Microsoft Office Labs vision 2019 (montage + video)

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When Microsoft decides to imagine the future, it never fails to impress. Not only do you have some of the smartest people envisioning what’s possible, but they also invest so much into communicating these ideas through sights and sounds which the production value can be compared to most blockbuster sci-fi films.

Today at the Wharton Business Technology Conference, Microsoft’s Business Division president Stephen Elop unveiled the latest production from Microsoft Office Labs called “2019”, starring stock photo men, women and children playing with the next-generation of communication, collaboration and production technologies. (via Steve Clayton)

Those with a keen eye and a good memory might recognize a few familiar concepts in this video already shown in earlier videos of the “envisioning” series, for example the future of personal health, having said that, I believe there’s still a couple of new never-before-seen concepts sliced between. Please correct me if I’m wrong. And I’m not wrong. Update below.

Update: I’ve been able to get my hands on the new “2019” video in its full glory. This 5-minute long spectacle is available separately below. Some of the new technologies demoed including a “transparent wall” between two classrooms around the world, animated drawings, realtime conversation translations, surface displays, electronic boarding cards, transparent displays, mini projectors among many others. The electronic newspaper is definitely my favorite.

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And for those who like to analyze every pixel as much as I do, here’s a couple screenshots I extracted from Stephen’s PowerPoint deck. An interesting future indeed.

474 insightful thoughts

  1. I am just wondering of they seem to be so good at predicting the future yet always under deliver…
    … there seems to be a serious communications breakdown somewhere between innovation and realization…

    1. Probably because they needed to run a current OS when they made the video, like XP, because that was the latest OS out when this was made

  2. Great video. It’s inspiring. As usual, it won’t be like that, maybe we’ll be far from this idea. But it takes a picture of what we imagine as the future now, the same way we now remember the future was all about spaceships and living in the moon in the 80’s.
    Slightly off-topic: WHY the list in the supermarket reorders and puts razor blades in the first place?!?!?!?!

  3. Well, if Microsoft could make clean functional neat UI like that, I’d be happy. I bet the future will look nothing at all like this.

  4. It reminds me of all those modern sci-fi movies. They’re all like using the current operating systems and what cannot be done with that is added with AfterEffects. Though, I like cutting boards getting converted into interactive touchscreens. Those mainly waste space at home. 😀 I wonder how the transparent foil screens and glass surfaces display white, though. Up until now, I only know about mirror surfaces, that become displays after being lit with the light of a very bright display behind them. Not about glossy transparent to milky white or black, thus not being a lamp replacement. If they could just build glass, that’s reactive to touch and can block light completely, then I know what kinda stuff I’ll build my house with in some time.

    1. Tunable-white-light-emitting materials are developed by combining two single-crystal oxide nanowire materials—ZnO and SnO2—having different light emissions. The tuning of white-light emission from cool white to warm white is achieved for the first time by adjusting the growth sequence and growth time of the ZnO and SnO2 nanowires. Combined ZnO:SnO2 nanowire arrays yield a desired emission color from (0.30, 0.31) to (0.35, 0.37) and a white luminescence of ~ 100 cd m − 2, whose reproducibility can be controlled accurately. These results pave a new way to understand and generate a desired white-light emission, which is a key technology in large-area planar display devices, including flexible and/or transparent display devices.

  5. I’m guessing the huge screen in the aircraft will be limited to business class. 😛

    The absolute coolest part in the video though is that the aircraft itself appears to be a Boeing 787, or at least something that’s based on the 787’s interior (compare for example this image: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/05/07/business/07boeing_CA0ready.html; the interior is identical to the one shown in the video except for the screens in the back of the seat).

    I also like the concept of “smart furniture” that they seem to be pushing for. I doubt it will be that pervasive by 2019 though.

    And yes, of course, the real future will be nothing like this. 🙂

  6. Bob, grab the DownloadHelper extension for Firefox, download the flv, then play the video with VLC from VideoLan.org

  7. A lot of this is indeed familiar and I don’t think is very far from what could be in ten years.

    The vision of a display in so many surfaces such as counter-tops and walls is something I’ve heard Bill Gates talk about before.
    With devices such as Amazon’s Kindle here now, it’s not too difficult to merge advanced e-ink tech with multi-touch to enable something like the newspaper shown. Although I do feel that the use of the newspaper in the way shown wouldn’t be as practical and was more or less a visual tool as an easier to hold display might be more desirable considering displays being so available all around. Then again, perhaps some people would opt for that classic feeling of reading a newspaper.

    With what we’ve seen from Microsoft in the form of Surface, the “Wall”, the Sphere, the latest tablet software they had shown at CES that made learning more connected, and so on, it’s apparent that Microsoft see’s where it wants to go and is already working towards the means to accomplish that. This video is giving everyone else a very clear idea of what that vision is.

    Overall, a lot of this is what I feel is a more realistic vision into the next decade as much of what you see in the video is already on it’s way in a much less sleek and prevalent form now, but nonetheless, on the path to this glimpse into the near-future.

  8. excellent ! it’s all the concept I have already been reading about in a single scenario video.
    I think that we are closer to this than ever… 2019 is too far.. I guess 2015 is more realistic… each of these concepts are already well working.. like foldable paper and things like that… it just needs to appear in our everyday life.

  9. pretty cool, but that’ll never happen in 10 years. 10 years ago, computers were basically the same as they are now. Sure, we have a little more eye candy in the UI, but that’s nothing. The general population is too uncaring about technology and too conservative and unwilling to try new things to move technology ahead at the pace we could achieve. We could probably have some of this stuff NOW, but no one is willing to take the risk and be first.

  10. I suspect that in the future airports and air travel, as depicted, will be a thing of the past.

  11. Ben, I think you’re underestimating how much has changed in the last ten years. In 1999, nobody I knew had a mobile phone. PDAs were bulky monochrome devices that only company executives could afford. Portable music players were still primarily walkman, discman and the occasional mini-disc player (I had one of those).

    Internet was mostly dial-up (iirc I had ISDN at the time, or maybe 256kbps cable, I don’t remember). You didn’t have Internet on telephones, you didn’t have wireless access at Starbucks. I regularly use Skype to talk to my family at home, 9000km away, for free; ten years ago we didn’t have that (or whatever there was was very low quality).

    Most people had 15 or 17″ CRT monitors, TVs were also CRT; today’s massive widescreen monitors and HDTVs would’ve looked just as unbelievable back then as the “window-monitors” in this video do now. Think of digital TV with integrated programme guides and interactive content and hard disk recorders and TiVos instead of VHS.

    Cars with satellite navigation; would you have thought that a big LCD screen built into the dashboard would be normal on most cars ten years ago? How about the heads-up-display that some high-end cars have nowadays that will undoubtably make their way into the regular models some day. Ten years ago you couldn’t download a podcast to your iPod and put it in the docking station in the car to listen to it on the way to work.

    Don’t underestimate change just because Windows still looks basically the same. 🙂

  12. Multi-touch from Apple.
    The rest will be a “at least 5 years behind Apple”-Scenario…

  13. What I find most ironic is that this, and many other visions, comes from Microsoft… Research. We all know who will commercialize and popularize all this stuff. It will be Apple.

    Microsoft had multi touch long before the iPhone and has innovated many other technologies through its research unit but never managed to make viable products out of these. It kinda shows the notion of non-innovating but business-savvy Microsoft and innovating but niche-claiming Apple is not true at all anymore.

    The day Microsoft stops being so timid about introducing new technologies and enables a direct and fast channel between its research and production units will be the day this company won’t be perceived as the slow outpaced copy cat anymore. A day to fear for Apple.

  14. The thought of Windows For Coffee Cups does make me worry a little about the cost of dropping one…

  15. THe UI is so slick and simple looking. bold colours and easy to read fonts- none of this fancy Aero glass crap we’re receiving through Vista/7. And Apple seems to be the ones bringing all this innovation to the general user. Still nothing beats the internet experience of the iPhone to this day though some devices are catching up. Also in 1999 few people had mobile phones; now theyre cramming 12mp cameras into them and GPS is so yesturyear!

  16. Exciting video, we have a lot to look forward to. Thank God that creativity is not dead just yet.

    off-topic: Anyone know what music was used in the clip? I really like it.

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  18. Wow… I guess… 50 years ago… some people laughed.. we some people said u cud carry millions of pages in a little thing which is the size lor ur little finger…

  19. As I watched it, I was comparing it to the old Apple Knowledge Navigator video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WdS4TscWH8. The stunning difference here – there is none of the HAL-level AI that is so famous in that video. Everything action here is being driven by the users as they interact with the UIs rather than magically appearing.

    This one actually looks like it might be possible someday using existing technologies rather than just hoping that lots of things that haven’t been invented yet occur.

  20. @Michael K Plate
    Interesting comment, let’s see:
    Apple:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WdS4TscWH8
    Sun:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKJNxgZyVo0

    I think a lot of those future “visions” fails on one major point the input of Data,
    But they are kind of ok on the Display, a lot of what Microsoft is displaying seems to be in reach again to display information, but of course they will not have this very glamor look.

    Like 20 years ago a lot of people were thinking voice would be the main way to interact with computers (too much startrek ?), I think we are stuck with keyboards for a long time… (Touch screen are not cutting it, they are working well to display information somehow but not to input a lot of data)

  21. Zim, I think the grocery store list re-ordered to be in the order of the aisles. Right now I’ve been using GroceryIQ on my iPhone to handle the order of the aisles at my grocery store, but it is a major pain in the butt.

    Of course in 10 years I would hope we would always be ordering our food online and then picking it up packaged already, if not delivered!

    Love the video — in particular I like how our lives are organized better, for example two people sitting together and a history of their communication is recalled, or mom better connected with her kids and school. Very nice.

  22. The re-ordering of the grocery list was done to optimize the path for the customer to take in order to avoid unnecessary backtracking and whatnot.

    It’s yet another vision in the video that I have seen previously in other Microsoft concept videos. In fact, after a quick search, they simply re-used some of the footage in the previous concept video entitled “Retail Future Vision” and looks to be 5 years old. (Watch on Microsoft Video here: http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/details/230765a5-e50d-42d9-8a53-4024027cdb86)

    It’s interesting to see how a difference of 5 years adds so much more sleekness and cool factor to the interfaces in the videos eh? 😛

  23. I see in chinese in the end of the first video it says : One Dream. I guess alot of chinese people were used in the making of this video LOL

  24. I cant wait to see how different the future actually is compared to this video.

    i hope devices get cheap enough for everyone to have a card wallet in a single card.
    (im sure this could just be a phone though as well, as everyone has one of them)

  25. It’d be funny if, in the midst of the touchscreen demo, the glass surfaces suddenly froze and showed the BSOD… the sad bit’s that it’s not inconceivable, given MSFT’s history, that this could happen.

  26. Now you only have to wait for Apple to actually make it happen and then Microsoft can they copy it.

    This is just MSFT vaporware to make IT people feel good but they will never make this stuff work. And if they do Apple will do it at least 2 years ahead of them.

    I would call it the MSFT pipe dream

  27. Holy shit I OWN the future. It’s right here plugged into my iMac syncing my music library, videos, contacts appointments, books, news articles!

  28. I don’t see the practical use of the newspaper use it this video. If everything can be accessed from the front page, then what the heck are the rest of them for? And the one thing I hate about traditional newspapers is that they’re so big and awkward to hold, always folding over when I don’t want them to. Also you have to go flipping through those big hefty pages to continue reading the cover story on some 10 pages through. I honestly don’t know what you see in that, Long. The concept of virtual paper seems nice, but in that application, not so much.

    The Card Wallet idea was pretty cool. I could totally see my dad using that, since he’s always digging through his wallet looking for the right card among dozens. It would be nice if it also implemented the Microsoft Tag technology, so you scan someone’s business card and add it to your deck. And of course, the ability to sort and organize them.

    I also really like the tablet-type multitouch interface the woman on the plane was using. A very nice interface, with controls that work very smoothly. I’d love to see a finished version of that computer on my desk, right now.

    However the one thing I’ve enjoyed the most about this video is the clean, natural, and friendly GUIs. They used actual colors, instead of Glass (MS Aero) or brushed steel (Apple Brushed Steel). Glass and steel are used in sky scraping office buildings, and feel very cold. The warm colors used in this GUI gives a very zen feeling, which is perfect for Home use and also makes Office work much less stressful.

    If only they could deliver a finished product like this. I don’t know what’s up with the serious disconnect between concept and final production is at Microsoft, but they need to unclog their pipes. Either that, or stop torturing us with what we can’t have.

  29. The simplicity, beauty and intuitiveness of the several user interfaces make me smile. The realization that the value of every written word and drawn line is enhanced the more directly it touches my senses encourages me. The potential for a disconnect between the production of knowledge and its presentation leaves me wondering what Marshall McLuhan would say.

  30. @Therapeutic Caffeine The way I see it is that there is too great of a risk to make the jump to some of these interfaces. You loose legacy applications, and introduce a severe learning curve. They can’t just jump from what we have now, to something like this. Maybe in the future there will be a solution. But not yet..

  31. Someone has Microsoft’s vision of future (i.e. 2009) when they were in 1999 ?

    That will be interesting to know what have they achieved so far of that vision and that will be a test of their ability to materialize their concepts.

  32. It’s funny to me how Microsoft will think of all these amazing things, yet they can not deliver. If anything like this is to ever happen I have my money bet on that Apple will be the one doing the innovating while Microsoft stays doing the visualizing.

  33. I’m at least happy that there’s someone at Microsoft with some real design talent. They did a good job with these mock-ups.

    Even if the actual devices never make it, I do hope the user interfaces come through. I thought they looked pretty neat.

  34. It all looks great but I think they forgot to include one thing, its Microsoft and not once in that 5 minute video did anything crash!

  35. An excellent mind improvised for the Vision- I must say!

    Nothing in this world is Impossible in today’s world for a Human mind to achieve.

    Remember If a drop-out would not have comw up with the vision, I would not have been here for you!

  36. 😀 I love year 2019! It’s fantastic!!! :D! In 2019 will should have all the OLED’s screen w/ touchscreen and non-touchscreen. OLED should replace LCD and Plasma because OLED is importantest!!! if you don’t know OLED then see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oled – study and http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=videos&search_query=oled&search_sort=video_date_uploaded – lastest videos youtube about OLED.
    I love too still monitor CRT 21″. 😀 And OLED. 😀 I don’t love LCD because current LCD is still slow response, the angle view limited…

  37. A dream from MS for 2019, still playing with touch screen? I would prefer to dream about speech going to be more powerful tool. Why to translate just languages typed naturally, wouldn’t it be better to dream about speaker speaking one language and some kind of speech grabber translating it in different languages as per listeners preference? Any over to air transport protocol would be able to make communication happening without any communication barrier so it seems quite attainable.
    And anyhow Apple has already provided the touch, drag-drop, movement detection using sensors and nice UI experience to user in itouch and laptops. give me something really amazing..:)

  38. Where are the poor people of the future? Seems to me that to get those you’ll have to be filthy rich…

  39. It looks like in the future Microsoft has decided to purchase Adobe.
    Thumbs up for UI. Thumbs down for the lack of audio analysis.

  40. “Where are the poor people of the future? Seems to me that to get those you’ll have to be filthy rich…

    lol, remember most of the common devices now? which where only accessible by rich folks 10 years ago? heck 19″ LCD’s were costing around $6000 back around that time if I remember those ibms right

  41. nice vision. of course it won;t be so perfect as there are so many issues to overcome; ease of integration, ease of adoption, IP, adoption of standards, accessibility, green issues. but these are all social problems. the technology is coming. nokia are working on a phone similar to the one in the video, the newspaper could be realised using OLEDs, i noticed microsoft’s photosynth software in there somewhere

  42. A big part of why these visions of the future seem so appealing is the lack of crowds in all the scenes.

    Unless something seriously bad happens, the population density will look nothing like this footage which reminds me of 1950’s levels.

    Really wish it was a simple as everyone realizing that 1 kid per couple for a few generations would help solve so many of our problems.

  43. Love it…

    It’s time to push forward on OLEDs and Post PC era interfaces…

    Well done… very inspirational…

    Garry G
    Editor
    The Energyroadmap

  44. Does anyone know what song is playing in the background? (Assuming it’s not a custom track Microsoft made.)

  45. I would love to see a re-edit of this modified to show how the products will actually be delivered by Microsoft, with 20 pieces of partner nagware installed on every device, intrusive, flow-disrupting pop-ups, and other compromise-driven junk. While the people who build these visions have a singular view, the way Microsoft internally operates is so corrupted by consensus group-think that delivery fails. Consider the classic “Microsoft designs the iPod package” video — produced within Microsoft to lampoon this broken culture. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0) They haven’t learned.

  46. Anyone else find it funny that in the photo on the left (some sort of elementary classroom tablet) the search interface on the bottom is the same as a the mac search interface?

  47. So this future Microsoft envisions apparently does not include them, because they would have to go open source to have a world like this exist (or else risk everything being stolen!).

    I am just guessing here but cant a Linux Distro do 70%-80% of what is in this video within 6 months? The only limitation to 100% is the Physical devices.

    The biggest surprise is that Microsoft thinks that they will exist after they remove support for XP.

  48. Many of these concepts shown depend on multiple companies cooperating under common standards. For example, the credit card thing. Would all providers making use of cards for payment start cooperating under a common standard and start shipping such improved cards? No, it’s not that easy.

    To me, this is more like a vision about technology advances in an utopia, where nothing need to cost money, and everyone is cooperating for a maximum speed in technological advances. It’s just not happening.

    In 2019, I imagine us still swearing about spam (due to all ISP’s and mail providers in the world not uniting behind a common antispam solution like DomainKeys — yes, the technology is already here guys — it’s not a technological problem!), still sweaing about slow connections and sites down (because broadband connections cost money), and still not relying on technology this much (in turn because of connections and sites going down), etc, etc.

    This is not a real world scenario, this is about Microsoft doing PR to promote an image as a visionary and modern company.

  49. Note to self; develop liquid for removing the chance of finger print smudges; dip finger in and creates an easily removable seal over the tip of finger to remove chances of smudging. Liquid should be reusable.

    I’m on to a winner!

  50. There’s only on company in the future to offer these kind of solutions “microsoft”

  51. There is no future here. What’s the change exactly? A thinner screen? Come on!!!
    Seriously we need to strive for evolution to humanize communication rather than keeping ourselves as isolated and limited as we are already. It’s not humanly natural to sit during the whole day and type – regardless how sleew the keyboard/screen is – movement and physical interaction need to be integrated in this game…

    Tacky predictions for such an amazing AfterEffects touch.

  52. An interesting view of the future which is heavily reliant on windowing interfaces to negotiate with digital data. There are other ways to complement this approach.

    It also makes bold assumptions about the widescale affordability of such technology in the social and economic environment.

  53. What? No electric cars?

    Meanwhile…..back in 2009 my Windows XP just froze up again……..

    If this is Micrscoff’s vision of the future….can’t wait to see Apples’!!!!

  54. Nice spot, but what about taking a look at what APPLE is doing NOW? It seems more interesting and real than the Windows sci-fi spots. And those who tried Vista know what I’m talking about…

  55. Nanni, nanni, nanni. Apple is a company that while shows of some pretty interesting tech, is woefully behind the times. The trade flexibility for style. Classic example? Air. lack of functionality and durability to make it thinner. Until Dell came along and showed how lame Apple really was.

  56. Another thing,has Apple really done anything different than BSD?

    Sounds like alot of people who love the dying fish the is apple can’t let it go.

  57. Very interesting and all very possible. I’m sure it was AT&T which many years ago linked two offices using video conferencing technology to allow people to “meet” randomly at the water cooler from different locations… not unlike Microsoft’s virtual classrooms. Fujitsu amongst others have demonstrated flexible, paper like colour displays which retain and hold the image with no power and can be changed when required – just like the airline ticket and newspaper. I do like the context sensitive displays which can understand how they are being held and over what – very cool – and also already demonstrated within school books which come to life when viewed through special glasses. Ironically the real innovation here is the user interface.

  58. wow, its amazing, I hope while Microsoft and other companies made this to life, Earth Will be a peace full place to live all humans,
    , My Wish Microsoft Mean time give a support to make a peace full planet to live for Human,

  59. What’s scary is, all this stuff exists, but we can’t actually have it yet. Technology advances INCREDIBLY fast, but the big people at the top of chain assume that we, the consumer, have tiny brains that would explode if we see something that’s far too advanced for our feeble minds to comprehend. We just sit here and wait for them to release it bit by bit, as opposed to just dumping the whole lot down right now!

  60. I see a lot of “we’ll never get this in ten years” comments. Well, this is our future, our world. It will be what we make it to be. We each have our little part in this becoming the future or not.

    All the technologies behind this are available now, in smaller scale. The main challenges are integration, production costs and cultural acceptance.

    Although I doubt this technology will ubiquitous everywhere, I think those that stay at the cutting edge will have similar environments.

  61. promises, promises… MS ALWAYS fails to deliver on everything they do! anyone own a zune?! how about a xbox 360?! they cant even get these to work! MS is just plain full of ****. i hear bill gates wife is lusting for and ipod.

  62. While some of this stuff is very cool, I can only imagine it working if somehow computer bugs get dealt with better. I don’t want to see BSOD of my coffee mug, newspaper, etc. Or do I?

  63. was very good and inspiring.. it should give a idea to entrepreneurs where the future is…

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  66. Why the girl’s name at 23 seconds is ANITA SARKOSI ???
    I don’t want a world where everybody’s name is SARKOSI !!!
    HELP !!!! That’s a global conspiration or what,
    after France microsoft whant to put Sarkosy everywhere ????
    HELP !!!! one disaster is enought …….

  67. Looks like a better experience of interacting with technology, but what about better interaction with life? Is being ordered by your to do list to take certain aisles in the market a good thing? Maybe your next love is in an aisle not on the list.

  68. Muito loko o vídeo !!! Fiquei boladão com esse vídeo, será maneiro se no futuro tudo for assim ….

  69. I’m just wondering how they want to power it by electricity 🙂 Anyway, I really like those thin glass devices, I can imagine it’s like tough glass. This future requires a “Big Brother”, or really well-thinked linking between applications.

  70. This video is so sad. So that’s it, the future is just gonna be full of screens, screens everywhere, for everything. That is pathetic and really hope I’ll be dead by that time. on the other hands, 20 years ago we were supposed to drive flying cars in 2000….

  71. OMG. If the world were to be controlled by technology. It would be so scary!!!
    If everything had fingerprints on it.. Any cop can catch any bad guy just in a snap.

    Soo what is this technology gonna be powered by?? solar energy??
    Ugh I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing..

  72. It’s all very very well having all this wonderful technology. But if that’s the quality and style of “music” in 10 years time there is no hope for the human race.
    We would all have our ears surgically removed to avoid that horrible noise effectivily wiping out eons of evolution that created verbal communication.
    Well done Microsoft

  73. Oh dear, you microsoft fanboys just need to get a life.
    There’s more on earth tahn this kind of technology.

  74. I didn’t bother to read the entire list of replies but surely must have mentioned this:

    This technology + Microsoft = Epic Fail
    alternatively,
    This tech + Microsoft = Apple
    also see,
    2049

  75. You people give apple WAAAAAAAAAY too much credit.
    Apple has a trend of putting great technology into a simplified user interface. But thats about the scope of their power/influence

    Microsoft a great history of putting great technology into ugly packages. But this is a very fixable problem (ie hire better designers) I guess you guys don’t remember any of Longhorn concept PC’s. made by the same company which design the XBOX 360. Those designs were awesome.

    Apple has not ‘invented’ anything since the Cube. What usually happens is they take tech and put it into shiny, good looking simple solutions, which is fine, just not for me. Apple innovates, but hardly invents anything.

    Microsft has support for tablet pc’s (non-existent from apple) Blu-Ray support, (non-existant from Apple), invented the foundations of AJAX (HTTPREQUEST), and managed to get their OS into 97% of all computers out there, a goal Jobs himself wanted to accomplish.

    Microsoft is still relevant in emerging technology today, and will be for the future. But they dont copy anymore than any other tech company out there (I’m looking at you Apple).

    Now lets hope someone comes along with a fingerprint less compliant surface for touch devices. Here’s for hoping.

  76. Wow, look at all the stupid Apple fan-boys. Why are you even here? Oh wait, because Apple god did not give you a popscile. Go away, idiots. Find your white porcelain potty that Jobs gave you to crap on.

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  78. The problem with MS is. They don´t know anything about hardware. That´s why they don´t build good software.

  79. The funny thing is that there isnt a single commercial popup .. how believable is that?
    No big logo etched into the cyberwall. No “would you like to buy more?”
    And no crappy looking anything – kids draw like crap and everyone leaves fingerprints – the movie completely lack everyday-ness.

    What IS believable is the lack of shortcuts and slow oneway graphic interfaces (note how mellow and relaxed all the people are – try that for a hectic workday)
    And we will all die of touch-transmitted diseases.

  80. Most of the future technologies they are showcasing in this video are based on hardware improvements and not software. You could probably do a lot of the software design that is shown in the video today. All of the eye candy in that video had to do with new devices and displays based on e-ink, plastic based transistors etc. These things will develop over time, but I am not sure how much Microsoft will have to do with them. Still, I think it’s a great video for inspiration about where things can go.

  81. Clearly this is not what 2019 will be like, things don’t move (and get integrated into real life) quickly enough for it to happen. But that said, I think it’s worth applauding Microsoft for this demo. Or more to the point the people in Microsoft that envisioned this. It just goes to show that there are very clever people still at Microsoft. It definitely inspires me to see this kind of thing. It doesn’t matter whether Microsoft actually builds this stuff themselves or not. The fact that they threw it out there for the world to decide what to do with it is admirable in itself. It promotes creativity, the entrepreneur, and movement in the right direction.

  82. Not really possible until Nanotechnology becomes a norm, until then, it’s pure science fiction.

  83. Surface and touch.Very human but still the six sense piece is missing in equation.

    Human interact trough gesture … devices need to learn the more human way to interact.

    We at Microsoft will get there.

  84. I kind of like the look of having all those plants on top of the buildings, from an aesthetic point of view. I could care less about the environmental impact of it. That said, I say we’ll be to this point easily by 2015. Adding touch/display surfaces to every day objects is already well on its way, and I can’t wait to see how it is utilized, especially when more open source variations of it happen.

    Exciting stuff.

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  87. I wanted to see the future totally dispatching its dependencies from the exaustable power supplies. I wanted to see Microsoft leading the was for the “Green Republic” deriving power from sources lide Solar, Tidal, Wind and Ecothermal sources.

    We want more of the weareable and augmented reality type of technology. Office of the future is the Home Office concept where ppl dont have to travel and can spend more time with the real family than the virtual world. The Virtual world must help men get freedom from physical work and make him more inclined to the natural world and to the real world around him.

  88. Es una buena idea, pero sin embargo esto tiene varios factores internos, como invertir en estos productos tecnologicos los cuales seran costosos por la alta tencologia que se emplea, capacitacion de empleados de los cuales deberan ser personas calificadas con un buen grado de estudios, asi mismo pudiera ser en un futuro todas estas cosas, pero dudo que sea ahora y sobre todo lo del periodico.

    I think is a good idea, i but doubt that all of this will happen, Specially the newspaper. So, if in the future happen this things…. we will need more skills for this and the prices over this products will be very expensives….

  89. The digital newspaper is not really that far off the NY Times and other major newspapers are already digital and update daily to devices that may not be as cool ,yet, but the amazon “Kindle” updates daily and has full newspapers and books and a multitude of media. were not that far off from many of the advances displayed.

  90. Wow. Almost all of the technology already exists in some platform or another. Touch screens, well, how long have we had those? iPhone/iPod Touch being major innovators in touch screen to the general populace (what can I say, Apple spends more on marketing?)
    e-Ink technology is one step away from making a digital newspaper a reality.
    But this will very likely never be a reality. Not everyone in the world can afford these technologies, and older homes would have to have radical changes to implement these kind of appearances. If they took the appearance of today’s housing and businesses and then add these technologies, it’ll be closer to possible visionary implementation. Glass displays, more likely to be a form of crystal rather than glass actually, are not really logical to use. The only thing that glass would allow you to do is to have a better appearance for when the display is no longer in operation. The whole “fingerprint thing”… well, they do have anti-oil surfaces (like subway cars in New York to be anti-grafiti) so fingerprints cut down to almost nothing. Glass displays would be more prone to complete destruction if an accident happened (LCDs not so much). The multi-touch table display they showed already exists.

    In fact, most of these technologies exist, they just need the software to be able to do the stuff shown in these kind of future looks. The operating systems and other software pieces to interact like these and look like these is all that is really needed. The transfer of one thing from a display to another hasn’t been created, as far as I am aware, but a simple sub-dermal implant of some kind could use a static, or even RF technology, to transfer data to your finger and then to the next screen you touch. All this stuff is feasible, but the software interaction needs to be written

  91. am Wondering How Microsoft Have all These Ideas and it cant Fix The OS’s Which we use Right Now until now The BSOD Is Appearing b4 5 min I got 1 lol

  92. …A bit like the world made of iPhones – I hope I don’t detect the presence of the green eyed monster!

  93. It looks all nice and good, but how would you power such small things? i’m sure the energy costs would be enormous and charging would be hard. Also, it seems a bit Big Brotherish, being able to know the location of others and what they did or were doing. I’m sure it’s possible to create a future like this, but not in 10 years. it would take at least 15 to develop and market to a cheaper audience. Either way, good luck Microsoft.

  94. This video is slick, attractive and …………….. creepy. The technology advances clearly make the human mind (except for the creators of the technology) tapioca pudding. Apparently all you need to do in the future is push buttons and touch screens. Great. Notice how the zombie in the airport doesn’t even know where the f to go when walking to his plane. He needs a big cursor to help him. God save us all from this e-madness. I love how these idiotic marketing videos always pull in some picture of a forest or garden at some point. As though anyone who becomes a thumbing e-bazoon even knows how to grow anything or heaven forbid- get dirty. (Oh, that’s for the Mexican labor, sorry! i’m busy earning $250,000/yr pretending to be useful). Or really knows anything about being green beyond putting the right waste into the right bin.

    no, i’m not cynical. i’m realistic. wake up people- this is the matrix.

  95. Silicon Graphics have been working with these concepts for many years now! Nothing original 🙁

  96. So essentially Microsoft’s idea of “the future” is widespread use of iPhone-like devices. When iPhones stop costing as much as a desktop computer everything will be like this – I was expecting something more futuristic. I don’t see why everyone seems to be so surprised.

    As for the “video newspaper” – OLEDs were invented in the early 80s, and it won’t take long to perfect polymer LEDs – so a paper-thin, bendable display which needs no backlight is perfectly feasible by 2019 (and earlier – in fact a number of companies including Sony have already showcased quite a few demo models.)

  97. Frankly magnificence .. .. and I agree with Microsoft that there are smart people imagine what is possible

  98. Oooohh, the future by microsoft without “CTRL, ALT, DELETE”…. and no “fatal error” ???? no way!! eheh 😛

  99. I wonder how the transparent foil screens and glass surfaces display white, though. Up until now, I only know about mirror surfaces, that become displays after being lit with the light of a very bright display behind them. Not about glossy transparent to milky white or black, thus not being a lamp replacement. Thanks/

  100. Yes, Hong Kong is probably the most advanced city in the world for the workplace. But your everyday guy will still be carrying Berrys/iPhones with apps that do half the things in that video.

  101. Ladies and gentlemen, the future, is now! Welcome!

    Watch, learn and be inspired. We will accomplish and prosper. Trust me on that.

    Only in our minds do we see obstacles. Our imagination is endless. So too, is our potential.

    I am the future. You are the future. We, ladies and gentlemen, are the future!

  102. For those who seem to be skeptical of what the future holds….if you haven’t checked what’s been going on. Microsoft has already everything well thought of and most companies as well are thinking in conjuction with how to achieve this kind of future….

    Check this link:
    http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx

    and you thought that the scenes from IRONMAN was just computer generated…..

  103. Noticeably, throughout the video there seem to be no black people in the future and, concordantly, all the more Asians and Indians appear in workplaces and schools. Microsoft indeed has a vision of the future.

    This comment is not meant to offend and/or harass anyone. It’s purpose is to point out a fact.

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  106. It’s all focused on office and home. What about medicine? Medical Imaging, to be precise.We already do 3D modeling today. I would think it would be much more detailed and easier to manipulate the data in the future.

  107. tthiss is not the future this is someting a rich idiot ( verrry rich idiot) could build today…. wel most of the things but some things are just imposible such as the airport/city theres no goverment thats gonne build a city based on electronics they got more importend things to spend there money in and i dont see one of these huge corperations such ass apple or microsoft spending there money into building a compleat town build on electronics ( these things only happen in resident evil 🙂 building a whole city based on electronics and stuf would kost allot of money how ever if youre the one owning the city… it would be posible to get monopoly on the other company´s since youre city only allows youre brand so aple city only accepts apple software how ever building 1 of these citys is a verry hard and expensive task in order to be the market leader youl need to have these citys al over the world not going to happen 🙂

    how ever what the future will realy look like is someting like this but than filled with advertisings and a huge war on the market in the end there wont be 1 corperation that will be delivering this future but it will be al of them fighting for oure money like now theres not every one with a iphone some like me have a blackberry and other have androids… im using windows vista my friend is using unix theres this keeps prices low and stops companys from becoming lazy and not making good software couse they constantly have to compete with eachother

  108. The ideas that they show in these to videos are good ideas but they won’t be obtained with out lots of sponsoring. And their ideas need to be expanded over more than just the home and office. The programs can be needed in the medical field as well as navigating.

  109. just watching this video its really easy to see that there is no way you can put a cap on technology. Ideas of te past eventually become reality.

  110. Microsoft is always on top of all technologies. I am a great fond of Microsoft technologies specially in software and web development, Visual studio is not comparable with any other technologies in software development. So i am pretty sure that whatever they plan for 2019 right now, they’ll be able to achieve even more than that
    Love you Pakistan and Microsoft

  111. It’s some pretty amazing technology. My only concern is at what point are we to become completely reliant on computers? And God forbid, if something were to happen to knock out the network imagine the chaos that would follow.

  112. Trust me, at my work place we already some of those, so there is no surprise in 2020 absolutely technology we’ll be way far, am so happy that my kids will enjoy it a lot as they really want to be Engineers

  113. Girish,

    I am proud to note your exceptional achievement. Wish you all the best in your program

    Prakash

  114. I think so too.
    In my opinion is the concept very similar to mobile device to Windows Phone 7,
    but beautiful.

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