Saturday, September 6, 2008

Gadgetell Hands On with the Surface at the Sheraton

Surface at Sheraton

Some of you may remember when we reported that select Sheraton hotels were getting a Microsoft Surface table in their lobby. Well, I happened to be in Seattle for the Penny Arcade Expo last weekend, (you can read more about that at http://gadatell.blogspot.com, our sister site) and so I had a chance to sit down and try it out for myself.

I took a video of my findings which you can check out after the jump, or you can read my quick summary of what I discovered with the three functions of CityTrips, Sheraton Snapshots, and Sounds of Sheraton.

The CityTrips function allows the user to find his or her way to various attractions through the city. If you wanted to find a certain restaurant, for example, a user can choose from the list and it will give you directions. In fact, it will even show you an aerial point-of-view, not that it will help.

The Sheraton Snapshot allows the user to see pictures, but only of things Sheraton-related. There didn’t seem to be a way to upload pictures onto this Surface, but I have heard that the Surface can rip photos from a cell phone just by putting it on the screen. I wished I could have seen that.

The Sounds of Sheraton was an interesting audio-music playing feature that allows the user to simply drag their favorite songs onto a playlist. From there, a user can go backward and forward through tracks like an iPod.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen (or touched) the Surface yet, feel free to find the Sheraton in Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco or Seattle and give it a try. You’ll probably want one in your living room after you do.


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