Welcome to Episode 211 of Observed.Tech! You can call this one the Product Launch Episode because it covers Microsoft's and Apple's individual product launches this past week which happened within 24 hours of each other. Microsoft held their event in New York City on Wednesday and then on Thursday in Cupertino Apple held theirs and the difference between the two events was palpable across social media. The response to Surface Studio was quite spectacular because of its innovations and capabilities while the response to Touch Bar on the updated MacBook Pros was really approached with a lot of snark on social media. A lot of that negative reaction came from folks who are normally diehard Apple fans as well which caught everyone off guard. However, when you compare the two events you should be able to see that Surface Studio pushed out the boundaries of creativity on many levels while the MacBook Pros got refreshed hardware, shaved off some size and weight, and then added a strip above the keyboard called the Touch Bar. Don't get me wrong - the concept of the Touch Bar and how it highlights functionality in apps and software is great - I would not mind having that on my Windows devices as well but when is Apple finally going to join the future and give their users touch screens. Imagine if they had launched new MacBook Pros with the Touch Bar and touch screens. Then the perception of the week might have been very different. Alas, we will never know that so we just move forward and watch the critical acclaim being received by Microsoft for Surface Studio while Apple gets memes created about their Touch Bar. Enjoy the show and thanks for listening!