Phil.  Where did you see that mentioned?  Have not seen that yet. That'd be a bugger . . .

Phil Mayor said:

I dont think think they have done enough, but I could be wrong I expect Enterprise will love it


Yup.  One word--Office.  And possibly "Support" if you're a Windows shop.  One OS and its variants to support can be appealing . . .

Just curious, what do you think is missing?

Phil Mayor
almost 12 years ago06/21/12 at 11:34 am (UTC)

See here for details

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2012/05/31/windows-release-preview-the-sixth-ie10-platform-preview.aspx

Dont forget on Windows 8 for desktop there will be two IE10 versions that will not speak to each other (e.g. share bookmarks, paswords) and will not know if each other are open.

In Windows RT there will only be Metro IE10 which microsoft say

"While any site can play Flash content in IE10 on the Windows desktop, only sites that are on the Compatibility View (CV) list can play Flash content within Metro style IE. We place sites with Flash content on the CV list if doing so delivers the best user experience in Metro style IE with those sites."

Phil Mayor
almost 12 years ago06/21/12 at 12:49 pm (UTC)

IE supports flash but only on sites on their "safe" list.  IE will be the only browser on the device allowed to run in the desktop environment.  In "metro" mode other browsers written for windows 8 will not be given the same access to APIs as IE.  Both Mozilla and Google have complained about this and say that Firtefox and Chrome will not be as rich as IE on the Windows RT platform.  I take it that means a big no because apps can only be installed via the windows store so I doubt Microsoft will allow a flash plugin for other browsers

Bill Harnage
almost 12 years ago06/21/12 at 4:14 pm (UTC)

So what happens when my company buys a whole bunch of win8 tablets and our LMS is internal, thus not being on MS's safe list.

Point is there's going to be some way IT folks will have control over that.  Maybe it'll be more of a black list vs safe list.

I just don't see MS maintaining something like this long term and how are they determining safe vs not safe?  Probably part of the reason (among others) Apples just said "no" to flash.

Phil Mayor
almost 12 years ago06/21/12 at 11:39 pm (UTC)

I dont think as a company you get access to the safe list, if you read the link I posted it talks about user experience and battery life, also it says microsoft will announce details which will include

"These details will include how developers can test Flash content on their own sites in Metro style IE, and how to submit their sites for consideration for the CV list"

I dont think flash fits in Microsoft's future and this is just a stop gap to appease Adobe

Gerry Wasiluk
almost 12 years ago06/22/12 at 6:36 am (UTC)

Phil Mayor said:

I dont think flash fits in Microsoft's future and this is just a stop gap to appease Adobe

The articles that I read suggested that, instead, it was more an admission by Microsoft that, at least in the short term, they realize that Flash is still the standard for delivering rich media and needs to be supported for a little while longer and that, as we know, the transition to a robust HTML5 standard will take time.  In fact, Microsoft worked with Adobe on the Flash implementation in Win8 and Metro.
Rebecca Fleisch Cordeiro
almost 12 years ago06/22/12 at 9:58 am (UTC)

Hey, y'all, what about Clippy?!

I've been following a lot of articles also about Surface, trying to decide if I may purchase it for mobile use.

Re Phil's comment about corporate, two interesting TechRepublic articles

Microsoft Surface: this time it's business

Microsoft Surface: iPad knockoff for Enterprise?

Coupla' excerpts from latter:

..."Still, the Microsoft Surface has something going for it that the BlackBerry PlayBook, HP TouchPad, and the parade of Android tablets don’t — it’s going to automatically drop into the Windows networks that most Fortune 500 companies as well as a lot of small and medium businesses already have in place
...
A lot of companies will be happy to pay a premium for an iPad look-alike that automatically fits into their current networks and is guaranteed to work with their existing applications. "

Bill Harnage
almost 12 years ago06/22/12 at 10:48 am (UTC)

Phil Mayor said:

I am still hoping they will give me my start button back and stop this metro nonsense

According to one of the recent MS tech blogs the start button will be a thing of the past.  You can install a start button in the CP version, but MS has stated they will add code that prevents 3rd party start buttons from being installed.

If the MS tablet can combine the ease of use of the ipad w/ the better overall UX of the droid (IMO - hello back button!!!) then they'll have a winner in the tablet/mobile arena.

However, Win8 on the desktop is going to be an epic failure, IMO. It'll be a combination of Vista and ME all over again.

Bill Harnage
almost 12 years ago06/22/12 at 10:56 am (UTC)

Rebecca Fleisch Cordeiro said:

...
A lot of companies will be happy to pay a premium for an iPad look-alike that automatically fits into their current networks and is guaranteed to work with their existing applications. "


That's been my argument all along w/ the ipad.  Sure the ipad is a decent consumer product, but once MS gets their act together in the mobile arena, if the do, then the enterprise market will follow.

Phil Mayor
almost 12 years ago06/22/12 at 11:24 am (UTC)

Microsoft seems to have lost their way a bit at the moment.  They have just killed the Windows Phone 7 market (and Likely Nokia with it) by announcing Windows Phone 8 will not work on current hardware.

They received a lot of accolades for Windows 7, so decide to drop it in favour of metro on the desktop.  I like Apple's CEO comment that you can probably combine a toaster and a fridge but it wont be pretty.

They then announce a tablet that puts them in direct competition with their hardware partners.

I am sure companies really want a Microsoft tablet because they see it a s safe, but I wonder if they are just to far behind.  Lots are moving to BYOD and that means a lot of iPads in corporate world.

Microsoft still have not learnt from apple, they announce stuff you cannot buy yet, apple normally have the product available to buy the next day.

Its going to be interesting to watch, they have a lot of money in reserves, but they seem to lack a creative genius.

PS I loved it when it crashed on stage http://youtu.be/UEJTRJY8KEQ

onEnterFrame (James Kingsley)
almost 12 years ago06/22/12 at 12:02 pm (UTC)

MS has taken great pains to enable enterprise permissions, profiles, etc. I think they will enable corporations run Flash from within their own domain. 

This could be a huge hit for business use but the really need to beef up their ecosystem before consumers will adopt it. If people can't get Angry Birds, Temple Run, Instagram, etc... they wont buy it. 

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