Microsoft has raised the stakes in the war to convert every piece of furniture in our houses into a computer. At midnight, the company announced their next big product would be Surface, a fully digital table-top/computer/tip calculator. From the videos, it appears they want this product to be adopted not only in households, but everywhere from stores to restaurants. Surface looks like it's functionality will be quite cool, utilizing Bluetooth or some other signal to sync devices to the table's screen. If you have some pictures on your camera you want to view, just lay the camera on Surface and it will automatically display them. Just drag the pictures you want to email to friends of family and write a personal message with your finger and send it off. Where this gets really interesting is in restaurants. Not only can you use Surface to order, but once you and your party are ready to pay, just lay down each others credit card and drag the image of what you ate to each card. Splitting the bill was never so easy! The question is will the "PreCogs" know in advance what you are going to eat, and automatically tap into your checking account. I don't know how I really feel about this "ground-breaking" new digital device. Anytime a new piece of equipment says it will change our lives, I can't help but think of the Segway, and how that was going to be the most important innovation since the personal computer. It takes a long time for users to adopt these new products, cost/value being a major concern. As cool as Surface might function, users can do most everything with the click of a mouse. That is exactly what happened to the Segway, which was going to "eliminate the use of walking!" Of course, the Segway didn't let you finger paint. Surface's should start appearing Winter 2007 in Harrah's Casinos, IGT, Sheraton Hotels, and T-Mobile stores.