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Microsoft Surface Copies iPad Smart Cover, Adds A Keyboard

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Along with the new Surface Microsoft announced a collection of new cases that seem very familiar at first glance.

The first accessory Microsoft announced for the Surface is the Touch Cover. It’s a thin cover that comes in many colors that attaches magnetically to the bottom of the devices, just like Apple’s Smart Cover for the iPad. Underneath, however, the Touch Cover hides a secret. The Touch Cover holds a full multitouch keyboard and trackpad that turns the Surface into something resembling a laptop.

The Touch Cover isn’t a necessary accessory, but it should make touch-typing easier for users. According to The Verge, Microsoft said typing on the Touch Cover is “twice as efficient as typing on glass.” The Touch Cover is just 3mm thick, making it easy for users to carry with them at all times. It’s a bit thicker than the Smart Cover, but 3mm is still thin enough to not make much of a difference to the tablet’s overall thickness.

Microsoft also announced a Type Cover for the new Surface, but didn’t go into much detail about the device. From the presentation we assume the Type Cover attaches to bottom just like the Touch Cover. The big difference is the Type Cover has tactile keys and a true trackpad, just like a standard Windows laptop. It’s for users who prefer the standard keyboard layout and want to actually feel like they’re tapping keys for input.

Out of the two, Microsoft spent a lot more time on the Touch Cover, which we frankly can’t blame the company for. The Touch Cover is the more interesting of the two accessories, and the one we can’t wait to get our hands on.

10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. Mr. H.

    06/20/2012 at 1:52 pm

    I have to say your title is so bias towards Apple computer. The thin cover Microsoft showed off for their tablets is something all together new and different with new functions we haven’t quite seen before…

    of course you fiind a slew of table covers with keyboards on ebay for devices like the iPad, but nothing like this.. AND to say Microsoft “copies” is so far off.. By that same statment, anyone can say that Apple Copied Microsoft, by making a smartphone too – or by making the original ipod – since Microsoft had been using it’s Windows’s based, CE, Windows Pocket, and Pocket PCs all on Mobile phones and PDAs which was able to play audio and video year before Apple had a clue let alone the the iPod or the iPhone.

    Again your title is very mis-leading and appears as if you were going for the “shock” factor to get people tap in and read the article.

    • Reidy

      08/19/2012 at 5:12 am

      buddy you are too right

  2. will

    06/20/2012 at 2:17 pm

    apples copies microsoft?? you do know microsoft came out with tablet pc in 2002? as far as im concerned apple copies microsoft with ipad.

  3. Dusty

    06/21/2012 at 1:11 pm

    Ya get your facts straight Author, Microsoft came out with tablet PC in 2002, Apple copied it in 2010.

    Apple sucks.

  4. Emma

    06/24/2012 at 1:40 pm

    To be fair, there was the Newton at the end of the 90s; which could be argued to be the predecessor of both Windows Tablets & the iPad/iPod etc.

  5. derp

    06/27/2012 at 10:27 am

    This website lost all credability.
    Startrek in 1988 showed off the first tablet concept, Microsoft came next in 2002 and then Apple comes along years later and claims to have invemted it…. Want more coolaid?

  6. beebop

    07/28/2012 at 10:55 am

    who cares, children?

    • Vance

      08/11/2012 at 10:24 pm

      The childish author cares, or he wouldn’t have posted his misinformation.

  7. "Reason obeys itself, and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it." -Thomas Paine

    09/05/2012 at 7:12 am

    How can you see literally everything as blatant copies of Apple products? No amount of Kool-Aid may amount to that. Just how stupid are you to adhere so blindly to Apple? Just as any average conformist. You have no individual worth on your own, so you pathetically cling on to things that are worth something in attempts to overcome it.

  8. Phil

    10/08/2012 at 7:34 am

    Really? The Newton? You’re going there? It’s an enlarged PDA. Let’s go back to the Nokia 9000 in 1996…

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