Microsoft Revives Its Hardware Conference 47
jfruh writes Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, or WinHEC, was an annual staple of the '90s and '00s: every year, execs from Redmond would tell OEMs what to expect when it came to Windows servers and PCs. The conference was wrapped with software into Build in 2009, but now it's being revived to deal with not just computers but also the tablets and cell phone Microsoft has found itself in the business of selling and even making. It's also being moved from the U.S. to China, as an acknowledgment of where the heart of the tech hardware business is now.
Frosty pasta! (Score:2, Funny)
What the HEC is this?
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Microsoft has always been a few years behind Apple in most developments that go major..
Re:Frosty pasta! (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft had tablets and smart phones years before Apple.
Apple made both easier to use, and with astonishing features like a decent web browser and Apps designed for such interfaces as opposed to Microsoft which is still working on a tablet edition of Office and outlook.(I haven't been paying attention as to whether or not it has been released).
What is the point of a tablet computer if you have to use a keyboard and mouse to make it work? It took Apple to answer that question for Microsoft.
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No, MS had touch tablets years ago.
It's took Apple to tell people they wouldn't be cool if they didn't have one.
And I'm glad they did it, I love tablet computers of all sorts.
Re:Frosty pasta! (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft's 2001 era tablets were also almost 2" thick and wrapped in 1990's era gray plastic you might find on an old HP desktop. 2001-era touchscreen displays were thicker than an entire iPad or android tablet is today. Not to mention pixel density in the 640x480 range, and battery life left a lot to be desired.
Enter the high PPI display, Gorilla Glass, modern Li-Ion battery technology and modern CPU (ARM) designs and now you can produce a tablet that's lighter and smaller than most text books.
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You must have been born before the advent of the original iMac. Of course the color matters. Which would you rather eat, a raw potato or a fresh apple? People aren't robots, their brains are wired in a particular manner. Marketing is a huge industry that makes a ton of money capitalizing on that fact. Technology isn't a game of min/maxing for most consumers. Do you want to claim that World of Warcraft isn't addictive to a particular type of person? Marketing research went in to developing that product too.
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Of course the color matters. Which would you rather eat, a raw potato or a fresh apple?
Raw potatoes and "fresh apples" (which are also raw) are the same color on the inside... Also, baking a potato does not change the color of the inside.
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Microsoft had tablets before the Newton?
Re:Frosty pasta! (Score:4, Funny)
Microsoft had tablets and smart phones years before Apple.
Are you certain that Microsoft has smart phones? I'm pretty sure I'd have seen one being used by someone by now if this were true.
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Forcing Metro on the desktop versions of windows, and even into the XBox UI was a pretty big error imho. It is passable on a touch screen laptop but still not great. To this day, I th
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I really like the Metro UI as well, especially for desktops.
My wife is finally migrating to linux :-)
M$ Hardware (Score:1)
They always did make a pretty good mouse and keyboard !
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I loved the Microsoft Sidewinder game controller for the PC back in the day.
So of course they cancelled that.
BUILD 2009? (Score:2)
The first BUILD conference was in 2011.
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Both wrong. The first Build was in 2010 where they gave out the Samsung slate running the first public developer release of Win8. I still use mine every day.
2011 they gave out Nokia 920 phones.
2012 was Surface RT tablets.
2013 Build was Surface Pro tablets with a crappy Acer 8" thrown in.
2014 they gave out Xbox units (but not for dev which made it strange) and $500 credit at the MS store.
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I also attended the first BUILD, in September 2011, and have the Samsung slate right beside me.
Samsung [samsung.com] agrees with me.
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Curse my faulty memory circuits!
You are right.
2012 they gave us Nokia 920s AND Surface RT units.
I hope this doesn't mean they're not going to do Build. This has been a pretty sweet gravy train.
Overseas? (Score:3)
I wouldn't take home any electronic swag...
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really why not? anything china puts on it can't be anymore invasive than what the US is currently doing.
Proven for China, not so for US. (Score:1)
China and their fellow freedom-reducing brethren operate on the idea of stealing from nations that innovate. A proven secondary use for that is for them to use it against their own citizens.
The US and the rest of the civilized world operate on the idea of creating something new or advancing existing technology in a new way. Unlike China, there has been no solid evidence to prove use against citizens - just the allegations of a spurned traitor(who in turn gave what he had to China and Russia, of all irony)
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If there are only a few thousand materials scientists working on processor tech that will advance microprocessor development, it's easier and cheaper to drop a few thousand trojan-horse USB memory FOBs with hacked
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(bury the lede) is an old newspaper term, lede not lead.
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According the summary, Microsoft is actually selling tablets and mobile phones! Who knew?!
You misread. They're making tablets and mobile phones. It's mostly just Apple and Google's partners who are selling phones and tablets.
Seattle to China (Score:2)
Microsoft must think 'Go East, Young Man'.
China although an 'old country' is all about vibrant young men and women doing their own as they have been for thousands of years.
Take China and hardware -- I found myself Googling Chinese modern architecture the other day, and browsing and looking at the results spent maybe an hour in awe, gawking at immensely impressive
--both aesthetically and from an engineering standpoint-- constructions. So much so that I couldn't suppress the thought that the West is not
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East or West, your going to end up in the same place eventually!
Let me guess - they bought out Tag Hauer? (Score:1, Funny)
Coming soon - the Microsoft Watch.
It has a paperclip for it's face, and asks you really stupid questions ...
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/Oblg. The Microsoft Watch (TM) will Blue Screen every day. At least a broken clock will be right twice a day. :-)
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Not if you use the 24 hours format.
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Coming soon - the Microsoft Watch.
It has a paperclip for it's face, and asks you really stupid questions ...
Microsoft Watch: "Do you know what time it is?"
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Microsoft did watches long before Apple.
http://www.smartwatchnews.org/... [smartwatchnews.org]
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Yup, Microsoft is trying so desperately to stay relevant in a post-PC / tablet world.
Apple currently gives away its OS. With Microsoft fleecing customers for $100 per OEM copy of Windows isn't winning over the hearts of the geeks over. Maybe if they weren't so greedy and lowered the price down to $20 that would do more to "buy" goodwill then the total damage the past 20 years has caused.
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MS doesn't charge any where near $100 to OEM's. last I saw it was less than half that. Apple also doesn't just give away its OS, you have to pay for upgrades to OS.X, it only gives away iOS (but it is hard to call it giving it away since the premium you pay for the hardware). MS desktop marketshare is STILL above 90% (though I do agree they are fighting to stay alive in other areas, but desktop they still have on lockdown despite vista and 8)
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> MS doesn't charge any where near $100 to OEM's.
Sorry, should of clarified OEM version of Windows.
* http://www.newegg.com/Product/... [newegg.com]
* http://www.newegg.com/Product/... [newegg.com]
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Try getting the equivalent Mac OSX product...
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Why should MS decide what tablets and phones need as minimum hardware?
Not only minimum, but maximum as well. MS gets to decide the biggest screen size, the highest speed CPU that can run Windows - tablet edition, on a non-desktop form factor. MS does not want vendors selling full fledged Windows on tablet form factor devices even though it is technically feasible.
Hardware had to be compatible to sell bundled with Windows.
MS does not want to encourage vendors who also provide open source drivers with their
What to expect for the OEMs? (Score:1)
In a shrinking market, Microsoft is clawing back even more of your core business.
Which puts them out of touch with Western markets. (Score:1)
It's also being moved from the U.S. to China, as an acknowledgment of where the heart of the tech hardware business is now.
It also indicates the further wish to be out of touch with Western markets and continue to decline in overall quality. Checking a few boxes and translating the manual makes for a bad execution on implementing a product in other markets - as opposed to integrating the expectations made by the target market.
Besides, having it in Los Angeles doesn't diminish the value of Eastern contributions, but serves as a barrier to entry for the unqualified.