Tablets

Microsoft is in the early stages of a major shift as the world’s largest software company begins to compete with its vendor partners by releasing its own Windows hardware. While some believe the strategy is sound since Microsoft’s partners are too reliant on Windows to put up much of a fight, one former Microsoft executive Continue Reading →

Steve Jobs had it wrong: people do want smaller tablets after all. CNET points us to a note written by Citi analyst Glen Yeung making the case that the market for larger tablets such as Apple’s 9.7-inch iPad has peaked and that more compact tablets such as the 7.9-inch iPad mini and the 7-inch Google Continue Reading →

Microsoft will support its Surface Pro tablet until July 2017, or almost four-and-a-half years after its launch last weekend, the company’s website confirmed. Like its predecessor the Surface RT, the Windows 8-powered Surface Pro sports a support lifecycle that’s less than half the usual 10 years Microsoft allots its software products. Microsoft will support the Continue Reading →

The Microsoft Surface Pro, the new flagship Windows 8 device that launched on Saturday, is reportedly sold out in many retail locations across the country. Great success, right? Not so fast. Apparently, as reported by ZDnet, that fact might be misleading. In general, of course, selling out on the day of a product launch is Continue Reading →

With the release of the Windows 8 Surface Pro, Microsoft has reclaimed some of the good will it lost with the Surface RT. Unlike the earlier Surface product, the Pro features the full version of Windows 8, uses a powerful Intel Core i5 CPU, and can install and run just about any software app that Continue Reading →

Shelly Palmer Chats with Jim Blasingame on the Small Business Advocate Show. The two discuss the advantages of the Windows 8 operating system, what it means for Dell to go private (and what it means that Microsoft helped them to do so), and also how BlackBerry 10 stacks up to the competitors. Listen now through Continue Reading →

Microsoft is finding Nemo to be quite the buzzkill. The software giant had planned a big New York launch party Friday night for the Surface Pro, which goes on sale Saturday. Panos Panay, who leads the Surface effort, had planned to preside over an event at a Manhattan Best Buy to mark the debut. However, Continue Reading →

Microsoft addressed Surface Pro issues with disk space and battery life, among other topics, in a Reddit AMA today. The discussion was led by Panos Panay, head of the Surface team at Microsoft. He provided relatively lengthy responses to two issues that have emerged as shortcomings with the company’s newest tablet-laptop hybrid that runs Windows Continue Reading →

There’s no mystery that Google is collaborating with Motorola on the so-called “X Phone” at least in part to weaken Samsung’s hold on the Android ecosystem. And now Benedict Evans, a strategy consultant for Enders Analysis, points us to some charts showing why Google is so eager to contain Samsung: It seems that Samsung’s Galaxy Continue Reading →

Come May, Kindle Fires users will have lots of free virtual coins to spend on their favorite apps. Announced on Tuesday, Amazon Coins is a new type of virtual currency developed by the retail giant. Users will be able to grab the new coins to purchase Kindle Fire games, apps, and in-app items from the Continue Reading →