Has anybody been following it? I remember that threads were posted on here regarding the technology when it was first being developed/shown.

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

Apparently the units will be launching in "Spring 2008" -- so relatively soon.

I think the idea is really exciting, the execution (if it works as shown/planned on that site) is very well done, but that inevitably some moderately unfavorable aspect of it will cause a small part of it to flop and drag it down like excess fat, causing a decent time gap between the liposuction to remove the fat and the ... whatever the hell it is to suck the sagging skin back in (i.e. gap between early adopters' and mainstream users' use of it).

You know it's not meant for individuals to buy, right? It's designed to be something that say, a company would have in a lobby.

Yeah

I'll make me want to get drunker if bars incorporate them like some of the videos show.

It's a big *** table.

I always thought this was pretty cool. It seems pretty impractical right now, but as Emon said, for a company to have special software on one or a few in a lobby seems pretty reasonable for right now. And pretty awesome, too. As for the restaurant example: AWESOME. But I think that's a bit expensive for anytime particularly soon.

Or you could sit at a REGULAR table and save $5-$10 on your dinner!

Too lazy to find out but I'm guessing they give you the option to have the surface at an incline facing you. Otherwise I can feel my back aching after few minutes of use.

I don't see why that would matter. Other than stuff would probably slide off the surface. You could probably cover the surface with a clear rubber or soft plastic that would increase friction, allowing you to put devices on it and not have them fall off.

I actually think the idea of putting them in certain colleges (e.g. business schools) (which wasn't in a video) is a better one than some of the examples they have if they became less expensive. It's a pretty solid supplement for group study rooms designed for collaborative projects in which the things like drag and drop document transfer between phones, etc. would be pretty useful.

hmm yes, I too prefer more expensive and less convenient alternatives to talking to others

Okay. I like cool-looking stuff and wooshing things and multi-touch interfaces as much as the next guy, but seriously this whole idea is so far off the mark that it's stupid.

Do you know why we started using computers in the first place?

Because we were sick to **** of having papers and photos sliding around all over our desktops.

I look at those videos, and watch the parts that Microsoft clearly intended to display functional uses, and all I can say is "Wow, that looks so irritating." If I slap down my MAGICAL WIRELESS INTERFACE-equipped camera phone so I can share photos... what, do I have to rifle through the whole pile? If they've developed some kind of high speed contact-based wireless connection I'd much rather just pick the photo on my menu and do a cell phone high five than slap it down and start shovelin'

Customizing a snowboard? Durr. Ask the guy who's standing there to make sure you won't walk off with the table. I think he might be called a "retailer". Or better yet, if your entire distributional model is based around someone customizing the snowboard themselves using a flashy interface, maybe they should be doing this from home? I think I'd trust a flash animation to save a file to my hard drive more than I'd trust a public Microsoft Kiosk to upload a Microsoft Virus to my Microsoft Hypothetical Future Cellphone.

And have you ever been in a cell phone store where they'd let you handle the display model? They tend to be, you know... wired down. Right next to signs that explain the price and the feature set.

The only "good" feature I've ever seen Microsoft surface used for was to display a neat animation underneath your drink glass when you put it down. And even that was destroyed the moment they used the damn table to order drinks with a waitress watching them.

God damn. Multitouch has so much potential, so why is the only company working on it the least creative company on the planet?

I don't know. A projector + laptop is decent enough for most study groups if everyone need to look at one screen. Not to mention my college has a projector nearly in every room and doesn't require you to look down and bend your back. USB jump drives, wireless email and Blutooth are decent ways of file transferring files without much hassle between members of a close group.

If anything, I could see this thing get easily damaged in a college setting and only be used for sh**s and giggles.