Hololens got dev kit delivery dates in Q1 next year. Seems to foreshadow a commercial release next year as well. In terms of augmented realtiy nothing else is close except maybe that weird company that google bought keeps not showing off hardware in public (read vapor ware until hands are laid on it outside of that companies control).
Band 2 looks like a native digital wrist based appliance as opposed to something trying to emulate gears and hands on a watch. Seriously..... VO2 max from something on your wrist???? If that works at all it is just a phenomenal acheivement.
Lumia phones with windows and a dock that lets you run office with a keyboard, mouse and external media (USB drives etc...) if you so desire. This is the first phone as a full computing device option that seems to be viable (appologies to the Motorola Atrix and aborted Palm effort a few years back that were just to far ahead of their time).
Surface 4 is now THE uber tablet form factor tech toy. Full stop. Its a tablet first if a somewhat large one. It has 12 hours of battery life... and can be had in MacBook Air slaughtering trim if you so desire (i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB of storage). Very interested in seeing direct comparison between apple ipad pro and pencil with surface 4 pen on an art app.... And a stress test to see how hot it gets under a serious load along with real world battery life.
Surface book is the best "just one more thing" in a LOOOOOONG time. Is it a tablet? Is it a world beating laptop? Does it last 12 hours? There are questions about this thing but one question that is answered is that it has the tech world abuzz and it is a very impressive bit of tech.
Back in 2006 Apple upended the mobile tech world and showed again for the first time since the Apple ][/Macintosh days just what an incredible thing it is to have veritical integration of all elements of the product including the hardware. Doing that kind of hardware at scale is just something that does not happen over night and it took a while for everyone to wake up to the fact that without it there was no competing with the newly resurgent Apple. Apple's world beating success and profits are not being driven nearly as much by their superior capability (though they are special I grant) as much as it is by there is no competetion playing on the field at their level. Think early Tiger Woods when the reset of the PGA was still a lot of flabby old guys with few tip top physically impressive players. Today;s PGA looks different and while I think a Tiger in his Prime would still shine against the current field there is no way he dominates the way he did if he faced the current level of competition. But that isn't what happend so he is the legend he is in part because of the lack of direct competition in his prime. Google is dabbling in an alternative to what Apple is doing in their Nexus system... and Microsoft is now trying to put a model in play with their stores and surface lines that put them on competitive terms.
However there is a catch. In business there is something called the "First Mover Advantage". In the case of Apple the first mover advantage they still have is the App store. Nobody else is close to it... at least in Mobile. However I think a lot of folks are overlooking that the App store for Macbooks is not nearly so tilted in Apple's favor when compared to the overall Windows eco system. True MS store vs Apple store the comparison is poor. But MS software availability via the web in general is just fine and I dare say still very much largely in Microsofts favor. When it comes to PC software it is still far more likely to exist for Windows than it is for Apple. And that is where M$ has a chance here to horn their way onto the stage at the same level as Apple... and possibly steal their thunder (again) in that they come in and steal the end game. Apple should be scared of Surface... and I hope they counter punch well. We will all benefit from having two equal copmetitors in this space.
Final thought... Surface Pen vs Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro is the only area I am waiting to see if Apple has retained an advantage in any way when it comes to tablets. The demo with disney artists was impressive and as a long time user of iPad styluses it looks like they really have solved the stylus quirks on capacitive systems. For me personally this could end up being the tipping factor on whether I go for a Surface (likely as a device that replaces my current Macbook and Ipad) or stick strictly with Apple. The one activity I do on tablets that compeltely separates it from my laptop use is drawing. An iPad I could do full speed writing on and or lag free drawing with usable force sensitivity would be absolutely awesome. But the draw of an "open" OS (yes windows 10 is WAAAAAY more open than iOS) and a device powerful enough and mobile enough to replace my current split setup is damned appealling... even if it means going back to the blue screen of death dealers. Not sold on the phones, but the windows desktop experience from a phone via that dock is a damned interesting party trick. Ye Gods....am I actually looking forward to a trip to a Microsoft Store??? YEP, and so should you!
