Microsoft Surface - What can you do with Surface?
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The make and break features of Surface are the UI and touch sensitive display. Without these, it would be your typical PC and each part is vital for Surface's success. The touch capabilities bring instant input without the need for anything else other than your finger. Microsoft has released a few videos on possible uses of Surface.
This first one is called "The Magic." It shows possible uses in consumer homes. First we see the drawing in action; nothing more than a different version of MSPaint. The interesting thing is to see the multi-touch interface working with the use of all 10 fingers at the same time.
Next up is a couple sharing pictures with each other. The can drag, flip, and resize every picture, even having each person work on a different picture at the same time. For this to sell as a consumer device, they need to develop more applications and not leave Surface as a glorified picture viewer.
This video is called "The Power" and it begins with more pictures. Next we see someone use it along with Live Maps, and looks like he throws a trip onto his smart phone. Next are a few seconds of clips of the Surface in different environments. We see it used in a restaurant, adding some novelty to the table, and then two people scrolling through music similar to a jukebox. Finally we see it used by a cell phone provider to compare two different phones. With the roll out of AT&T and soon T-Mobile with the Surface, this is probably what you can find at the stores that offer these phones.
The final video is called "The Possibilities," and is probably my favorite. It starts out with two ladies apparently sharing music between their Zunes. They simply drag songs over to one and the other. That's probably not going to work too well with your iPods. Next we see a camera put on the Surface, and the pictures instantly become available on the Surface. Finally we see it work with credit cards in a restaurant. Users throw their credit cards down, pick up the items they ordered, and then leave a tip and go. This has to be better than annoying the wait staff by having them divide your check for you.
Next: Future possibilities >>
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