Computerworld - Microsoft's new Surface tablets may not match Apple's iPad on battery life, according to estimates made by Computerworld based on comparable devices.

On Monday, when Microsoft unveiled its Surface tablet line-up, it revealed the watt-hour (Wh) capacity of the batteries, but made no claims about how long those batteries would keep each device running under various conditions.

The omission was noticed by virtually every observer, blogger and analyst alike.

"They didn't talk about battery life, which is very important to decisions about [which] tablet to buy," said Michael Cherry of Directions on Microsoft, a Wash.-based research firm that focuses solely on Microsoft moves.

Unlike laptops such as Apple's MacBook Air and Windows "ultrabooks," which are often used for long stretches at a desk or near an outlet, tablets are meant to be more mobile. That makes battery lifespan critical to their operation -- and market success.

It's possible to estimate the battery life of the two Surface tablets by comparing their watt-hour ratings with existing products that have made between-charges claims. (A 30Wh rating means the battery can produce one watt of power for 30 hours, or, say, 6 watts of power for 5 hours.)

Microsoft assigned a 31.4Wh rating to the Windows RT Surface -- the tablet powered by Windows RT, an offshoot of Windows 8 designed to run on the power-miserly ARM processor architecture -- and gave the Windows 8 Pro Surface a rating of 42Wh.

The Windows 8 Pro Surface (or just "Surface Pro") runs on Intel processors, and is the same operating system that will power traditional laptops and even desktop PCs when it launches later this year.

Apple's current iPad, which leads the tablet market in sales, includes a 42.5Wh battery that Apple claims lasts 10 hours while browsing the Web, watching video or listening to music.

The Windows RT Surface (or "Surface") battery capacity is 25% less than the iPad's, putting its lifespan at 7.5 hours, or 25% less than the iPad's 10 hours.

A comparison with the iPad 2, which Apple continues to sell for $399, gives a longer lifespan estimate, however. The iPad 2's screen resolution is nearer to that likely used by the Surface; unfortunately, display resolution was another missing piece of information.

The iPad 2 features a 25Wh battery, approximately 25% less than the Surface; that would result in a battery life estimate of about 12.5 hours for the Surface based on the iPad 2's 10 hours. The average of the two numbers for the Surface -- 7.5 and 12.5 hours -- is 10 hours, or exactly the same as the iPad.

The Surface Pro is a different story.

The power-hungry Intel processor in the Surface Pro and the full-fledged Windows 8 operating system -- which will likely require more memory so users can run several applications at once -- makes it more like an ultrabook than a tablet, a fact Microsoft tacitly admitted when it said the price of the Surface Pro would be "comparable ... [with an] Intel ultrabook-class PC."

Apple's 11.6-in. MacBook Air -- considered the benchmark that Windows computer makers are shooting for -- is similar enough to the Surface Pro in specs, albeit with a slightly larger screen than the 10.6-in. used in Microsoft's tablets, for comparison purposes.

That MacBook Air sports a 35Wh battery rated to last 5 hours of browsing via Wi-Fi.

But the Surface Pro's battery has 20% more battery capacity, according to Microsoft, putting that device's lifespan at 6 hours, near but not equal to the seven-to-nine hours that numerous Windows ultrabooks boast. Admittedly, those laptops are significantly thicker and bigger than the Surface Pro, and have more room for larger batteries.

Hardware guru Kyle Wiens, the CEO of iFixit, a website that tears apart devices to create do-it-yourself repair guides, cautioned against reading too much into the estimates: There are simply too many unknowns that will determine Surface battery life.

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"It's a whole system," said Wiens in an interview this week, talking about power-saving design.

Among the factors that will affect battery life for the Surface and Surface Pro, said Wiens, are how successful Microsoft is at integrating power management features; how many cores the processors have and how well those cores are managed; the screen resolution; how many applications can run simultaneously; and how Windows RT and Windows 8 handle power consumption by those active apps.

Microsoft has disclosed some power consumption details about Windows RT and Windows 8.

In a blog post last February, two program managers on the operating system's Fundamentals and User Experience teams described the power handling, including something they called "Connected Standby." It mimics a smartphone-like, deep-sleep power mode on ARM, the processor used by the Surface.

Their post followed one the previous November by a program manager on the Windows Kernel team that discussed Windows 8 power management in more general terms.

The more recent missive spelled out the various power states of Metro apps, including one that suspends an app that has been opened, but is not currently in use.

"Since the operating system is not scheduling the app, the app is not using the CPU, and it is possible for the CPU to drop into lower power states," said the two program managers, Sharif Farag and Ben Srour. "Getting the CPU into low power states can be critical to achieving better battery life."

Although what the Microsoft officials discussed may have been new to Windows, such steps are commonly used by other mobile operating systems, including Apple's iOS and Google's Android, on smartphones and tablets.

Wiens was eager to get his hands on a Surface to tear it down, look inside and try to scout out the tablet's internal organs and get a better feel for its battery life.

iFixit will do a teardown of the Surface when Microsoft launches the tablet. The company has said it will debut the Windows RT-powered model at the same time Windows 8 goes on sale. Most analysts expect that in September or October.

Wiens also pointed out that, at least by the design drawings Microsoft has published of the Surface, the tablet may be easier to get into, perhaps for battery replacement by the owner. Those renderings show what appear to be Torx screws fastening the case.

Last week, iFixit called the new lighter, thinner MacBook Pro -- the first Apple notebook to feature a "Retina"-style high resolution display -- "the least-repairable laptop we've taken apart."

"Let's hope Microsoft will be better at letting users repair or upgrade their own devices," said Wiens.

Surface: A desperate move to catch Apple, says report

It was getting harder and harder to catch Apple's iPad. So, Microsoft took matters into its own hands, says a report.

by Brooke Crothers |June 24, 2012 10:07 PM PDT

Was Microsoft's Surface tablet an act of desperation? Yes, says a report in the New York Times.

Microsoft and the PC hardware industry were failing miserably at taking on Apple's iPad, forcing Redmond's hand, according to the report.

How critical was the situation becoming? Some assertions from the article:

And it probably wouldn't be a stretch to say that the rift between Microsoft and its hardware partners was a subtext of Monday's Microsoft Surface announcement: we're doing a tablet because we think we can do it better than our hardware partners.

And it's also not a stretch to say that Microsoft's foray into the tablet business will not improve the strained relationship with its hardware partners, who are now forced to compete against not only each other but Microsoft too.

We got to spend some time with the device Lenovo called "the tablet the industry has been waiting for" at an event in New York City today. We came away relatively impressed, despite the fact that Lenovo doesn't appear to be doing anything differently from other OEMs when it comes to Windows 8. When attached to the keyboard dock the device does legitimately feel like a laptop — the dock uses the same keyboard as many of Lenovo's recent ultrabooks, which is a very good thing — but by itself the device is a light and sturdy tablet. The pen input works well, though Windows 8 is so gesture-reliant that occupying your whole hand with a pen can be tough. It's a sturdy and well-made device that's comfortable to hold in one hand, and as we navigated through Windows 8 and a handful of Lenovo's own apps everything was fluid and fast.

This is my next is a special feature where writers of The Verge sound off on their latest deep, dark desires from the world of technology.

My MacBook Air and my iPad are basically my fifth and sixth limbs. I rarely go anywhere without them, I use each for hours every day, and in general I'm really happy with both of them.

Come October 26th, though, I'm ditching them both. I don't know yet if I'm buying a Microsoft Surface or a Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet or an Asus Transformer Book, or something else entirely. But I'm buying a Windows 8 device as my only computer, and I can't wait.

WINDOWS 8 KNOWS WE USE COMPUTERS DIFFERENTLY NOW

I've been using Windows 8 for months, beginning with the Consumer Preview that was announced at Mobile World Congress in February. Back then it was buggy and unstable, with as many problems as it had exciting new features. Now it's a stable, fast, powerful operating system — but that's not why I'll be switching this fall.

I'll be switching because Windows 8 is the first desktop operating system that understands what a computer is supposed to do in 2012, and it’s at once more productive and more fun than any OS I’ve used before.

One device, zero compromises

I should make one caveat up front: I'm assuming that at least one manufacturer will make a decent Windows 8 product from day one. I feel good about that assumption: the Surface looks excellent, as does the ThinkPad Tablet 2. There are sure to be dozens of other Windows 8 options flooding the market this holiday season, and my fingers are crossed that at least one will be worth its asking price. (I'm particularly intrigued by two Asus products: the wacky, two-screen Asus TaiChi and the Transformer Book.)

But I've been testing Windows 8 primarily on a Samsung Series 7 tablet — a decidedly unimpressive piece of hardware — and it's still opened my eyes to a wonderful new way of using a computer. It's the future I imagined with the Motorola Atrix, and again with the Asus Padfone: you have a single device that stores all your data, and you add or remove accessories and peripherals as necessary. I can drop my Series 7 tablet into a dock, add a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and connect a monitor — poof, I've got a full-fledged dual-monitor setup going. When I want to go somewhere, I just pick the device up out of the dock, and walk out the door tablet in hand.

I don't have to remember to sync, or transfer my files, or think about which device makes more sense for a certain place or situation. It's like playing with legos, assembling and disassembling different machines from the same parts depending on what I feel like that day.

FORGET PHABLETS — WINDOWS 8 IS FOR TABTOPS

Sure, the transformer thing has been done before, even by devices called the Transformer. Windows 8 is clearly the first OS designed with both capabilities in mind, though, and it shows. Navigating Android via keyboard and mouse is a mess; ditto iOS. But once you're armed with a half-dozen keyboard shortcuts and gestures, Windows 8 is equally easy to navigate with two fingers or keyboard and mouse. I've even found that I'll switch frequently back and forth, depending on what I'm doing; I'll edit photos with a mouse, then pick the tablet up and swipe my way through an article I'm editing, tapping and leaving quick notes with the on-screen keyboard.

It IS the internet



When I reviewed the latest revision of Google's Chromebooks, I had similar Padfone-like futuristic visions — visions of always being online, always being connected, everything always up to date and aware of what's happening in the world. But ultimately Chrome OS is just a browser — a window to the web wider than most, sure, but still a window you have to crawl through to get anywhere.

Using Windows 8 is like living in a house made out of internet. There's a browser, sure (and it's a good one despite being named Internet Explorer), but the whole OS is constantly changing and updating because its every fiber is connected to the internet. As Paul Miller noted last week, the computer itself has morphed from hub to spoke, giving you access to things rather than managing those things itself. Windows 8 fills that role beautifully, and luckily for me I’m not taking a year away from the internet so I get to enjoy the benefits.

The People app, for instance, isn't just a list of contacts you have to manage (or ignore to your peril), but instead a collection of information your friends have added about themselves. If someone changes their phone number on Facebook, I automatically have their new phone number. (Its ability to end the "I lost my phone — need your numbers!" Facebook groups is by itself a reason to upgrade to Windows 8.) News and Travel are alive, always serving new content that I never have to go looking for. On my MacBook Air, I’d say upwards of 80 percent of my time is spent in the browser, but on Windows 8 it’s all about apps and tiles.

PHONE-LIKE USABILITY MEETS LAPTOP-LIKE FUNCTIONALITY

Everything funnels through the Start Screen, which borrows heavily from the Windows Phone UI that is apparently not called Metro anymore. The Start Screen is a brilliant innovation for desktop computers, a huge improvement on the folder-littered desktops on every other OS, which serve exactly no purpose except to show a background photo. The Start Screen makes it possible to check a dozen things in five seconds — from any app, just tap the Windows key, and you can check to see if you have a new email, an upcoming appointment, inclement weather, or any breaking news. Tap the Windows key again, and you're back to your original app. Imagine how long checking all of those things would take using Mountain Lion. (In fairness, that could’ve been what the OS X dashboard was, but Apple missed that boat pretty badly.)

Ultimately, that's what I love about Windows 8: without losing any power or capability, it added a ton of the features I love about my phone, from full-screen optimized apps to pretty interfaces to lots of glanceable content. I don't need to spend all my time bouncing between a dozen different apps, because so much information is already surfaced for me. Even the lock screen is more useful, showing messages or calendar events; Mountain Lion just shows me my picture and asks me for my password.

If I want to do more powerful, more complex things, the desktop mode is available and as capable as ever — Photoshop’s not going away any time soon. Most of the time, though, I just want to fire off an email, or read news, or play some sweet sweet Minesweeper. For those things, the Windows 8 experience is every bit as immersive and thought-out as it is on my phone — and it makes the transition between laptop and tablet really well. Even for little things like settings menus and accessing your calendar, Microsoft's latest OS is staggeringly smarter, simpler, better-designed, and easier to understand and use (at least, once you get past the small initial learning curve).

If I were a Windows user, the upgrade would be a no-brainer. But I'm not already a Windows user, and I can't wait to get my hands on a Windows 8 device, toss my MacBook Air out a window (or at least into a closet), and finally start working with an OS that gets how we work in 2012.

By porting the full engine as opposed to a modified mobile version, NVIDIA and Epic have made it easy for UE3 developers around the world to bring their best content to Windows RT, Windows 8 and NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor. Windows RT code is available to licensees from Epic now and we’re excited to see the great games they develop with it.

By porting the full engine as opposed to a modified mobile version, NVIDIA and Epic have made it easy for UE3 developers around the world to bring their best content to Windows RT, Windows 8 and NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor. Windows RT code is available to licensees from Epic now and we’re excited to see the great games they develop with it.

After announcing its Surface tablets nearly four months ago, Microsoft has now unveiled the pricing for both of its ARM-based Surface RT tablets at its Microsoft online stores. The 10.6-inch Surface, powered by Windows RT, will go on sale on October 26th and will be priced starting at $499 for the 32GB version without Touch Cover and a 32GB version with the Touch Cover for $599. Microsoft is also offering 64GB model for $699 with a Touch Cover included. The 9.3mm thin tablet weighs just 1.5lbs and includes a built-in kickstand and vapor-deposited (PVD) magnesium case.

Microsoft listed its Surface pricing at its online Microsoft Store this morning, indicating that pre-orders will be available shortly. The company has also listed the prices for its Touch Cover, at $119.99 each, and Type Cover for $129.99. The Touch Cover appears to be available in white, red, black, blue, and purple colors – while the Type Cover is listed as a single item in black.

Microsoft's advertising campaign for its Surface devices has already kicked off, with Surface street art spotted in a number of US cities over the past few weeks. The software maker will hold a Surface reception event for press and analysts on October 25th, and some of the company's holiday pop-up stores will open at midnight on October 26th to start selling the tablets.