Acer CEO advises Microsoft against making tablets, tells them they’re no good at it

Acer’s CEO JT Wang has some words of wisdom for Microsoft and they involve telling them not to enter the tablet market, which is exactly what Microsoft plans to do with the Surface.

While everyone assumed that Microsoft’s decision to enter the hardware manufacturing business will not go down well with their OEM partners, these companies were strangely quiet initially. That is until now, when the reality of the situation seems to have slowly dawned upon them and Acer is the first one to take a shot at Microsoft.
According to Wang, Acer has told Microsoft to think the decision over as it will create a huge negative impact for the ecosystem and that the other brands may take a negative reaction to this move. Wang also thinks that this is not something Microsoft is good at so they should think about this twice.
What Mr. Wang and perhaps even other OEMs are failing to grasp is that Microsoft may have had to take the drastic step of manufacturing its own hardware because companies like Acer are incapable of doing a good job. It would have been very easy for Microsoft to go to an OEM like Acer and get them to manufacture the Surface tablets for them. But a lot is resting on the success of the Surface for Microsoft and the fact that they don’t trust other OEMs to do this important job for them clearly shows that Microsoft doesn’t think others are capable of doing the job right, something they would have learned after years of working with them.
Maybe Mr. Wang should take a look at some of Acer’s own products before telling others they are not good at something.

Windows Phone 8 might make an appearance at Nokia World

According to Bloomberg, we'll be seeing some devices introduced at Nokia World that will run on Microsoft's recently-announced Windows Phone 8 platform.
If this is true, then we might see the announcement of new WP8 devices before the rumored press conference for the next iPhone on September 12. This may not be a good thing, however, as Nokia run the risk being overshadowed by Apple's highly anticipated announcement.
As for when we'll actually see the first WP8-powered devices on the market, Microsoft have remained tight-lipped (although there are rumors of a an October release date, to coincide with their scheduled release of the Windows 8 OS). Hopefully, if announcements for Windows Phone 8 devices are made during the Nokia World conference, we'll also learn when we can get our hands on one.

Windows 8 goes gold, now released to manufacturing

It seems Microsoft is right on track with its Windows plan – the new OS has been released to manufacturing as it’s been scheduled.

 Microsoft’s OEM partners now have the final release of Windows 8 and they can start embedding it into their new devices.
The developers will be able to download the RTM version on August 15, while a day later it will become available to the TechNet subscribers, Microsoft Partner Network members and IT Windows 8 testing organizations.
August 20 is the day Microsoft Action Pack Providers will get access too, while on September 1 all Volume License customers without Software Assurance will be able to buy Windows 8.
The general availability of Windows 8 will come on October 26, while starting today “any qualifying business in a supported market can now submit a Metro style app for Windows 8”.

Microsoft Surface to launch along with Windows 8 on October 26

Microsoft has revealed in its annual report filed this week that the anticipated Windows 8 based Surface tablet will be released along with the operating system on October 26.

So far we only knew that the tablet would go on sale sometime after the launch of the OS but it’s good to know that the tablet will also be releasing on the same day.
In case you are not aware, the Surface is Microsoft’s upcoming tablet designed completely in-house by Microsoft. There will be two versions of it, the Surface, running Windows RT on an ARM-based NVIDIA Tegra processor and the Surface Pro, running Windows 8 on an Intel Ivy Bridge processor. The Surface has a 10.1-inch HD display, whereas the Surface Pro ups the resolution to FullHD. The tablet has an molded magnesium casing called VaporMg with an integrated kickstand. Microsoft will also be providing a unique soft cover for the tablet that has built-in capacitive keyboard and trackpad.
No price information is known at the moment but it is speculated that the base Surface will start at $499, same as the new iPad.

Microsoft Surface tablets to be priced at $599 for RT, $999 for Pro

You all remember the sleek hardware that Microsoft presented last week. Called Surface, the tablet has two versions – one with a Tegra 3 chipset, running Windows 8 RT, and another one with a proper x64 processor by Intel – that one running regular Windows 8 Pro. We’ve all been wondering what sort of pricing would the new tablets have.

Well, know we sorta know. According to “a close source to Microsoft”, the Tegra version will have a price tag of $599 and the Surface Pro will go for $999.
These prices work out with what we previously knew. Back at the announcement event, a Microsoft rep commented that the pricing of the Windows RT tablet would be around the same as that of other ARM tablets with 32GB and 64GB storage. The price of the Surface Pro, too, was supposed to be around the price of current Intel ultrabooks.
I would probably understand the high asking price for the Pro version – after all, they stuffed some serious hardware in an impressively thin shell and the thing has a FullHD screen. They are not even that many laptops with a FullHD screen, let alone tablets. The Surface Pro is an engineering feat.
The RT version, on the other hand, sounds like a regular run-of-the-mill tablet with just a different OS on it. Now, $599 is probably ok for a top-of-the-line 32GB tablet and it even matches the price of the latest iPads, so obviously Microsoft does not intend to go on a price war. But somehow the tablet suddenly lost its appeal to me. Now that I know that for its price, I would be able to get any other premium tablet on the market, I kinda started to doubt whether it’s worth it.
Bloomberg also reports that the first available Surface models will be Wi-Fi-only, so these prices most probably will go even higher for the 3G equipped versions.
Since Microsoft is obviously not after making this platform more affordable than the competition, it would be interesting to see how they intend to lure in new customers. The tablet market is severely saturated already – consumers are already spoilt for choice. The Kindle Fire sales storm last holiday season already proved that there’s a huge market opportunity only for sub-200 tablets. In the $500+ range, the iPad simply has no competition. I wonder how all that fits in Microsoft’s plans for their tablet business. Perhaps they’ll let some other manufacturers build the cheap machines. Because without cheap machines, I don’t see them making much out of it.

Xbox Surface specs leak, detail a 7-inch tablet and powerful “stationary computing device”

Unlike most of the Microsoft-designed hardware (Zune, Kin, etc.), the Xbox is a strong seller, so this is potentially huge news – Xbox Surface, a 7″ tablet.

Is this the Microsoft-branded tablet that the rumor mill has been chatting about? Well, if it is, it sounds like a pretty odd design – besides the tablet, there’s also a “stationary computing device”, which is quite the powerhouse.
The tablet features a 7″ LED screen of 720p resolution, 288MB of RAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a regular-sized SD card slot. There’s a rechargeable battery that is good for up to 7 hours of usage.
288MB of RAM sounds really low, which might suggest that the tablet acts like more of a wireless screen than a standalone device.
The stationary device packs two IBM POWER7 SCMs with six cores clocked at 3.1GHz each, there’s 5GB of system memory, an AMD-sourced GPU with 1.2GB of on-board memory and full DirectX 11 support and a 250GB 2.5″ 10K RPM hard disk.
The stationary device also offers four ports for controllers, 4x USB 3.0 ports for other peripherals (like extra storage), component and HDMI TV-outs, optical S/PDIFF and an Ethernet port.
Is it just me or does this sound like an Xbox version of the Wii U GamePad right along with a brand new Xbox? It feels a little early for Microsoft to be announcing the next generation Xbox , so we’ll have to wait for the announcement that Microsoft has planned for later today.
It goes without saying that this Xbox Surface business is far from official and that the image you see above is nothing but a quick mockup.

Windows Phone 8 emulator confirms rumored built-in screenshot feature

Many people were unhappy with the Windows Phone 7 lack of native screenshot capture support. It wasn’t the WP7’s deal breaker, but still it was a feature the competition was offering for quite some time.

It seems Microsoft took the complaints seriously and Windows Phone 8 has native support for taking screenshots.
The Windows Phone 8 emulator confirmed we will be able to take screenshots on the new Window Phones. It’s done by pressing the Start and the Camera keys, just as rumored (F2 and F7 in the emulator).

The shots are saved in a dedicated Screenshots folder in the Picture Hub.
We, as reviewers, are really happy to see this feature implemented into the WP8. We are sure developers would also appreciate it. But what about you, the regular users?