Who really invented the tablet...

Microsoft Surface will replace the iPad

Microsoft Surface uses a magnesium alloy for the casing and gorilla glass for the touch screen.
This will make MS Surface a serious candidate to replace the iPad... at least for this gentleman:

Microsoft Surface games

Microsoft Surface is yet to be launched, but already has three games:
Catch, fetch and debug.

• When with a friend, one throws the tablet and the other tries to catch.
• When with a dog, one could play fetch.
• When alone, one can play debug to try to find out why Internet Explorer locks on Microsoft "major announcements".

WTF?!

I was looking to my latest post statistics, and this is what I got:

Where is the Internet Explorer? Is it dead?
Windows only at 49%?

I've been looking for all time statistics on my other blogs and sites, and it's tightly coupled with the content's subject and how it is being accessed.
Windows and Internet Explorer are mainly used by:

• people searching contents
• Portugal related subjects
• old postings

And are not (less) being used by:

• people on social networks (Google+, Facebook, Twitter)
• technical related subject
• recent postings

If this is actually a trend everywhere, and not just on my contents, then Microsoft might be in a deeper trouble than I thought it to be.

Microsoft's Major Announcement: Microsoft Surface tablet

Microsoft Surface
keyboard with actual keys

As Captain Obvious from NCIS pointed out:

- That's not Major Announcement, it's either Major Disappointment or Major Fail. We'll have to wait for the DNA results, just to be sure.

Judging from the refrigeration grille, I'd say it's Major Fail.

It's not a tablet, it's a tablet PC (remember those?).

Follow me:

Refrigeration grille -> heat

Heat -> high power consumption

High power consumption -> low autonomy

Microsoft Surface
touch "keyboard"

Yes, I know there are two versions of Microsoft Surface. But let's face it, the only one that has an initial lead over the competition it the tablet PC version (Windows 8), because it can run existing applications. The tablet version (Windows RT) has no apps (well, you know I don't mean it has zero apps, just that they are nearly non-existent when compared with the competition iOS and Android). So, it will face the same market penetration problem that Windows Phone 7 is facing.

Microsoft Surface
appalling stand

Microsoft, during the entire presentation, kept bashing Apple iPad. The problem is that Apple success is about design, and the Microsoft Surface appears to be designed by engineers, not by designers.

The stand is simply appalling. As someone said over the Internet, looks like a cheap digital photo frame. Besides, it has a major design fault: the tilt is fixed, you can't adjust it to face you, you'll have to adjust you to face it.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer
keyboard stand

This have to do with the keyboard. The cover-keyboard (or keyboard-cover) is a mixed imitation from both iPad and Asus. Asus has the cover that doubles as a keyboard, and Apple has the magnetic one. Microsoft combined the ideas, and made a mess out of it. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer uses the keyboard as a stand, and this allows screen (tablet) tilt adjustment. Microsoft, with the magnetic cover, was unable to do this, and therefore needed the appalling stand on the back.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer
adjustable screen (tablet) tilt

Back to the refrigeration grille. Microsoft said that this grille had an intelligent design, so you could never block it with your hands. This was clearly a reference to Apple iPhone antenna design problem. But Microsoft would have done better not to mention this grille.

The grille is a major issue. By making reference to the grille, we now know that the device heats to a point that it needs refrigeration. I've already addressed the autonomy problem, but there is more to it: comfort. Will the user be comfortable using it? Won't the heat make it uncomfortable to held and use?

As I said (Captain Obvious), we'll have to wait for the DNA results.

Time will tell.

But I'm betting that the corpse belongs to Major Fail.

Nokia and Windows Phone: the demise

Nokia:

• Nokia, a Top-100 Brand No More
• Nokia removes Skype from Marketplace on Lumia 610, blames poor user experience
• Nokia's Financial Woes Continue

Windows Phone:

• RunKeeper dumps Windows Phone
• Windows Phone reaches for the bottom
• Microsoft's smartphone market share tumbles 27%. Will Windows Phone ever gain traction?

This demise was pretty obvious, even more than one year ago. The sudden drop on stock price, on the same day Elop announced the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft, was more than a subtle sign. The gains prior to that day also shows something else: investors were hoping that Nokia would go Android. They gambled on that, and lost. The next day everyone was aware of Nokia's future demise. The final days of Nokia are here.
Nokia's mistake: Elop.
Elop's mistake: Microsoft.
Microsoft's mistake: Ballmer.

Obrigado pelo Acordo Ortográfico (AO90)

Durante algum tempo deixei de ler a trapalhada do FACEBOOK.

Hoje tenho estado divertido a fazer UNLIKE de tudo o que me esteja a aparecer segundo o AO90 (Acordo Ortográfico).

Ora, devo dizer que o FACEBOOK está a ficar mais apelativo a cada UNLIKE que faço...
Muito bom. Muito bom, mesmo.
Até já começo a vislumbrar posts interessantes que estavam perdidos no meio do lixo anterior.

Agradeço aos inventores do AO90 esta forma de simplificação da minha vida. Assim ficou bem mais fácil separar os conteúdos de lixo, dos conteúdos escritos por quem realmente tem um cérebro. Obrigado.