Microsoft offering Surface RT tablets for $199 to educational institutions

Microsoft offering Surface RT tablets for $199 to educational institutions

If you thought Microsoft’s effort to push Surface RT tablets into classrooms would stop with a 10,000-unit giveaway, you’d be mistaken. Ryan Lowdermilk, a technology evangelist for the company, revealed that it’s offering 32GB Surface RT slates to K-12 and higher education institutions in 25 countries for $199, more than 50 percent off the $499 retail sticker price. Dropping $249 for each unit will snag organizations keyboard-infused Touch Covers, while bumping the cost to $289 will add Type Covers to the package. Education outfits can take advantage of the deal until August 31st (or while supplies last), but individual students won’t be able to snag a Surface at such a deep discount on their own. The post announcing the program has gone offline since its unveiling, but we’ve reached out to Lowdermilk to confirm that the offer is still valid. In the meantime, you can hit the second source link to snatch an order form for school administrators.

Update: It appears the order form has been pulled, so we’ve replaced the second source link with a mirror of the document.

[Thanks, Suraj-Sun]

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Source: Ryan Lowdermilk (Google Cache), Surface for Education Order Form (PDF)

Refresh Roundup: week of June 10th, 2013

Refresh Roundup week of June 10th, 2013

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

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Microsoft will give 10,000 Surface tablets to educators attending ISTE

With the Windows in the Classroom Surface Experience Project, Microsoft is determined to prove its commitment to education — and gain some positive publicity for its Surface tablets along the way. The company will be giving away Surface RTs to the first 10,000 registrants for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in San Antonio this June. To put that rather impressive number into perspective, ISTE is expecting to host over 13,000 individual educators and 500 exhibiting technology companies. While it’s entirely possible that this massive giveaway is a simple inventory write-off, we sunny optimists like to think that Microsoft is doing it out of the good of its heart. For more information, you can check out the full press release after the break.

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Windows RT to come with Outlook app starting with Windows 8.1 update

Windows RT to come with Outlook app starting with Windows 8.1 update

We weren’t expecting Microsoft to make too many announcements here at Computex — it’s got Build coming up, after all — but it did drop a little bit of news. The company just confirmed that Windows RT tablets will come with an Outlook app pre-installed starting with the Windows 8.1 update. Not much more to share today — we already knew Windows 8.1 would arrive in preview on June 26th — but hopefully we’ll learn more at the Build developer conference in a few weeks. After all, as much as Microsoft has already revealed about Windows 8.1, it’s said very little about RT, specifically.

Update: The official Surface blog does have a bit more information to share, mentioning that an update is coming “in about a week” to improve the Touch Cover and Type Cover keyboard accessories. Once that update arrives, there will be a few function key combos to trigger things like brightness (Fn + Del / Backspace), page navigation or toggle the function keys to charms, volume, etc (Fn + Caps). Check the post for a full list of commands.

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Source: Office Blog, Surface Blog

The Daily Roundup for 05.31.2013

DNP The Daily RoundUp

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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Microsoft promo: buy a Surface RT, get a free keyboard cover (updated)

Microsoft promo buy a Surface RT, get a free Touch or Type Cover

There’s no question that the Surface RT comes into its own with a keyboard cover; we can’t imagine using the tablet unadorned. Microsoft can’t, either, as it’s launching a promo that gives the covers away. Americans and Canadians who buy the Windows RT slate between now and the end of June can get either the Touch Cover or the Type Cover for free, no matter which color they fancy. Surface Pro customers are out of luck, but it’s hard to dispute the value for prospective Surface RT owners — the deal amounts to at least a $100 discount on the touch PC’s real-world price.

Update: To be clear, this promo has been running in other countries; it’s just now debuting in North America, however.

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Via: CNET

Source: Microsoft Store

Refresh Roundup: week of May 13th, 2013

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

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Switched On: Microsoft’s small tablet trap

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On Microsoft's small tablet trap

Based on last quarter’s global PC shipment numbers, Microsoft continues to feel pain in making the case for Windows is a viable tablet operating system. Theoretically, the dual-identity (Windows 8/RT) operating system has everything it needs to be a contender, but the promise is ahead of the reality on three interdependent fronts: chip-level hardware, legacy support, and app software.

For example, if x86 chips were more competitive with ARM processors from a performance-per-watt perspective, then Microsoft wouldn’t be as reliant on Metro-style apps for functionality. And if more developers were creating Metro-style apps, then consumers wouldn’t have to go to the legacy desktop mode as much to get things done. (Until the company releases a Metro-style Office, Microsoft really can’t wag its finger too much at third parties.)

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Microsoft Surface Pro and Surface RT now shipping in more countries

Microsoft Surface Pro and Surface RT now shipping in more countries

Microsoft’s Surface Pro and RT are striking out to more far flung corners of the globe. Redmond just announced this morning that its two Windows 8 tablets will be made available to even more markets, with the Surface RT being the first to branch out, shipping on April 25th to Malaysia and then soon after to Mexico, Korea and Thailand by end May / early June. When it finally hits that early summer release window, the Surface RT will be accessible to a total of 29 markets globally. As for its older sibling, the feature-packed Surface Pro, that angular slate’s set to expand beyond its current limited availability (U.S., Canada and China) to 19 additional markets across Europe (including the UK), Asia and Oceania by the end of next month. And if you’ve been searching high and low for a 128GB Surface Pro to no avail, chin up, as Microsoft’s taken note of your demand and is working with retailers to keep that model “consistently in stock.”

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Source: Microsoft Surface blog

WSJ: Microsoft’s next generation of Surface tablets includes a 7-inch version

Wonder what a Nexus 7 / Kindle Fire / iPad Mini fighter from Microsoft would look like? You may find out soon, as the Wall Street Journal has just posted a “breaking news” alert that it’s heard Microsoft is developing a new lineup of Surface tablets (which it’s confirmed before) including a 7-inch version, which it expects to take into mass production later this year. We’ve seen hints of smaller tablets already, with recent Windows 8 policy changes allowing devices featuring lower-res screens. It’s filled out a few other details now, crediting the info to unnamed sources familiar with its product plans who claim Microsoft realized it needed something to compete with the smaller competition (shocker). The report ends with a footnote on the rumored Microsoft-branded phone, which is said to still be in testing but component suppliers are not sure if it will actually come to market. While we wait for further updates, consider this your opportunity to make suggestions on what should change in Redmond’s second assault on slates.

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Source: Wall Street Journal (Twitter), Wall Street Journal