Surface RT

Microsoft is making it cheaper and more convenient for consumers to personalise hardware. To join the deal that has been featured in Europe, Microsoft has unleashed a free Touch (including limited editions) and Type cover offer for consumers when Surface RT Windows 8 tablets are purchased. It's a limited time offer and has only just kicked off, but we're pleased to see such a bundle arise to help push more units.

Yesterday, we were moments away from posting a story about how the normally $499 priced 32GB Surface RT was reduced by $100 at Staples, including online purchases. Unfortunately as we were going to press, Staples changed the price back to $499, which is still reflected on their website. Curses!

But wait...

Microsoft is pushing out a series of updates for both the Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets.

The updates for the Surface RT addresses the low speaker volume and other stability improvements. The Surface Pro updates deal with improved Wi-Fi connectivity and stability along with a video update to improve Skype performance.

It’s “Patch Tuesday”, the traditional day where Microsoft tends to push out some major OS fixes and updates and while it used to be a big Windows day, it’s increasingly more important for Surface owners. That’s because the Surface, a work in progress, is constantly getting tweaked for performance and usability. Today is no different.

Both the Surface RT and Surface Pro have numerous updates queued up for installing, including a few for Office 2013. The bigger deal though is the included firmware, which once again will hopefully fix a few lingering issues some of you may still be having.

Since launched, the Surface RT tablet has always been sold only through two channels in China: Microsoft's freshly established online store, and Suning (a chain store for electronics, much like Best Buy). Now Microsoft is looking into extending the Surface RT distribution network, as the exclusive dealership with Suning expired in February 2013.

It’s Patch Tuesday, Microsoft’s semi-regular time to push out OS and software updates to our computers. Today is no different, and if you’re on Windows 8 you’ll get at least 13 important updates (83MB) and if you’re on Surface, you’re looking at 14 patches (38-118MB) and a firmware update. (Some of that will vary for you as different Office 2010 and Office 2013 updates are included.)

So what’s new? Well, the biggest news is that Microsoft has enabled Flash to work now in Internet Explorer 10 for RT. If you recall, Microsoft only allowed a few, specific websites with Flash to work on Internet Explorer 10 citing performance and battery life reasons. There was even a neat little work around that you could do yourself to bypass this. Now, Microsoft have reversed that decision, which they say is due to more sites becoming IE10 compatible.

Microsoft has released a firmware update for the Surface RT tablets. The update addresses "limited Wi-Fi connection issues and contains driver updates to improve performance with Windows as well as the volume and power buttons".

The International Data Corporation has released a report showing an unexpected growth in the tablet market. Worldwide tablet shipments reached a record total of 52.5 million units in Q4 2012. This is the same quarter Microsoft chose to enter the competition with the Surface family of tablets, releasing the Surface RT tablet. But how did Microsoft perform in the first quarter of selling the product?

There's a firmware update available for your Microsoft Surface running Windows RT. There's really not much to the update but is designed to provide system improvements to audio playback when in Connected Standby and provide additional capabilities for handling firmware updates when your battery is low.

The update also includes a handful of security and non-security fixes and updates for Windows RT.

You can check for updates on your Windows RT device by swiping right on the screen to pull up the side bar menu.  Then tap on settings, tap on Change PC Settings at the bottom of the menu and Check for Updates will be the last setting listed. All totaled, it takes about five minutes to download, install the updates and restart the Surface.

Source: ZDNet