Yesterday we visited the Microsoft booth to take a look at the surface computer first hand.
This year Microsoft has no big announcements and the stand is very similar to last year with the exception of having the surface computer to play around with. This was the first time that any of us at Neowin have played on the surface as previously the unit was not functioning correctly and we were unable to see it at the Microsoft Partner Pavilion.
The multi touch side of the surface seemed a little laggy and you couldn't help thinking that it wouldn't be easy to shift the device around. You can't fault the interface though it was futuristic, fun and yet simple for anyone to use.
We managed to play around with the photo application and the friendly Microsoft employee had a camera to take a picture of Josh from WindowsConnected.com. As you can see from the videos we have uploaded it was blisteringly fast and very simple to get the picture onto the device. Anyone without computing knowledge could have achieved this.
I asked the MS rep if this technology was fully patented and he said that Microsoft had tried to patent as much as possible but that some of the multi touch functions weren't Microsoft patented.
Microsoft believes we will see these units in retail stores and restaurants in the course of 2008 and these are the perfect devices to put into the bars at the casinos in Vegas!
Check out the videos below to see some real life experiences with the surface.
Video: Water Demo | Picture Demo | Paint Application
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