Today has been a rather busy day with the unveiling of the Microsoft Surface RT tablet pricing and availability. Pre-ordering went live earlier in the US, while other markets followed behind. We've been bombarded with international Microsoft Store links from readers who are excited to get their orders in - so who can currently pre-order a Surface RT tablet? Microsoft announced the...
Ever since the Microsoft Surface was announced there has been some discussion about its power adapter. That may seem like an topic to focus on but it is only because Microsoft appears to be borrowing a great feature from Apple: its magnetic power plug. For those of you who don’t use Apple products, their laptops have a plug that “magically” sticks to the computer and charges via a tiny...
Microsoft unveiled its plan to release a family of Windows tablets branded Surface. From that point onwards, we've waited patiently, speculating what the pricing could be. Today Microsoft has revealed the pricing for both of the available ARM-based Surface RT tablets on its online store. So, how much are we required to save before looking to make the purchase? Going on sale on October...
We reported on those surface ads yesterday and so intrigued were we, that we got in touch with Mathieu to send us some more. The original photo we posted didn’t quite do the Surface graffiti justice, so we’re pleased Mathieu got back to us with four new shots to show off. Due the quality and relatively limited view of the original shot we had our doubts as to how real the ads were....
Suppliers in Asia have apparently spilled the beans on Microsoft's production line plans for its coming Surface devices. If the information is to be believed, MS have put in component orders to ensure they are able to produce 3 to 5 million of the devices for the fourth quarter. With such an order Microsoft looks set to go into mass production rather than just produce a limited run as...
Things are starting to shake out on how pricing will look for the coming onslaught of Windows 8 machines. Samsung has now revealed the pricing for its coming ATIV line of Smart PCs as well as its more traditional offerings. The Smart PCs get the ATIV branding, these are the machines that we associate with being hybrid designs, detachable keyboards and such. These garner most of the...
Brendan Arndt from Three gives us a nice first look at their upcoming Asus Windows RT (Vivo Tab) tablet and it's looking good. While many are wondering how WinRT tablets are going to sell in traditional markets, one thing is certain, the mobile industry is set to embrace these quickly. Unlike the Surface RT device, the slender Asus unit will come with built in support for connection to...
Windows 8 has been pegged with the RTM title for some time but that does not mean it is really done. The code was simply ready to ship to PC makers and for developers to get busy creating apps. The end user experience in Windows 8 has remained problematic, mainly due to the incomplete nature of the core app experiences when using the tile based WinRT interface. Whilst there have been a...
Asus seems to have leaked it’s pricing for its coming Windows 8 tablets and convertibles prompting some to leap to their word processors and get on the fear, uncertainty and doubt bandwagon. We all know that pricing for tablets is an extremely sensitive subject, just yesterday we looked at Steve Ballmer’s interview to see what he had said about Surface pricing. Even though some sites...
The Seattle Times interviewed CEO Steve Ballmer recently and the man behind Microsoft is sounding quite confident about this year’s upcoming launches. During the interview, Ballmer gave his impression of how momentous this year’s launch line-up will be for Microsoft and he even pulled out two Lumia 920 phones from his pockets. Many have speculated wildly on this interview in relation to...
Interestingly on the eve of another iOS announcement, there are signs that business leaders could be more excited about the combined possibilities of Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 than iOS. Jason Hiner spoke to some IT leaders to see what they were waiting for. The results were surprising. Its no secret that IT departments have begrudgingly come to the current ethos of bringing your...
Is this a new Nokia Tablet with Windows 8? It appears that Nokia may have more than just new phones to show off next week in New York City. According to the site WPDang, internal images from Nokia show what appears to be a full on Windows 8 Tablet in a "a mysterious Banner map" hidden on the site. The actual device body is mostly out of view but instead what we see is a rather large...
“Microsoft is not, and never will be, a hardware company.” That’s according to Charlie Kindel, former Windows Phone General Manager, who spoke at an event at ThinkSpace in Redmond last night. Referring to Microsoft’s Surface family of tablets, Kindel notes that sales will be a small fraction of its business in the PC industry as a whole. But didn’t we already know this? Kindel...
Samsung has just announced their range of Windows 8 devices. We have already touched on the ATIV S and Tab rumors earlier and now we know a whole lot more about what Samsung has in store. Samsung is no strangers to producing Windows PCs and looks like they are taking their duties very seriously with this latest line up. The three devices we’re most interested in are the ATIV Tab,...
Gaming on Windows 8 tablets (and the platform as a whole) just got a whole lot cooler with a demonstration of the Unreal Engine 3 running on an ASUS Windows RT tablet. Powered by NVIDIA's Tegra, the tablet was shown today running the engine flagship demo Epic Citadel at IFA Berlin. NVIDIA quickly ran through the demo at the ASUS Vivo Tab RT press conference, which was the first public...
Looks like Microsoft might be trying its hand at a viral advertising campaign in the lead up to the release of its Surface tablet. The advertising, in the form of hipster compatible urban art has been spotted in a couple of locations such as the one above in Brooklyn. The pseudo graffiti seems to continue with the imagery we first saw at the Surface reveal. The theme is of an...
Microsoft will be unveiling its Windows RT Surface tablets this coming October with a price tag of $199, according to an Engadget source. Microsoft first unveiled the Surface family of Windows tablets earlier this year, and pricing rumours have been flying all around the room. The tipster reportedly revealed details from a session at Microsoft's recent TechReady15 conference and notes...
Windows 8 is done, recently reaching RTM and tomorrow some folks will be lucky enough to get their hands on the final code. Word from a few prominent bloggers is that Microsoft may not quite be finished with WinRT just yet. Suggestion is that MS maybe moving to update the WinRT environment faster than the current three-year cycle dictates. If this rumour were true then it would mean a...
Microsoft has so far been rather coy when it comes to the actual performance characteristics of their forthcoming WinRT tablets. That’s to have been expected due to the new ARM requirements but many have wondered how frugal with battery and weight a Windows RT tablet could really be. Windows on ARM devices are designed to compete with existing tablets currently available in the market....
Windows Live Essentials has been part of most Windows Users standard installation for many years now. This familiar and ‘essentials’ set of applications does much to make Windows come to life as a useful productivity tool. Providing photo editing, movie making, blogging, email, synchronising and instant messaging apps, ‘Essentials’ forms a solid backbone for basic computing throughput...