Apple WWDC vs Microsoft vs Google I/O

[podspi]

Probably another reason why I'm not excited about Surface. A tablet that tries to replace a tablet and laptop, just ends up not being very good at either. To be powerful enough to replace a laptop it'll need to be the x86 version and that's going to be heavier than normal tablets. And a 10 inch screen and it's keyboard are just going to be too small to use as a laptop for me.

Though I certainly understand the appeal for some people.

I wonder if they have a docking station in the works. 10.6in is probably alright for most uses. 11" is perfect imho, but that is probably too large to use as a tablet.

 

[Ns1]

WWDC = updates to previous products, meh (I mean I'm glad I'm going to get the updates, but I'm not blown away).
Microsoft = SURFACE OMG WHY ISN'T THERE PRICING AVAILABLE?!
Google = Confirmation of stuff we already knew, WTF google Q?

so IMHO MS is the winner in terms of excitement.


Google glasses are cool, but comical @ 1500.

 

[zerocool84]

WWDC = updates to previous products, meh (I mean I'm glad I'm going to get the updates, but I'm not blown away).
Microsoft = SURFACE OMG WHY ISN'T THERE PRICING AVAILABLE?!
Google = Confirmation of stuff we already knew, WTF google Q?

so IMHO MS is the winner in terms of excitement.


Google glasses are cool, but comical @ 1500.

They Q is extremely overpriced. That's what they get for making it in the USA. The Glasses are obviously a tech demo of sorts. They know they won't sell a lot, just something cool.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Jelly Bean and iOS 6 were both pretty good announcements -- lots of nice features, but for the most part they addressed issues that should have been fixed years ago (lag in Android, navigation in iOS).

The Nexus 7 and Retina MacBook Pro are both great products that will set the tone for their respective product segments for the next year at least, possibly much longer. Finally you have laptops with decent screen resolution. I remember early in college (around 2002-03) one of my friends had a Dell laptop with a 1920x1200 screen. Sad that most laptops sold TODAY have an embarrassingly low resolution of 1366x768 or thereabouts. Hopefully the high res screens trickle down to less expensive laptops soon.

The Nexus 7 is of course the standard-setting budget tablet. Not for everyone, but it's a way better option than the Kindle Fire for people who just want an entertainment device.

Nexus Q is a complete turkey, I predict a price drop to $99 by fall along with an update that will make it do things it should have done in the first place. Google was smoking something when they came up with it.

MS's stuff was more impressive to me than either Apple's or Google's.

 

[Eug]

Sad that most laptops sold TODAY have an embarrassingly low resolution of 1366x768 or thereabouts. Hopefully the high res screens trickle down to less expensive laptops soon.

It's not that the hardware is limiting. It is not even really just cost. Much of it is because current OSes look bad with such a high pixel density, due to text sizing and other issues.

 

[Deeko]

It's not that the hardware is limiting. It is not even really just cost. Much of it is because current OSes look bad with such a high pixel density, due to text sizing and other issues.

About 5 years ago I bought a dell laptop with a 1600x1050 resolution. It looked fantastic in Windows Vista. Things have regressed in a big way since then - ever since 'HD' became a popular moniker, and they could get away with calling a display HD as long as it was at least 1280x720, that became the defacto standard laptop resolution. Terrible/

 

[darkewaffle]

I think Microsoft had the best showing. They did something that people didn't expect and actually generated a lot of attention and interest. It would have been real easy for MS to slip up and come out with a device that left everyone yawning but it's actually a pretty compelling offering.

 

[Ns1]

re^^

MSFT did a pretty good job of keeping that thing under wraps too

 

[pm]

My comments match a lot of everyone elses', but between Apple's WWDC, Microsoft's surface and Google I/O, I was personally most impressed by Microsoft. Yes, the demo had that embarrassing lock-up but the products were a surprise (to me) and I was pretty impressed.

I thought Apple's was the most boring - lots of updates and minor tweaks but nothing really exciting. The Siri improvements are nice, but for the rest... I turned it off before it ended. For Google, I thought the skydiving glasses were essentially a sunglass-sized video recorder, I don't see the excitement. Yes, I have seen the Glasses demo video and I can see where they are heading and it's neat in a sci-fi sort of way, but it doesn't seem really useful to me. And then Jelly Bean has some nice tweaks ("butter" and especially "google now") but I can't picture buying a Nexus Q for $300 (~$100, maybe $150, but not $300), and even the Nexus 7 seemed like a Google version of the Kindle Fire which is a product that I had no interest in. Meanwhile I was pretty impressed with the Microsoft Surface - demo glitches and lack of pricing/availability aside. They mostly sold me on the whole Microsoft tablet concept and I'm really interested to see what they will be doing... which is a huge shift in my mental mindset where I had Microsoft written off as something like a lumbering dinosaur that was going to die within a half dozen years.

So of the three, I thought Microsoft won the "buzz award". But "buzz" doesn't make money and it will be really interesting to see the autumn line up of devices. In particular, I want to see the next gen Nexus phones. I've decided that I will never buy another Android phone that's not a Nexus.

 

[swanysto]

It's not that the hardware is limiting. It is not even really just cost. Much of it is because current OSes look bad with such a high pixel density, due to text sizing and other issues.

I thought it was for the same reason that desktop monitors started going to 1080, because they wanted to make a standard resolution? With 768 and 1080, everything can be made at 1080 and scaled nicely down to 720 for laptops.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I thought it was for the same reason that desktop monitors started going to 1080, because they wanted to make a standard resolution? With 768 and 1080, everything can be made at 1080 and scaled nicely down to 720 for laptops.

It's one thing to switch aspect ratios. A few years ago I guess someone decided that 16:9 was to be the new standard ratio instead of 16:10.

What I was referring to is how laptops today seem to have lower resolutions than ones from the past. I think 1600x900 is the minimum acceptable resolution for a standard size laptop.

 

[finbarqs]

With Microsoft's announcement, I almost forgave them for the courier..

 

[foghorn67]

About 5 years ago I bought a dell laptop with a 1600x1050 resolution. It looked fantastic in Windows Vista. Things have regressed in a big way since then - ever since 'HD' became a popular moniker, and they could get away with calling a display HD as long as it was at least 1280x720, that became the defacto standard laptop resolution. Terrible/

This. My pos Dell Inpsiron has a beautiful 1600x1050 with great contrast and viewing angles. Calibrates nicely too.
It's the main reason I haven't replaced it. Displays sucked since then.

 

[ultimatebob]

Google showed some real innovation (like the Glass Project, and the first $200 tablet that isn't lame) at their presentation.

Apple just showed off some OS tweaks, and existing products with faster processors and prettier screens at their recent presentations.

Microsoft showed off vaporware, with no price tags and no availability dates.

Comparing the three almost doesn't seem fair.

 

[Ns1]

Google showed some real innovation (like the Glass Project, and the first $200 tablet that isn't lame) at their presentation.

Apple just showed off some OS tweaks, and existing products with faster processors and prettier screens at their recent presentations.

Microsoft showed off vaporware, with no price tags and no availability dates.

Comparing the three almost doesn't seem fair.

lol, what exactly did they innovate with the nexus 7? Glass is just as vaporware as the Surface ($1500 preorder ship early next year = WTF LOL)

 

[Mopetar]

lol, what exactly did they innovate with the nexus 7?

To be fair, there hasn't been much innovation in the tablet space for a long, long time. Everything has been subtle refinement for a long while now.

 

[Ns1]

To be fair, there hasn't been much innovation in the tablet space for a long, long time. Everything has been subtle refinement for a long while now.

Pretty sure MSFT just innovated the hell out of that space.

 

[ultimatebob]

lol, what exactly did they innovate with the nexus 7? Glass is just as vaporware as the Surface ($1500 preorder ship early next year = WTF LOL)

It's the first GOOD $200 Android tablet. Many have tried (Coby, Archos, even Amazon) and failed to deliver on this, and it looks like Google finally succeeded.

And I'll give Google leniency on the availability date of Project Glass, since it's a whole new product category. If it's done right, it will be the biggest innovation since the smartphone.

Besides... isn't it cool that we're getting an advance preview of a product that will not be available until 2014? I wish that Apple would do something similar with their Apple TV, just to see if it lives up to the hype.

Surface (in my opinion) is little more than a Microsoft branded tablet with a fancy keyboard cover.. Odds are that similar covers will be available for the iPad and Android tablets before Surface even ships.

 

[Ns1]

It's the first GOOD $200 Android tablet. Many have tried (Coby, Archos, even Amazon) and failed to deliver on this, and it looks like Google finally succeeded.

this is not innovation.

Surface (in my opinion) is little more than a Microsoft branded tablet with a fancy keyboard cover.. Odds are that similar covers will be available for the iPad and Android tablets before Surface even ships.

WTB: tablet running ms office w/ pen, digitizer, and smart cover that doubles as a keyboard with 6+ hours of battery life weighing less than 2 pounds


IMHO they took the best ideas from everything and slapped it into one package, and added a windows integration layer.

 

[Mopetar]

Pretty sure MSFT just innovated the hell out of that space.

In what way?

 

[Ns1]

In what way?

tablet running ms office w/ pen, digitizer, and smart cover that doubles as a keyboard weighing less than 2 pounds

it's everything that's been missing from every tablet (imho)


there is nothing like the surface at any price point (Samsung Slate included); there are many tablets like the gNexus at many price points.

 

[Mopetar]

tablet running ms office w/ pen, digitizer, and smart cover that doubles as a keyboard weighing less than 2 pounds

Had all of that years ago. The only difference was that it didn't weigh less than 2 pounds. Like I said, not so much innovation as steady refinement over time. Otherwise all of those things have been done before, many of them in combination. Some of them by Microsoft no less.

 

[Eug]

tablet running ms office w/ pen, digitizer, and smart cover that doubles as a keyboard weighing less than 2 pounds

it's everything that's been missing from every tablet (imho)

I've had a keyboard cover (Bluetooth) since last year for my iPad. Mine's not very good, but nonetheless it's not new.

 

[Ns1]

Had all of that years ago. The only difference was that it didn't weigh less than 2 pounds. Like I said, not so much innovation as steady refinement over time. Otherwise all of those things have been done before, many of them in combination. Some of them by Microsoft no less.

I don't consider a full keyboard the same thing as a smart cover with a keyboard, but we can agree to disagree. I get where you're coming from.

 

[Dominato3r]

Had all of that years ago. The only difference was that it didn't weigh less than 2 pounds. Like I said, not so much innovation as steady refinement over time. Otherwise all of those things have been done before, many of them in combination. Some of them by Microsoft no less.

Maybe. But it also looks like it's the first time its been done right. So whether or not that's innovation might be in question, but Windows hardware that goes this form factor is typically garbage.

Microsoft knows what it needs this time around.