<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Scobleizer]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://scobleizer.blog]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Robert Scoble]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://scobleizer.blog/author/scobleizer/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[More on Microsoft&#8217;s Surface Computing initiatives&#8230;]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>I talked with Microsoft&#8217;s Surface computing team today. Here&#8217;s some more details I learned.</p>
<p>1. Price. Will cost $5,000 to $10,000 and only be available to commercial customers (hotels, casinos, etc). Price depends on number of units purchased.<br />
2. Consumer availability? They are working on other surface computing products, but didn&#8217;t have anything to announce yet. There are a few roadblocks to getting one of these in your home. First, it&#8217;s expensive to build one because it needs holographic glass, an enclosure, a projector, two cameras, and a computer. Second, they still are working on software so that it actually does something beyond the whiz-bang demos they showed off this morning on stage.<br />
3. Demos won&#8217;t all work the way it seems in the videos. The demos you are seeing of photos flying out of a digital camera when placed on the device? That requires that digital camera to be synced and &#8220;tagged&#8221; with a bar code. The table can see bar codes on things, but you&#8217;ve gotta stick a bar code on them first. My cell phone hasn&#8217;t been tagged. Neither has my digital camera. So, if I put them on the table they wouldn&#8217;t do anything.<br />
4. Microsoft isn&#8217;t writing all the software. I asked whether we&#8217;d be able to play Blackjack on a table. They (the Microsoft team) couldn&#8217;t answer. That part of the functionality will be left to third-parties to write. So, a table that is in a Sheraton property might have completely different functionality than one somewhere else.<br />
5. Can&#8217;t scan paper yet. Some of the scenarios I saw demoed included scanning of paper and documents. That isn&#8217;t yet included in the current version.<br />
6. When will it be out? It should be installed at first customers by the end of the year. First public demos (other than at this week&#8217;s &#8220;D&#8221; conference) will be in June in New York at a Starwood property. I&#8217;ll try to get more info on that.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll keep trying to get more answers and I encouraged the team to come over and answer the questions people left in my comments.</p>
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