$199 Surface RT! Hell Yes! But is There a Catch?

Most of us who care about technology have already seen (and fallen in love with) the Surface tablet by Microsoft, the design is breathtaking, the simplicity astounding, and the ultra thin keyboard is genius. For a while now speculations about the price have gone up as high as $700 for the base 8GB RT model, however today some very interesting rumors have popped up stating that the Surface RT (running the lite version of Windows 8) could cost as low as $199!!!

Obviously this is awesome news for anyone hoping to snag one of these beauties; personally even though I thoroughly enjoy using my iPad I would pick one of these up in a heartbeat if this price turns out to be true. My mind has already started calculating what color would be the smartest choice, I'm thinking a black keyboard, or maybe white, but definitely not Cyan or the other colors simply because they're dirt magnets. Alas once again I've gotten ahead of myself, so back on topic.

What could this low low pricing mean for the tablet world as a whole, and for Win8 OEMs specifically? First off forget the Kindle Fire, forget the Google Nexus 7 this will be the "game changer" and it really will be one. Unlike the other two tablets I mentioned which were built on a budget in mind (the Fire more than the Nexus 7) the Surface RT obviously had no expense spared. The pop-out stand is a stroke of genius showing exactly how much thought went into this beauty. The other major difference to be pointed out is the fact that the Surface carries a whopping 10.6" screen a monster compared to the two 7 inchers, which would also make the Surface one of the cheapest 10" tablets ever made (Chinese knockoffs aside).

So we've established that the Surface at this price would demolish any other similarly priced tablet and give the iPad a VERY good run for its money, but what about those other poor OEMs who had oh so great plans for Windows 8? First of all make no mistake about it, this is a nasty move by Microsoft; after all who can hope to compete with those folks from Seattle on their own OS (hint: Microsoft is based in Seattle). I'm sure most of the major OEMs out there who have licensing deals with Microsoft are taking a good long look at their strategies, cause you see as big as an advantage as owning the OS your manufacturing for is that's nothing compared to the advantage you gain when you don't need to make money off selling your product.

Yes, Microsoft could be selling these Surface tablets for a $200 loss a pop (highly unlikely) and they'd still come out smiling, simply because they don't need the money right now. All Microsoft really want to do is establish a foothold in the tablet market, make those iPad fanboys think twice before lining up a week before the next launch. The Surface is a great way to get Windows 8 (RT and full Windows 8) out in the wild, making it an afterthought of the purchase (which was driven by the insanely low price) rather than a major contender in the decision. Then of course Microsoft would still have their trump card that no other OEM developing for them has, 30% Marketplace share. Yes, for every dollar you spend in the Marketplace big ol' Redmond gets 30 Cents, not much but what about those expensive apps? Photoshop can run up to $700 for the full version, pretend the Surface RT version would only cost $50, Microsoft would make $15 per license sold and those can add up very quickly. It's basically the same game Sony plays with their PlayStation devices, selling the console for a loss, but knowing that the consumer has no choice but to return to them to actually make any use of the product.

Basically if Microsoft chooses to go down the aggressive pricing path they could sell the Surface by the boatload, but is it worth risking their carefully crafted alliances with their OEMs? Well that's up to Steve Ballmer.

The title of the article asks "if there's a catch?", Sure there is, but not for you; for every other OEM out there definitely, for Microsoft absolutely; But as far as you the consumer is concerned (I assume Ballmer isn't reading this article) by all means go crazy, because this is the future for a couple hundred dollars cheaper.

Microsoft Mouse Gestures Reviewed

A while back I posted a couple pictures of the "Microsoft Touch mouse" and promised you a full coverage of the functions/gestures supported; well here it is.

As soon as you connect the mouse to your Laptop/PC it automatically downloads the drivers (no need for those pesky CDs) as well as a tutorial program that teaches you how to use all the mouse gestures.

The groove down the middle separates the mouse into left and right side for right button/left button clicks.

The basic gestures are:

• Single Finger Scrolling- Just dragging a single finger up or down scrolls across the page
• Two Finger Panning Up/Down- Dragging two fingers upwards or downwards toggles between Full screen and windowed mode (maximize/minimize), while two consecutive swipes downward of a maximized window will dock it into the taskbar
• Two Fingers Panning Left/Right- Swiping to the left or right with two fingers will "justify" the current window onto the right or left half of the screen (Splits the screen)
• Three Finger Panning Up/Down- Swiping up with three fingers will bring up a really neat multitasking view that allows you to switch quickly between open applications/folders (as seen in the image below), swiping with three fingers downwards will automatically dock any open window into the taskbar regardless if its maximized or minimized.

• Thumb Flicks Left/Right-  This gesture was a little tricky to get the hang of , basically you first have to grip the mouse in a normal fashion (fingers on top, thumb against the side of the mouse) then from this position either move your thumb towards the center of the mouse (Right) or towards the surface of your desk/mousepad (left); these gestures are used to navigate Forward/Back in webpages and folder directories.

Overall the gestures on the mouse become very natural, almost second nature; making switching back to any other mouse a pain a nuisance, the two gestures I use most are the "thumb flick: for navigating webpages as well as the "dock to right/left" to help organize my open applications/folders.

Verdict: The Microsoft touch mouse is pretty darn awesome, good looking and extremely useful, I really hope it's supported on Windows 8 as it would make scrolling through the Metro Desktop a breeze.

If you feel like picking one up you can get the Touch mouse from Amazon for $28 for the black version and $22 for the White "cheque" artist version (super saver shipping available).