The new Microsoft Surface Pro has over 800 new design updates. It’s powerful and as usual the thinnest yet! Microsoft says it’s Upgraded, versatile, and exceptionally powerful.
Microsoft head of Devices, Panos Panay has introduced the latest upgrade to the loved Surface Pro range of computing devices. The new device goes by the name “Surface Pro“. Well it’s shifted from the numbers. Maybe a good thing as now we have the Surface Laptop, Surface Book and Surface Studio.
It practically has all the best know traits of the Surface pro’s since inception with added quality from user feedbacks.
The Surface Pro is Upgraded, versatile, and exceptionally powerful, with iconic Surface design.
Microsoft Surface Pro Design and Specifications
The Surface Pro is the lightest Surface Pro ever at 1.7lbs and 8.5mm thin. It sports more rounded corners. The device also sports a new hinge design with 165 degree studio mode. It is 12.3″ display at 3:2 aspect ratio and 267 ppi. It’s powered by the latest 7th generation Intel Core Processor. The Core m3 and i5 variants are the quietest Surface yet with no fans.
With up to 13.5 hours of battery life Panos said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was able to do his daily rounds without having to recharge. The Surface Pro also supports the new Surface Pen and Surface Dial both on- and off-screen.
Hear what Panos Pany had to say about the device; “The new Surface Pro is 1.5x times faster than the iPad Pro with the latest Intel processors. We now passively cool our core i5 architecture which allows us to remove our fans on the i5 device. We test these products in ways you wouldn’t believe. We test every inch of the product and self-host it. One of our most passionate self-hosters is our CEO, Satya Nadella. Just a few weeks ago Satya sent me and other members of the team an email about his experience with the new Surface Pro. He said it was awesome. He was able to start his day with a fully charged device and go from meeting to meeting all day, doing all that he needed to do – and stayed on all day.”
When it comes to selecting there will be 3 processor variants, Intel Core m3 7Y30, Core i5-7300U, Core i7-7660U. Ram sizes range from 4GB, 8GB or 16GB and storage sizes of 128 GB, 256 GB 512 GB SSD. It has a front camera with 5 MP and rear of 8 MP. Available ports on the device include Add to dictionary card reader, USB 3.0, Headset jack, Mini DisplayPort and Surface Connect.
It’s up for pre-order today in starting at $799 USD with availability on June 15th in 25 markets around the world.
For a hands on the Microsoft Surface Pro, check out what the guys over at Windows Central had to say in this review,
What do you think about the device. Microsoft Laptop or Surface Pro?
Microsoft is hosting an Event in Shanghai, China May 23rd 2017. It’s not yet clear as Microsoft hasn’t shed any light on what’ll be happening but rumors are saying a lot of stuff.
We’ll bring you all the updates from the event. The Microsoft event in Shanghai, China coming up later today at these times 11 AM GMT, 4 AM PT, 7 AM ET, 9 PM AEST, 1 PM SAST, 12 PM WAT, 12 PM
EVENT UPDATE ! …..
Microsoft’s Executive Vice President, Windows and Devices Group Terry Myerson started the keynote after being introduced by the CEO Microsoft China region.
We are here today to celebrate creativity and innovation in China and around the world. Together with our partners we are inspiring a generation of creators to do more, create more, be more productive, and have more fun. – Terry Myerson
Main takeaways from the event include;
Introduction of Windows 10 China Government Edition – With strong support of CETC and CMIT, our joint venture has now developed Windows 10 China Government Edition for China government customers and Lenovo will be one of the first OEM partners to preinstall Windows 10 China Government Edition.
Announced the Surface Pro laptop
Introduced a new Surface Digital Pen
Microsoft HoloLens gets launched and goes commercial in China
Xbox Project Scorpio will launch in China later this year
Microsoft Surface Book and Surface Laptop on sale in China region as well. At this event Microsoft is bringing already on the market Surface studio and Surface laptop to the Chinese market. Pre-order begins May 23rd and arrives on the 15th of June 2017.
Microsoft Whiteboard app
Meet the Surface Pro latest Microsoft Surface Pro range device.
For gamers in China, the there’ll be a Forza racing competition in July you can look forward to. Also new betas for Windows 10 and Xbox Minecraft China testers.
Next season of Forza Racing Championship, the most inclusive racing competition in gaming, is coming to ChinaJoy in Shanghai this summer.
Microsoft Whiteboard app is a collaborative whiteboard experience being privately previewed on the Surface Hub. But with this announcement it’ll be making it’s way to Windows 10 soon.
We showed future inking innovation coming first to the Microsoft Whiteboard app on Windows 10, such as collaborative inking, geometry recognition, table conversion and automatic table shading. Our vision is to bring it to more Windows 10 devices later this year with exclusive capabilities for Office 365 subscribers. This will help you iterate on ideas together with others regardless of the device you’re on.
What were you most excited about from the Microsoft event in Shanghai, China. Share with us in the comments.
15 Teams are contesting in this years Microsoft Imagine Cup Middle East and Africa Finals underway in Beirut, Lebanon.
The Imagine Cup competition is Microsoft’s global completion for student developers. It empowers the next generation of computer science students to team up and use their creativity, passion and knowledge of technology to create applications that shape how we live, work and play. This years Imagine Cup Finals already has an aura around it seeing it marks a milestone and not forgetting the $ 100,000 top price package.
Imagine Cup Middle East and Africa finals 2017 is being hosted by Microsoft’s Lebanon Team. The 3 day event, 18th to 20th of may is taking place at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. The grand final and awards ceremony will take place on Saturday 20th.
Follow the Microsoft Imagine Cup Middle East and Africa Finals competition event on social media via the hashtag #ImagineCupMEA. Don’t forget to cheer your team on. All the best to all teams and hopefully they all impress at the finals in Seattle, Washington later this year.
Teams Green Jam (UAE), Bl!nk (Lebanon), DocStroke (Jordan), E-Park (Morocco), Beta (Oman) and WaCoMo(Qatar) have qualified for the world finals in Seattle.
Microsoft has shared on it’s plans to deliver the Microsoft Cloud from datacenters in Africa. This is BIG right? Increasing it’s Cloud Regions, Africa will have it’s first Microsoft Cloud datacenters situated in South Africa.
Microsoft’s investments in Africa is quickly growing. It’s like Microsoft can see something happening on the continent and is getting ready for it. Technological innovations growing around African cities are on the rise. The increase in Hubs in Nairobi, Accra, Lagos, Cape Town, Kigali to mention a few can attest to this. We saw Microsoft Launch a major event earlier this year on the continent with NexTech Africa. This is only the beginning, we’ve also seen Microsoft pilot it’s Windows Insiders 4 Good initiative in Lagos and soon the East Africa Fellowships.
“With cloud services ranging from intelligent collaboration to predictive analytics, the Microsoft Cloud delivered from Africa will enable developers to build new and innovative apps, customers to transform their businesses, and governments to better serve the needs of their citizens.” – Scott Guthrie
Microsoft’s cloud regions will in addition to new data centers to be located in Cape Town and Johannesburg increase to 40 globally. These datacenters will deliver same Microsoft cloud services including Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Azure. The datacenters are said to be available sometime in 2018.
Watch Microsoft’s Managing Director for South Africa, Zoaib Hoosen talk about the announcement.
Microsoft’s Executive Vice President Cloud and Enterprise Group, Scott Guthrie, talking about this said;
We’re excited by the growing demand for cloud services in Africa and their ability to be a catalyst for new economic opportunities.
Customers across Africa, including local startups and NGOs, will be able to use the cloud services delivered from these new regions to power innovation and opportunity for Africa and the world.
Few places in the world are as dynamic and diverse as Africa today. In this landscape, we see enormous opportunity for the cloud to accelerate innovation, support people across the continent who are working to transform their businesses, explore new entrepreneurship opportunities and help solve some of the world’s hardest problems. For these reasons, I’m very excited to share our plans to deliver the Microsoft Cloud from datacenters in Africa.
What do you think about this announcement? Hopefully we’ll be there to inform you when the datacenters are up and running.
At the first ever Awards Ceremony at the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance annual global Summit Microsoft, Microsoft executives and network operator partner have been celebrated.
Microsoft, some of it’s executives and network operator partner were honoured at the first ever Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) Awards Ceremony.
The event took place during a gala dinner at the DSA’s 2017 Global Summit in Cape Town, South Africa. They were recognised and celebrated for their efforts in furthering innovation, increasing inclusion, and pursuing new opportunities in dynamic spectrum access.
Mawingu Networks a network operator partner of the Microsoft 4Afrika TV white spaces technology initiative received an Award for Increasing Digital Inclusion.
Mawingu Networks is a fixed, wireless, Internet access provider enabling access to affordable Internet in rural areas around Kenya.
The Award for Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation was presented to Ranveer Chandra, Principal Researcher at Microsoft for his work helping small farms increase their production and move from sustenance to production using the cloud and dynamic spectrum access.
“This award is an amazing honour and recognition for Microsoft’s work in enabling data-driven agriculture. It helps showcase how dynamic spectrum access policies, for example around TV White Spaces, are critical for democratizing access to farm data, and consequently enabling new algorithms on this data for improving the lives of farmers” – Ranveer Chandra
Also Paul Garnett, Senior Director for Affordable Access Initiatives at Microsoft, was also honoured with the award for Outstanding Leadership and Contribution for his continued efforts as Chairman of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Board since 2013.
“Paul Garnett has led the formation of the DSA from its inception to now, four years later, and continues to be a key leader within the organisation as the Chairman and key resource for everything related to the DSA.” – Kalpak Gude, President of Dynamic Spectrum Alliance
Microsoft 4Afrika TV white spaces makes use of unused or unassigned frequencies in the television broadcast bands to deliver low-cost, high speed wireless broadband.
By providing connectivity for previously underserved or last-mile areas, we aim to create new opportunities in commerce, education, healthcare and delivery of government services using TV white spaces technology to connect millions in Africa.
