Working very closely with Nokia will provide Microsoft a more holistic software-hardware design platform and give Microsoft a fair chance to come up with a decent, iPad-level tablet.

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Apple is lauded for hardware design, but has been a bit schizophrenic in terms of design and style with their software.

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Well, if you're a young person and you produce the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too.

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Ironically, positive commentary focuses on the the hardware more than the software, and on the actual design quality (a challenge to Apple).

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You need the design and marketing skills to combine hardware and software into a product that will make people go "wow", rather than "whatever".

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Well, if you're a young person and you've produced the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too.

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Given the aggressive pricing, the up-to-date hardware and design, and the software tweaks, the new Kindle Paperwhite sets a high bar for Apple, which will bring out an iPad mini later this month.

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He says that Samsung has a deep design heritage and history that his studio will give more expression to as they bring software and hardware together in new ways.

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We played around with it a bit, and while the 800 x 600 E Ink screen resolution is a little disappointing, and the resistive touchscreen layer impacts readability in a small but noticeable way, the software is certainly pleasant, and iriver is up to its usual standard in hardware design.

ENGADGET: iriver Story Touch Edition preview