Ballmer readies slate PC for CES
Monkey boy to hurl spoiler at Apple?
Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer is due to unveil a slate or tablet type computer at the Consumer Electronics Show later today.
Ballmer is giving a keynote speech at 6.30pm in the Las Vegas Hilton. He will be hoping to attract some of the hyperbole being lavished on Google's Nexus One phone and Apple's mythical entry into the slate market, which is meant to take physical form next month.
Of course, Microsoft has been here before with its Tablet PC system, which was loved by some but failed to set the world on fire.
This machine, made in partnership with HP, will include an e-reader and multi-touch functions, according to the New York Times's Ashlee Vance, sometime of this parish.
No word from Microsoft at the moment, but we won't have long to wait to see if Ballmer can produce a stage performance to gain him as much attention as his famous monkey dance. ®
COMMENTS
Don't be silly
MS May well launch the ME2 slate PC, but it will be the same as everything else that comes from Microsoft...
To read mail you'll need to click on Device, then Accessories, then MS Live Mail, then wait 42.8 seconds while it loads, then reboots, the does a software update to something totally unrelated, then eventually displays the Mail app which will function perfectly for a few seconds before it stops responding completely while it receives message 18 of 18 (32K or 32K) and then sits there unresponsive and inert for several minutes then carries on like nothing happened.
To view Photos you'll connect the device to your Desktop PC, launch MS Live PhotoViewer, connect your camera, watch while Adobe Photo Viewer Loads, and won't quit. The you can force quit Adobe PhotoViewer and go back to MS Live Viewer which will download an update 'in the background' which brings your PC to a halt. Then you connect your camera, ActiveSynch it to MS Live Photo Viewer and then sync this to your ME2 Slate.....
You get the idea....
MS Simply are not good at providing a polished user experience, but at least you'll be able to freely develop your own apps for it....
Same old, same old
Gate's tablet, Ballmer's slate, Microsoft's millstone.
@TeeCee
No, like after the iPhone announcement MS comes out with a demo of a TABLE with a touch surface. . . . a TABLE. Can you put a table in your pocket and make phone calls on it?
Or how about all the user interface elements MS has copied from OS X and put into Vista/Winblows 7? POORLY copied interface elements that notoriously required you to have a screaming high end computer in order to take advantage of (Aero anyone?)?
Or the ZUNE? (I think that one speaks for itself. Maybe Ballmer can "squirt" you some details if you're not familiar with it).
If I recall correctly the new mouse got good reviews implemented multitouch on the mouse (where was MS with there multitouch mouse again?) And how exactly does their mouse "fuck up your keyboard"? I've heard that it may be draining batteries faster than normal but that is hardly "fucking up your keyboard".
Quite a bit of hyperbole coming out of your mouth. Tell me, are you a paid MS schill or just an uninformed consumer?
Me too?
What you mean like releasing a new improved mouse to hysterical fanboi reaction that includes most, but not all, of the features that MS mouse users have been taking for granted for years?
Oh, sorry. MS never built in the "fuck up your keyboard" function. That was novel, I'll grant.
Developers Developers Developers
Hmm
"Plus this will be a tablet that you will be able to run tens of thousands of third party apps. In addition I will be able to pretty much load whatever content I like onto it. No iTunes getting in the way."
No but there will be a crappy 3rd Party sync app (AppsForSure anyone?), one thing that can be said iTunes works, even if you don't like it, hey even Palm tried to use it instead of writing their own.
Plus how many of those tens of thousands of apps will make this tablet run like ... well a Windows machine. I have to admit, I'm looking forward to seeing this thing, then watch it crash and burn into oblivion with 6 months.
