"Most of the Surface reviews have spoken poorly about the device."
What reviews have you been reading?
Edit: Regarding the actual topic, this is just "normal" PR it's a way to scare people into swapping from gmail to outlook.com unfortunately it works better than many might think. Microsoft aren't the only ones doing PR like this it's a lot more common than you might think.
I think PR like this _can_ be good for two reasons: raise awareness of the issue that Google scans your e-mails and make people aware that there are other worthy alternatives to gmail.
I noticed that in one of the "cases" listed on the page by Microsoft one e-mail is about a credit card debt where someone might have overused their credit limit and might be in trouble. The ads that pop up from this is such ads giving advice on how to get new loans to cover the credit card debt which is really not a nice way of helping someone that is already in trouble.
I think that Microsoft could (and maybe should) have less aggressive PR about competitors and just focus on the good parts about outlook.com.
Anyways, I'm probably biased because I love Microsoft and whatever they do and I own all their awesome devices.
I'm referring to the ones I saw on the HN front page, not some kind of logical for-all statement. And it's true, I didn't go digging around for other points of view, but I read three or four and they all seemed to say the same thing: an interesting idea with inadequate execution. They were negative in the "promising idea but don't buy this until they get these issues worked out" sense, not in the "what a stupid idea, burn them at the stake" sense. Now, if you want to interpret that as a positive review, be my guest. The reviews I've seen (one or two that made it to the front page) about the Surface Pro seem to be saying "hey, they got the issues worked out" or rather "the issues with Surface and RT don't exist with the Surface Pro" which turns a negative review into a positive one.
Well the good ones that made it to the front page were down voted off with in hours so maybe you should use other sources. I don't have any idea how the surface is but unfortunately hacker news might not be the best place for balanced information.
How much time do I have in a day, that I need to go hunting down unbiased information on an expensive toy I have no reason to buy? How many tablets or laptops do you think I need?
I have both iPad and Surface and I've had the iPad for years. I've asked my girlfriend if she wants an iPad and she told me that she didn't because she didn't really find a use case for it.
When I brought home the Surface she said: "Wow, this I can use . Get me one!".
I don't really know why but she likes it and everyone that I've show Surface to and that have tried it out do infact like it, a lot.
What reviews have you been reading?
Edit: Regarding the actual topic, this is just "normal" PR it's a way to scare people into swapping from gmail to outlook.com unfortunately it works better than many might think. Microsoft aren't the only ones doing PR like this it's a lot more common than you might think.
I think PR like this _can_ be good for two reasons: raise awareness of the issue that Google scans your e-mails and make people aware that there are other worthy alternatives to gmail.
I noticed that in one of the "cases" listed on the page by Microsoft one e-mail is about a credit card debt where someone might have overused their credit limit and might be in trouble. The ads that pop up from this is such ads giving advice on how to get new loans to cover the credit card debt which is really not a nice way of helping someone that is already in trouble.
I think that Microsoft could (and maybe should) have less aggressive PR about competitors and just focus on the good parts about outlook.com.
Anyways, I'm probably biased because I love Microsoft and whatever they do and I own all their awesome devices.