Long-rumored, Microsoft's first post-Windows Mobile phone isn't really a phone at all. Sure, it makes calls, but that's just one feature of the Surface Duo ($TBA). This book-like device has a pair of thin 5.6-inch screens that unfold to form an 8.3-inch computing surface. It can be used as a tablet, like a mini-laptop, or as something altogether different when the 360-degree hinge is bent so both screens face outwards. It runs Android, instead of Windows 10X like its big sibling the Surface Neo, and will available for the 2020 holiday season.
Dubbed the Microsoft Surface Studio ($2,999.00), its signature feature is its 28-inch PixelSense Display that boasts 13.5 million pixels and is mounted to a pair of arms that let it lower and rotate backward, becoming a giant drawing pad for the Surface Pen and new Surface Dial, which is amazing! Otherwise the specs are much what you'd expect, with with bottom case housing an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, an Nvidia GeForce GPU, and up to 32GB of RAM to keep those creative apps humming. It is due to ship in 2017 and already you can pre-order this new Surface Studio PC.
Samsung announced the launch of its new Samsung ATIV Q tablet that runs both Windows 8 and Android 4.2.2. The 13.3" panel features a 3200 x 1800 resolution (276 PPI). Impressive! Android runs in a VM on top of Windows 8. Networking, storage and CPUs are all virtualized resources. There's even a dedicated key on the keyboard to switch between OS's. The Samsung ATIV Q is powered by a Intel Haswell Core i5 processor, and features include 4GB of DDR3L, a 128GB solid state disk (SSD) and connections for USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and HDMI outputs are provided as well as 720p HD video and lastly a microSD card slot for expansion. Samsung says it'll get up to 9 hours of battery life. No available date for release or a price tag. So the question would be: would this be something that you would want to give you the experience of working on a laptop, but also turning it into a portable Android tablet?
Design concepts interest me. The thought process that goes behind a project is intriguing. So today we are going to look at the Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse ($70). This is a minialistic ergonomically-sound pointing device. The flexible palm rest allows you to flatten the mouse to turn it off and make it more suitable for packing. The metallic middle strip lets you perform gestures to quickly and easily move around your documents. This mouse is packing a 2.4 GHz wireless USB Nano Transceiver that can connect wirelessly right out of the box with virtually no interference and has up to a 30-foot wireless range. Just in case you could see 30-foot away from your computer. Below is a video of Young Kim the Senior User Experience Designer talking about the design process of making this new Microsoft mouse.
