Get Your Hands on a Surface at the Sheraton Boston
If you're in or passing through the Boston area and have yet to see a Microsoft Surface machine in action, you can swing by the Boston Sheraton hotel for a chance to interact with one. Boston is one of five Sheratons to feature a Surface as a guide to the local area.
I had a chance to play with research the capabilities of one while at Mix08 this spring and can say that the cool factor is extremely high with these. You can interact via touching the table top, putting objects on top of it (that it then recognizes and responds to), and it can communicate wirelessly with devices that support that (such as phones, cameras, etc.)
In the picture at right, you can see a picture someone took of our group at MIX that was transferred to the Surface by placing the camera on the table top and selecting the picture from the camera with a flick of a finger.
Of course, the Surface team has plenty to say on the matter:
The Surface machine is in the lobby of:
The Sheraton Boston Hotel
39 Dalton St.
Boston, MA
[One-click directions]
I haven't made it out to the Sheraton just yet, but if you go, please let me know what you think!
-Chris
P.S. This has been getting plenty of attention in the media. Here's a sampling of what I found: