6 ms·

It is not compatible to Surface RT tablets. I don't understand how Microsoft is willing to burn its early adopters so much. Surely it is not a technical matter

It is not compatible to Surface RT tablets. I don't understand how Microsoft is willing to burn its early adopters so much. Surely it is not a technical matter or a matter of resources? If anything, Microsoft should do everything to keep all of them happy. Regarding the hardware itself - if you have ever tried out a Native Instruments Maschine, which this is kind of modeled on, you know that the haptics of the pad keys are key. This won't work well with the type of switch of the touchcover.

salient 13y ago
I don't understand why Microsoft even calls the two tablets the same, when they couldn't be any different from the software, hardware and price perspectives. The only explanation I can come up with is that they're trying to confuse the consume and think that one is just as good as the other (you can do the same things with both), and this title "Surface Music Kit", even though it's just for the Surface Pro device, proves my point.
- anonymfus 13y ago
  You are confused. It's compatible with non-pro "Surface 2" (second generation Windows RT based device). It's incompatible with "Surface RT".
  - jessaustin 13y ago
    Even the confusion seems to prove the point that Ms are confusing their customers.
  - slantyyz 13y ago
    My company just ordered some of the original Surface Pros on discount. The labelling on the boxes had us doing a double take, because we thought we received the ARM units by mistake. Surface Pro boxes just say Surface on them, so you actually have to look at the additional text to see that the OS is Windows 8 Pro or that the SSD is larger than the RT before you realize you go the right unit.
- gum_ina_package 13y ago
  How is this any different than Apple only supporting nth Gen iDevices?
  - sleepybrett 13y ago
    Generally when Apple stops supporting some generation of devices it's 100% because of a hardware reason. Sometimes that hardware reason is processor bound (siri, and yes I know people have used siri on jailbroken 4's but the performance is adversly effected) and sometimes something else ( iBeacon and other Bluetooth LE technologies ). I generally don't like to give MS the benefit of the doubt, but in this case I know a lot of work went into the keyboard cover between the 1st gen (both pro and RT) and 2nd gen surface units. Is it possible that the connector has changed?
    - Eyas 13y ago
      Yes, Microsoft's keyboard connector changed between the Surface RT and Surface Pro to add additional pins for power. This is why Microsoft's latest Power Cover also doesn't work on the Surface RT but works on the rest. It is possible the Music Cover takes advantage of the additional pins.
  - cmelbye 13y ago
    How is that at all like this? Apple doesn't drop support for their devices after a year, plain and simple, and that's what Microsoft has done here. If there's a genuine "hardware limitation" that prevented them from giving support to their early adapters, then it's absurdly shocking to me that they didn't have the foresight to know that they might want to create covers like this in the future and add support for them preemptively.
    - kenjackson 13y ago
      They still support Surface RT. It's simply that they introduced effectively a new HW port on the new devices, which they haven't retrofitted on old devices. Apple has done the exact same thing on gen X to gen X+1 in the past. Everyone has.
Eyas 13y ago
As I said in a separate comment below, I believe there is an actual hardware limitation here. According to two of the MSFT team's reddit AMA, the peripheral connector hardware did change (a few power pins were added).
- cmelbye 13y ago
  Did they seriously not have the foresight or product planning to know that they might want to create covers like this in the future? That's such a weak excuse. It's not like the Surface RT came out four years ago, it was the end of last year. They should've done everything they could to prevent themselves from leaving their early adopters behind, although I'm not surprised in the slightest that they did so. They did it to Windows Phone 7 users in the transition to Windows Phone 8, and they're doing it again now.
  - pionar 13y ago
    Saying that everything people do needs to be backward-compatible is what leads to having to support IE 6. I'm sure you had the foresight a year ago to know that they'd want to attach different covers in the future, why didn't you tell them?
    - cmelbye 13y ago
      I mean come on, I'm not expecting 12 years of backwards compatibility, I'm just saying that maybe one of their hardware engineers might have said: "Gee, is it possible that we might develop a new cover next year that needs power, for a backlight or something? We're under a time crunch now, so we probably won't have time to take advantage of it yet, but maybe we could add a couple pins for power to future proof it?" It's absurd to consider that an impossible foresight to make.

salient 13y ago

I don't understand why Microsoft even calls the two tablets the same, when they couldn't be any different from the software, hardware and price perspectives. The only explanation I can come up with is that they're trying to confuse the consume and think that one is just as good as the other (you can do the same things with both), and this title "Surface Music Kit", even though it's just for the Surface Pro device, proves my point.

anonymfus 13y ago
You are confused. It's compatible with non-pro "Surface 2" (second generation Windows RT based device). It's incompatible with "Surface RT".
- jessaustin 13y ago
  Even the confusion seems to prove the point that Ms are confusing their customers.
- slantyyz 13y ago
  My company just ordered some of the original Surface Pros on discount. The labelling on the boxes had us doing a double take, because we thought we received the ARM units by mistake. Surface Pro boxes just say Surface on them, so you actually have to look at the additional text to see that the OS is Windows 8 Pro or that the SSD is larger than the RT before you realize you go the right unit.
gum_ina_package 13y ago
How is this any different than Apple only supporting nth Gen iDevices?
- sleepybrett 13y ago
  Generally when Apple stops supporting some generation of devices it's 100% because of a hardware reason. Sometimes that hardware reason is processor bound (siri, and yes I know people have used siri on jailbroken 4's but the performance is adversly effected) and sometimes something else ( iBeacon and other Bluetooth LE technologies ). I generally don't like to give MS the benefit of the doubt, but in this case I know a lot of work went into the keyboard cover between the 1st gen (both pro and RT) and 2nd gen surface units. Is it possible that the connector has changed?
  - Eyas 13y ago
    Yes, Microsoft's keyboard connector changed between the Surface RT and Surface Pro to add additional pins for power. This is why Microsoft's latest Power Cover also doesn't work on the Surface RT but works on the rest. It is possible the Music Cover takes advantage of the additional pins.
- cmelbye 13y ago
  How is that at all like this? Apple doesn't drop support for their devices after a year, plain and simple, and that's what Microsoft has done here. If there's a genuine "hardware limitation" that prevented them from giving support to their early adapters, then it's absurdly shocking to me that they didn't have the foresight to know that they might want to create covers like this in the future and add support for them preemptively.
  - kenjackson 13y ago
    They still support Surface RT. It's simply that they introduced effectively a new HW port on the new devices, which they haven't retrofitted on old devices. Apple has done the exact same thing on gen X to gen X+1 in the past. Everyone has.

Eyas 13y ago

As I said in a separate comment below, I believe there is an actual hardware limitation here. According to two of the MSFT team's reddit AMA, the peripheral connector hardware did change (a few power pins were added).

cmelbye 13y ago
Did they seriously not have the foresight or product planning to know that they might want to create covers like this in the future? That's such a weak excuse. It's not like the Surface RT came out four years ago, it was the end of last year. They should've done everything they could to prevent themselves from leaving their early adopters behind, although I'm not surprised in the slightest that they did so. They did it to Windows Phone 7 users in the transition to Windows Phone 8, and they're doing it again now.
- pionar 13y ago
  Saying that everything people do needs to be backward-compatible is what leads to having to support IE 6. I'm sure you had the foresight a year ago to know that they'd want to attach different covers in the future, why didn't you tell them?
  - cmelbye 13y ago
    I mean come on, I'm not expecting 12 years of backwards compatibility, I'm just saying that maybe one of their hardware engineers might have said: "Gee, is it possible that we might develop a new cover next year that needs power, for a backlight or something? We're under a time crunch now, so we probably won't have time to take advantage of it yet, but maybe we could add a couple pins for power to future proof it?" It's absurd to consider that an impossible foresight to make.