FOX News - SciTech - Latest Headlines - Microsoft's iPad Answer Will Be Here for the Holidays

Sorry for pointing you to Fox News, but that's where the article showed up -

http://scitech.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=23952&content=43415354&pageNum=-1

And while Microsoft has finally confirmed the launch date for its Windows Phone 7 operating system -- stick with FoxNews.com for the big event on October 11 -- a recent video discovered by Engadget of an alleged HP Slate prototype hints that the experience still hasn't been streamlined for touchscreen operation.

Ballmer admits Windows 7 isn't fully optimized for the tablets. "We're not going to do a major revamp of Windows 7 for slate applications; that will come in the next version (Windows 8)," Ballmer said at the UK Tech Days conference.

HMM LETS SEE - MINUTES TO BOOT, HEAVY, HOT, POWERHUNGRY (short battery life), HUGE APPS REQUIRING TONS OF MEMORY, CANT LOAD ANY NEW COOL MOBILE APPS THAT ALL YR FRIENDS ARE USING (Angry birds, Qik Videoconf, Foursquare, etc), AND PROBABLY NOT 3G, SO ITS HOUSEBOUND, NOT MOBILE - it will feel like a humongous, expensive Ipod Touch (which is also wifi only) -- but with no apps and all the downsides of a Windows machine. Yeah, I would pay money for that why? To run MS Excel on my couch? I guess that's interesting.

I'm sure Ballmer knows this, but a touchscreen and WiFi does not a mobile device make. It's enabling a mobile experience (with 3G); supporting new mobile use cases like liveblogging, location-based (Foursquare) and augmented reality (Yelp Monocle) applications; in a lightweight pocket device form factor.