The new Microsoft “Transform” tablet…

…and I scored one for FREE!!!
You gotta love working at a company where you get great swag like a free tablet just for showing up at an all-hands meeting for the new, reorganized Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB) group.

This new tablet is super portable, lightweight and runs basically forever. These aren’t available publicly yet, but I am giving you a first glimpse right here.

You can see here that this new tablet has a very familiar and approachable look. Other than the little Xbox logo in the corner, you could easily mistake this for any traditional pad of paper.

A deeper look shows that the while the familiarity remains, this is a much more sophisticated device.

 

By quickly flipping open the “smart cover”, the tablet is instantly ready for you to use. No long boot up sequence. Notice that it looks like a regular sheet of paper, but with a twist. The Transform tablet “pages” are imprinted with a special SmartGrid that actually helps the user keep their lines straight – both horizontally and vertically. And turning the pages requires just a swipe of a finger – although in this first release you do sometimes need to lick your finger first. That should be fixed in an update to be released soon.

 

The ability to manage your calendar and contacts is a must for any serious tablet contender. The Transform tablet doesn’t skimp on in these areas. The calendar shows a full year at a glance and allows you to zoom in on a single month, week or day simply by holding the tablet closer to your face.

When it comes to contacts, the Transform tablet allows you to store as many as 10(!) friends – which is way more than anyone who works in the software business will ever need.

 

Like it or not, there’s no disputing the fact that the less sophisticated iPad has shown how important it is to have a lot of fun and engaging multiplayer games available. The Transform tablet not only has great games available right now, but thanks to the Smart Pad multitasking, you can play any number of games at the same time – limited only by how many fit on the page at the same time.

Games are not enough though. You need productivity too. Thankfully, the  Transform tablet support rich handwriting and drawing capabilities. You can easily take notes during a meeting and use simple gestures to make quick changes and modifications and save the notes for later use. You can easily add headings, bullets, and add emphasis – simply by using the gestures you already know!

I know what you are wondering…“Will this tablet connect with my the phone I have today?” You’ll be happy to know the answer is a resounding “YES!” You can easily set your phone on top of the pad to prop it up, or you can put the pad on top of the phone to keep dust off your phone. And you can use the phone at the same time as you use the tablet.

I, for one, am SUPER EXCITED about that Microsoft is finally, finally stepping into the tablet game and that they’ve not simply copied what competitors are doing. For example, it was a decision to go beyond just leaving out Cut & Paste (as with Windows Phone 7) but to eliminate electronics entirely – saving weight and improving overall reliability! How else to describe that than BOLD!

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This is pretty funny. Some of the stuff on the screen shots is, ahem, questionable. Just don't read too closely.