4 ms·

Microsoft Origami (2006) [video]

21 points by hiharryhere 11y ago

hiharryhere 11y ago
This is the first video I ever watched on YouTube. Revisiting it makes me realise just how far tablets/phones have come to surpass this vision. It also shows how much we are blinkered in our imagination by what is currently possible.
Hamcha 11y ago
I still kinda miss the era of UMPCs (how much has it been since I last used that term). I always wanted tablets to be small PCs, not big phones. The whole mobile thing strips them of most of their productive potential, as they have most apps thought for quick glances and activities (social networks, feed readers, small games) rather than something that might take a considerable amount of time to do. Thankfully there are exceptions in both fully tablet-oriented apps (just look how well Frozen Synapse works on Android tablets) and, as of lately, x64-powered tablets that can run intensive desktop apps. Here's a photo of.. 9 years ago(?) of me running Halo on a Samsung Q1 ultra (on Windows XP!) https://s3.amazonaws.com/f.cl.ly/items/1C3n3Z3F0o0w3f3L2N1q/DSC00987.jpg https://s3.amazonaws.com/f.cl.ly/items/1C3n3Z3F0o0w3f3L2N1q/... It had a weak CPU for the time (Celeron 1Ghz single core or worse) and bad battery life, but featured some pretty quirks (mouse could be controller either via the resistive touch screen or an analog stick on the side, also arrow keys are mapped to a dpad, pretty handy for gaming I guess?) which I hoped would set the future for tablets to come, but they failed miserably, and now we're stuck with laggy capacitive screens covering the whole device with no decent haptic feedback whatsoever.
- currywurst 11y ago
  I would encourage you to check out Windows 8.1 (soon to be Windows 10) tables like the Dell Venue 8 Pro (http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-venue-8-pro/pd http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-venue-8-pro/pd). They are essentially what the UMPC dream was about. And you can find great deals (usually <200 USD, once I even spotted them for 100 USD).
programminggeek 11y ago
You know, this is one reason Microsoft needed to be making their own hardware, about a decade ago... They are more on the right track now, but it's not in their DNA yet.
peterclary 11y ago
When I first watched this in 2006, the most appealing thing about it was that it showed people using devices that they didn't have to baby. They were lightweight and robust devices, and the people in the video didn't seem worried about knocking or dropping them, in marked contrast to laptops. And then what came out? UMPCs, which were expensive and non-robust.
helmsb 11y ago
The thing I always liked about the concept was buttons. These days buttons on a device are out of style but they can make certain tasks easier or more enjoyable. Look at the guy playing the game. Games that try to emulate buttons on screen never work right. Also I kinda liked the chunkiness of it. Easy to hold, doesn't look like you're going to break if you look at it wrong. I'd love to buy a Windows 10 device in this form factor.

21 points by hiharryhere 11y ago

This is the first video I ever watched on YouTube. Revisiting it makes me realise just how far tablets/phones have come to surpass this vision. It also shows how much we are blinkered in our imagination by what is currently possible.

Hamcha 11y ago

I still kinda miss the era of UMPCs (how much has it been since I last used that term). I always wanted tablets to be small PCs, not big phones. The whole mobile thing strips them of most of their productive potential, as they have most apps thought for quick glances and activities (social networks, feed readers, small games) rather than something that might take a considerable amount of time to do. Thankfully there are exceptions in both fully tablet-oriented apps (just look how well Frozen Synapse works on Android tablets) and, as of lately, x64-powered tablets that can run intensive desktop apps. Here's a photo of.. 9 years ago(?) of me running Halo on a Samsung Q1 ultra (on Windows XP!) https://s3.amazonaws.com/f.cl.ly/items/1C3n3Z3F0o0w3f3L2N1q/DSC00987.jpg https://s3.amazonaws.com/f.cl.ly/items/1C3n3Z3F0o0w3f3L2N1q/... It had a weak CPU for the time (Celeron 1Ghz single core or worse) and bad battery life, but featured some pretty quirks (mouse could be controller either via the resistive touch screen or an analog stick on the side, also arrow keys are mapped to a dpad, pretty handy for gaming I guess?) which I hoped would set the future for tablets to come, but they failed miserably, and now we're stuck with laggy capacitive screens covering the whole device with no decent haptic feedback whatsoever.

currywurst 11y ago
I would encourage you to check out Windows 8.1 (soon to be Windows 10) tables like the Dell Venue 8 Pro (http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-venue-8-pro/pd http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-venue-8-pro/pd). They are essentially what the UMPC dream was about. And you can find great deals (usually <200 USD, once I even spotted them for 100 USD).

programminggeek 11y ago

You know, this is one reason Microsoft needed to be making their own hardware, about a decade ago... They are more on the right track now, but it's not in their DNA yet.

peterclary 11y ago

When I first watched this in 2006, the most appealing thing about it was that it showed people using devices that they didn't have to baby. They were lightweight and robust devices, and the people in the video didn't seem worried about knocking or dropping them, in marked contrast to laptops. And then what came out? UMPCs, which were expensive and non-robust.

helmsb 11y ago

The thing I always liked about the concept was buttons. These days buttons on a device are out of style but they can make certain tasks easier or more enjoyable. Look at the guy playing the game. Games that try to emulate buttons on screen never work right. Also I kinda liked the chunkiness of it. Easy to hold, doesn't look like you're going to break if you look at it wrong. I'd love to buy a Windows 10 device in this form factor.