Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 Sings A Better Tune, But In A Frequency Only Few Can Hear.#

Tigers to debut live automobile mascot race at Comerica Park. On one hand, cars racing makes sense. On the other hand, they are boring when compared to presidents or sausages.#

$929 is a lot of money to spend on a computer.#

BGR: Microsoft Surface Pro 3 pricing: Still way too high. I agree with Boy Genius, and go beyond, all the Surface tablets are too expensive. At these prices, I find it hard to believe that Microsoft is serious about making money from the Surface. It feels to me that what Surface really is, is the tablet that Microsoft engineers designed for themselves. I don't think justifying the price by claiming the Surface Pro can replace two devices is going to impress the market.#

Alpha Software’s AlphaRef Reader is a general purpose system for reading reference material on a tablet computer or smartphone.#

Fargo 1.59 provides an option to turn off the background images. To my surprise, they have grown on me so decided to keep them. #

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Specs and Features. It's heavier than my third generation iPad, which I think is too heavy to hold in one hand for any length of time, and way heavier than the iPad Air. Yes, it's lighter than a Macbook Air, but while it can replace a laptop, people are going to hold it like a tablet.#

Empowering people to do more, be more. Unifying theme across Microsoft. Mobile first, cloud first? #

Why hardware? #

Want to build experiences that bring together all of Microsoft's capabilities to build the mobile first productivity experiences.#

Not interested in competing with OEMs, goal is to create new categories. #

Microsoft didn't go to the Apple school of product launches where you let the product speak for itself. Too much effort being spent trying to convince me they have a better product. #

Surface Pro 3#

12 inch screen diagonal. #

Microsoft says increasing the screen to this size is critical in order to be able to do more with the tablet.#

I'll have to hold this in my hands to be certain, but my first reaction is that it is too big.#

3x2 aspect ration#

9.1 milimeters thin; thinner than the Surface Pro 2#

Weighs 800 grams#

Microsoft claims that when you pick up the tablet it feels light.#

Lighter than a Macbook Air. Of course the Macbook has a keyboard in what looks like not much thicker than that Surface Pro 3#

Heavier than my third gen iPad, and much heavier than the iPad Air. #

Kickstand bends into many levels#

Appears to try a portrait orientation, given the Windows button is at the bottom in portrait orientation and of course looks odd when holding the tablet in landscape.#

"The tablet that can replace your laptop" The question is, do people think of tablets as a replacement for laptops? This point of view is why Windows 8 is designed primarily for landscape orientation.#

Docking station. Do people think of tablets as replacements of desktops?#

Touch cover has a larger track pad, and supposedly thinner. Emphasis on using on a lap. Changed the way the touch cover attaches to the tablet, Microsoft claims this makes the tablet in "laptop" mode to be more stable.#

The tablet in portrait orientation looks as large as a legal pad. #

The pen is not a stylus. It feels like a pen. Larger, heavier. #

Handwriting recognition, demonstrated on an app for the New York Times crossword puzzle.#

Click the pen, turns on the tablet. Write, click the pen again and what you wrote is saved to the cloud. #

On sale tomorrow. Starting price $799. Core i3, i5, and i7#

No Surface Mini. My first reaction is that a $800 price tag is too high, so Microsoft is probably not going to get my money.#

While the Surface Pro 3 is definitely better than the Tablet PCs of yore (see the background image), there still remains the question, is this what people want? Will they buy it at that price?#

© 2015 Frank McPherson.
Last update: Fri, Jan 9, 2015 at 3:06 PM.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.