It's pieces like this that prompted the Macalope to say . The horny one's : "It's amazing how future Microsoft products beat current Apple products time and time again, isn't it?"

And with Surface, Microsoft is taking on more than Apple; it's swinging its fists at all of its PC partners who've been churning out dull tablets and laptops for years.

Well, that's the real potential for disruption that the Surface presents. Why couldn't Microsoft have done this eight years ago? The settlement with the government was about , not whether or not Microsoft could make its own hardware.

The Macalope is really looking forward to the Surface's arrival. It's either going to be an interesting sea change in the market ... or a lot of pundits are going to be wondering which white wine goes best with crow.

(Crow's actually kind of dry, so something on the sweet side is best.)