Futurefarmers Microsoft Surface RT priced at $499 or $599 with Touch Cover keyboard 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. 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. Thanks, urosmiklavcic!
Share this with Your CEO - Tony Schwartz Recently, I was giving a talk to 160 senior executives at a large bank. As part of the talk, I asked them to fill out something we call “The Energy Audit,” as a way of assessing how well they are managing their own energy. It happened that they had access to individual polling devices, so we were able to aggregate their answers and show them on the screen in the front of the room. Here is some of what we discovered: 77% said they had trouble focusing on one thing at a time, and felt easily distracted during the day. 80% said they take too little time to think strategically and creatively, and spend too much of their time reacting to immediate demands rather than focusing on activities with long-term value and higher leverage. 54% said they often feel impatient, frustrated or irritable at work, especially when demand gets high. How surprising is it that leaders with such a profile would make short-sighted and ill-considered decisions? Nor are these bankers a bunch of outliers. 1. 2. 2. 3.
What If Your Ovaries Could Live Forever? I, for one, can't imagine running after a toddler all day at the age of 48. I had a conversation with my mother about potentially having children a few years ago, specifically in terms of the help I'd need from her, and she told me that she honestly didn't know if she had the physical strength and stamina to raise a kid at her age (she was 50 then). Well, I had my kid at 40. OK, pregnant at 40 and gave birth at 41. Would earlier have been better? Sure. Yeah, even beyond the medical and health issues for both parent and child, raising a kid into your 60's isn't fair for either of you, but that's just my opinion. Yeah, I don't think that's an issue for either me or for my friend — as we are both first-time parents.
Surface 2 release date, news and features Microsoft has launched its next-gen tablets, the Surface Pro 2 and this - the Windows RT-toting Surface 2, a direct replacement for the original Surface RT. Last year Microsoft launched Surface as its almost-Windows tablet that almost succeeded in bringing Windows to the tablet form factor. It was as thin as an iPad, it came with a full-size USB port and almost full Office, it had a kickstand to hold it up and you could snap on an amazingly thin keyboard (at extra cost). But Windows 8 and Windows RT didn't have a fraction of the iOS and Android apps, the kickstand didn't always hold it up in your lap and not everyone like Windows 8 enough to see Surface as a real iPad competitor. The impressive features didn't make for impressive sales. For Surface 2, Microsoft has tackled a lot of the issues - in hardware and software - as well as improving the spec. Get the Surface 2 from Microsoft The same look and feel The same marks wouldn't be noticeable on the black Surface edge.
Google+ Opens Its API To Flipboard, Users Will See Google+ Integration Soon Google+ honcho Bradley Horowitz announced one more Google+ partner at LeWeb today, tablet news app Flipboard. Flipboard joins Buddy Media, Hootsuite, Context Optional, Hearsay Social, Involver and Vitrue as a Google+ “trusted” partner. The API will soon allow Flipboard users to Google+ comment on and +1 Flipboard items, in addition to sending individualized pieces of content to Google+ Circles. “It works like it should,” said Horowitz, “Flipboard has done an amazing job. “ Google+ has been infamously slow in opening its API to the public, so this is a small, but monumental baby step in the history of the product. So will it be a year before they have a full public API?
Reimagining City Life: One Startup's Vision of the Future The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles — it delivers smart mobility services. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter. From New York to Shanghai, one can quickly become irritated by the flaws and inefficiencies of city living. That's why the Manhattan-based team at Urbanscale exists — to improve urban designs "with a human-centered orientation" in order to better the quality of the urban experience in cities across the globe. The startup was founded in 2010 by Adam Greenfield, who previously worked as head of design direction for service at Nokia and the user interface design and lead information architect for Razorfish's Tokyo office. The Downfalls of City Living ... Greenfield has lived in United States, the United Kingdom, France, Finland, Korea and Japan. And so, Urbanscale leverages technology and design to achieve these goals. 1.
Microsoft Surfaces in tablet war - 29 Jun 2012 - CRN UK News Analysis The industry was rocked earlier this month by the shock news that Microsoft is bowling into the client compute hardware space with the launch of its Surface tablet PC. In a market that is still defined and dominated by Apple, can the software giant finally be the vendor to make a dent in the iPad's massive market share? We have singled out six key questions, the answers to which may hold the key to whether or not the Surface will be an explosive success or a damp squib. Can Microsoft cultivate the right routes to market?Microsoft's reach into the UK channel extends far beyond licensing specialists. In fact, it is fair to say that all IT resellers and integrators have some kind of relationship with the firm. Finding a broad enough channel to give the Surface ample retail and B2B routes to market may not be a problem for Microsoft, but the intricacies of its engagement with partners might need rethinking. "This announcement does not change how we work together," says the letter.
San Francisco Vs. Silicon Valley: Where Should You Build Your Business? When Mark Zuckerberg left Harvard in the summer of 2004, he didn’t move his fledgling company to the mountains, or the Gulf of Mexico, or San Francisco, he moved to Silicon Valley. Well, Palo Alto to be precise. In an interview with Y Combinator partner Jessica Livingston last year, he said of his impression of Silicon Valley, “You get this feeling that you need to be out here.” Of course, Facebook left the East Coast eight years ago, and a lot has changed in the meantime. The economy has been sickly over the last few years, but the tech industry has remained one of the few bright spots. The Bay Area, in contrast, has been having better luck thanks to a booming tech industry. Historically, the availability of office space and comparatively lax tax laws have led to a higher concentration of tech jobs in the Valley. In fact, as The Wall Street Journal describes at length, the City By The Bay is catching up and catching up fast.
Ask Nature - the Biomimicry Design Portal: biomimetics, architecture, biology, innovation inspired by nature, industrial design - Ask Nature - the Biomimicry Design Portal: biomimetics, architecture, biology, innovation inspired by nature, industrial desi