Microsoft's Risky Tablet Announcement 338
itwbennett writes "The New York Times describes the tablet announcement that Steve Ballmer is supposed to make in his CES opening keynote tonight as 'one of Steve Ballmer's riskiest trade show moves in years.' And blogger Peter Smith is in complete agreement. Here's why: 'Whether or not this announcement is intended as a direct response to the much-rumored Apple event that may or may not be happening on January 27th, consumers will perceive it as one,' says Smith. And if Microsoft unveils a traditional tablet then 'they'll be up against the (presumably more expensive) iTablet and the cult of Apple.' But if the device is the dual-screen Courier that we heard about back in September then it'll be up against the (presumably less expensive) enTourage eDGe, says Smith."
Re:Courier (Score:5, Informative)
The huge borders of enTourage eDGe really put me off.
The article says that it's a prototype, and the production version is supposed to be a lot more sleek.
The Zune? Nope. (Score:4, Informative)
According to Amazon's best seller list the top *17* music players are made by Apple. Numbers 18 & 19 are Sandisks. Then comes another iPod. Zune is the 21st in popularity.
Re:A Mimic Device Is Precisely What They Want (Score:3, Informative)
The two 360 titles I really cared about were Mass Effect and Bioshock. Bioshock eventually went PS3, but I just picked both up on the PC.
I thought Fable was horribly overrated. I beat it in 20 hours, and the game became extremely easy once I realized it had a broken mechanic. There was a spell that gave you a shield where you didn't take damage. You could earn exponential experience if you maintained a combo of hitting without taking damage. You cast the spell, hit enemies, lathered, rinsed and repeated. Not a single fight in the game presented any challenge, and I had a maxed character almost immediately.
Re:1st vendor to release a PADD from TNG gets my $ (Score:5, Informative)
Looks like you owe Nokia some $$ [youtube.com]
Re:A Mimic Device Is Precisely What They Want (Score:4, Informative)
You know that they make Office for Mac, right? And that the iPhone/Touch can display Office files out of the box, right? There are iPhone/Touch apps to allow you to edit them too.
Re:One thing Microsoft doesn't have (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Apple, Microsoft be damned.. (Score:1, Informative)
200 to 500 in inflation in 2 years? I sure hope not. If you think the current recession is bad that would be great depression bad...
Re:Who cares? (Score:3, Informative)
Battery life isn't the only advantage of eInk for readers -- it's easier on the eyes for long use than LCDs, too.