No, I did not stay up late just to see Microsoft's newest offering Surface. I saw it this morning and all I can say is, "didn't someone else already do this?
When you boil it all down Surface is nothing more than a touch screen set into a table top that allows for multiple touches to be recognized. A great idea for sure and I have no doubt it would help to make an awesome digital mixing board for audio/video folks. But, it's old news.
Does anyone remember that? Sorry about the advertising embedded within but this was the first copy of the video I could find.
Yes, Microsoft, never known for being original has just purchased (?) tech from someone else.
As cool as the demo is to look at I can't help but ask why anyone would want to buy one of these. What real world applications will benefit from this device?
Oh sure you can drop a wi-fi enabled camera and pull pictures off of it but I can already do that with my computer. Further, what if some of the pictures on my camera are ones that I would not want to share? Will they all just spill out on the table as if I dropped a box of photographs?
Painting is nice. Having the ability to make virtual paint pots of varying colors does make the painter in me drool. But, can I use different brushes on the surface or will it treat all things touching it as the same?
I can see uses for this in regards to a map kiosk. Lost? Just touch the screen and find out where you are and where you are going!
Otherwise, I can't see myself using the Surface for much else. Yes, you could use it for web browsing but you can already do that on so many things. Remember, this thing does currently lack a keyboard though one could be emulated on its surface.
You know what? I just do not see enough reasons for a consumer to purchase on of these.
Further reading.