Microsoft Surface hands on review and gallery
Remember the Microsoft Surface? After a slow start, the greatest multi-touch device on earth (yes, greater than that one) is finally rolling out to business customers in a variety if industries. Microsoft sat down with BGR last night in an attempt to school us on a few of the intricacies of the oh-so-appealing behemoth of a device, some of the philosophy behind Surface, and a bit of insight into the future potential and possible future applications of this brave new market space. Were we impressed? In a word, yes, though not without a few caveats. Hit the jump below to continue reading our hands-on review, or hit the gallery link to check out the gallery!
Click on over to our Microsoft Surface hands-on gallery!
First things first: Microsoft has designed an amazing device, one that essentially creates an entirely new market space. Sure there are multi-touch devices out there, but nothing that compares to the Surface in terms of size, versatility, and scalability. To be perfectly honest, the closest thing we can think of to the Surface, at least in regards to its physical presence, is a circa-1986 Pac-Man machine in your favorite neighborhood bowling alley.
The amazing thing about the Surface is how seamless everything is. There’s almost no lag between input and reaction, and the multi-touch screen responds without an undue amount of pressure, giving the impression that it’s truly an extension of whatever input you’re attempting to execute. The company remained quiet on the internal components of the machine (though we did learn that the device is running on a highly customized version of Windows Vista), but whatever they’ve got in there must be pretty powerful.
Every Surface sold includes full access to the Surface-specific SDK, which includes a number of tools to help partner clients realize the device’s full potential. As the team explained to us, working with the Surface requires developers to re-align their entire approach to building applications. Even something as simple as the device’s table-top orientation can cause problems in a traditional development environment, as planning for a top-down 360 degree user experience isn’t something that’s currently being taught in most computer science courses. As such, Microsoft seems to be working closely with every contracted partner, offering them a comprehensive back-end support program that should help programmers new to the Surface environment.
Microsoft had several devices on hand, and demoed a variety of different applications. We got a chance to see the AT&T software up close, and also had a bit of time to play around with the Rio iBar software. These two implementations represent vastly different applications of the Surface and speak to the device’s seemingly limitless potential. The AT&T version essentially take the form of a virtual touchable sales clerk, displaying phone-specific feature sheets, plans, add-ons, and more, all based on the device that the user chooses to place on the screen. Placing two devices on the screen instantly brings up a side-by-side comparison of features and options. Imagine a wireless shopping experience that provided you with up-to-date, correct, information about the device(s) of your choice, allowing you to make your selections without the added pressure of a commission driven salesperson breathing down your neck. Sound appealing? We certainly think so, and there’s no reason this model couldn’t work in a variety of retail settings.
The Rio iBar implementation on the other hand, is focused on provided a fun, interactive experience to patrons at a bar or club. You can play various games, order drinks, and flirt with other Surface users across the room. Nothing ground breaking, but it certainly demonstrates much of the gaming and social-networking potential of the Surface. Interestingly, the social implications of the AT&T and Rio iBar devices couldn’t be more polarized. The AT&T device is essentially designed to replace a human being (despite what anyone says to the contrary), and all the face-to-face interaction that goes along with a traditional retail sales environment. The iBar customized Surface, though, is something akin to a virtual campfire, albeit located in a casino in Vegas, creating a very social space for human interaction.
Ironically, the biggest problem facing the Surface right now is, in fact, its potential. There are so many potential applications for something like this, from education, to the medical field, to in-home use, that it’s almost heart-breaking to see such a contained and focused launch of the AT&T and Harrah’s applications. We certainly understand their business model, and appreciate the necessity of proving that the Surface is a viable product for deep-pocketed corporate clients such as AT&T and Harrah’s. Though we wish we could look forward to a day in the not-so-distant future when we can head out to Best Buy and pick up a Surface of our very own. The company mentioned that they’re hoping to get into the consumer space within the next three years, but they’re currently working on accelerating that process as much as possible. Our advice? Take our briefcase full of money and send a demo unit out to BGR World Headquarters. We’ll do our best to prove that enough consumer demand exists right now. Due entirely to the efforts of the dedicated Surface team, Microsoft has succeeded in something very un-Microsoft here: a new product that defines its own market. This isn’t a Zune made as a reaction to the iPod, and this certainly isn’t an Xbox designed as a reaction to the Playstation. As such, they have a bit of an uphill battle ahead to prove that the Surface as a device genre is viable enough to warrant a continued effort. Honestly, in our opinion, it’s going to be well worth their trouble.
Tags: AT&T, microsoft surface, multi-touch, playstation, rio ibar, vista, Windows, xbox
Fix the gallery!
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You do realize the gallery works fine, right?
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I don’t get it. The same company responsible for Vista and Windows Mobile is also responsible for this?! They can’t make a decent OS (a product they have decades of experience with) and yet can make this thing, which actually seems to be good?!
At least we know what all of their good engineers, programmers, and designers were working on while Vista was being hacked together.
Oh, and I need a new coffee table. Can I have one of these? I could see some mad boardgame action going down…
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@specced
Programmers have this old saying;
Do you know how god created the world in seven days ?
He didn’t have an installed base.
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@mrp
That’s crap and such a f*ing copout. Apple has one of the most vocal fan bases around but they’ve got NO problem stripping software compatibility in favor of performance and forward progress. If they have to they use emulation or build in unique ways to make stuff work (like Rosetta). But I hate hearing that stupid ass excuse.
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Why is the home page on “Mobile” format? And when I click to exit from it, the page just reloads to the Mobile format once more… Is it because I’m using Firefox 3?
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Now it’s back to normal… WTF…
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“That’s crap and such a f*ing copout. Apple has one of the most vocal fan bases around but they’ve got NO problem stripping software compatibility in favor of performance and forward progress.”
They also only have 8% marketshare and there’s some very good reasons…
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@martin
great you’ve learned to use the “*” key.
This is not a microsoft vs apple debate. The fact is Microsoft is a lot bigger than apple and has built that client base for many reasons which you may, or may not understand.
Making fundemental changes to an OS effects the client base. If MS did that they wouldn’t be as attractive to their customers.
Don’t forget who bank rolled apple a few years ago to keep them from going under.
Not to mention, Vista, XP, W2K, NT 4.0 have gotten progessively more stable. You may not like the fact that vista uses twice the memory of XP and all for bells and whistles, and I would agree with you, but from a functionallity point of view it does what an OS should.
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mrp way to go too far, they never bailed anyone out. They invested - same as millions of other groups.
MS has been struggling since they started on Vista/Longhorn. They have a huge task every time they redo the OS but thats their choice.
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Anyhow… Back on Topic. This device is simply stunning. I had the chance to play with one in WA and I’ve got to tell you it was incredibly impressive. We are in for a treat when we get them in our homes.
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Can you imagine the medical applications for this? an MRI that outputs directly to this, or a CT scan, 3D xray, etc. Doctors being able to rotate the image in 3D and see all sides as they would just if they were holding it.
This is just one field, countless other applications in every other field imaginable.
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BG, I’m going to totally agree with you. This defines its own genre and has so much potential that Microsoft has to just release it to the public, throw XP on it (yea I know it’s basically a dead OS as of a few months from now), and let people develop and do what we do best.(…steal them)
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$10,000 for all the internal motors, arms, sensors, cameras, and lenses? Not to mention it weighs more than a Ford Escort. If you’ve seen the Multi-Touch by Jeff Han, which is by far much better implemented and is capable of working on a wall mounted LCD, without the primitive mechanical moving parts, (prone to failure) you would realize that this beast is obsolete before it’s debut. The iPhone 3G can rotate 3D images of CT Scans, 3D x-ray right in the palm of your hand, with all the clarity, detail, and do most of what this can without the ball and chain of a behemoth monstrosity. After playing with one, I wondered, who would spend the additional funds to purchase cameras and phones which could interact with this thing? Have all of your private photos spill out for the world to see - have the glass surface crack in a restaurant when crashing your stein down after a toast. Highly inefficient, poorly implemented, and a little too oversized, overpriced, and vulnerable to be practical.
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Sooo…
i was just wondering,…
if there are any rumors floating around…
about an Apple PC or maybe even a notebook…
that would have similar capability?
just wondering.
Holla if you hear something.
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Is there tactile feedback/haptics on this?
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they didn’t tell you what they had in the guts of the thing because they secretly have a mac running OS XX inside. Duh BG! Love the posts. Keep em coming!
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Hi guys,
Your gallery does not work for me (Safari @ MacOS X 10.5).
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Your gallery doesn’t work for me either. (Firefox3 and IE7)– click on an image and it just refreshes the page.
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IdentityMine, one of the top Microsoft Surface shops (the creator of the Winebar and Snowboard applications demonstrated by Bill Gates at CES 2008) has released videos demonstrating PhysicsPanel - a library for creating physics-enabled applications for Surface (as well as anything else .NET 3.0 runs on like XP, Vista and Windows Mobile). It’s an awesome first look under the hood of Surface development.
http://uihero.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/wpf-and-surface-physics-code-video/
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