In the days leading up to the Surface RT release last year, Microsoft had largely failed to explain the differences between Windows 8 and Windows RT to consumers. The software maker picked the Windows RT moniker to power its own ARM-based Surface RT tablet alongside others from PC makers. Dell urged Microsoft to drop the branding, and Samsung opted not to launch its own Windows RT tablets in the US because of confusion and weak demand. Now Microsoft has admitted its decision to drop the "RT" brand from its upcoming Surface 2 tablet was to address consumer confusion.

In an interview with Australian publication ARN, Microsoft Surface product man …

Read the full story at The Verge.

A Surface Pro with more storage is coming to North America. WPCentral first spotted the retail listing at CDW.com - one of Microsoft's authorized vendors - confirming that a 256GB version of the tablet is set to go on sale imminently with availability expected in the next week. The larger capacity, twice that of Apple's roomiest iPad, first debuted in Japan earlier this month. US retail cost is set at $1,199.99. Aside from the larger flash drive, the Surface Pro's hardware remains entirely unchanged. That means an upgrade to Intel's latest Haswell processors (and the uptick in battery life that would presumably result) will have to wait for …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft has announced a sweeping international expansion of Surface Pro availability. Until this point, Microsoft's top-tier Windows 8 tablet has only been for sale in the US, Canada, and China. But by the end of next month, that's going to change in a big way; Microsoft says Surface Pro will reach the UK, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland by the end of May. In June, the international tour will continue with availability planned in Russia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. The company's …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft's original Surface Pro storage estimates, that the company supplied to The Verge, are incorrect. In a series of tests, Ed Bott over at ZDNet has found that a 128GB model of the Surface Pro actually has 89.7GB of free usable space compared to the incorrect 83GB figure. It appears the reason for Microsoft's mistaken values stems from a difference between pre-production and final shipping hardware.

Final Surface Pro models shipping with more storage than expected

"A source inside Microsoft tells me the employee who confirmed the numbers did so using pre-production machines that contained different disk images and debug code that is di …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Reviews of Microsoft's latest Surface Pro tablet went live late last night, and Microsoft has been answering a number of questions from Reddit's community today during an AMA session. Two hot topics are around the battery life and usable storage. Microsoft previously revealed to The Verge that its 64GB Surface Pro model would only have around 23GB of usable storage, but the company says its initial estimates "were conservative." Final production units are arriving with around 6-7GB of additional space, bringing the total up to 30GB on the 64GB model.

It seems a recovery partition is taking up additional space, but Microsoft says this can be …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet, due on February 9th, will have a smaller amount of storage space than expected. A company spokesperson has confirmed to The Verge that the 64GB edition of Surface Pro will have 23GB of free storage out of the box. The 128GB model will have 83GB of free storage. It appears that the Windows 8 install, built-in apps, and a recovery partition will make up the 41GB total on the base Surface Pro model.

Microsoft says users will be able to free up additional storage space by "creating a backup bootable USB and deleting the recovery partition," but out of the box they'll be left with as little as 36 percent of the ad …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft's Surface launch may have gone smoothly in New York, but orders across the pond in Britain aren't going as well. The software giant has been unable to ship units to customers in the UK on time, and several readers have contacted us to let us know that deliveries have not arrived. Microsoft did previously warn customers that Surface would be delayed until November 2nd in the UK, but the company later claimed that was a mistake. It appears the Surface units are being dispatched today, but they won't be delivered until early next week.

Microsoft is providing a peace offering to pre-order customers in the form of a £50 ($80) coupon to …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft's initial stock of Surface RT devices has sold out in the United States. The 32GB base model, at $499, sold out earlier in the week, but all stock has now been depleted with a wait time of within three weeks rather than a guaranteed October 26th delivery. Alongside the sell out, a number of UK readers are reporting that Microsoft has delayed the release of Surface by a week.

"The release date for the preorder product has changed," reads an email sent to some buyers who pre-ordered a Surface in the UK. "The product listed below will now be available on 02 November 2012." It's not clear from Microsoft why the Surface is delayed in t …

Read the full story at The Verge.