Fresh on the heels of an iPad mini teardown that revealed $188 worth of components, IHS has pegged the Kindle Fire HD bill of materials at $165. That means that only about 20 bucks’ worth of hardware separates devices with $130 price tag differential. Yeesh. More »
Expandable storage is a wonderful thing, but its implementation can sometimes leave something to be desired. Take Windows 8, for instance — its photo, movie and music apps leverage Windows libraries to access users’ media collections, but won’t allow users to include removable storage in the app-accessed party of indexed folders. Sure, you can keep all your media on one device, but half it will need to be accessed in a slightly roundabout way. This simply wasn’t good enough for Toni Fowlie, who wanted all of her media — from both her Surface’s local storage and its microSD card — to appear in the same library. She used an old NTFS feature to trick Windows into thinking her microSD was part of her device’s local storage, and her efforts are worth sharing.
Filed under: Tablets, Software, Microsoft
A better way to store media on Microsoft Surface RT: SD cards, junction points and the command prompt originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Nov 2012 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today’s movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dot com.
Just in case its dance moves weren’t enough to move buyers, Microsoft’s new slate is popping up in TV shows themselves, like tonight’s episode of NCIS: LA. As seen in the clip, character Eric Beale confidently flips his Windows RT-powered Surface out (and naturally, makes use of its kickstand and Touch Cover — gotta hit all the check boxes) to figure out what’s going on and even multitasks with some simulated videoconferencing. All in all it’s more realistic than when the other Microsoft Surface made a cameo in CSI: Miami (also included after the break), and is probably worth the promo fee by showing a use case enabled thanks to those features — of course, with no cell access built-in, it’s not immediately clear how he got online, but this is TV. So who did it better, tablet-style: this one, the PlayBook on White Collar, Cisco’s ill-fated Cius on NCIS: LA last year or the iPad in Entourage?
[Thanks, Mitchell]
Continue reading Screen Grabs: Microsoft Surface goes to work on NCIS: LA
Screen Grabs: Microsoft Surface goes to work on NCIS: LA originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Oct 2012 22:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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One of the big selling points of Microsoft’s new Surface tablet is the compatibility it has with tons of different USB devices, such as printers, scanners, keyboards, and mice. In fact, Microsoft claims that the Surface running Windows RT supports a whopping 420 million different hardware devices, and the company released a full list of all the products that are compatible with the Surface.
Microsoft launched a Windows RT section on their Compatibility Center website, and they made it easy for users to browse the different devices that can be used with the Surface tablet right out of the box. Pretty much any hardware device you can think of is on the list, including the Xbox 360 controller and even some of Apple‘s own hardware.
The website doesn’t actually list every single device one after another on one page — that would be quite a long list. Instead, they’ve broken it up into different sections, like “Cameras & photo,” “Printers & scanners,” etc. Clicking on one will give you subcategories where you can browse by type or brand.
On top of what the Surface is compatible with, Microsoft also lists products that aren’t compatible, which makes it easier for users to find out if one of their devices does or doesn’t work with their new Surface tablet. You can read our full review of Microsoft Surface tablet to learn more about the device.
Microsoft releases full list of Windows RT compatible devices is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
A supposed member of the Microsoft Word team has gone to Hacker News to address a complaint about Office 2013′s processing speed on the company’s new Surface tablet. The complaint mentions that the tablet cannot keep up with the user’s typing, either because of the tablet’s CPU or a bug in the code of Office 2013.
The Microsoft employee, who remains anonymous, mentioned that there were many challenges with developing the tablet version of Office 2013, including when the team “didn’t even know about the Surface.” The Microsoft employee says that the hardware they were working with “was prerelease hardware from MSFT partners that had varying levels of performance.”
However, Microsoft president of the Windows and Windows Live division Steven Sinofsky made an appearance in the Hacker News thread and addressed the issue himself, as well as correcting the anonymous Microsoft employee in the process. Sinofsky says that the “issue is known,” and “an update is forthcoming.” Afterward, he said that developers on the Office team “had access to the tools and hardware need,” and that “there was no shortage of knowledge, hardware, or communication.”
The complainer issued an update about his problem, and he says he didn’t update the Surface to include the latest Office code, which users have said that will solve the lag issue. So, if you’re experiencing the same issues, the best thing and probably the only thing to do is update Windows RT to include the latest fixes.
[via ZDNet]
Microsoft responds to Office 2013 complaint on Surface tablet is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It’s a big storm, moving slowly. A gigantic span of ferocious swirl meets a front of chilly resistance. The effect of that collision is amplified by powerful tidal influence. Upheavals and surges swamp the landscape. Many people are displaced; countless others stay with the familiar.
Also, in the real world, some nasty weather is happening. But I’m talking about the tech industry of the last five business days, which has aligned and concentrated its forces in a crystal-clear demonstration, if one were needed, that mobile is where the bets are placed and futures will be won and lost.
Apple is at the eye of the storm, where its devoted legions expect it, but no longer as a pioneer. Defending its territory rather than breaking new ground, the post-Jobs company did something its late and fabled leader scorned, split hairs to justify it, engaged in implicit combat with four competitors, ticked off some of its best customers and was squeezed by inexorable pressure of a quickly evolving industry.
Continue reading Editorial: Apple vs. everyone
Filed under: Tablets, Apple, Google
Editorial: Apple vs. everyone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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After the announcement of Microsoft’s Surface tablet last week, company CEO Steve Ballmer spoke about the competition and what the Surface brings to the table for potential tablet buyers. Despite Apple selling over 100 million iPads, the Kindle Fire HD being Amazon’s best-selling product ever, and the Nexus 7 being UK’s best-selling tablet, Ballmer says these tablets aren’t what people truly want.
According to Ballmer, Microsoft’s new Surface tablet is the tablet that people really want, and it’s the tablet they’ve always wanted. Ballmer says that he doesn’t think “anybody has done a product that is the product that [he sees] customers wanting.” He continues by noting that no other tablet maker “has a product that you can really use,” directly referring to Apple, Google, and Amazon.
Ballmer says that the Surface tablet “is a first-class tablet that people can enjoy and appreciate. It’s a PC; it’s a tablet. It’s for play; it’s for work. It’s a got a great price. That product doesn’t exist today.” That is, until now. The Surface officially launched on Friday at a starting price of $499. Ballmer notes that the Surface is not a compromise, but rather a reimagining of the PC, Windows, and Microsoft, which he states is now a “devices and services company.”
Ballmer also took an old adage from Steve Jobs and spun it around to reflect Microsoft’s beliefs. Jobs always said that “people don’t know what they want until you show it to them,” but Ballmer says that people usually know what they want, but not until after a few years of using something else.
[via AllThingsD]
Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer: the Surface is what people really want is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Popular gadget repair site iFixit has taken the Microsoft Surface apart to see what makes it tick, and discovered a tablet/PC that scores higher on repairability than Apple’s iPad and its Retina MacBook Pro computers. The Surface ended up with a repairability score of 4 out of a possible 10, compared to just 2 out of 10 for the iPad, 1 out of 10 for the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro and 2 out of 10 for the newer, 13-inch model.
Why did the Windows RT-powered Surface beat out Apple’s hardware? Mostly due to the modular nature of several key components. The battery (while glued in), headphone jack, volume buttons, and speaker specifically are called out as easy to remove and replace. That means that the Surface’s potential consumer lifespan is extended, since users can pick up replacement parts and swap them out easily enough at home with a few commonly available tools.
Another interesting tidbit dug up by iFixit is a part that appears to be a small speaker component specifically included to make the “click” noise created when users type using the Touch Cover keyboard. Overall, iFixit still had some difficulty with the removal of the back panel to provide access to internals, however, and there appears to be a tamper-proof indicator to let anyone looking know you’ve been poking around. Plus, taking off the glass protecting the LCD is incredibly difficult, so repair costs will rise accordingly.
Overall, though, it’s interesting to see Microsoft put out a compact tablet device that outdoes the competition on repairability, even if it isn’t as modular as a desktop PC or something like the Kupa UltraNote we tried out at MobileCon this year. Whatever the impression of reviewers on the overall Surface experience, at least it stands a better chance of clogging landfills than some of the competition.
Microsoft‘s latest piece of hardware, the Surface tablet running Windows RT, has been placed on the surgery bed and was given a full dissection by the fellows over at iFixit. While they were able to tear it apart completely, it wasn’t an easy feat, and they came across some obstacles along the way.
The whole process begins with removing the rugged kickstand from the tablet, which is actually held in place by torx screws. Of course, there are a whopping 17 torx screws that hold the entire device together, but once those are out, you’ll be able to carefully take off the rear panel, which is only attached to the rest of device by a small ribbon cable.
The battery is glued onto the rear panel, but it’s easier to remove then the iPad. Plus, all of the small components like the speakers, connectors, and ports come out fairly easily. However, some components, like the camera, couldn’t be removed until the motherboard was taken out. The top of motherboard obviously is home to the main circuitry like the CPU, graphics, and flash memory, but the bottom consists of the smaller features, like the WiFi antenna, the ambient light sensor, and a couple of microphones. Everything that deals with the touchscreen display is on a completely separate “daughterboard.”
Removing the display takes some work. It requires a heat gun, some guitar picks, and “plenty of patience.” Just like the iPad, the LCD and the glass are fused together and strongly adhered to the casing, making it a rough repair if the display breaks down. Overall, iFixit gave it a 4 out of 10 for repairability, which isn’t great, but it’s certainly not as bad as the third-gen iPad’s 2 out of 10 score.
Microsoft Surface gets complete teardown is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
iFixit has dissected Microsoft Surface to get a look at its innards and found it only slightly easier to dissemble than many of the latest Apple gadgets, which haven’t exactly been a picnic to take apart. More »
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