Microsoft is making a play for Apple’s base of creatives
During today’s Surface event Microsoft executives used the word “creative” tens of thousands of times. Sure, they talked about using Word, Excel and Powerpoint as a way to achieve these artistic goals, but at the core the company that’s traditionally filled meetings with large spreadsheets and bullet-pointed mission statements is going after the designers of the world. The question is: Why?
By all accounts the Surface Pro and Surface Book are solid computers. They’ll fit right into any Windows-centric home or office with their fancy pen and detachable displays. But wander down to the local coffee shop and you’ll be hard pressed to see the company’s hardware. A majority of the computers being used to write scripts, update web pages, create logos and compose songs are MacBooks. The Apple logo has been associated with artists for decades. Microsoft wants its logo on those machines creating content.
“Creatives” (ugh that word) form bonds with the machines that help them produce their work. That MacBook becomes their favorite paint brush or pencil. The attachment these folks have with Apple products kept the company afloat (barely) in the 90s. It’s an illogical love for a piece of hardware that I myself succumbed too when I was a designer in the late 90s.
Microsoft was about work. Apple was about art. Art is cool, work is not.
You can argue the merits of the competing operating systems until you’re blue in the face. But to designers and artists, Apple was and still is the obvious winner.
That dedication and evangelism not only kept Apple alive during its darkest hours, but it helped propel the company to become a tech juggernaut. Everyone wants to be cool and picking up few Apple products is a great way to show that you were one of the “crazy ones” ready to change your mindset to “think different.”
Microsoft and especially CEO Satya Nadella wants that sort of devotion for their products. They want to be loved. In fact at the Windows 10 event in 2015 Nadella said, “we want people to love Windows on a daily basis,” and “we wanna make Windows 10 the most loved release of Windows.”
To get that love — or at least a very strong like — it’s focusing on the computer users that make the deepest attachments to their tools: creatives aka the “cool kids.” They need them to show up to the coffee shops carrying a Surface Book to work on a client’s logo. It needs a creative director to guide clients over to a Surface Studio to walk them through the design of their site.
It’s human nature to want to be like the coolest person you know. If your job is working on mundane spreadsheets all day, the fashionista with the Surface Book looks like the awesomest person in the world. You might not be able to pull off the duds or the do, but you sure as hell can buy a computer to be cool.
That’s all Microsoft wants. It wants you to think you’re cool when you buy its products because it’s achieved that status in the eyes of artists. These hip new users probably won’t do much for the company’s bottom line (remember Apple almost died when all it had were the cool kids), but it’ll give it some much needed counter-culture clout. And if you happen to fall in love with a piece of metal and plastic and tell all your friends about your latest symphony, that’s even better.
What happened at Microsoft’s Surface event
Microsoft spent more than two hours on stage today introducing new products and software updates, but it all really comes down to one thing: the Surface Studio. It’s one of the most impressive pieces of hardware Microsoft has ever developed and a truly unique take on the all-in-one computer. If you’ve become addicted to using a digital pen on devices like Microsoft’s own Surface Pro or the iPad Pro but have craved a larger canvas, look no further. Of course, this doesn’t come cheap — the powerful and impeccably designed machine will set you back at least $2,999.
Beyond the Surface Studio, Microsoft also rolled out a new high-end Surface Book convertible laptop and announced that the Windows 10 “Creators Update,” which includes plenty of 3D-focused features, will roll out in the spring. Oh, and who can forget that crazy new Surface Dial? Let us catch you up with everything Microsoft rolled out today, won’t you?
Apple TV’s ‘TV guide’ app expected to appear tomorrow
Add one more thing to our list of anticipated announcements during Apple’s launch event tomorrow: a new “guide” for Apple TV. First reported by Recode in August, now sources tell it and USA Today that an app built to help people discover TV shows from multiple services at once will be revealed.
USA Today sources indicate it has been described as “the Watch List,” while Recode says that Netflix won’t be a part of it, at least at launch. Tossing a recommendation-based layer of universal search on top of other video apps isn’t the Apple TV service rumored to have been in the works, but it’s what we’re apparently going to get. Check in tomorrow at 1PM ET for all the details.
Source: USA Today, Recode
Watch Microsoft’s Surface event in 10 minutes
Microsoft had no shortage of announcements at its big Surface event. The Surface Studio all-in-one was undoubtedly the centerpiece, but the tech pioneer also unveiled a supercharged Surface Book, low-cost third-party VR headsets, the art-oriented Surface Dial accessory and a major Windows 10 update that’s focused on creators. It’s a lot to digest, we know. Thankfully, you don’t have to spend ages reading our liveblog to see what happened. We’ve recapped the choicest parts of the announcement in a 10-minute video that you can watch right here — you just have to sit back and enjoy.
Emicro One Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Cars get stuck in traffic. Buses and trains don’t get you all the way to your destination. Walking is slow, and bikes take up too much room. If you need to get from A to B in a hurry, a folding electric scooter can kick some serious ass.
The Emicro One is the folding electric scooter that won’t break your back. While many portable electric vehicles can tip the scales at well over 30 pounds, this itty-bitty scooter weighs half that. It’s so small, and looks so much like a regular kick scooter, people stop me on the street to ask about it.
And yet, this tiny scooter can carry a 220-pound person and/or travel up to 15 miles per hour. Those numbers are all pretty competitive for a folding electric scooter in 2016. You can buy it direct from Micro for $1,000, £750 or AU$1,500 in the US, UK or Australia.
What’s the catch? There’s no throttle on this scooter: you have to kick.
Up close with the lightweight Emicro One…
See full gallery
1 – 4 of 10
Next
Prev
Pros
- Light weight: It’s not as light as a kiddy Razor scooter, but at 16.5 pounds (7.5 kg) it makes most electric scooters feel unbearably heavy. With most scooters, I feel I need to unfold them ASAP so the wheels can carry their weight. I can carry the Emicro without issue.
- Low deck height and free-spinning wheels mean you can keep kicking like a regular scooter long after the Emicro runs out of juice.
- Curved handlebars make it easy to steer, without being so wide that you bump into pedestrians on the street.
- A powerful 500W motor means this tiny scooter can actually carry you up shallow hills — so long as you kick harder too.
- Its simple folding mechanism shrinks down fairly fast. Pick it up and press the buttons on either side to fold. You’ll still need to disengage a quick-release lever to shrink the handle, though.
- Fast charging: Just one hour to fully charge.
- A handy built-in kickstand is strong enough to take a beating if you forget to retract it. I speak from experience.
The Emicro One.
Josh Miller/CNET
Cons
- Some parts aren’t durable: With months of normal use, we managed to break off the quick release lever on the folding mechanism, dislodge one of the handlebar height pins, and twist the rear brake off-axis. One of the rubber grips is also starting to tear. The scooter still works fine, though.
- It only goes fast if you work at it: Instead of using power buttons and throttle levers, the motor activates when you kick. You’ll go about three times faster — or further — than you would without the motor, but that’s a lot of kicking to stay at top speed.
- Sidewalk or smooth streets only. There’s no real suspension on this scooter to absorb the bumps, merely a set of air-core tires. My feet and gums practically feel numb after a teeth-chattering ride on San Francisco’s terrible downtown streets. On the sidewalk, it’s not so bad.
- Short range. Emicro quotes 7-10 miles on a charge. I got more like 5-7 miles, but I’m a heavy guy — a lighter co-worker got 9-10. Still, that’s less than most scooters.
- Easy to slip and slide. Like a Razor scooter, the smooth rear tire means it’s easy to slide out — particularly when the streets are wet. I’ve also fallen when trying to turn too tightly, since the front wheel spins 360 degrees.
- The four-dot battery life indicator is fairly inaccurate. It’s not nearly as bad as on some other scooters, but I still don’t know how far I’ll get on one to two dots-worth of charge.
- Low handlebars. They’re adjustable, but don’t lift high enough for tall people.
Yep, it’s small.
Josh Miller/CNET
Trade-offs
- Kick-sensitive motor means you have to keep kicking to get up to speed instead of simply pressing a button — but you get exercise you wouldn’t get with other electric scooters.
- You can fool the kick sensor by jerking back on the handlebars every so often to maintain speed, but sometimes it confuses the scooter and slows down instead. Plus, it sometimes activates accidentally over bumps. Nearly crashed a couple times due to unwanted speed boosts.
- Rear foot brake doubles as an electric brake, slowing you down faster than friction alone, but it isn’t as efficient as the front electric brakes I’ve tried on other scooters.
- You’ll only fit one foot on the scooter’s small deck. Good for kicking, but no place for your other foot to relax.
- Fixed handlebars feel solid, but don’t fold down smaller like many other scooters.
Bottom line
The Emicro One isn’t really suited for roads, which (obviously) limits its mobility. Plus, I’m a little worried about its durability, long-term. But if you commute by sidewalk, it’s an impressive little machine that’ll pull harder and go far faster than you’d think. It’s fun to ride, and it definitely makes heads turn.
If the Emicro One isn’t for you, though, don’t go away. I’ll be bringing you more folding electric scooter reviews to CNET in the weeks ahead. Perhaps you’d like the Fuzion V-1000, for instance?
Sony Xperia X Compact review – CNET
The Good The Sony Xperia X Compact is a small, 4.6-inch phone with a beautiful display, an excellent camera and good battery life.
The Bad Only the Japanese model is waterproof, and the fingerprint sensor is disabled in the US. There’s a bit of lag when editing pictures or taking low-light photos.
The Bottom Line Sony’s Xperia X Compact is a small phone with an excellent camera, but it lacks some creature comforts, like waterproofing and, in the US, a fingerprint sensor.
View full gallery
For some people, the Sony Xperia X Compact will fit like a glove.
Josh Miller/CNET
The Sony Xperia X Compact is a rarity — a small phone with a big, terrific camera. That’s 23 megapixels’ worth of snapping power in a body small enough to fit into almost any pocket. And to me, the pint-size X Compact seems a pretty good fit.
Coming in at $449 and £379, the X Compact is large on charm. (No mention has been made of the X Compact coming to Australia, but hope springs eternal. In the meantime, its US price works out to AU$587, converted.) But the odd exclusion of conveniences found on the X Compact in other countries is a real head-scratcher. For example, buyers in Sony’s home country of Japan get waterproofing and a fingerprint sensor, but UK residents don’t get the H2O resistance, and US users get neither.
If you’re an Android fan looking for a small-screen phone, your choices are few. You’d do right with the Xperia X Compact, so long as you can accept the omissions.
If iPhones are just as good for you, the SE sticks to the same pricing scale — though it has a much smaller display. You can also upgrade to the similarly sized iPhone 7 or cheaper 6S — but you’ll definitely pay more.
Design and basics
No joke — the first thing you notice about the Sony Xperia X Compact is that it’s small. Or at least, it looks small. The screen is 4.6 inches, a filament smaller than the iPhone 7 (4.7 inches). But its chunky body and thick bezel mean there’s actually more phone in your hand than you’d guess. Still, the X Compact is wonderful to use one-handed.
You will either love or hate its blocky, flat looks — no camera bump here. In a market dominated by superthin phones made of glass and aluminum, the Compact X’s thick plastic demeanor is refreshingly unique, especially in Mist Blue.
The 720-pixel display is bright and sharp, and it handles direct sunlight like a pro. Battery life was a solid 11 hours, 28 minutes in our video loop tests. Some of that longevity comes from it the fact that it runs Android 6.0.1.
Just how small is Sony’s 4.6-inch Xperia…
See full gallery
1 – 5 of 13
Next
Prev
The X Compact handled daily-tasks without a problem — posting social media, messaging and watching the occasional “Carpool Karaoke” video. Gaming (FIFA Mobile, Clash Royale) on the X Compact was a breeze, but made me yearn for a bigger screen.
If you own a PS4, Sony’s preloaded PlayStation app connects you to the console as a remote or even a second screen.
Microsoft Surface Dial Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Microsoft’s new collapsible all-in-one desktop PC, the Surface Studio, is made for designers and optimized for the new “Creators Update” to Windows 10. To keep you fully immersed in a project, the company also unveiled a new haptic feedback accessory dubbed the Surface Dial that puts a clever twist on workflow interaction.
The Surface Studio’s haptic “Surface Dial” accessory.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The device, shown off at an event Wednesday, is roughly the size of a hockey puck and connects wirelessly to the Surface Studio, but it also works with the Surface Book and the Surface Pro 4.
Along with the keyboard and mouse, the touch-sensitive Dial adapts to whatever application you’re working with to add a third level of contextual control.
For example, Microsoft’s Surface Studio introduction video showed an artist using it to scroll through project notes on the desk.
After that, she placed it directly onto the display, which turned it into a virtually rotating color palette for the various paintbrush colors.
Along the way, the knob’s haptic feedback vibrates to let you know it’s working.
You can also engage the Surface Dial in more passive environments, too, such as volume control for music apps like Spotify or quick vertical scrolling down websites.
Microsoft Surface Dial redefines a creative…
See full gallery
1 – 4 of 15
Next
Prev
You might assume the Dial would come bundled with the $2,999 Surface Studio, but no such luck. Unlike the mouse and keyboard, it’ll be sold separately in the Microsoft store for $100 starting November 10. No UK or Australian details have been released yet, but that converts to about £80 or AU$130.
Microsoft Surface Studio Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
With last year’s Surface Pro 4, Microsoft’s vision of a tablet that could replace your laptop finally came together. Now, it’s setting its sights on your desktop.
The $2,999 Surface Studio, unveiled in New York today, is a desktop PC aimed squarely at artists and designers in need of high-end horsepower and a pixel-perfect display. Just 13 mm thick, Microsoft calls the Surface Studio’s 3:2 ratio display the thinnest LCD computer monitor ever built — and one that boasts 13.5 million pixels on its 28-inch touchscreen (compared to 8.3 million pixels on a 4K screen).
Surface Studio all-in-one has the thinnest…
See full gallery
1 – 4 of 31
Next
Prev
The Surface Studio’s haptic “Surface Dial” accessory.
Sarah Tew/CNET
With a “zero-gravity hinge,” the monitor is designed to fold down to a 20-degree angle on your desk — similar to a drafting table — and optimized to take full advantage of the new “Creators Update” to Windows 10 which brings, among other things, a new 3D update for Microsoft Paint.
The display also features “TrueScale,” which is aimed at offering designers a real-size, “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” view of their images and creations.
We’ve seen tabletop creation stations before, but Microsoft hopes to set the Surface Studio apart with a haptic accessory called the Surface Dial. Like a magic metallic hockey puck, the touch-friendly dial is designed to sit beside your keyboard for fine contextual controls in whatever program you’re using. You can even put it directly on the screen to create your own rotary selector dial.
Of course, you’ll need to shell out an additional $100 for that Surface Dial — unlike the mouse and keyboard, it’s sold separately. In addition to the Surface Studio, it’ll work with the Surface Book and the Surface Pro 4.
The Surface Studio packs a sixth-gen Intel i5/i7 Core processor, a 4GB Nvidia GeForce GPU, up to 32GB of RAM and a 2TB hard drive. Along with a single dedicated power cable, ports include four USB 3.0 jacks, a Mini DisplayPort, an SD card slot and an Ethernet port.
Hands-on impressions
There are a lot of all-in-ones already. But even so, the Surface Studio looks really nice. Its lines, and its chrome arms, give it a look like an industrial iMac.
But what makes the Surface Studio different is its folding-down action, and its wild accessory, the Surface Dial. In a reclined tablet mode, the Dial is a metal wheel that attaches to the Surface Studio display and becomes an interactive art tool, picking colors or adjusting elements on the fly. It’s also a tabletop tool.
In tabletop mode, the Surface Dial and Surface Pen offer double-handed creation controls.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The new Surface Pen also seems refined, aiming for an even more pen and ink feel than the last Surface Pro 4.
Really, though, this is all about the Surface Dial, a wild new idea that instantly excited people from its on-stage demos. The metal dial can be an on-screen tool as much as a desktop one, and looks like the other-hand tool designed to work alongside the Pen in everyday Surface creative use.
And using Surface Dial? Well, it’s a haptic-feedback wheel. Not all apps will be a perfect fit. I tried it, and its gentle buzzes felt less tap-tap-tappy than an Apple Watch: think more like an Xbox One controller. Its sticky base attaches to the angled Surface Studio display, but I kept worrying it would fall off.
Preorders for delivery by the end of the year start today, and Microsoft says quantities are limited. UK and Australian details were not announced, but $2,999 converts to around £2,450 or AU$3,915. The Dial’s $100 price is roughly £80 or AU$130.
Updated 1:10 p.m. ET: Added hands-on impressions from CNET senior editor Scott Stein.
Microsoft Surface Book i7 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Microsoft’s ultimate laptop is now even more ultimate.
Joining the all-new Surface Studio all-in-one and current Surface Pro 4, the new Surface Book i7 two-in-one is a juiced-up version of Microsoft’s original Surface Book (which is still part of the Surface family) for people who found those configurations lacking in graphics performance and battery life.
Pushing pixels with twice the graphics performance of the prior highest-end Surface Book is an Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M GPU with 2GB of GDDR5 memory. Microsoft claims the graphics processor as well as its sixth-gen Intel Core i7 processor delivers twice the performance of the current highest-end MacBook Pro 13.
Related Links
- Microsoft’s Surface Studio: A desktop creation station with a magic dial
- Microsoft’s Surface Books get massive battery life boost
To handle the performance bump, the Surface Book needed a full thermal redesign on the inside, including the addition of a second fan and a set of hyperbolic cooling fins. The other major internal change: More batteries.
Even with the increased performance, Microsoft claims the additional batteries bring the Surface Book i7’s runtime up to 16 hours. (We got 11 hours and 24 minutes when we reviewed it the first time around.)
Other specs appear pretty much unchanged:
- 13.5-inch PixelSense display with 3,000×2,000-pixel resolution (267 ppi)
- Two full-size USB 3.0
- Full-size SD card reader
- Mini Displayport
- Headset jack
CNET Senior Editor Scott Stein got a little hands-on time and confirmed that little has changed on the outside from the original:
If you remember the Surface Book last year, that’s what the new Surface Book is…with a thicker base. The slightly thicker base isn’t as super-razor-thin as last year, but it gives a similar feeling overall. The rest, as they say, is performance tests. But the little gap between the hinge when the Surface Book is shut remains the same as last year, like it or hate it.
The Microsoft Surface Book i7 is available for preorder from the company’s store starting at $2,399. That converts to approximately AU$3,150 and £2,000 in Australia and the UK, respectively. Microsoft expects to start shipping by mid-November.
Microsoft Surface Book i7 brings powerful…
See full gallery
1 – 4 of 32
Next
Prev
Surface Studio: A stunning all-in-one PC that doubles as a drafting table
Microsoft is taking a page out of Apple’s playbook by catering to creators.
People in illustrating, graphic design, and other related artsy fields have long used MacBooks and iMacs as their tools of choice when it comes to running software like Adobe Photoshop, but with Mac and PC sales slowing across the world, Microsoft seems keen to turn the tables around. It not only announced an upcoming Creator Update for Windows 10 that features an overhauled Paint app, but it added a new member to the Surface family: the Surface Studio. It’s an all-in-one machine geared toward creative professionals
Pocket-lint
It has both hardware and software features designed to make creating artwork easier. This is essentially a touchscreen drafting table. The Surface Studio features an industrial design with a 28-inch LCD display and a “zero-gravity” hinge that allows the display to lay nearly flat. The slim base houses all the processing components, and there’s only one cable coming out the back. Microsoft has created its version of the iMac, but it’s much more versatile because it can transition from a standard desktop to a gigantic tablet.
While in the standard desktop mode, the Surface Studio functions as a normal computer but looks absolutely stunning visually. The whole device is straight up sexy. The monitor is so thin. It’s like someone took a 28-inch Surface tablet and mounted it. At first glance, it is difficult to believe it is an actual monitor and not some high-resolution photograph. You may think pics of the Studio make it look better than it actually is… no way. It really is that impressive to look at and play with in person.
The Surface Studio has a natural and smooth feel to it, so that every motion on the display is seamless and every stroke beautiful. It could be one of the best desktop computers I have ever used. It isn’t just a regular desktop; the ability to lay it down is extremely cool. It needs almost no effort to gently glide into a more flattened position. While lowered onto a table, it has an almost Star Trek-type of vibe, putting you behind this space station-like control center. Looks are not even close to the only thing it has going for it. Even though it is so thin, it still has enough power to hold up against any other AIO. It also has a lot of potential, especially for creative types.
Pocket-lint
With one finger, you can begin drawing. And if you use Microsoft’s Surface Pen and new Surface Dial, you can completely unleash your inner artist. The Dial is a puck-like input device you can use to rotate things and basically control things shown on the screen. It’s contextual as well, so depending on where you place, it’ll serve up specific options. Options for Adobe Photoshop, for instance, won’t appear in Microsoft Word. Dial is an interesting offering, considering Apple is expected to soon announce a new MacBook Pro with its own contextual OLED touch panel.
The Surface Dial makes the Surface Studio amazing to work with. It was tough to figure out at first, because it has so many options, but watching a Microsoft PR with it, who has obviously used the device many times, was like poetry in motion. Changing colours and the size of the brush within seconds, and in small wrist turns, was like watching someone solve a Rubik’s cube in mere seconds.
The Dial sits on your desk or directly on the screen of your Surface Studio, and it can move both clockwise and counterclockwise. When pressed downward, it selects and can toggle between different parts of a feature. For example, when choosing RGB for colour options, if you twist it around, it moves around the color wheel. By clicking down, you’ll see it change the type of colour wheel. Or, if you select a brush type (you may be on a brush size that you can spin to shrink or enlarge as you draw), you can press down on your Dial to turn the angle of your brush or change the opacity, among other features.
Pocket-lint
The Dial could be used on other devices since it can be connected via Bluetooth, but the ability to rest it on your screen is not available to other devices, as Microsoft and developers are building that functionality directly into their Windows apps. But, like on the Surface Studio, you can use it to scroll through pages and documents, change volume, and also brightness. It basically functions like a smart mouse for other laptops. The options for what you have visible on the Dial can also be customised.
First Impressions
If you get the Surface Studio for your home, there is a good chance you won’t have any pens, paper, paint, or any other art supplies still around, because you won’t need them. The options for creating are endless, with the ability to change your brush size, type, colours, opacity, and just about anything else you would need to change. The ability to use it in a more natural angle for creating art is also a big plus. We personally don’t like to draw on a screen that is directly in front of us like a desktop, but it gives such a natural feel to working on projects, with the hinge that can go from nearly flat to even past the point of straight so that you can still see the screen when sitting from a lower angle if you wanted.
The Surface Studio is an all-in-one art studio for digital artists. If you fit that bill, you can pre-order one starting today for $2,999, with deliveries expected in December. Though it carries a high price-tag, it seems to be worth it if you’re any type of artist.
AIVAnet 