"The Microsoft brand name isn't selling well in Japan, Xbox 360 is being outsold by Gameboy Micro and PS2!"
"Find a Japanese word, and name our machine that"
"Ok sir"
"Just remember what the doormouse said... I'M MEETING YOU HALF-WAY YOU FREAKIN' HIPPIES!!!"

That looks waaaaay too big to be a handheld, and it seems to be more of a "pocket" PC than an actual gaming console, but hey, if it can run Halo, I suppose it could have some potential.

But I agree with Craig in respect of it being called "origami" to try to appeal to the Japanese, who just don't seem to want Microsoft gaming.

And personally, I don't think this is going to make them change their minds. Oh well, wait and see.

LORD THUNDERING JESUS CHRIST THIS THING IS
HUGE

This is of course a horrible, horrible idea,
but it's not like Microsoft's any stranger to losing profits on products, and it's not like Bill Gates cares anyway.

Guys, guys, guys.

Guys.

It's a tablet PC, not a gameboy.

I know.
It could still eat every keyboard I own.

Precisely. As of such, I fail to see the reason why everyone's so hyped about it; I'd rather get a desktop myself.

Is it JUST because it can play Halo? I think I'd find myself playing FreeCell more, anyway...

Wot Cyc said. It's not meant to be a "DS-killa" as some people have been saying. It's meant to be a next-gen tablet PC, with more functionality (GPS, IM, MP3 player, and apparently powerful enough for games). While people aren't going to catch on immediately, I think it's a very important step in the right direction, technologically. Maybe someday these things will render traditional laptops obsolete. They remind me a lot of the PADDs from Star Trek.

( I had trouble making this post because of your hypnotic avatar, Shadow Hog. Thanks a lot. o.< )

Precisely. As of such, I fail to see the reason why everyone's so hyped about it; I'd rather get a desktop myself.
A tablet isn't supposed to replace your desktop, it's a complement to your existing computer system. We use one at work for tasks like inventory.

Oh, and nobody's hyped about it. As with every Microsoft product, everyone from slashdot to 123christian is making up reasons why it SUXXORS and is going to steal our souls.

I will happy about this only if it crash and burns. Microsoft Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, now that would be some news worth celebrating.

After watching the trailer and seeing the product, I can't see why people are thinking of this as a handheld console, only Halo was shown for it and that was about 3 seconds of the trailer. Still, it looks pretty good for an alternate to a laptop, since I'm considering getting a laptop as it is, this is quite interesting.

Still, this is hardly a rival to either the PSP or DS, different market entirely.

I will happy about this only if it crash and burns. Microsoft Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, now that would be some news worth celebrating.
Care to explain your position?

He quite obviously holds an irrational hate for Microsoft like 99% of the people that don't own XBOXes.

*Blink* I have an irrational hate of FPS games, thusly no Xbox. But I love Microsoft so much that I use Internet Explorer!

I'M 1%!!!! ^____^

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I'M 1%!!!! ^____^

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I thought you were nothing special 😛

...sorry ^^;

And I'm sure you could find enjoyment in one of the other non-FPS X-Box games....unless you own a PC capable enough to play the cheaper and better looking versions <.<....

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I will happy about this only if it crash and burns. Microsoft Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, now that would be some news worth celebrating.

Care to explain your position?

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Yes, and in addition I would like to know which OS is he running on his computer.

I'm running Kubuntu Linux 5.10(planning on upgrading to 6.04 in the next week), and making this post using Firefox.

I don't like Internet Explorer because Firefox is more secure and crossplatform.
MS Office is $130. OpenOffice is just as good and Free.
I don't like the X-box because all of the games I like are available for Gamecube and/or PS2.
Vista will cost hundreds of dollars and will leave me a prisoner in my own computer. WinXP is valneral to most viruses, requires manual installation of half my hardware, and requires that I install software one by one. Kubuntu Linux by comparison is free to use, allows me the freedom to use my computer the way I want, installs everything but my printer automatically, and allows me to install/remove/upgrade multiple pieces of software simutatiously(and without a restart to boot).
VLC without external Codecs plays more formats then Windows Media Player(and has a nice streamlined interface as well).
I'm a communist, and Microsoft is the penicle of Capitalism.

I'd say that plenty of reason to have a rational hatred of Microsoft.

LOL @ having to install drivers individually in windows. What, are you trying to install a 20-year-old motherboard or something? The only device I've ever had that problem with was a Sony digital camera, and that's because Sony is gay and thinks a driver for a camera is sensitive IP that only they should have the right to distribute.

Anyways, Linux. I had this old Creative mp3 player with a 40gb laptop hard drive in it, but the DAC broke and there was something wrong with the board so it was basically a throwaway unit, but the hard drive still worked. So I got one of those USB laptop hard drive enclosures for $10 and boom, I had 40 gigs of portable, removeable storage.

So I go into some Linux forum and I'm like, what's the most user-friendly distribution that would work on my portable hard drive, and they're all like, UBUNTU FTW. So I grab a copy of Ubuntu, which bills itself as "Linux for human beings" and is supposedly the easiest, most painless Linux distro EVAR. Seriously, the way they were going on about it I thought I was in for like Mac OS or something. Oh boy.

1) The install wouldn't complete because it didn't install the driver for my integrated USB. In fact, it didn't even detect my USB. It thought my hard drive was a SCSI device, for god's sake. I had to go in USING WINDOWS to fix this.
2) Second run through, the install decided it didn't like my RAID controller, even though I wasn't using the array for the installation, and it's a RAID controller that's used in at least a hundred motherboards. I fought with it for like two hours before I gave up, unplugged my hard drives from the motherboard, and disabled the RAID controller in the bios.
3) The gui wouldn't start, because the driver it installed for my videocard DIDN'T WORK WITH MY VIDEOCARD, so I had to use a console interface I barely know anything about to change some config file to load the universal vesa driver.
4) I can't get anything to install. Hell, I can't even get anything to decompress. It keeps b-tching about my LC_ALL not being set, even though it clearly is and frankly has nothing to do with the simple task of unzipping a .deb file.

I mean, I'm sorry. But every time the OS discussion arises, there's always about a dozen slashdotters who go on and on about how Linux is poised to take over the desktop OS market. And every six months or so, I forget the last time I tried Linux, buy into their bullsh-t, and waste an entire weekend trying to get the so-called future of desktop computing to complete what should be very simple tasks. Am I doing something wrong here, or is it just coincidence that every single linux distro I've ever tried to install -- and this is on many different computers -- has flat-out refused to work with my hardware?

In conclusion, anyone who thinks Linux, in its current state, is a viable desktop operating system is still full of crap. Even IF I could get that install thing to work, I would STILL be typing dozens of cryptic lines into a console every time I wanted to install something. (And may God have mercy on my soul if that thing updates a library that isn't backwards compatible with all the libraries that depend on it.) Call me a noob, but for the same reason that I'd rather take the bus than drive, I frankly prefer the "Next, I Agree, Next, Next, Finish" approach.

Don't get me wrong. I hate Windows. Oftentimes, I hate it with a fiery passion so great that I have literally turned bright red trying to deal with its @#%$. But on one end of the spectrum we have stuff like iTunes, which thinks I'm too stupid to physically manage my music collection with folders, and that I enjoy having the inner workings of my system smeared over with abstraction, and on the other end we have the crap I just described.

It's a great server, and if you're a coder, damned if it's not the best way to hone your skills and familliarize yourself with the inner workings of a computer system. But don't try to tell me it can ever replace Windows or OSX as a suitable environment for everyday tasks.

And if you're really that concerned about the politics associated with Windows and Office, just pirate them. I've been doing that for over a decade.

I'll admit that hardware support isn't great. In fact my switch to Kubuntu required that I buy a new printer, and I still have my WinXP partition because my ATI TVWonder USB 2.0 doesn't have a linux driver. It's really hit or miss on the hardware side. That why they have LiveCDs, to check hardware compatiblity.

I've got a Dell Latitude D810, and the few times I've been forced to reinstall Windows, it has failed to install a sounddriver, a decent video driver, and ethernet driver.

(K)ubuntu isn't perfect, but it is the only Linux distro that I've ever actuall liked, And I was lucky to be among those with a compatible computer. Tip for the future: Try the LiveCDs before attempting an installation, I can save you a lot of time.

Wow, I'm not much of a Linux fan, and have certainly had my share of trouble with it, but nothing that bad. I messed with Ubuntu (and Kubuntu) a little and didn't care much for it (primarily because I don't like Gnome, and the KDE version seemed more like a Gnome distro with KDE tacked on, rather than a KDE-centric distro), but it didn't have much trouble with most of my hardware. I switched to SimplyMEPIS after that, and actually stuck with it for a while. I still prefered Windows, but liked it better than any other Linux distro I'd tried, and it was a good deal faster than (K)Ubuntu. Definitely not as easy as Windows in terms of driver installation and some application installation, but I'd gotten it set up to my liking without too much trouble. The main reason I got rid of it was because it promptly died upon installation of a new video card. Windows saw the new card right away, and was up and running within minutes after installing the drivers. Linux on the other hand wouldn't even get me into a GUI of any kind. After time spent searching for info online I finally got into something graphical, but I never could get it to use the correct resolution on the primary display, and eventually just gave up.

I haven't messed with Linux since, although every so often I get bored and think about tinkering with a different distro (possibly Xandros, heard good things about it) for the heck of it. Almost did so recently in fact, but put those plans on hold due to the acqusition of a new laptop which has my interest currently. And any plans to mess with Linux again have been further delayed by the recent failure of a hard drive in my main desktop system. Blarg. >_<

Anyway, I don't remember exactly where I was going with all of that now... >_>

Concerning this:

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Don't get me wrong. I hate Windows. Oftentimes, I hate it with a fiery passion so great that I have literally turned bright red trying to deal with its @#%$.

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I didn't realize you hated Windows so much, for some reason I thought you were a fairly big fan of it at one point. It's annoyed me at times, but not usually that much, especially with 2000 and XP. I like it quite a bit for the most part (although I have no interest in Vista), but I'm usually fairly willing to try new things as well. (which is why I wish Apple would just release OS X for normal PCs, I'm certainly not buying a Mac just to try it)

As for this Origami thing (in a feeble attempt to not be 100% off-topic, heh), it doesn't look particluarly interesting to me. Most likely anything I'd use it for I would rather do on a game console, desktop PC, or laptop. Poratable computer-type devices like that have never really interested me, I'd generally rather have either a full portable system like a laptop, or not bother at all.

Since I have had no experience with Linux of anykind, I can't have an opinion. Belive me, if i could, I'd add a third comp to my already crowded desk, which already contains an iMac and my Windows PC's moniter. As for the Origami, I'm into new ideas. I supported the iPod when it was new, and the many Mac-bashers were having fun smashing it to bits. If the Origami does everything that was showed in that trailer, I'd be on board, saving up for one. If it sucks, there is always E-bay . Right now, we are all in the dark about wether the Origami will keep its pormises, so don't start bashing what isn't there, or you'll look like a blind kid with down syndrome trying to hit a baseball. Microsoft knows what they are doing, even if it seems like they don't. X-box seemed like finacial suicide, but now, it a household name. The Origami might be a little more geared towards the high class, but I really think it looks pormising.

Speaking of which, a newer article on IGN is saying that portable Halo is one promise it apparently won't be keeping:

gear.ign.com/articles/693/693235p1.html

I didn't realize you hated Windows so much, for some reason I thought you were a fairly big fan of it at one point. It's annoyed me at times, but not usually that much, especially with 2000 and XP.
Spend five years troubleshooting other people's Windows machines and networks as a job and get back to me. I use Windows because when it works, and it seems to do this a lot when I'm using it, I feel it is vastly superior to other operating systems for desktop purposes. When it doesn't work, well, take my grandma's Dell for example. Hell, I don't even know where to begin here. Suffice it to say, she had it for like two months before she called me to figure out why all these weird boxes were appearing, and after a weekend of frustration I literally threw the entire damn computer in the garbage, drove to Future Shop, and bought her a Mac mini.

What I'm trying to say is, OSX just isn't the experience I'm looking for, and from what I've seen Linux is pretty much a pain in the ass 24/7, but that doesn't mean I'm singing Windows' praises, because it still pisses me off. I'm just glad I'm quitting my job around the time Vista comes out.

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Spend five years troubleshooting other people's Windows machines and networks as a job and get back to me.

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Ah... I see your point. I've fixed computers for people off and on, but certainly not that much or for that long. At the moment doing that as a job is something I think I would be interested in (provided I knew I little more overall), but I suppose after five years it's likely my opinion would be a bit different. And most often the computers I fix are generally just loaded with spyware and/or viruses, which don't require much troubleshooting to get going again, so I probably haven't come close to seeing what you've had to deal with. Although now that you mention it, I have had at least a taste of how 'fun' (as in, infuriating) troubleshooting network problems can be.

Personaally, I have a simple view on this.
I like playing pc games and using my pc for multimedia.
If this thing can let me do that whole being rather more portable than a laptop, that may actually be w rothwhile investment.
Just wonder if you can hook a DVD drive and speakers up to it...

Not being able to play Halo doesn't seem like a huge loss, but in that article it did say it was suposed to be more of a tablet PC than a gaming device. Being someone with a palm pilot I'd enjoy having one anyway.

So apparently Origami is a partnership project to develop super-slim, next-gen tablet PCs, and has nothing to do with moving in on the handheld gaming market. None of them are made by Microsoft. Like all PCs, they will undoubtedly be sold at a profit. And as far as tablet PCs go, these guys are friggin' tiny. They're the iPod nano of tablet PCs. Basically Wonder wins the "worst post of the thread" award.

CNET:
HANNOVER, Germany--Intel lifted the lid on Microsoft's Origami project on Thursday by showing off three ultramobile PC devices at the CeBit trade show here.

"We've been working very hard for five years to leverage the full power of the Windows XP Tablet (PC platform)," said Mitchell. He showed that UMPCs would include modified versions of Internet Explorer, OneNote and Windows Media Player.

Intel's general manager for Europe, Christian Morales...

I had to do a double-take at that one. Great name XD

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Intel's manager for low-power Internet access marketing, told ZDNet UK that these first devices have a battery life of between two and three hours, depending on whether they are used to play video.

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Yikes, that's all? Another reason why I'd rather just stick with a laptop, especially at that price.

Yikes, that's all? Another reason why I'd rather just stick with a laptop, especially at that price.
Most of the lappies I'm looking at right now give at most four hours.

I've seen some that claim up to six hours, provided you get the 12-cell battery upgrade to go with it. But even with comparable battery life, I'd still prefer the laptop. I was assuming one of the benefits to something that small would've been longer battery life.