Microsoft and Samsung uncloak slimmer Surface

Microsoft and Samsung have confirmed that the next iteration of the Surface tabletop computer system will go on sale soon. The Samsung SUR40 will feature a 40-inch 1,920-by-1,080-pixel touch screen with a 178 degree viewing angle in a 1,095 x 728 x 707.4 mm table that weighs 45kg. The guts of the machine include an Athlon X2 …

[Anonymous Coward]

"We listened to our customers, and looked at the iPad, and decided we should aim for two feet thick."

If they made it smaller, say 32" screen or less, fairly thin so it could be laid flat (preferably with a slight slant) on a table, and give it a decently useful touch-based OS? That might sell in decent quantities, which is what MS does well - not small-scale fancy merchandising aids.

[Minophis]

@Chris 19

"If they made it smaller, say 32" screen or less, fairly thin so it could be laid flat (preferably with a slight slant) on a table"

Err it's not laid on a table, it IS a table (otherwise the 45kg would be awkward).

Also you probably want to avoid the "slight slant" bit. Table multi-touch systems are designed with multi user collaboration in mind. so you want people to be able to stand around it and use it easily from all sides. This requires that it is both level and also reasonably large .

[Stu 18]

10% of customers got engaged

too each other? Just what was on that screen?

90% presumably already married or couldn't get near the dam thing.

[John Halewood]

So with a 40" screen and 1920x1080 resolution, you get a pixel size of around 4mm. That's going to look really ugly when you're even vaguely close to it, surely?

[Stormfriend]

Nope, I use a 40" samsung TV as my primary monitor, it's sat on my desk right in front of me and looks lovely. I can barely make out the pixels.

I have a 24" monitor too, which is quietly gathering dust in the box room... I really don't have space for a dual monitor set up, but if I did I'd probably drag in my old 32" TV instead. I used that for years and although it's only 720p what forced the upgrade wasn't the visibility of the pixels, just that the low resolution was annoying.

[ChrisInBelgium]

In the right place?

In use in the Microsoft museum... Probably where it belongs?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah Great

Hey everybody look at MS's attempt to do a tablet, who says they do bloatware ?

[ratfox]

I started reading, thinking this was about a tablet

...Until my eyes fell on "45kg". Quite a shock. That said, it looks cool. I want it to work like that thing in the last James Bond, though.

[Turtle_Fan]

Not sure what the real improvement is here but as an idea it's wonderful.

I've done pretty much the same using an old dell, linux and a carpenter friend. The sole tricky point is getting the glass on the screen so as to keep it waterproof and maintain the touch functionality.

Young kids are going crazy for some of edubuntu's/gcompris games. All for less than a £1000.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow !

Look at MS's attempt at a tablet, who says they do bloatware ?

[Chris 211]

france!

saw a toutch surface screen used at the v2 museum LaCapoule (spelling!) in france. Quite fun, little laggy, but very CSI.

[EddieD]

Just released?

I'm pretty sure that the archeologists who were shown on the BBC program Egypt's lost cities were using one of the mark 2s - they certainly had a big square display object hanging on a wall that responded to touch, pinch zoom etc - and that was filmed over 12 months ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011pwms

[bleh_meh]

obligatory parody vid - Big Ass Table

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY

[Dr Patrick J R Harkin]

I'd love one of these

But I have no idea what I'd do with it. I did have an idea for a variation of their chess game - my pieces would be real (with barcodes underneath), the computers would be images but look as similar as possible.

[notchas]

45Kg??

is it full of Little Green Men moving the pixels about?

[Giles Jones]

Where's the applications?

It's been around for years and yet there's still very little software.

You would expect design shops to be interested in these. Map makers too. Except for those industries they need a precise mouse/puck input too which they can't get?

[Elmer Phud]

Apps?

Asteroids

Next question

[Boris Winkle]

Asteroids :)

I like it :)

[brakepad]

Make pretty, people will buy

@John Halewood: Pixel size is way less than 4mm. Not done a precise calc but it's closer to 0.5mm.

I'm not a fanboi, my only Apple kit is a mk2 ipod that now lives in a drawer, but if Apple made this it would be 20mm thick with tapered edges, have a beautiful mix of glass and aluminium, and look like a piece of designer furniture. It would have a catchy name and a relentless advertising campaign to convince people that it was wonderful and that they needed one, and it would probably sell millions.

I've no doubt that MS could market it equally well if they really wanted to, they have sold 1 or 2 games consoles in their time, but sadly Joe Public has been somewhat brainwashed into believing that if Apple didn't do it/make it popular first then it can't be any good.

[jai]

how much does it cost?

i want on in the lounge

not that i'd ever really use it, but surely you could get a MAME emulator running on it and play old fashions pub table space invaders on it, no?

[arrbee]

Could be neat hooked up to satellite imaging