General HotHardware Tech News

Re: RE: AT&T First to Intro Microsoft Surface in Stores

ice91785 — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:23:45 GMT

vicaphit:
How would you look at the cards in your hand without showing everyone?

Duh a virtual card-hider!! Haha I don't know....didn't even cross my mind. SCRAP THE TABLE!

Re: RE: AT&T First to Intro Microsoft Surface in Stores

vicaphit — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:30:54 GMT

ice91785:
that is unless they had built in texas hold-em. Since everyone has been obsessed with poker for the past few years you could bet it'd be a hit with younger generation this way.. (the table would automatically deal and you could take cheating out of the equation AND it would keep track of winnings)

How would you look at the cards in your hand without showing everyone?

Re: RE: AT&T First to Intro Microsoft Surface in Stores

frg1 — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:44:31 GMT

guess i will have to go to att and try it

Re: RE: AT&T First to Intro Microsoft Surface in Stores

ice91785 — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:40:21 GMT

AjayD:
I could have sworn they were demonstrating it with T-Mobile at the time and not AT&T.

I am guessing since it was in the preliminary stages demonstrators just used whatever phones that had in their pocket at the time and thought of it as free advertising for w/e carrier; Either that or MS and w/e company had not worked about the fine kinks of contracting or financial stuff....

I said months back but I will say it again -- its one step closer to computerizing people's house but I just don't really see the demand for this thing......that is unless they had built in texas hold-em. Since everyone has been obsessed with poker for the past few years you could bet it'd be a hit with younger generation this way.. (the table would automatically deal and you could take cheating out of the equation AND it would keep track of winnings)

Re: AT&T First to Intro Microsoft Surface in Stores

Crisis Causer — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:38:14 GMT

Touch technology is progressing nicely, but Microsoft isn't the best company for it. Neither is Apple, though they are better. There's a tech demo out there of someone messing with touch screen technology, and it looks better than this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89sz8ExZndc

Mmm.

RE: AT&T First to Intro Microsoft Surface in Stores

AjayD — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:36:11 GMT

I watched a video about Microsoft's development of this system on YouTube a few months back. I could have sworn they were demonstrating it with T-Mobile at the time and not AT&T. I wonder what happened? They also showed uses for this system in hotel lobbies and restaurants. I believe they will start to surface throughout various Las Vegas casinos shortly. This system especially shows a lot of interesting possibilities for its use in restaurants.

AT&T First to Intro Microsoft Surface in Stores

News — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:05:01 GMT

AT&T First to Introduce Microsoft Surface in Retail Stores to Enhance Mobile Shopping Experience

First commercial Microsoft Surface launch to begin April 17 in select AT&T stores with expanded deployment planned throughout 2008.

LAS VEGAS — April 1, 2008 — AT&T (NYSE: T) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) today announced a collaborative alliance that will transform the way consumers shop for mobile devices. AT&T will become the first company in the world to bring Microsoft Surface to life in a retail environment, giving customers the ability to explore their mobile worlds using touch and device recognition technology. Microsoft Surface is the first commercially available surface computer from Microsoft. Beginning April 17, customers can experience Microsoft Surface in select AT&T retail locations, including stores in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and San Francisco. Based on the success and learning from these initial pilot deployments, plans for further expansion across AT&T’s 2,200 U.S. retail stores will be determined.

Microsoft Surface is a 30-inch table-like display that gives individuals or multiple people the opportunity to interact with devices and content in a way that feels familiar — by using touch, gestures and placement of devices on the display. In essence, it’s a surface come to life for exploring, learning, sharing, creating, buying and much more.

AT&T plans to harness the power of Surface to provide its retail store visitors with unique opportunities to learn about the growing universe of mobile applications and devices. The interactive touch displays, which will work without a traditional mouse or keyboard, will allow customers to do the following:

Learn. Customers can review features of a particular mobile device by simply placing it on the display. Surface will recognize the device and provide a graphical overview of its capabilities. Customers will be able to place two devices side by side on the unit and easily compare their features.

Explore. Customers view interactive coverage maps at the national, state, local or street level, using simple touch and hand movement to scale and move the maps, determining their coverage area.

Customize. In the future, customers will be able to drag and drop ring tones, graphics, video and more by “grabbing” content with their hands from a menu on the display and “dropping” it into the phone.

In addition to these exciting features, AT&T and Microsoft will continue to collaborate on new and innovative ways to expand Surface capabilities in AT&T stores.

“We are thrilled to bring this groundbreaking new technology to our stores so we can introduce customers to their mobile worlds in a very personal and easy way,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility. “We look forward to working with Microsoft to continue developing new ways for our customers to learn about the ever-growing lineup of mobile devices and applications.”

“Microsoft Surface transforms the retail environment from a transaction destination to a customer engagement destination,” said Robbie Bach, president, Entertainment & Devices Division, Microsoft. “With innovative and intuitive ways of accessing information and digital content on Microsoft Surface, consumers now have an entirely new, unique and personalized shopping experience. We’re excited to have AT&T bring this to life and be the first company showcasing Surface in its retail locations.”

AT&T plans to unveil the new displays in stores located in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and the San Francisco area on April 17, followed by additional stores in other markets based on the success of the first phase of deployments. Additional information on the launch is available online at http://www.att.com/surface.