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The Surface tablet unveiled by Microsoft at its mysterious event in Los Angeles this week looked very impressive. It obviously faces very stiff competition from the Apple iPad—which dominates the tablet market. But, there’s a very good chance that businesses will flock to the Surface (or other Windows 8 tablets) if Microsoft delivers something close to what it presented to the media. I am a huge fan of the iPad, so I don’t make that claim lightly. I have owned all three iterations of the iPad thus far, and I’m not prepared to abandon the New iPad any time soon....

It should not be a surprise that physcians are not fans of Microsoft products -- namely Windows and Internet Explorer. Much of this hatred is due to hospital enterprise solutions still using outdated versions of Internet Explorer. Ask a physician friend to fill you in if you need a better idea. On a personal note, I had been dreading the forthcoming Microsoft tablet because I know Microsoft products make hospital health IT departments salivate. We commented last year how many hospital IT departments cite physicians using the iPad at work as their biggest headache. I knew as soon as Microsoft...

With its new Surface Tablet, Microsoft didn’t just break the mold. It smashed it into a million little pieces, chucked them all into the furnace and set the temperature to obliterate. There really is no precedent for what Microsoft did this week. What was once recognizable is gone. The expected is no more. There are no rules, only supply and the possibility of demand. Microsoft finally built the tablet it wants to use for its platform: an ultra-thin, superlight, kick-stand-sporting, brainiac-cover wearing, touch screen wonder that elicited dozens of “I wants” in Mashable’s live blog chatter. Surface is still wrapped...

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has an uphill battle on his hands. He needs to break into the tablet market, taking on both the iconic market-leader, the iPad, as well as as an ever-burgeoning range of svelte Android tablets. However, after Microsoft's repeated attempts over 30 years to break into the tablet market, it now seems the software giant has the right tools to make it right. The Microsoft Surface tablet was officially unveiled in Los Angeles last night, and from the favourable first impressions, it looks like we have a three-way race in the tablet market. The Surface comes with...

This is going to be a huge week for Microsoft. Today, the company is expected to announce its first tablet, which will be designed to compete with the iPad. On Wednesday, we're expecting Microsoft to give us details on the next major version of its Windows Phone operating, which will likely be very similar to Windows 8. Here's you need to know: * Microsoft will announce its own tablet. This will be the first time Microsoft builds the hardware and software for a tablet. * The tablet will run a special version of Windows 8 called "Windows RT." Windows RT...

It looks like Microsoft are about to launch their own Tablet device, probably running a version of Windows 8 (and yes, I’m assuming Taniyama-Shimura once more). I’m fully expecting a lot of commentators to talk about how inexperienced the Redmond based company is at making hardware. So let me point out two counter-examples before the big event for your consideration. I’ll start with the Xbox 360. It’s had a pretty rough ride in terms of hardware with the Red Ring of Death and numerous issues early in the life cycle of the platform, but as Microsoft have understood the issues,...

Speculation is rising that Microsoft will formally introduce the Windows Tablet next Monday - with the tech giant holding a mysterious event in San Francisco. AllThingsD, a respected tech site, say sources have told them that this is a tablet event, introducing the software and the first apps which will run on the system. Early models of Windows tablets have been spotted at tech shows in Japan, with Acer among the manufacturers building the hardware. It will be big news If Microsoft reveals an in-house tablet - one manufactured by Microsoft itself or perhaps by its latest bedfellow Nokia -...

A riot broke out at a Foxconn workers' dormitory in Chengdu after hundreds of workers got involved in a clash with security guards, according to reports from Chinese human rights website Molihua... The incident at the dorm started at about 9pm on Monday and escalated into a full-scale riot involving three to four male dormitories, and up to 1,000 employees, reports claimed. Bottles, trash cans, chairs and fireworks were thrown from the upper floors of the male dormitory that housed workers from the Foxconn Chengdu plant. It lasted for two hours before local police quelled the disturbance, say reports. The...

Remember that bird strike in April that forced a Delta flight to make an emergency landing? The actual incident was caught on video by author Grant Cardone, who is now on some FAA "you're a troublemaker" list because he shot that video when his iPad was supposed to be turned off. Cardone was on CNN this morning to discuss the letter he'd received from the FAA's Supervisory Principal Operations Inspector regarding the incident. Reads the letter: "Your failure to comply with flight attendant instructions during a critical phase of flight and an aircraft emergency could have affected the safe outcome...

Microsoft revealed late last week that usage of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview has doubled that of Windows 7 during the same pre-release timeframe for that version. “Millions” of people are already using Windows 8 every day, the company claimed. Because this is literally all the information that Microsoft communicated about this incredible milestone, let’s read between the lines a bit. I have two thoughts about this issue, one of which has been bothering me for some time. First, this announcement is an attempt by Microsoft to remind people of how popular Windows really is. While the mainstream media is...

Apple generates more gossip than the Kardashians. There's a constantly spinning mill of rumors about Apple products, most of which turn out to be untrue. What's unusual this week is that talk has revived of a smaller iPad model, an idea company founder Steve Jobs derided publicly a year before he died. —WHY IT'S A GOOD IDEA: A smaller tablet would help Apple further its lead in the tablet market. "From a competitive standpoint, we believe an iPad mini with a lower price point would be the competition's worst nightmare, says Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee. "Most (competitors)...

I was struck by a comment by one of our Freepers - ClearCase_guy, notably because I've said much the same thing here and there. ClearCase_guy said, "Sometimes I wish the Republicans would put both the economic and social issues on the back burner. We probably need to spend 4 years just HAMMERING the propaganda industry, the media, and the educational establishment. Just expose them all as manipulative liars with no principles of any kind. We aren't going to fix the economic or social problems until the sheeple smarten up and realize how deeply immoral our society has become. " ClearCase...

Early on the morning of March 16, Wong Tat joined a line of about 100 people waiting for the launch of the new iPad in a chilly rain outside an Apple store on the outskirts of San Francisco. When the doors opened, he was among the first to buy his quota of two iPads -- the maximum Apple Inc allows per person. Then, sporting a bright red cap for easy identification, Wong began to direct a stream of people toting their new tablets to a silver Mercedes SUV in the parking lot. After about two dozen of the neatly boxed...

<p>MacDailyNews Take: Can’t compete? Spread bullshit that will ultimately have no impact on Apple nor assuage the pain of your abject failure. Like Mac Cube mold lines termed “cracks,” iPod “scratches,” iPhone antennas, Chinese labor, iPhone antennas again (try and try again and fail both times), trojans misrepresented as “viruses,” etc., this is nothing more than white noise that loudly announces the beginning of yet another new stretch of Apple roadkill.</p>

Late last summer, I wrote an article titled Dear tablet makers: You’re doing it wrong in which I shared my view on what I believe to be one of the biggest problems currently facing tablet vendors. In this article, I postulated that most Android tablets failed to make a splash because, in a nutshell, they bring nothing new to the table. Of course Android offers a vastly different user interface and user experience as compared to Apple’s market-leading iPad, but in terms of true differentiation — unique and desirable features offered to tablet buyers that cannot be found on the...

Imagine you run a large technology company not named Apple. Let’s say you’re Steve Ballmer, Michael Dell, Meg Whitman, Larry Page, or Intel’s Paul Otellini. How are you feeling today, a day after Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the new iPad? Are you discounting the device as just an incremental improvement, the same shiny tablet with a better screen and faster cellular access? Or is it possible you had trouble sleeping last night? Did you toss and turn, worrying that Apple’s new device represents a potential knockout punch, a move that will cement its place as the undisputed leader of...

UPS came today and delivered a pkg I wasn't expecting. I called the wife to see if she had ordered something and she said it was my present, and that I should open it to make sure it worked as advertised. It's a Tablet! Specifically, it's a Pandigital SuperNova DLX. And, wow, thing has nearly everything. The specs... 8” Capacitive Touch Digital (Multi-touch) TFT LCD Resolution 600x800 pixels Dimensions Outer case: 6.25”w x 8.5”h Screen: 8” Android OS Version 2.3 Adobe Flash Player Version 10.3 Compatible Media Sources Up to 32GB microSDTM (SDHC) card Compatible File Formats Kindle eBooks =...

If the first iPad, released in April 2010, were a government program, it would be the most successful Washington initiative in history. Apple has sold more than 50 million iPads so far, and they are expected to sell another 50 million this year alone. Their nearest competitor, Samsung, is expected to sell just 8 million. In fact, 83 percent of all tablet users in the United States had iPads last year, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The astonishing success of the iPad has helped make Apple the most valuable company in the world. And what is Apple doing...

If the first iPad, released in April 2010, were a government program, it would be the most successful Washington initiative in history. Apple has sold more than 50 million iPads so far, and they are expected to sell another 50 million this year alone. Their nearest competitor, Samsung, is expected to sell just 8 million. In fact, 83 percent of all tablet users in the United States had iPads last year, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The astonishing success of the iPad has helped make Apple the most valuable company in the world. And what is Apple doing...

Translation of the breaking news from one of Northern Europe's leading papers: "The new Apple surf pad is not going to work within the range and demands provided by the extremely swift Scandinavian 4G presently being launched in the Nordic Countries."