Microsoft Surface Touch keyboards self-destruct – and more It appears that your brand-spanking-new Microsoft Surface may need more than the security patch The Reg told you about – you may also need a physical patch for its Touch Cover keyboard. According to multiple posts on Microsoft's Surface Forum, the edge of Surface Touch keyboards can split open at the seam where the keyboard- …
I don't think they're particularly crying for sympathy. From one of the posters in the thread linked in the article:
"All this aside, I have to emphasize that I think the Surface, with the Windows 8 live tile interface, is a technological generation ahead of iOS and Android. I'm extremely satisfied with the device and would never think of exchanging it for any other tablet. Let's hope we don't get quoted out of context again by some in the media that lift our posts."
Something that was missed from the screaming headlnie in the Register. Every day, they get a little more like the Daily Mail or the Sun in their pursuit of clicks.
Fallapartgate has a nice ring to it, and it's great to see this picking up so much press now:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2012/nov/09/microsoft-surface-cover-flaw
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57547549-75/surface-tablets-touch-cover-splits-at-seam-users-gripe/
http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-admits-surface-keyboard-splitting-problem-7000007189/
1. Are they pretending that the problem does not exist?
2. Are they blaming the customer for the problem?
3. Do they appear to be promptly replacing the equipment?
It would appear that the answers to questions 1 and 2 at least are an interesting study in contrasts to A Certain Famously Cool Hardware Producer.
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Seems this is exactly what they are doing now with the launch of Microsoft Reality Distortion Field 1.0. See it in action here, where they claim their lower resolution display gives a higher resolution than a, err, higher resolution one:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57534066-75/microsoft-surface-beats-the-ipad-in-display-quality/
As much as I respect some of the things Microsoft does there's one thing I've learned over the past years when dealing with Microsoft products...
You should never get a version 1.0 product from Microsoft; whether its hardware or software is totally irrelevant. That is; unless you're willing to play beta tester and are prepared to deal with several flaws which most likely are going to surface (some pun intended).
And I'm not saying this to badmouth MS; I'm saying so because this is exactly what MS history has shown us, time and time again. MS Expression 1.0 (website editor somewhat based on Dreamweaver)? 1.0 has potential but was full of bugs and often crashed. The current version (4) has become much more stable and is actually quite usable (and enjoyable if you're into this stuff). Windows Vista first release? Windows XP first release? Windows 7 first release? They all got their service packs and from there on things became a lot better.
More recent hardware examples? Windows Phone 7? The first release didn't even have a task scheduler; while Outlook is very useful (IMO) for task management; the first release of the Windows Phone didn't bother to support it. Only the first major update (7.5) brought in task support. And even that is still lacking because while you can sync your appointments and contacts over the Internet with Outlook (or other software) you still can't do this with task lists (not even with Windows Phone 8).
Microsoft ergonomic keyboards anyone? Their current versions are pretty slick and useful, but I've heard just too many complaints about earlier versions to include as an example too.
Of course not all their v1.0 products are 'bad'. But history does show you that if you pick up a v1.0 you're taking certain risks to be confronted with design flaws and other bugs.
As such; I'm not really surprised here.
> You should never get a version 1.0 product from Microsoft; whether its hardware or software is totally irrelevant.
Indeed! I was somewhat surprised to find that you can't install Windows 8 on a computer if it happens to have an SD card in a slot, or an 'unsupported' USB memory stick plugged in somewhere. It'll show you your available hard drive partitions, but when you select one it'll say "we can't find an available partition."
I would have thought just a small amount of testing would have revealed that problem early on.
Windows to Go only works on supported USB drives:
"Windows To Go certified flash drives are built for high random read/write speeds and support the thousands of random access I/O operations per second required for running normal Windows workloads smoothly."
So, yeah, your piece of crap freebie USB drive given away at the last conference won't be considered good enough, but there's a reason for that.
Meanwhile the Nexus 7 is still to this day coming apart (well known screen lifting issue) and even catching fire, but no media dare say it lest they be downranked by Google.
"I would buy a Nexus 7 that was currently on fire before any sort of Surface"
Well if you actually meant that, I would happily buy a series of Nexus 7's, set fire to them and exchange them on a one to one basis for SurfaceRTs with you and by your value system you would be coming out ahead. But I suspect you don't actually mean that. If you do, just let me know... ;)
Lets see, I'm a disabled, lesbian, atheist living in America and you ask me why the Tea Party's sorrow and Mitt Romey's failure fills me with soft joy? Really?
As for Microsoft, I spent 20 years fixing their junk. I earned my right to enjoy their sorrow, they certainly profited from mine.
There's absolutely no reason for a disabled lesbian atheist to hate on the Tea Party, nor vice versa. This hate between blue and red has to stop. There's no yin without yang. With this attitude, the US of A will go down the shitter.
As you expect others to respect the way you think, you should respect the way others think. And then things will get better.
Get real. I'm not sitting stewing, I'm laughing at how badly they take being on the bottom, They take it poorly.
They assumed they owned the world. They lost an election and now they want to form new parties because the Republicans were not CONSERVATIVE enough! They felt their cause was too holy to be taken out by a majority. They needed a reality check and we gave them one.
There is no reason hate them? These are the people who spent millions of dollars on trying to make sure I can't get married. They have had my family made illegal in 31 states, They tried it in mine and we won by the skin of our teeth after a year long fight.
These are the people who reduced our government to a standstill. Did they care about jobs? No, did the care about the economy? NO, but they tried to overturn the law that keeps insurance companies from denying care to sick children 31 times. Because helping people is supposedly "socialist" Rather than work on the any of our many problems, their only goal for the last four years was to grind government to a standstill so Obama would be a one term president. This is not tinfoil hat stuff, this was their expressed goal. Enough people saw through it, and we voted. In unprecedented, unheard of numbers we voted.
These are the people who are trying to make their very specific stripe of religion the law of the land, the ones who feel that the promise of religious freedom only covers THEIR faiths, they wanted to take that freedom and replace it with theocracy. We said no.
These are the people who are trying to stop the health care that keeps me alive. The people who consider the social security I WORKED for to be the same as welfare.
These are the people who took one business after another, looted its resources and outsourced the work to line their pockets. Then they called the people who suddenly found they were unemployed in an economy with no jobs unregenerate takers while they lined their pockets with bailout money and other peoples pension funds.
These are the people who have tried for fifty years to rid the US of Social security, as its an "entitlement" unlike, billionaire parents and untaxed trust funds.
These are the people who are derisive on the news bout how we want "things". Yes, we want things, food, shelter and medication. Gosh, how evil.
I don't know how you can say there is no reason for animosity,either you don't live here, you are colossally ignorant, or you simply have not been thrown under the wheels of this phenomena. Yet.
"These are the people who reduced our government to a standstill."
I'm an ignorant Brit, but I thought that was how the US was designed? Checks and balances and no forward movement? Perhaps I've been reading too much Robert Caro.
Mind you, we could do with a few checks and balances in the UK. I've realised over the last few months that our dear Secretary of State for Education can change the entire examination system for under 18s without having to have even a debate in parliament!
Best of luck.
Oh, yes, we are supposed to be discussing hardware. I want a netbook with a 9 inch monochrome electric paper display, proper keyboard and a battery life measured in weeks. Sort of like a Kindle mated to an AlphaSmart. Anyone rate my chances?
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