Seems Microsoft is rolling out the next generation applications and devices - Popfly and Silverlight hitting the press in the last couple of weeks. Well now Microsoft is rolling out Surface which from the face of it is a combination of a tabletop computing form factor with some nifty haptics style multi-touch input with some interesting applications. Apparently you can put certain devices on the top of the surface device and it will let you do several different things depending on what you have on there.

For example a surface application could be to be a sales tool - put two different devices on the top and it can compare the two and provide sales data to the prospective buyer. Put two zunes on the surface and drag songs between the two. Neat concept but it is bound by the physical device at this stage. I like the user experience but remain to be convinced that it is anything other than a gimmick for Microsoft who are notoriously closed when opening up their applications to the wider developer community.

Check out more at Surface