Microsoft Claims the iPad "Isn’t a Real Computer"

Megalith

Megalith

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Microsoft released a holiday ad earlier this week promoting its new, lower-cost Surface Go lineup, and while it’s a cute video, some are saying the company has embarrassed itself by directly namedropping the competition: the ad features a little girl who explicitly tells her Grandma she doesn’t want an iPad because it isn’t “a real computer.” Longtime Surface users wouldn’t disagree, however, being that Redmond’s devices aren’t limited to a mobile OS.

The ad opens with a little girl singing, “Grandma, don’t run out and buy an iPad. Fine when I was six, but now I’m 10. My dreams are big, so I need a real computer. To do all the amazing things I know I can.” The assertion being the iPad isn’t a real computer. If the iPad isn’t a real computer, then what is? Why, a Surface Go, of course. Because it can help you learn to code, and help you “help the gentle manatee”. Which may just be the strangest pairing since John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
 
And i agree, anything with a screen smaller than 24" are not a computer, besides dident that company say computers was dead or was it just PC.
Anyway the iPad are a freaking tablet, and there are many people that call any tablet a iPad even if its not a product of that company.
 
Eh, how has MS embarrassed themselves? That horrible Apple ad was embarrassing, this seems fine. Even though I am writing this on a Mac (bought by my company of course) and would not actually consider a surface pro myself...
 
ecuador said:
Eh, how has MS embarrassed themselves? That horrible Apple ad was embarrassing, this seems fine. Even though I am writing this on a Mac (bought by my company of course) and would not actually consider a surface pro myself...
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MS hasn't embarrassed themselves, but only because no consumers are listening anymore.

Even their CEO no longer cares about Windows or PCs - if it's not called Azure, it doesn't exist to him. This is the weird disconnect within MS's gutted Windows division thats been scattered like ashes among other subdivisions, and their leader. You won't see or hear him talk about Windows or PCs anymore.
 
I had an orginal iPad and Surface Pro...the iPad is long gone, the SP still works and if I needed a new one...well hell I've given up on tablets, I'm finally getting a smart phone for portability on the road for everything else I prefer to see it on my 55" screen run by a real computer with lots of cooling and expansion possibilities. But for what it was the iPad was fun though limited, still did a lot more than my first computer a TRS-80 (with 4k RAM).
 
Oldmodder said:
And i agree, anything with a screen smaller than 24" are not a computer, besides dident that company say computers was dead or was it just PC.
Anyway the iPad are a freaking tablet, and there are many people that call any tablet a iPad even if its not a product of that company.
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This. My mom asked me to come wipe one of her friends iPad for them cause she wanted to send it to a family member in a shit hole country. I went over there and it was some Acer Android tablet.
 
It's embarrassing for Apple, they started it with the litttle girl stating "What's a PC?" In one of their ads, trying to say the iPad is a replacement for PC or their brand is so large it eclipses an entire segment of products, whether the iPad or not is limited to a mobile OS or a full version of their OS they are simply being arrogant when the marketshare of computer OS's dictates otherwise, they can't win the market so they would rather ignore it despite every product failure they have in the computer segment.

What's embarrassing is what they are asking price wise for an iPad now it's in the same territory as a six core Intel system with a 1060, grant it the applications don't exactly allow a complete comparison, and they aren't really build quality level until you see the 2k$ thin and lite models with a 1070. The bottom line remains I can do more with a laptop or a surface than I could ever do with an Ipad.......
 
Oldmodder said:
And i agree, anything with a screen smaller than 24" are not a computer, besides dident that company say computers was dead or was it just PC.
Anyway the iPad are a freaking tablet, and there are many people that call any tablet a iPad even if its not a product of that company.
Click to expand...

Ussually they are the same people who claim Apple created the Tablet computer..... I was using a win98 tablet computer pre2000 f om quite a few companies and patents go back as far as 1950's and earliere with working prototypes.
 
When my kids were younger, they had iPads and used them all the time. The games were simple and easy to use - plus, they actually had some decent math/spelling-type games. Fast forward. The iPads are dead and they have no interest in any tablet. They mostly use computers, but also phones (hand me down iPhones).
I had won an iPad 2 at a conference once. I used it a while but never really liked on a plane (to watch movies). I think I must have given this to one of my kids at some point.
Now, I have an older Kindle Fire I use on rare occasion. It's not as fast as an iPad (mine is the cheapest model - might be 3 years old. It's slow!) But it was cheap and is fine for how I use it.
Anyone remember the office chodes a few years ago that where trying to make iPad's into laptops? I swear, everyone I can remember always seemed distracted at our meetings. Some even tried to use the onscreen keyboard for notes. No. Just don't do it.
 
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Oldmodder said:
anything with a screen smaller than 24" are not a computer,
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So laptops are not computers?
Since most the desktop at the office have dual 22"-23" LCD's they are not computers either?
My servers connect to a shared 15" LCD, guess they are not computers either.

Guess my boss is going to be mad at me because I haven't been buying hardly any computers over the past 10 years :eek:
 
If MS insists it is not a computer, they should at least narrow it down to digital computer. In general, even an abacus is a computer.
 
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Oldmodder said:
And i agree, anything with a screen smaller than 24" are not a computer, besides dident that company say computers was dead or was it just PC.
Anyway the iPad are a freaking tablet, and there are many people that call any tablet a iPad even if its not a product of that company.
Click to expand...
THat makes no sense. I've never seen a laptop with a 24" screen, and they are certainly real computers.
 
NeghVar said:
If MS insists it is not a computer, they should at least narrow it down to digital computer. In general, even an abacus is a computer.
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It also refers to a person who computes. I was reading a book written in the mid-Victorian period one of the stories in it was about a human computer who could do pretty amazing math problems in his head. And if I remember right Blaise Pascal invented an adding machine that would qualify as a computer by the looser definition.
 
A tale of two young girls. You have to ask yourself, "Which one of these girls is going to become a lawyer? And which one of these girls is going to become a manager of a coffee shop while running a local fanzine in her spare time?"

And while we're at it, we need to ask ourselves what the young woman with the Apple iPad really meant when she asked, "What's a computer?" Was she really stating that she had never heard of such a device and did not know what a computer is, or was she asking a deeper, more philosophical question, expressed in the age of smart phones, tablets, fablets, consoles, laptops, chromebooks, PCs and servers - "What is a computer?" Isn't it possible that what she was really asking was, "In an age when my refrigerator has more computing power than all of NASA had when Apollo first landed on the moon, do we need to create specific labels to define and narrow the diversity of digital devices that might compute things? And isn't this similar to the way our leaders try to narrow all of human diversity so that marriage, sexuality, race, religion and even good and evil are molds that are formed by those elite few who want to force us to conform?"

And when you consider that question, will you say, "Bitch, I just wanted a double tall latte. The labels I'm worried about avoiding are anything you make that is labeled 'pumpkin' or 'Santa'. I have to be to work in 10 minutes, do you have anything labeled, 'Here's your coffee'?"
 
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MS still bitter they missed the mobile market but they do have a point. I would never use an iPad iOS large phone that doesn’t dial out for anything other than web surfing.

Edit: But damn this iPhone 8 Plus garage band is fun!
 
There isn't much an iPad cant do these days, hell you can even do 4K video editing on the Pro's. People seem to just overlook the fact that you do things differently than you would on a PC. Yes it is restrictive but it improves every month as desktop apps port across.
 
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The tablet operating systems are still poorly curated appliances. Great for features they build them with to do one or two click tasks, but terrible for long term code stability or upgradability of hardware or software.

If you use a truly custom app in iOS or Android every time they release a new version it seems to break EVERYTHING. Networking blows up, printing stops working... you have to have your app developers on permanent retainer to constantly fix what the updates break. Windows only breaks stuff on a slow and long term basis with carefully curated updates which gives us the incredible flexibility of Windows. Linux can be set up once with a custom software and hardware solution then more or less left alone for ten or more years as long as you don't change anything and it just works the same as always. Less easily flexible but insanely stable. Even MacOS doesn't just release updates willy-nilly and break every 3rd party program. If apple really believed that iOS and it's devices were "real computers" they would have merged MacOS with it a long time ago and there wouldn't be 2 operating systems. But yet... there are. Why is that Apple? Lol.

There's a massive difference in both care and design philosophy and Apple knows it. They do both every day in their own company. How they can even say this while they try to sell Macs to professionals is beyond me.
 
It is a computer, just not a very productive one. To me it is a sandbox toy, very good for casual use, but if I have to get some work done PC it is.
 
Surface go is not a "real PC" out of the box. It has Windows 10 Home in S mode on it.

Per M$ website "Windows 10 Home in S mode works exclusively with apps from the Microsoft Store within Windows and accessories that are compatible with Windows 10 Home in S mode. A one-way switch out of S mode is available."
 
1: Grandma drops $679 + $99 (Keyobard) + $99 (Pen) $900 something after taxes (I know there is cheaper config but this is the first result on a Best Buy search)
2: 10 year old cant play fortnite
3: Surface go gets thrown under child's bed never to be seen again.
4: Brand tarnished and child grows up to never try a MS product again.
5: Pat yourself on the back Microsoft.
 
As its been pointed out....the iPad is a tablet...the Surface line up is either 2 in 1s or laptops running full fledged OS's
So...They are correct in my eyes
 
gunbust3r said:
1: Grandma drops $679 + $99 (Keyobard) + $99 (Pen) $900 something after taxes (I know there is cheaper config but this is the first result on a Best Buy search)
2: 10 year old cant play fortnite
3: Surface go gets thrown under child's bed never to be seen again.
4: Brand tarnished and child grows up to never try a MS product again.
5: Pat yourself on the back Microsoft.
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DPI said:
MS hasn't embarrassed themselves, but only because no consumers are listening anymore.
Seems to do fine, not great but enough so they aren't chucking it under the bed. Also, given what the person in the video was doing, they'll get better at skills that will get them a job later (trouble-shooting their own devices).
Still, I'd go with a cheap Pro for a couple hundred more but at $399 for the entry level and $549 for a decent one ($679 is for the LTE enabled one) they cost about the same as a regular iPad...


Even their CEO no longer cares about Windows or PCs - if it's not called Azure, it doesn't exist to him. This is the weird disconnect within MS's gutted Windows division thats been scattered like ashes among other subdivisions, and their leader. You won't see or hear him talk about Windows or PCs anymore.
Click to expand...

Strange how I haven't noticed that as I work for the Windows division of Microsoft. Windows is currently growing (for all the nay-sayers that think it's dying) and it's still an important part of the business AFAIK.


Mega6 said:
MS still bitter they missed the mobile market but they do have a point. I would never use an iPad iOS large phone that doesn’t dial out for anything other than web surfing.

Edit: But damn this iPhone 8 Plus garage band is fun!
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There is no bitterness from anyone I've talked to. Instead I get the impression that they learned from the experience and are legitimately trying to make a better product which includes putting Phil in charge of the Windows Store and more stuff I can't talk about.

But, not like any of that will stop people from hating Microsoft and Windows... You'd think it strangled their first born in the crib or something...
 
Surface or any other good 2 in 1...

I've got nice little Alldocube that runs Win 10 pretty well and comes with a real SSD in it.

I can putty into a Raspberry Pi. I can run Steam games. I can connect to my voice servers. I can connect to my industrial control computers. I can run real CAD. I can use a full web browser. I can output to another HD screen. I can print to anything anywhere. I can VPN. I can plug in any USB device in existence and use it. I can charge my phone through it. I can connect multiple hard drives to it and clone them. I can use a mouse. All on the same 2 in 1 with a full snap-on clamshell keyboard and touchpad that lets me type as solidly as any laptop.

Android and iOS tablet devices can't do even half of that list. All the stuff that needs doing to get real work and real play done.

Which is why real computers matter.
 
Well it isn’t ... and it’ll never replace my computer unless it runs macOS.
 
Advil said:
I can putty into a Raspberry Pi. I can run Steam games. I can connect to my voice servers. I can connect to my industrial control computers. I can run real CAD. I can use a full web browser. I can output to another HD screen. I can print to anything anywhere. I can VPN. I can plug in any USB device in existence and use it. I can charge my phone through it. I can connect multiple hard drives to it and clone them. I can use a mouse. All on the same 2 in 1 with a full snap-on clamshell keyboard and touchpad that lets me type as solidly as any laptop.
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I honestly believe, with the exception of CAD or any specialized industrial control software, I can do all of this on my Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. I've never experienced a problem printing that I haven't experienced under Windows, I can VPN, I can plug literally any USB device in existance into it and navigate using a file manager/zip files/unzip files/whatever. I can clone HDD's using the file manager, I have SMB support, I can SSH into servers using a proper terminal, I can cast to a HD screen and I can plug in any keyboard and mouse and use the device as a desktop. I can even resize apps as windows and move them around the screen.

The exception is: I have no where near the virus issues encountered under Windows and Android is the more popular OS globally. ;)

I don't use my dual boot MacBook anymore.
 
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Considering M$ tried to turn computers into iPads with Surface RT, Windows 8/RT, I find this story odd.
 
WAterTriAd said:
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Sorry I'd call bouncing between 12 and 26 FPS out of the box cant play Fortnite. Your delusional if you think most 10 year olds these days are going to look up command line launcher settings to improve that, especially 10 year old who did not pick out the devices of their own volition in the first place.
 
Jagger100 said:
Considering M$ tried to turn computers into iPads with Surface RT, Windows 8/RT, I find this story odd.
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Why? The Surface 2 was a really fast and light device. The problem was, they locked folks out of producing things for the desktop side and that killed the OS right then and there.
 
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