Ron Johnson, the former head of Apple's retail store division, offered some praises for Microsoft's own stores in a new podcast interview, along with kudos for the company's Surface Pro 3 tablet. Johnson started at Apple in 2000 and, under his guidence, launched the company's first retail stores in 2001. The stores became a massive success for Apple, but in 2011 Johnson left the...
Microsoft has just announced that 25 new markets around the world will now offer the Surface Pro 3. New Zealand is kicking things off, and we'll see additional locations offer the Surface Pro 3 over the next 24 hours. This announcement brings the total number of markets with Surface Pro 3 availability to 28. The United States, Canada and Japan currently all offer the Surface Pro 3,...
Microsoft plans to release a software update "soon" that it claims will fix an overheating related issue that some owners of the Intel i7 version of the Surface Pro 3 have encountered since the 12-inch tablet started shipping in early August. Many owners of the tablet have posted statements to Microsoft's Answers support forum, stating that their i7 Surface Pro 3 overheats, even when...
A number of Surface Pro 3 owners who choose to buy the version of the 12-inch tablet with Intel's i7 processor inside have been reporting major overheating problems with Microsoft's product since the i7 version started shipping in early August. A massive forum thread on the Microsoft Answers message board is devoted to the issue. One user, "Jarem" claims that he is now on his fourth...
Starting on Friday, Microsoft began to sell the new Surface Pro 3 Docking Station at various retail locations. So besides being a laptop and tablet replacement, your Surface Pro 3 can do triple duty as a full desktop replacement too. The $199 accessory is by no means 'cheap' – in terms of either price or quality – but it is awesome. I managed to grab one from my local Microsoft Store...
This is just a quick reminder that the Surface Pro 3 Docking Station is available today for those in the US and Canada to purchase. The Docking Station is the big kahuna of accessories for the new Surface Pro 3 as it allows you to make a full desktop PC out of the hybrid laptop and tablet. The new Docking Station greatly improves upon the previous generation by giving users more of what...
Microsoft's DirectX 12 API for 3D graphics in games and other applications was first announced in March, but since then the company has been pretty quiet about its status. That changed this week as Microsoft and Intel teamed up to show that games that will use DirectX 12 will maintain high frame rates while also cutting the power consumption of a PC's CPU. As part of the annual...
When it comes to the Surface Pro 3, you can never have enough battery life. One trick that I have found to help preserve mine may also give you some peace of mind, and it involves disabling the Type Cover's ability to wake up your Surface. The trick just takes seconds to do, and it might make your Surface go the distance. Let me explain. How it works The Type cover can turn on your...
Owners of Microsoft's large 12-inch Surface Pro 3 tablet can now disable the Windows button on the device, a couple of months after Mike Krahulik, the artist of the popular Penny Arcade web comic strip, complained that he kept hitting the button while drawing and thus was kicked to the desktop. At the time, Krahulik said that Microsoft was working on a fix that would disable the...
Microsoft's latest firmware update for its Surface family of tablets are rolling out today, offering a rather large update for the Surface Pro 3 along with small downloads for the Surface Pro and Surface RT models. Here's the change log for the Surface Pro 3 firmware update: Surface Pro Embedded Controller Firmware (v38.4.50.0) improved support for Surface Power Cover. Surface Pro...
While the first Surface Pro 3 commercial showcased the best features offered by Microsoft's latest tablet, its latest videos pit the Surface Pro 3 against the MacBook Air. The three new commercials highlight the features offered by the Surface Pro 3 that are not present on the MacBook Air, which include a touchscreen, kickstand, stylus and a detachable keyboard. During the launch...
Beginning on August 28 Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 will be available to a much wider global audience. Having been well received thus far in the U.S., Canada and Japan, Microsoft is opening the floodgates and letting folks in a lot more countries get their eager hands on the i3, i5 and i7 versions of the Surface Pro 3 from a variety of sources. From August 28, the Surface Pro 3 will be...
Okay, that headline is a tad misleading as trading in a MacBook Air for a Surface Pro 3, especially one with the coveted Core i7 processor, is far from 1:1 value. Still, I did bring in my MacBook Air (2011) to see how the process went, and I managed to pick up that Core i7 Surface Pro 3 with 256 GB of storage. Here is how it all went. Why I had a MacBook Air Even though it is...
If you're a student or educator, using Microsoft's education discount would reduce the entry level pricing of the Surface Pro 3 to just $649, or $150 less than the current $799 price tag for the Intel Core i3 model. The education discount appears to apply to all Surface Pro 3 models so even if you opt for a more expensive configuration, you can knock off $150 from the build price....
The OneNote development team at Microsoft has released a video that ... well, may be among the oddest but still entertaining things we have seen from a major corporation in a while. It shows how the note taking app can be used with the new Surface Pro 3, but with a electronic house music beat set to the tune of "I'm Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO. The video itself features things like...
Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said this week that sales of the company's 12-inch Surface Pro 3 tablet are "outpacing earlier versions of Surface Pro" but did not offer any specific numbers. Hood made that rather general remark as part of the company's quarterly financial conference call with financial analysts on Tuesday, after it released its fiscal year 2014 fourth...
Microsoft's upcoming Surface Pro 3 docking station has a number of improvements compared to the dock that was made for the two older Surface Pro tablets, and the company goes over those changes in a new blog post. The docking station, which is currently available for pre-order for $199, keeps the same basic design as the original Surface Pro model, but adds a number of extra ports to...
Microsoft has announced it will collaborate with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group (mandarinoriental.com) to provide guests with a new premium digital experience. There's an initial target installation of 1,000 tablets, including the Surface Pro 3, in four of their award-winning properties in London, Washington D.C., Las Vegas and Tokyo. The Windows 8.1 tablets feature a custom start screen...
A new report from NPD DisplaySearch predicts that shipments of tablets that are between 7 to 7.9 inches in size will begin to lose market share compared to larger tablet products, thanks in part to competition from larger smartphones. The report notes that in 2013, shipments of smaller tablets took up 58 percent of the total market. However, that percentage is expected to go down,...
Microsoft will release firmware updates for nearly all of its Surface family of tablets today, including the new 12-inch Surface Pro 3, which will get another update later this month. Here's the change log for the Surface Pro 3 July 8 firmware: Surface Pro Embedded Controller Firmware (v.38.2.50.0) reducing power consumption, and enhancing system stability. Surface Pro System...