Hasta La Gadget!

At least some of the tablet-loving public picked up a Surface Pro this weekend. Those earliest of early adopters have discovered an unpleasant limitation, however: the vaunted pen input doesn’t have complete support in important apps. Microsoft is using only an official driver without any current option to install an alternative, leaving artists without eraser or pressure support in creative industry staples such as Adobe Photoshop. While there’s no immediate fix, a Microsoft spokesperson tells us that it’s working with the “necessary partners” to expose full pen functionality; we’ve reached out to Adobe as well, and will let you know if it’s one of the chosen few. In the meantime, Surface artisans who need full pen recognition may want to consider an add-on tablet as a stopgap. Read Microsoft’s full statement after the break.

Update: Adobe tells us it’s “working with [its] partners to explore the possibility” of support, which suggests that we’ll need to be patient.

[Thanks, John]

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

Comments

Source: Reddit, TabletPC Review

You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 7 days — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

Comments

After missing initial shipping plans with some undisclosed delays, and despite seeing its welcome party in NYC abolished by a storm dubbed Nemo, Microsoft’s finally started the process to make that long-awaited Surface Pro available to the masses. Starting with US and Canada residents, those seeking Redmond’s in-house hardware and a full serving of Windows 8 can now snag a Surface Pro starting at $899 for the 64GB model, while the more spacious 128GB unit is slightly costlier at $999. And while these prices do include Microsoft’s pressure-sensitive pen, they don’t account for any other fancy accessories, which means potential buyers will have to shell out a little extra cash if a Touch or Type Cover are of interest — more specifically, $120 and $130, respectively. We’ll see how Ballmer and Co. cope with demand this time around, but as history would kindly note, it’s probably best to be one of the first in line just to be extra, extra safe.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Microsoft

Comments

Source: Microsoft, Microsoft Store

Now that the Surface Pro is a fait accompli, there’s more than a few questions circulating from prospective buyers. The project’s Panos Panay and his team have stepped up to answer them on Reddit, and they’ve shed some light on just about everything, including later plans. The Pro-specific connectors at the bottom? They’re for “future peripherals” that may require more power than the pogo pins do. The short battery life and limited free storage were also purposeful (if difficult) choices, Microsoft says. The company wanted to maximize performance while keeping the tablet reasonably slim, so it couldn’t rely on a big battery; it included the space-chewing recovery partition as it wanted to offer the “confidence” of a failsafe rather than leave customers to fend for themselves. While the answers won’t appease everyone, they at least put the design decisions in context. Hit the source link to sate your curiosity in full, or at least as far as an Ask Me Anything session allows.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

Comments

Via: The Verge (1), (2)

Source: Reddit

Those of us lucky enough to work for gadget sites got to check out the Surface Pro last month. Now you can too, dear reader — if you happen to live near a store that got one early. Although shoppers in the US and Canada can’t actually purchase it until February 9th, the device is already on display at some retail locations. Sadly, there’s no way for us to confirm which stores have it (short of making a few road trips), but we do know that it’s going to be available at Best Buy and Staples in the US, along with Microsoft Stores. So, assuming you have one of those chains nearby, it can’t hurt to wander over — you might be rewarded with some advance hands-on time.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Comments