Witness Ridicules 'Hands-On' Reviews of Surface 206
Freshly Exhumed writes "Danny Sullivan over at Marketing Land has been tipped over the edge by various colleagues: 'After seeing yet another "hands-on" review of the Microsoft Surface tablet, I thought it would be interesting to shed more light on what exactly the journalists who assembled in Hollywood this week for the Surface launch event actually got to do with the tablets. In short, not a lot. Come along as I explain the hands-off reality of what I saw.' In response to Sullivan's criticisms, TechRadar contributor Mary To Many rebuts that merely touching something that does not operate nor even truly exist equates to an actual hands-on review. So, what do Slashdotters expect a "hands-on" review to reveal and/or include?"
I would drop (Score:2, Interesting)
I would drop the most basic things like
1. Weight on hands (as every person finds it different)
2. Feel on fingertips (every person finds it different, and I mean personal opinions "This feels nice" but you can say if there is texture or rubber or it is slippery)
3. Where the slots are (you can find them from screenshots, but I would like to hear which way the slots are if they are under cover, meaning some MicroUSB ports are wrong way installed so you need to plug cable other way as well).
4. Opinions of color (you can only mention available versions but not opinions are they cool looking etc).
5. All the typical "This is "X-based"" and so on. No need to mention "This use Android Ice Scream Sandwich" as it is enough to mention at start "Android 4.0".
6. Use correct names for software systems, like not "Android Ice Scream Sandwich" but "Android 4.0" as that way people know better what it is about, so leave code names to ignorance nerds and wannabe teens.
7. Do not show basic stuff... like "this has a touch screen" unless it is something new and special way, like having touch screen on keyboard etc.
8. Again, leave all personal opinions out unless you really want to focus for specific fans.
"Journalism" (Score:3, Interesting)
How many journalists can you name from the top of your head that follow a code of ethics and perform their function which is to report the news ojectively?
Yea, I thought so.
In this buzzphrase-dominated media society, journalists rank very high on own fart-smelling.
Re:Oh please, get a life. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Oh please, get a life. (Score:5, Interesting)
It isn't the world's biggest secret that, even among ostensibly respectable journalists who write about Serious Topics for Serious Publications of Record, 'access', advertisers, and parent companies have pretty severely eroded the teeth of the vaunted '4th estate'; but it never hurts to remind people of that fact. Tech journalism seems to be substantially more dreadful still.
Again, this phenomenon isn't really MS specific; but (given that most of the 'hands on!!!' coverage has politely failed to note exactly how carefully the minders were keeping a leash on things) it is good to have somebody inform us of that fact.
Obviously, a prerelease product is going to have rough edges, which team PR isn't going to want people cutting themselves on in front of the cameras; but a problem arises when most of the coverage simply elides the fact that PR flacks were waving people away from those rough edges, rather than noting them and moving on...
Re:Oh please, get a life. (Score:4, Interesting)
I like how you switch from smart quotes to straight quotes and back. What browser is that? It's doing something funny. (Slashdot's incompetence makes it apparent)
Re:Oh please, get a life. (Score:5, Interesting)
But you CAN actually use an Apple product when they are showed to the press. An unfinished product could be miles away from the promess made so the surface reviews are a moot point
This is typically true, largely because Apple's style is typically one of ruthless secrecy until launch; but really orthogonal to TFA's point:
His problem was not that a prerelease product was being shown to the press; but that most of the coverage completely failed to mention how tight a leash it was on.
At what point in the development cycle one chooses to demo a product is a matter of strategy and taste. Only when already shipping? Fine. Pre-alpha, only the boys from the lab can even touch it? Fine. The problem being highlighted is that journalists were(understandably, given the pressure for ad impressions; but very arguably unethically) overstating the amount of information they were actually bringing to their readers. Regurgitating press releases makes you a flack; but it isn't inherently unethical. Re-labelling press releases as 'news' and then regurgitating them is another matter entirely...
Re:Obviously a functional unit (Score:5, Interesting)
While some here on slashdot debate who copied whom first, I think we can agree MS tried to copy Apple's style of product announcements but they missed some key details. When Apple announces a new product, the product is already being shipped from China to their stores. As such Apple has a launch date and pricing detailed. The only exception is probably the original iPhone but Apple explained the 6 month lead time was because Apple couldn't keep it a secret as they had to get FCC approval. But Apple did list price and an estimated quarter.
Because the product is pretty much ready, Apple can rehearse the entire presentation ad nauseum to make sure it works. At best MS had a working prototype of Surface. However, the Surface tablet froze [betabeat.com] in the middle of the presentation. It's an incident that anyone who had done a product demo dreads. The most glaring gaffe at an Apple announcement was when Jobs couldn't get the original iPhone to surf the web via wifi. The technician traced the problem to too many wifi users at once which isn't a big deal. I think MS timed the PR event to follow Apple as Apple had their WWDC a week earlier to try to steal the thunder of everyone talking about the new MacBook Pro Retina displays.
Re:Was THAT The Best Name They Could Come Up With? (Score:5, Interesting)
But that's what everyone is calling the "new surface" now, it's just a prototype, that's why nothing works yet. But just wait, it's coming, we promise! (just like the original Surface)
That wasn't a product demo, it was a dream demo "this is what we are going to TRY to make". They spent most of their time speaking the word "surface" over and over like they were trying to brainwash the viewers, while telling everyone over and over ad nauseum how wonderful the clicking sound of the stand was etc. It was insulting. It wasn't a product demo, they were there to tell us what opinion of their product we are supposed to have, without any physical reason to back it up.
The demo itself was a disaster. That poor guy was up on stage, I felt sorry for him when he kept saying "xxx is wonderful!" and tried to get it to work, and it didn't. And so he just moved on to the next thing, "and yyy is wonderful!" and it also failed to work. He finally gave up and grabbed a hot spare off the table and it immediately failed to work on the next thing. "and it plays great games!" (game fails to launch) "and the video is great!" and the video still opens but the video refuses to start playing. "and this keyboard is wonderful!" (but I'm not going to ever attempt to type on it!) "and these menus are great!" (and no menu will stay open) I bet he headed to the bar after that demo. Considering the train wreck that it was though, he was pretty smooth with it.
Someone else a little above here was saying the difference between MS and Apple demos is that Apple is shipping units to the stores when the put them on demo. MS is demoing a product that may never make it to the stores. They aren't even finished designing it yet. They're so late to the tablet game that they're throwing a barely bootable early prototype up on stage and dangling it on a string over reviewers heads trying to stall for time. All they've done is shown their hand about where they'd like to be in 6 months. By then there will probably be a dozen tablets that have magnetic clicky keyboard cover/stand accessories available for them. This demo is probably going to do them more harm than good. And if they're as consistent with the Surface's "early preview" launch as they usually are, a few of the features they talked about it having won't even BE in the final product.
This thing has "Zune" written all over it. (although at least the Zune's demo went fairly well, before it cratered)
*sigh* (Score:3, Interesting)
If anyone's want to know exactly what went down at the press conference without being fed a heavy dose of cynicism, you could always check out ArsTechnica's liveblog and post-event coverage: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/liveblog-from-la-microsofts-major-announcement-rumored-tablet-unveil/ [arstechnica.com]
Slashdot's reaction to the Surface has been a mixture of amusing and frustrating. The reaction was immediately: "Surface is complete garbage. Horrible fail. After all, Microsoft never makes anything good." A few days later after some of the announced features of Surface disseminated the reaction changed to: "Utter vaporware. Never coming out. After all, Microsoft could never make something like that. They must be lying." Never in my life have I seen a piece of unreleased hardware declared vaporware in mere days of it's announcement. Never. Microsoft must've really touched a nerve with some people.
Re:Oh please, get a life. (Score:3, Interesting)
And you missed the parent poster's point. At an Apple rollout, there are typically dozens or even hundreds of production units to play with. People actually get hands on time to play with the machines. They're not on "a tight leash". True, it's not the same as an in-depth review, but it's definitely hands-on, and very different from the situation with the Surface.
Re:*sigh* (Score:4, Interesting)
If anyone's want to know exactly what went down at the press conference without being fed a heavy dose of cynicism, you could always check out ArsTechnica's liveblog and post-event coverage: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/liveblog-from-la-microsofts-major-announcement-rumored-tablet-unveil/ [arstechnica.com]
Slashdot's reaction to the Surface has been a mixture of amusing and frustrating. The reaction was immediately: "Surface is complete garbage. Horrible fail. After all, Microsoft never makes anything good." A few days later after some of the announced features of Surface disseminated the reaction changed to: "Utter vaporware. Never coming out. After all, Microsoft could never make something like that. They must be lying." Never in my life have I seen a piece of unreleased hardware declared vaporware in mere days of it's announcement. Never. Microsoft must've really touched a nerve with some people.
Slashdots response has been discussion...as always. As for Ars Techinca I believe they have closed their open source section :). I fail to see what is wrong with being surprised that Microsoft is making its first computer ever!? They have always made money from the software and not from the hardware, and have had Fall guys to test the water "Play for Sure - partners" or "Nokia"...and even then not computers, nothing to challenge its bread and butter of OS+Office, and No the Xbox doesn't count....but your wrong this is still vaporware; Where can I buy this product? Lets face it even journalist are not even allowed to use it.
Personally I believe many who advocate open source Os's are feeling a little like Winston Churchill when Pearl Harbour was attacked "So we have won after all!"
Seriously other than some really nasty anti-competitive tricks involving locking the OS to the hardware. I cannot see a downside, and that was already happening...its less likely to happen now. There is little to no threat to Linux based tablets[Google allegedly pricing their tablet at $200] where its best chance to win, is from bottom up. Microsoft have chosen to Directly take on Apple[their only option with x86] in the computer market for the first time in 20 years, rather than to continue to exist in a safe but shrinking duopoly, With a high end; High margin product; Using Brand Power[its like Mexican wrestling]. While giving a whole host of hardware manufactures including Nokia;"Barnes and Noble", Beige box manufactures waiting for windows 8 chance to re-evaluate their now weak strategy; being denied that a piece of that sweet early adopter high margin action after being stabbed in the back. Who here sympathises with these companies, hell these companies probably have a whole host of hardware IP ready to attack Microsoft with, most of them should have a "what will happen when Microsoft screw us over" package...or a button...or a bloke in a bowler hat. I suspect these hardware companies are suddenly going to an gain a healthy interest in software, and Open source is the best way to get to a working solution quickly. Personally I'd be installing libreoffice on all my current Windows 7 offerings, With dualboot into Company themed Debian based distro just for badness. They simply have no other choice, they need to adapt just like Microsoft have.
Personally I think computing is getting exciting again. Thanks to Microsoft being a backstabbing dick.
Re:Oh please, get a life. (Score:2, Interesting)
Not sure about that (Score:5, Interesting)
It is hard for a psychopath to become a good engineer or scientist; it is a career they avoid.
It's interesting (to me at least) that the founders of RIM, faced with a product and management succession crisis, developed a new CEO internally, while Nokia faced with the same crisis brought in a manager from Microsoft. Although both companies are in serious doo-doos, RIM is still profitable and it is Nokia that has been left to develop a load of phones for Microsoft which they are then told will not be supported by the next OS. What's more, RIM owns its next-gen OS and has customers for it in other fields, while Nokia is now completely owned by Microsoft.
Unfortunately it is all too easy to confuse being a psychopath with rugged American individualism.
Hardly matters (Score:4, Interesting)
I also get comments like this one moderated down - so it's another test post.