[drez]

That's rampant consumerism and I think you me and Magik will agree it can be the root to many modern economic woes.

Thing is, take away the rampant consumerism and economic growth stagnates.

 

[MuppetFace]

And here I was thinking I was the only shark 'round these parts.

 

[jgray91]

And here I was thinking I was the only shark 'round these parts.

Yes, quite.

 

[wink]

Time to go fishing. or, is that trolling?

 

[Mimouille]

Quote:

And Goliath. Is it more of a cavernous 3D kind of sound? Also, if you don't mind saying, how much were they shipped, in USD?

Not cavernous IMO. Open, though more deep than wide. 490 USD +70 shipping to the US (I am in the US right now).

 

[cn11]

Quote:

Quote:
 
+1! Now go onto greatness!
 
 
I generally prefer my MA900 but the SA5000 has a special sound to it that can be quite chilling...
 
/////////
 
So here are my very early impressions of the Mirosoft Surface Pro, which I got to replace a MacBook Air / Wacom Tablet / Nexus 7...

-- snip -- 

The stylus is by far the most important aspect of the Surface Pro and why I got it. And it's fantastic. The digitizer is by Wacom, supports pressure sensitivity and feels incredibly smooth and precise. One caveat: out of the box the digitizer was not completely accurate and was badly mapped by more than a few pixels, especially to screen corners. This was okay in the Not-Metro interface but for some programs where the UI elements are tiny on a 1080P screen (ie: Photoshop) this essentially rendered the stylus unusable. The default calibration routine for the digitizer uses 16 points of reference which seemingly was not enough to get an accurate mapping. I ended up finding a posting online that detailed how to run the calibration through a 200+ point routine, which was a chore to do (you have to tap on the screen 200 times on different points on a grid) but now the digitizer is accurate within a few pixels.

Because the digitizer supports pressure sensitivity the Surface Pro essentially becomes a very cheap Wacom Cintiq with a whole computer and battery in one. This really is the killer app of the Surface Pro. I've tried just doing a little sketching on Autodesk Sketchbook on the Surface and it's great fun. I haven't yet tried photo editing on the Pro but again this seems like it would be a good usage scenario - though it will probably be better once Adobe updates the Photoshop UI to work better with touch controls.

-- snip --

So you have to either really have to find the size and weight appealing, or have a very good idea of what you want to do with the stylus. In that sense the Surface Pro is a $1000 magic sketchbook. Do not get the Surface Pro if you cannot think how the stylus would be useful to you.

I don't know if I will keep this machine - I'll have a better idea when the window of opportunity starts closing to return it - but right now I'm sitting in a waiting room typing out these impressions and I really quite like it. I'm really looking forward to seeing the kinds of things I can actually do or create with the stylus.

I think that this is something that artists / designers should take a closer look at.

 
 
Thanks for the comments. I will have to watch this closely as I work in Sketchbook Pro all the time for work and consultation product design conceptualization. I'm always on the hunt for a great solution for mobile sketching as a professional designer. Currently I have a brick of a Fujitsu T901, but it's decked out with a ton of RAM, an Nvidia graphics processor, and has a very nice feeling active sketching surface. I'd love something more portable, and thinner. Maybe Microsoft has finally got one here. Great news that the sketching and digitization aspects are the strong suits. Isn't Sketchbook Pro a fun application? 

 

[billybob_jcv]

Have you seen the Acer R7? I'm not an Acer fan, but this is certainly different...


[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE_gIOeZloQ[/VIDEO]

 

[cn11]

That is certainly an interesting looking tablet. I was reading that it is available with Nvidia graphics, which is great, but I'm trying to figure out if it has active digitization for true pressure sensitive sketching on SBP. Nice convertible concept for sure.

 

[eke2k6]

Just watched my gf of 4 years drive away. She's done with her master's, but I still have a couple of years left to finish my pharm.d.
 
I have a general distaste for humanity, and she's the only person who made it a little better. It will be interesting to see how we cope long distance.
 
I'm also getting the 1Plus2 in the mail today. I just have to go pick it up. Talk about bittersweet. I imagine my day will go like this:
 

 

[vwinter]

That's the kind of thing that makes you understand the strength of emotional bonds. I've been there and it hit me harder than I ever thought it would. Lots of people make long distance work. Someone I know just sent me her wedding invitation after a couple of years long distance with her bf due to grad school. Good luck!

 

[jgray91]

That is certainly an interesting looking tablet. I was reading that it is available with Nvidia graphics, which is great, but I'm trying to figure out if it has active digitization for true pressure sensitive sketching on SBP. Nice convertible concept for sure.

I swear to God that I'm not shilling for Penny Arcade. One of the artist there is very pleased with the Surface Pro. And IIRC he did use SBP. http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/02/25/the-ms-surface-pro

 

[jgray91]

Good luck with the relationship, eke! Stay strong; you know you can do it.

 

[barleyguy]

Quote:

Thing is, take away the rampant consumerism and economic growth stagnates.

 
Maybe.  But the current rampant consumerism is directing the economic growth to places like Walmart and credit card companies.  It's also encouraging manufacturers to make disposable products.  Back maybe 60 years ago, many of the items people bought such as appliances, furniture, cars, etc. were designed and expected to last decades.  Now things are designed to last a couple of years and be thrown away and replaced.

 

[eke2k6]

Thanks guys.

Oh, and CONGRATS V. Go to grad school though. It's a cold world out there for bachelors degrees.

 

[billybob_jcv]

Maybe.  But the current rampant consumerism is directing the economic growth to places like Walmart and credit card companies.  It's also encouraging manufacturers to make disposable products.  Back maybe 60 years ago, many of the items people bought such as appliances, furniture, cars, etc. were designed and expected to last decades.  Now things are designed to last a couple of years and be thrown away and replaced.

Chicken & egg. People demand lower purchase prices. They rarely consider TCO over the long term. One manufacturer achieves a lower price by limiting the product life. The customers begin buying that product in higher quantities. The other manufacturers see their marketshare decline, and they must follow the first manufacturer or they risk failure. When they lower their prices, they regain their marketshare, and a new baseline of product life vs price is established. Rinse and repeat. Again, everyone SAYS they want higher quality and longer product life - but the marketplace seems to indicate otherwise. Try launching a marketing campaign that is based on the slogan: "We cost 3X as much, but we last 4X as long." The marketplace is not kind to companies that do not provide what the customer really wants - and the "customer" has to be not one person on a forum - but an entire segment of the marketplace.

I'm getting a vibe here that folks believe the business is somehow purposely screwing with you. There are probably companies that do that - but I think you're completely missing how typical product companies really work. A product manager looks at the current marketplace and also looks at the product ideas they are considering introducing into that marketplace. They try to find a "value proposition" for their product idea that will make it attractive to the marketplace. Sometimes they are trying to make the "best" - but that's rare - usually they are trying to simply hit a specific point on the "value curve". Based on the selling price they are trying to hit, they then determine a cost target. Every company has overhead and every company has a profit margin they need to make to satisfy their investors. Introducing a new product is expensive and risky - and you need to pay the investors that are willing to take that risk an ROI. The product managers make decisions on features, quality, etc based on the cost target they are trying to hit. These decisions are handed to the engineering & operations teams as requirements and they go to work trying to make it happen. If all goes well, then some number of months later the new product hits the shelves with the planned features and at the target price point. Only then does the company know whether all of their assumptions made sense. The customer either sees the value and spends their cash, or they do not.

All of this is even more critical in "commodity" items where it is very difficult to differentiate your product and provide the "value" proposition. When demand clearly outstrips supply (eg the iPhone), the company is in a completely different position. But that situation is actually pretty rare. The truly "disruptive" product with little or no competition doesn't hit the market very often.