Microsoft Surface Plays Hard to Get

The company's new table begs to be touched, but price won't allow it
By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff
Posted May 30, 2007 11:24 AM CDT

The bottom line on Surface, Microsoft's touch-sensitive table being unveiled today? The possibilities are exciting, says PC World's Harry McCracken, but the roll-out is annoying.  Surface—which skips a mouse in favor of an index finger—can interact with multiple users, and even objects. But, too expensive to be practical for personal use, it's being applied first in hotels lobbies, phone shops, and casinos.

McCracken also makes an unlikely comparison between the Microsoft Surface and the Apple iPhone, whose look, touch technology, and applications are strikingly similar to Surface’s—at a price individual consumers can afford. "Apple's going to steal some of Microsoft's thunder through the simple act of shipping some similar technology in a product that ordinary folk can buy," McCracken warns. (More Microsoft stories.)

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