Hasta La Gadget!

It’s taken its sweet time to leap over that Rising Sun, but Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet has finally arrived in Japan. Priced at 57,800 yen ($600), it’s launching today in collaboration with Ghost In the Shell series, Arise, where the Surface RT will apparently be making some cameo appearances, with a view to referencing its touch interface. If you’re interested in seeing how Microsoft’s lightweight tablet might look in the robotic future, we’ve added a concept sketch after the break.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

Comments

Source: Internet Watch (Japanese)

If you’ve had any sustained glitches with your Surface RT, check for a software update — Microsoft might just have sorted it out. A February refresh pushing out today should mend problems with WiFi reliability that have led to the tablet showing “Limited” access. It also eliminates sluggishness in the power and volume controls, as well as Windows as a whole. Is your Surface snappier after the update? Let fellow owners know in the comments.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

Comments

Source: Microsoft

Acer seems to be straddling a delicate position with respect to Microsoft right now. On the one hand, it’s outwardly indifferent towards Surface RT and indeed the the whole Windows RT concept, which is why it’s holding off on its own RT tablets for the time being. But if that’s true, why are the company’s top brass so eager for Microsoft to withdraw from the competition? President for Greater China, Linxian Lang, has just resorted to a food metaphor to emphasize the point, warning that Redmond will have to eat “hard rice” with Surface, and implying that it should stick to its more readily-chewed software diet. If you’ve seen our own Surface RT review, then you’ll know our thoughts on the matter: Microsoft’s tablet has been boiled and salted just right, which might be the real reason Acer is so averse to it.

[Image credit: Sina Tech]

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft, Acer

Acer exec warns Microsoft may eat ‘hard rice’ with its Surface tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Nov 2012 08:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TNW  |  Sina Tech (Chinese)  | Email this | Comments

For those unaware, Windows 8 went on sale today. If all goes well, millions upon millions of Wintel users will be switching the latest OS in the coming months, and there’s a giant in Mountain View that’s severely concerned about the future of your searches. You see, Microsoft has done a fine job of pushing Internet Explorer and Bing into Windows 8, leaving Google loyalists nowhere to turn. Until now. After the break, you’ll enjoy a lighthearted video from the masterminds at Google, explaining precisely how to Get Your Google Back. It’s as simple as visiting getyourgoogleback.com on your Windows 8 machine, and then installing both Chrome and the Google Search app. Oh, and bonus points for “Aw yeah.”

Continue reading Get Your Google Back: a hilarious video meant for Windows 8 converts

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Google

Get Your Google Back: a hilarious video meant for Windows 8 converts originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Get Your Google Back, Google (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

When Microsoft unveiled its Surface tablets with a flashy, top secret Los Angeles event, it didn’t just mark the beginning of a new (and utterly critical) phase for the history of the company. It marked the repurposing of a name that was already quite familiar to us — though in the guise of a big table. That device lives on as PixelSense, thus putting a period at the end of one definition of the word, a definition Microsoft kindly requests we put behind us as we move on to something that is wholly different.

This new Surface device could be said to relate more closely to the active form of the word in question. That is, the verb: to rise up — for something to appear that was not there before. It’s a very apt definition for what Microsoft is doing, attempting to go from zero to hero on the tablet hardware front in just one shot. Is this, the Surface for Windows RT, good enough to erase decades of mediocre touchscreen Windows devices? Will it help Microsoft and its latest operating systems float up to the top of the tablet hierarchy? Your answers lie just below the break.

Continue reading Microsoft Surface with Windows RT review

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

Microsoft Surface with Windows RT review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments