Surface 2019 + Neo and Duo dual screens

[fjtorres]

Incoming from Microsoft:

https://blogs.windows.com/devices/20...-productivity/

Surface Neo is dual-screen device built for productivity on Windows 10X, an expression of Windows 10. A 360-degree full-friction hinge connects two 9” screens, enabling Surface Neo to adapt to whatever posture you need in the moment. When you open it you have a full-size 13” display in the thinnest LCD in its class. It’s built for productivity and multitasking like a true PC would be – running full productivity apps, with a removable keyboard and compatibility with Surface Pen and Bluetooth® mouse.

Surface Duo is the first Surface to fit in your pocket. Surface Duo brings together the best of Microsoft productivity experiences, Android apps and Surface hardware design into a single device you can take anywhere. And, yes, it makes phone calls. It has two paper-thin 5.6-inch screens that unfold to 8.3 inches, and just like Surface Neo, it can be used in a variety of modes to let you work the way you’d like.

More from CNET.
https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-...announcements/

Lots of videos.

The Duo would be great...as a pure tablet. And reader.
Price will make or break both the Neo and Duo.
It'll be a while before we know: a year, unfortunately.

[tubemonkey]

Surface Duo - it's a book. Now make it in eInk

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Surface Duo - it's a book. Now make it in eInk

With that kind of battery life it may not make much of a difference if they get rid of the cellular module.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

...Surface Duo brings together the best of Microsoft productivity experiences, Android apps and Surface hardware design...

I hope that means Android apps will come to Windows 10.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I hope that means Android apps will come to Windows 10.

The Duo is an Android™ phone...
...with some of Microsoft's apps (Office, Outlook, etc) and Launcher preinstalled.
(Strictly speaking, MS isn't aiming for the consumer market, but the corporate market already committed to Windows and Azure. It's a firewall.)

The Neo is a Windows tablet, modified to manage dual screens.

Android apps already run on Windows (via emulators or) via MS development/porting tools. MS prefers the latter.

[frahse]

Some interesting hardware.

It bears further scrutiny.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The Duo is an Android™ phone...
...with some of Microsoft's apps (Office, Outlook, etc) and Launcher preinstalled.

Bummer. I haven't watched the video yet.

Android apps already run on Windows (via emulators or) via MS development/porting tools. MS prefers the latter.

Yeah, I've played with emulators a little (BlueStack and Memu) but for my use case it was too much of a hassle. Mostly I just want to use a couple of the Android comic reader apps.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Bummer.

Preinstalled doesn't mean compulsory.
Besides, MS preinstalling some apps is no different than Samsung, etc putting their apps on their phones.
Try looking in the Play store: MS has quietly put out dozens of (highly rated) Android apps. Not all are for the corporate market.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ation&hl=en_US

They'll probably have more by the time Duo ships.
This is just MS going all in back to their multiplatform roots.
(Not sure if it's still true but for a few years MS made more money off android than Google.)

Edit:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/micros...g-app-support/

That's not the end of Microsoft's Android embrace, however. It sounds as if Microsoft is considering enabling Android apps to run on some of its future Windows devices. A Forbes report, citing iHS Markit, which tracks supply-chain metrics, claims Android apps will work on Microsoft's dual-screen Centaurus laptops.

I've asked around a bit, and also hear that Microsoft is at least contemplating this scenario. On Intel-based Centaurus dual-screen devices shipping with the still-unofficially-announced Windows Lite Chrome OS competitor, Microsoft may include support for Android apps in an Android app store. If and when Microsoft also releases ARM-based dual-screen devices, Android apps in an Android store may be part of the scenario, too, my contacts say.

Microsoft has had some noteworthy success in getting its own apps to succeed on Android. Microsoft's Android apps like Launcher and Outlook. Microsoft currently has more than 150 apps from various teams in the Google Play Store, as Microsoft engineers working on Android recently blogged. Of these, five have more than 500 million downloads.

As Google continues to come under fire over privacy and antitrust issues, Microsoft execs may think they have the opening they need to swoop in and be an Android steward.

Centaurus = Surface Neo.

More speculation at the source.

[Sweetpea]

That Duo might be the replacement for my 8" tablet. Depends a bit on the price, naturally...

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Preinstalled doesn't mean compulsory.
Besides, MS preinstalling some apps is no different than Samsung, etc putting their apps on their phones.
Try looking in the Play store: MS has quietly put out dozens of (highly rated) Android apps. Not all are for the corporate market

I think you misunderstood my comment. The 'bummer' isn't that the Surface Duo is an Android phone running a bunch of Microsoft apps. I have no problem with that.

The bummer is that it isn't a Windows 10 phone running a bunch of Android apps. I was hoping that was the case, as it would indicate that perhaps Android apps would finally be simple to use on all Windows 10 machines without running an emulator. MS was pushing that at one point, but they gave it up. I was hoping the Surface Duo indicated a reignition for that project.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I think you misunderstood my comment. The 'bummer' isn't that the Surface Duo is an Android phone running a bunch of Microsoft apps. I have no problem with that.

The bummer is that it isn't a Windows 10 phone running a bunch of Android apps. I was hoping that was the case, as it would indicate that perhaps Android apps would finally be simple to use on all Windows 10 machines without running an emulator. MS was pushing that at one point, but they gave it up. I was hoping the Surface Duo indicated a reignition for that project.

That may yet happen but not this decade.
As ZDNET said, MS is looking into making android apps run on Windows but the downside might be too big.
(They don't want to end up like OS/2.)

It's like the screen: it's pretty clear they want a folding screen but the tech isn't up to their requirements so they're doing dual screens for the first releases.

[binaryhermit]

My hottake: Microsoft is releasing a Linux device.
Convicted monopolist Microsoft from the 1990s is dead.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

My hottake: Microsoft is releasing a Linux device.
Convicted monopolist Microsoft from the 1990s is dead.

An android device runs a linux kernel, but that does not make it what I think of as a linux device.

[binaryhermit]

Still, given the steps MS took to try to kill Linux...
I mean, isn't it believed that they were behind the whole SCO lawsuits thing?

(Believe it or not, the SCO v IBM lawsuit's still going on last I checked, over 15 years later)

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Monopolist Microsoft a "steward" for monopolist Google? Now that is funny.