"I want a tablet that is just like an ipad but with Windows"

I am genuinely interested in seeing how that Windows one sells.

It sort of looks like a (heavier) ipad but it has the "comfortable and familiar" Windows with its "millions of applications" on it. This is important because this is what many fanboys will tell you is what everyone needs in a tablet to get any real work done.

So here it is, the much vaunted "Windows Ipad".

I assume the battery life is less than stellar due to the required hardware specs and it will likely be slow to boot but you have to expect that with Windows on x86. You also have to expect premium pricing for the same reason and we've got that here for sure.

So, will this sell like hotcakes or be left in the dust by the "lesser" tablets running Android on ARM even though they don't have the "comfort of Windows" and "millions of applications"?

Interesting times indeed.

I must be thick

It sounds to me like hew wants to embed TOR in a wall-wart sized server.

Or am I missing something?

What I can't figure out

is whether these clowns are craven liars or just plain old stupid.

The answer is probably both.

"The multiplier effects, for those willing to get past the press release, include reduced spending on recreation, clothing, housing and household goods."

I assume that statement means that record company execs have less money to spend on Beemers, hookers and nose candy or something.

What it fails to take into account is that;

a) These so called "pirates" would never have actually purchased even 10% of the shit that they download in the first place, meaning the alleged "losses" are nothing like what these retards claim.

b) Even if there are real and actual losses it is not going to lead to "reduced spending on recreation, clothing and household goods" at all. The "lost" spending will merely be done by people other than the various recording industry leeches, primarily the "freetards" and their families. What these morons are espousing here is known as "The Broken Window Fallacy" and it is often wheeled out on occasions such as this in an effort to convince non critical thinkers (ie judges, politicians) that their ridiculous argument has some merit. It doesn't.

And before anyone climbs up on their high horse and whines about "artists" being ripped off, then I would direct you straight to the horses mouth on that argument.

http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html

http://boingboing.net/2009/12/07/major-record-labels.html

http://www.negativland.com/albini.html

first-mover advantage?

I thought PC makers had been attempting to sell tablets now for a decade or more? Apple were by no means the first mover, however you probably make a case that they were the first mover to not make an utterly crap product I suppose.

Do they or don't they?

Which is it?

"Oracle had moved to prevent the original GitHub migration by claiming it owned the Hudson name – which it doesn't.

[...]

That left Oracle owning just the Hudson name "

Yeah

We (Australia) are used to being shafted by these companies. We are the dumping ground for all their failed products and cheap knockoffs. We didn't even see the G1 being offered her until *after* it was discontinued by google.

Beer, because at least we have the good stuff in that area.

Oh Goody

Palladium rises from the grave to menace the world once more.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/06/28/ms_palladium_protects_it_vendors/

It was a bad idea then and it is a bad idea now.

"significant" and "substantial" amounts of marketing dollars

So the penny drops. Microsoft are paying Nokia to use their OS and Nokia are so desperate (not to mention they have a MS exec at the helm) that they are willing to throw away their entire heritage and hand over all the juicy bits to their new "partner"

Flames, because MS "partners" always get burnt.

Who Wants To Play The Cloud Provider Lottery?

30 companies eh?

Question: How many of these companies do we still expect to be operating in the next two years, once this ridiculous obsession with The Cloud dissipates? (Oh, see what I did there!)

Who wants to take a punt on picking a winner? Hello? Anyone?

Watch as I pull a rabbit out of my hat.

"Can you imagine Apple trying to convince Comcast that it was okay to connect cable service to a TV set that tried to compete with the core cable offering?"

Well, before the iphone people were saying the exact same thing about the chances of apple ever convincing a major telco to sell phones that allowed apple to completely control the whole user experience (updates, apps, services) without the telco taking a cut.

Remember that before the iphone every single telco was enamoured with the idea of offering "value added internet and services" (at extra cost to consumers of course) and were intent on "differentiating" their *networks* through controlling and/or customising all the handsets they offered.

People laughed at the idea that apple would be able to sell a phone to the AT&T's of the world without handing complete control over to the network operator along with it.

After all, that is how they had *always* done business in the past. Nokia in particular did very well out of the arrangement (until apple came along and ate their lunch of course).

Oh Dear

I hope no patients are adversely affected by this.

"Telstra would migrate its customers to the NBN as the network rolls out"

This assumes of course that the NBN does, in fact, "roll out"

Do You Know What?

I don't care if the machine performs fellatio on me while it prints, it's a Lexmark and I have no doubt whatsoever that the ink will be more expensive than the finest French Champagne and they will have spared no expense whatsoever to ensure that you cannot buy generic ink either through placement of unnecessary technical hurdles or just good old fashioned method of sending out your attack lawyers to any firm who attempts to make reasonably priced ink.

It's about time companies like Lexmark were force to sell their printers at a price that reflects the cost to produce it and stop using the old sell the razor cheap and stiff them for the blades sales tactic through extortionate ink pricing.

I realise that all printer manufacturers play these games but Lexmark have made an art form of it.

Those crooks won't be seeing one red cent from me, ever.

The stench of FAIL

is upon Microsoft.

Firstly, they are giving apple and android a whopping two years (well, three actually) head start to gain widespread market acceptance. The only thing that Windows has going for it is the so-called "comfort factor", which is something Steve Ballmer is constantly banging on about to anybody who will listen. Essentially, the idea is that it is the ubiquitousness of Windows that keeps people on the treadmill. Simply put, Joe Public has been, until only recently, utterly unaware that there are in fact alternatives to Microsoft products and when introduced to one is to afraid/lazy to engage it.

"I think I'll just stick with the "Blue E" thanks, I'm used to that."

But now tablets are all the rage and people don't have the option of using the Start Menu and the Blue E. If they want to get their own piece of the shiny-shiny they have no choice but to go cold turkey on their Microsoft habit.

In another two years people will well and truly come to realise that there is no need to slavishly stick with MS and do battle on a daily basis with their unnecessarily overblown and clunky OS.

By the time MS does manage to get their tablets out Joe Public will have been edumacated by the market into understanding that Computer != Microsoft like they once thought and their MS addiction will be long gone.

And this is the time that MS intend to foist a Windows tablet on the market.

As has said by other commentards, MS has to make a choice. Stick with the "comforting" look and feel of Windows to try and keep hold of the people who remain being too afraid to try anything different or design a completely new OS and user interface to make the tablet user experience as smooth as possible.

They can't do both, although I can't help thinking they will try.

Then there are the hardware difficulties with supporting Windows. Spinning disks, poor battery management, an inability to do instant on, a seemingly ever present need for cooling fans, these things do not fit well into what people expect from a tablet device.

Simply porting Windows + Office to ARM won't do the trick. Even if ARM magically fixes all of the massive hardware requirements demanded by Windows, can you imagine a clueless punter with a device that looks like it is running vanilla Windows downloading some random crap EXE off the intertoobs and completely not understanding the difference between x86 and ARM binaries?

Once that starts happening en masse the whole "Windows is much easier for n00bs and has millions and millions of programs" argument goes right out the window. The same applies to drivers. Apart from vanilla thumbdrives, most of the billions of USB devices that are out there will be totally unusable on ARM based Windows, unless MS does a spectacular job of convincing hardware manufacturers to port their drivers over, which I think is unlikely.

I just can't see things working out well for Wintel in the tablet space.

MS should relocate their HQ to Fail Town now so as to not prolong the agony.

Oh yes.

I can just imagine the seemingly endless rounds of meetings between those jobsworth arseholes as they sat around scarfing espresso and muffins all eager to add their own little draconian piece to the worker oppression pie.

The author is dead correct. If some Neville posting a minor snipe on Facebook is considered a "career limiting offence" then where does this thermonuclear shit explosion sit on the scale of "things to be sacked for"?

Of course we all know the answer to that, don't we. The control freak dingbats who came up with this insane policy will be unlucky if they even receive a slap on the wrist.

Oh!

I'm so excited I'm all aquiver.

Oh, sorry, what were you saying? Something about some sort of vapourware Windows tablet?

Snouts in the trough boys!

Hurry, before it runs out!

Sigh

It would be not so bad if this crapfest was just the latest iteration in an already done to death franchise but when a dev takes what is conceivably a reasonably innovative premise and proceeds to just flush it down the crapper then that is just sad.

Queue marketards such as that clown from Treyarch blaming stupid angry gamers for "punishing a developer who dared to do something different" etc.

Microsoft?

Reformed monopolist?

What you talkin' 'bout Willis?

Here is a question: How exactly has Microsofts market behaviour changed from before they were convicted of abusing their monopoly status?

Creativity and Innovation in the gaming industry.

MIA since about 1998.

I have no idea what this guy is on about. Perhaps he should put some effort into producing a game that does not require the player to charge full frontal assault style through a "play corridor" just to reach the next trigger point that turns off the infinite spawn point just up ahead meaning the game is over in a matter of hours.