43 replies to this topic

[LilBambi]

Could be, but why bother even doing a developer thingy right then? Oh, wait, they wanted to steal the thunder from Apple's WWDC 2012. Of course.

[ross549]

True, but I am not sure Microsoft is that coordinated. Otherwise, they would have done it the week immediately following WWDC.

Adam

[LilBambi]

It's all about the press, the PR.

They still likely think they gained something on Apple by doing it when they did it.

But they, and Apple, need to lighten up and just do good things because they are good things. Not make cracks about the other company or competition. They both need to rise above that type of bait and be the better company.

That's mainly what I meant by what I said. I get tired of politicians and businesses thinking they need to make the other side look bad to make themselves look better.

It's a cheap shot and one that should have gone out of fashion ages ago.

Edited by LilBambi, 23 June 2012 - 11:04 AM.

[raymac46]

Interesting NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.c...e-missteps.html

[LilBambi]

Yes, very interesting read.

[abarbarian]

Seems like not everyone thinks that the Windows WART or the Surface is a good thing

Quote

A new report claims that PC vendors - including Hewlett Packard (HP) - are up in arms over Microsoft's recent decision to enter the lucrative tablet market with its Surface device.


"Most were debating whether or not to bother with WART (Windows on Arm RT) devices, and struggling to find a reason to do so," says Charlie Demerjian of SemiAccurate.

http://www.tgdaily.c...es-over-surface

[securitybreach]

abarbarian, on 30 June 2012 - 07:11 AM, said:

Seems like not everyone thinks that the Windows WART or the Surface is a good thing

I imagine that they are bit biased(and irate) considering Microsoft decided to manufacturer their own devices instead of relying on HW partners like they always have. I imagine most OEMs see this as a threat to their business and hope that Microsoft does not continue down this path as it will hurt their business.

Just my opinion so take it for what its worth

[LilBambi]

Yes, sure they will see it that way (threat), but if it works out for Microsoft where it hasn't for OEMs maybe they should be listening to how to do it?

[crp]

It is not like the OEM did not have the past 5 years to look at what they were doing? I'm not the only one who came away from looking at Win7 touchpads from a few vendors and thinking "for that price , is that all there is?" The only "innovative" hardware I've seen from pc vendors that impressed was from Levano, which has laptops that turn into note takers quite easily and whose note taking works (requires stylus, so is not a touchpad), but for me it wasn't worth buying Chinese - I could do without it.
Acer and Asus had similiar devices but not as well built or as well working

[sunrat]

crp, on 01 July 2012 - 01:47 AM, said:

... but for me it wasn't worth buying Chinese - I could do without it.
Acer and Asus had similiar devices but not as well built or as well working

It's pretty hard to find computers that are not built in China these days.
I'm rather interested in the new Asus Transformer Infinity. The latest Android seems to have come of age at last for tablets, and the hardware is quite impressive, including Tegra quad core CPU and 1920 x 1200 display.
http://www.asus.com/...nfinity_TF700T/
http://reviews.cnet....7-35332613.html

[crp]

sunrat, on 01 July 2012 - 09:04 AM, said:

It's pretty hard to find computers that are not built in China these days.

Levano itself being a Chinese ups the distaste quotient for me.

sunrat, on 01 July 2012 - 09:04 AM, said:

I'm rather interested in the new Asus Transformer Infinity. The latest Android seems to have come of age at last for tablets, and the hardware is quite impressive, including Tegra quad core CPU and 1920 x 1200 display.
http://www.asus.com/...nfinity_TF700T/
http://reviews.cnet....7-35332613.html

This had my interest , http://shop.skytex.c...b-cloud-storage

[ross549]

sunrat, on 01 July 2012 - 09:04 AM, said:

It's pretty hard to find computers that are not built in China these days.

This begs an interesting question. What computers are *not* manufactured in China these days?

Adam

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Are we talking components or completed devices?

[ross549]

I was thinking the completed computer.

Adam

[crp]

Dell and HP are made in China???
The grey boxes from my vendor are not made in china , at least they don't say 'Made in China' on the boxes.
and there are still a few computer stores in the greater Seattle area that build their own.

[securitybreach]

crp, on 01 July 2012 - 09:18 PM, said:

Dell and HP are made in China???
The grey boxes from my vendor are not made in china , at least they don't say 'Made in China' on the boxes.
and there are still a few computer stores in the greater Seattle area that build their own.

Dell:
Dell closing its last large U.S. plant

Quote

Assembly of desktop computers for the North American market formerly took place at Dell plants in Austin, Texas (original location) and Lebanon, Tennessee (opened in 1999), which have been closed in 2008 and early 2009, respectively. The plant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina received $280 million USD in incentives from the state and opened in 2005, but ceased operations in November 2010, and Dell's contract with the state requires them to repay the incentives for failing to meet the conditions.^[59][60] It is expected that most of the work that used to take place in Dell's U.S. plants will be transferred to contract manufacturers in Asia and Mexico, or some of Dell's own factories overseas.^[61] The Miami, Florida facility of its Alienware subsidiary remains in operation. Dell servers continue to be produced in Austin, Texas.

http://en.wikipedia....l#Manufacturing

HP:
I am pretty sure that they do not manufacture their machine in the US anymore either:  HP to manage PC manufacturing plant in China

[crp]

I am unable to find a page on the web that knowingly says where the 'surface' will be manufactured.

Doing another reading and finding a couple of sites I didn't see 2 weeks ago, I'm less inclined to think I will be buying one.  seems it will not as light as i would want, a smidge too large and way more expensive. I would also worry about the keyboard-case combo, in the sense of how hard is the keyboard part to break/malfunction. I wonder why they didn't cut down weight , add custom-ability and perhaps lower costs by using an infrared to show a keyboard on a plain slate instead of a physical keyboard. I suppose a touch pad would still be needed, but an infrared that could be easily changed and even pointed to another surface to enlarge/reduce the keyboard layout - seems that would be better.
Maybe the patent payments would have been too much? Though I would think the patent holders would love the business.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

How 'bout IBM's Big Blue and the Cray systems? They're still made in the U.S. Right?

[securitybreach]

Well luckily IBM has most of their plants in the US and India although they do have plants all over the world:

Quote

India is IBM's second-largest base of operations in the world.  The company's U.S. workforce is comprised of 125,000 of IBM's 330,000 total employees.  In the past three years, the company has invested more than $2 billion in India and hired more than 35,000 staff, bringing the country's total IBM workforce to 43,000.

http://www.edn.com/e...ndia-Investment
http://www.linkedin....cturing/at-ibm/