A handful of you are already planning on picking up the Surface Pro when it comes out February 9 (use that reservation card). Before you make the decision on whether to get the 64GB or 128GB version you should know about some storage issues. Like the original Surface RT, useable storage on the Surface Pro will be less than advertised. If you pick up the 128GB model you’re looking at 83GB left and if you pick up the 64GB version you’ll be stuck with 23Gb. Let that sink in.
We first brought the issue up in a From the Forums column, well technically you brought it up first, but it’s worth highlighting again since its making rounds around the blogosphere. Microsoft has released the following statement to a variety of outlets:
“The 128 GB version of Surface Pro has 83 GB of free storage out of the box. The 64GB version of Surface Pro has 23GB of free storage out of the box. Of course, Surface Pro has a USB 3.0 port for connectivity with almost limitless storage options, including external hard drives and USB flash drives. Surface also comes pre-loaded with SkyDrive, allowing you to store up to 7GB of content in the cloud for free. The device also includes a microSDXC card slot that lets you store up to 64GB of additional content to your device. Customers can also free up additional storage space by creating a backup bootable USB and deleting the recovery partition.”
While it’s definitely an advantage that you can add more storage with a microSD card, it’s still rather unfortunate so much space is used up by the OS, built-in apps, and the recovery partition. If you’re reading a tech site like ours, odds are you can easily remove the recovery partition by creating a backup bootable USB, but the average user out there won’t even know what’s wrong.
Knowing what you now know, which version of the Surface Pro are you going to go with? Can and should Microsoft communicate the situation and potential solutions to customers in a clear manner? Are they hoping to push SkyDrive? Sound off below or in this Windows Phone Central Forums discussion.
Source: Engadget

Microsoft's new Modern line of gear is ready for the connected office
Microsoft has some shiny new 'Modern' accessories for the office, all of which are coming this June. Make room for the Microsoft Modern line of headphones, webcam, and even Type-C speaker all ready for your daily Microsoft Teams grind.

Microsoft unveils 'Surface Headphones 2 Plus' with Teams Certification
Microsoft has announced a handful of new devices and accessories today, one of which is an updated pair of Surface Headphones, dubbed the Surface Headphones 2+. Just like the Surface Pro 7+ anounced back in January, the Surface Headphones 2+ are a product built for Microsoft's commercial customers only.

Surface Laptop 4 is announced with choice of AMD or Intel starting at $999
Surface Laptop 4 is now official and on sale, beginning today starting at $999. New this year are many more options for AMD or Intel processors for both 13.5 and 15-inch models and many more minor changes. Here is what you need to know and when they start shipping.

These are the absolute best USB flash drives you can buy
USB drives remain the best way to physically migrate data to and from devices. Best of all, transfer speeds are generally very good and can even give external SSDs a run for their money. Here's a quick look at some of the best USB drives available.