Move Over Apple

[LondonRascal]

I know there are some fellow tech lovers on this Forum and no doubt you will be aware of the rather deep 'ripples' that have been caused since Microsoft popped up with a some new innovative products.

To make matters simple they are:

> A Desktop PC that's not a Desktop PC.  It’s the 'Surface Studio' It has a 28" monitor with a 3:2 aspect ratio, is the thinnest LCD panel on earth and has one wire coming out the back - but also allows you to use an SD card, for example, without need for an adapter is near silent and looks simply gorgeous.

> Surface Dial - a chunky aluminum dial that looks like a big volume knob off a very expensive high end Hi-Fi system from the late 90's.  Only it can do things on your desk, or work with the Surface Studio on the screen so you combine virtual elements, like touch with physical ones like turning a dial to display a colour palate.

> Now Microsoft has been slowly getting more into actual devices for a while - webcams, keyboards, tablets, mice you know..Just the same as say HP or Dell have been - but what seems to have happened is they have gone from the everyday to real innovation and stunning design.  That's what Apple do, right?

So here I am, someone who has always been 'into Apple' watching their two recent releases - the iPhone 7 which looks like the iPhione 6, but has no audio jack, a better camera, faster processor, better screen and colours bla bla the Apple Watch which I never really liked and now seems like only handy if you swim a lot or go to the Gym a great deal - I don't do either so it still looks like an expensive fad in my eyes. 

They have released a new Mac Book - thinner, lighter, and some 'touch bar' that adapts to the software you are using...It is all good stuff, but it is not 'wow' stuff. 

In one swipe, Microsoft's new Surface Studio makes the Mac look very mundane.  Apple have talked for years about touch and how important this is, and they have innovated so much (and made previous ideas sound like they invented them) but being able to sit at a computer screen one moment, then effortless slide it down as if a large sheet of paper, use a pen with no lag to write on it, have a page of A4 paper in your hand – be at the same scale as you see on screen (good bye print preview) are new, are innovative – make the whole thing look like a work of art and boy you got me sold.  

I don’t know why I want it all – but I do.  I think a lot of people will also want it, but again that is what Apple is used to doing, so if they update the Mac and enable similar things with the Apple Pencil and integrate touch more it will just be following Microsoft not leading.  

I am not all for Apple or Microsoft, but it is nice to see a company you take for granted pull out the bag – not once but now several times – products that cause people to sit up and take note of and cause a new direction of design and innovation to kick off.

 

Here is the Surface Studio from Apple Microsoft:

 

 

 

[grendel]

useless for CAD as you cant draw accurately enough on a touch screen, I think I will just stick with my 2 24" monitors at work (with a spare slot to add a third if I need one)  

[LondonRascal]

4 minutes ago, grendel said:

useless for CAD as you cant draw accurately enough on a touch screen, I think I will just stick with my 2 24" monitors at work (with a spare slot to add a third if I need one)  

Two monitors is the way to go

That said, this would look lovely in a minimalist new apartment in Hoxton as a hot blonde dressed only in a dressing gown sips her morning mug of Hafong Tuplitop fair trade tea as she moves the screen effortlessly forward and adds a touch of flare to her latest creation - a logo for a new tech start-up called Plonk'r

 

[grendel]

12 minutes ago, LondonRascal said:

Two monitors is the way to go

 

 

I would have 3 but I would be hard pressed to find the space on my desk.

That said, a friend who worked for a games development company once managed to run 17 monitors off a single gaming workstation (as there were 17 optional views available in the game , he said they had to try it as someone out there in game world would surely set up a machine that way).

[batrabill]

Promising considering what a steaming pile of dog do the new Sierra OS seems to be. Slow, slow slow.

[LondonRascal]

You need Ultra Wide: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01BFH1AIM 

[LondonRascal]

I really don't know what the fuss is about 4K. When full HD popped up, few people could really utilize it, even today many people will watch DVDs and be perfectly happy with this - not aware that they are watching something at around 480p.

Some people I follow on You Tube have spent a fortune updating their computers to edit in 4K, buying new cameras and presenting 'now in 4K' - but then drawing attention to how much data each minute of video uses and why videos are shorter now because of this (not to emotion longer rendering times) and all this for such a small percentage of their audience who would be able to appreciate this extra resolution on a 4K screen. I think so much easier to  carry on in good old fashion HD

Another point is 4K cannot be really appreciated in the sub 80" screen size - many will argue the point but it is like going to the  beach and counting how many grains of sand you can see next to you. Now do the same with the grains of sand by your feet. Try again with the sand far beyond your feet (like, say, 10 feet away). The fact that you can see individual grains near you, but not farther away is exactly what we're talking about here. The eye is analog so of course some people are going to see more detail than others, and at different distances, but 20/20 is what everyone knows and since 4K is above this the eye cannot detect at closer distances and smaller screen sizes any notable difference in the image.

So unless you go buying 80"+ screen's you really will not appreciate any noticeable resolution increase compared to 1080p - what you will notice is a great depth of colour and contrast but even that depends on the actual screen you are showing it on and what is being natively fed in from your source.

In my opinion 4K is just marketing hype - just as more and more pixels once were in digital cameras - to the average Joe with the average front room and average screen size they are not going to be blown away - especially when so little content is available natively in 4K uncompressed but of course it does not stop everyone wanting to go 4K - even better if it can be curved.

[Poppy]

Oh dear

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37799235

[Maxwellian]

Marketing hype it maybe ... but it is shiny and some people just want new and shiny. Now that monitor you posted will just fit nicely. My conscious (SWMBO) on the other hand said no.