Surface was the single biggest genuine tech surprise of the year so far. Microsoft tantalized us with a tablet that made the iPad look stale. Its snap-on keyboard made all laptops look immediately old fashioned. And it promised The Future of Computers. 
 
 We hadn't looked forward to something this much in a long, long time. Now it's here. And it's been just as long a time since a gadget has been so disappointing. Surface is good, but Surface RT sure isn't the future. Not yet. 
 
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 Why it matters 
 
 The laptop is about as far advanced as one can imagine. The MacBook Air and a horde of ultrabook clones are hitting a brick wall in terms of form and physics. The tablet, likewise, isn't exactly pushing civilization forward; it's still fundamentally a luxury device, a delightful toy for reading email on the couch or watching Netflix on an airplane. Nobody needs a tablet. It's a lovely, superfluous thing. But everyone needs a computer, unless you're planning on living by a lake and trading furs for a living. 
 
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 Microsoft's pearly promise for Surface was to pioneer a strange new kind of gadget: all the grace and leisure of a tablet, combined with the ability to actually make stuff that a computer brings. Convenience with input. Type, edit, change. Work. Power! Microsoft claims outright that Surface will bring together the best of everything that exists—the elusive union of laptop and tablet. Or at the very least, with Surface RT, a tablet that you could actually use as your primary computer. 
 
 The men who built the Surface from a pile of cardboard prototypes into the thing I've been using for the past week stood in front of me at their headquarters and said exactly that. Microsoft is trumpeting a historical change here. And it has a recent track record of building exceptional things. Sure, there's a Surface Pro version coming up that'll have full, powerful laptop guts, and run the same software any PC can—Microsoft's best shot at being your only computer, forever. But even this RT variant is supposed to give us some overdue synthesis. Plop it down on your desk and get things done. 
 
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 Whether Microsoft can keep this promise matters more than anything else in technology this year. Surface could be the blueprint for the machine you'll be typing on well into the next decade. No pressure. 
 
 Using it 
 
 Surface is Microsoft's attempt to out-Apple Apple. The thing is designed to hell and back, and most of the time it shows. This means a lot of attention to detail—attention that sounds silly until you actually hear it—like the kickstand with an extra, custom-designed hinge to guarantee a satisfying chkkk every time it's snapped shut. Is that superficial? Only if you consider something you're going to potentially hear and touch multiple times every single day superficial. Otherwise, it's just damn thoughtful. 
 
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 And most of the time, Surface is a thoughtful computer. It's a beautiful computer, in your hand or on a tabletop, its shifting angles clean and secure like a Danish prison. It's a little too heavy—slightly heftier than the iPad 3—but otherwise comfortable to hold, with an angled bezel that melts into your hand. There's a convenient USB port that, unlike other tablets, doesn't look like a gaping open sore on the delicately chamfered side. The screen doesn't hold up against the crispness of the iPad's retina resolution, but still manages a lovely colorful pop to suit the colorful, poppy Windows 8. All over the Surface, these little details reflect the meeting of large brains. 
 
 But more importantly, Surface is handsome. That ineffable Hey, this thing feels good quality is lacquered all over Surface. You'll appreciate it every time you pick it up and turn it on. It's a simple, joyful experience. Open the Touch Cover keyboard/trackpad hybrid, snap out the kickstand, and lay the thing on your desk like a laptop. Start writing an essay. Flip the cover all the way around, hide the keyboard, and give yourself something substantial to grip like a tablet. Start swiping the web. Or prop the kickstand against the folded-back cover to create a stable base while you watch Netflix on a coffee table. Switching configurations is a cinch, and it's entirely intuitive. The Touch Cover feels as integral to the Surface as the binding of a book to the sandwiched pages. There's every reason to believe most computers will look and feel something like this, someday soon. 
 
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 Like 
 
 The Surface is instantly more charming than any Windows device that's come before it. It's nearly the perfect size, and the form is almost beyond reproach. If you want a tablet, use it like a tablet. If you want a laptop, use it like a laptop. Both modes seem right, like a genuine seachange step forward. The Next Kind of Computer can be slipped in a bag, power up a bright display nearly instantly, run an operating system that loves being touched, and equally importantly, have a keyboard you can use to actually get work done. 
 
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 Tablets aren't for work. That's the old refrain. But if they're going to be more than great toys someday, tablets have to become every bit as viable as a desktop tower as a way to write (and edit) long emails, presentations, and poems. Surface RT is the first evidence we have that this is possible, because you'll use it like you've never used any computer before. Your brain starts to rewire itself, and it's delightful. 
 
 Flip out the keyboard. Hit power. Swipe up to unlock. Type in your password. A dozen super-colorful tiles give you a snappy report of what's new: Who's tweeted at you, what's arrived in your inbox, news headlines, photos of your beautiful face, and incoming Facebook IMs, as they drop. You'll touch one thing, scroll to the next, swipe another, then begin typing, merging habits you've picked up since your parents first let you set hands on something that ran off batteries. Surface presents you the Internet all at once. 
 
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 Browsing in Internet Explorer is just as easy a flopping into a couch-cushion Netflix marathon, or working in the full Microsoft Office suite. It all feels seamless, natural, a culmination of useful things. This ease, the effortless transfer between watching stuff and making stuff, reading and writing, listening and talking, it permeates Surface with the mark of The New Computer. This is what netbooks were supposed to be, before we realized they were all completely horrible: small, powerful, flexible, skinny computers that can do a ton of things easily. 
 
 You can thank Windows 8's radicalism for that. Traditional Windows would be absolute hell to use on this—or hey, so would OS X. But Metro is the best foundation for The Next Computer I can imagine, and if you can get over UI squeamishness, you'll love it. It'll make you more powerful the more you rub your hands on it. It is that good. Or at least it could be, at some point. 
 
 No Like 
 
 We're not there yet. Surface is a fantastic promise, and holds fantastic potential. But while potential is worth your attention, it's not worth your paycheck. Surface RT gets so many things right, and pulls so many good things together into one package. But it is undercooked. For all Microsoft's claims to hardware perfection and software revolution, Surface RT is undone by too many little annoyances, cracks, and flaws. After the initial delight of an evolved tablet wears off, you'll groan—because Surface brings the appearance of unity, but it's really just the worst of both worlds. Instead of trading in your laptop and tablet for Surface, a cocktail of compromises that fracture the whole endeavor, you'll miss them both urgently. 
 
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 Want to use Surface RT as a laptop? Sorry, the Touch Cover is a letdown. It's a phenomenal engineering effort, and the most terrifically-integrated mobile keyboard ever. It doesn't compare to the junky Bluetooth options you can slap against your iPad. Microsoft's keyboard cover is perfectly integrated with the device, and touch typing on it is actually possible. You can't say the same for the iPad's glass. 
 
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 But it only approximates a real keyboard—the buttons are pressure activated, barely buttons at all, and spaced in such a way that typos are inevitable and constant. Unlike the first time you pinched an iPhone or gazed at E-ink, there's zero that's instantly intuitive about the Touch Cover. And in order for this to be a brave new computer, Touch Cover had to be instantly intuitive, an immediately responsive thing to touch and work with. But rather than feeling like you've instantly grown an extra brain lobe just by using it, Surface's mega-hyped keyboard cover feels like it requires one. You'll feel clumsy. You'll write slowly. I tried writing this review on the Surface, but I would've missed my deadline by a week. You'll get better—it will probably take weeks to hit a stride—but this thing was supposed to be a breakthrough. A perfect interface. Instead, it's just a half-broken death march up the learning curve. The trackpad, sludge-like and jerky, is even worse—particularly galling compared to the super-smooth touchscreen—and unlike the keyboard, will never get better with practice. 
 
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 The Touch Cover also approximates, dismally, the sturdiness of a laptop: thanks to the cloth-like floppiness of the thing that's necessary for making it easy to open and close, it can't support itself on anything but a flat, rigid (apologies) surface. You can't type on your lap, like laptop. It's hard to imagine what a design solution out of this would have been, but that's Microsoft's job, not ours. 
 
 Perhaps most galling is the Touch Cover's $100 addition to the Surface's already pricy $400 base MSRP—akin to selling your windshield wipers separate from the car. Microsoft also offers a Type Cover, that promises actual physical keys instead of the flattened solution, but that will add critical bulk to your Surface experience—along with an extra $130. Another letdown—and a pretty outrageous one. 
 
 But it's Windows on Surface RT that's the greatest letdown of all, the lethal letdown, because it's not Windows 8, but Windows RT. You can't tell the difference by looking at them, but you certainly will once you use it. Windows RT is underpowered (everything opens and syncs slightly too slowly), under-functional (you cannot install a single app that's not available through the Windows RT app store, which offers a paltry selection), and under-planned (the built-in apps can't feel like Lite versions of something better). You'd be right to note that many of those limitations apply to the iPad as well, but no one could mistake iOS for OS X the way RT apes Windows 8. And even if it's a plight common to tablets, Microsoft—for better or worse—has hyped Surface RT as being so much more. 
 
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 In the end though, this is nothing more than Microsoft's tablet. And a buggy, at times broken one, at that, whose "ecosystem" feels more like a tundra. There's no Twitter or Facebook app, and the most popular 3rd party client breaks often. The Kindle app is completely unusable. There's no image editing software. A People app is supposed to give you all the social media access you'd ever need, but It's impossible to write on someone's Facebook wall through the People app, Surface's social hub; the only workaround is to load Internet Explorer. Blech. Something as simple as loading a video requires a jumbled process of USB importing, dipping in and out of the stripped-down desktop mode, opening a Video app, importing, going back into the Video app, and then playing. What. 
 
 The app selection, overall, is worse than the already pathetic Windows Phone app fare, looking like the software equivalent to a barren Soviet grocery store. The difference is that Windows Phone, used in quick, informative bursts, skates by on the strength of its excellent with integrated features. At the moment, there's just not that much to do with Microsoft's über-tablet. Surface is weak because Windows RT is weak; a tepid tablet OS pretending to be a computer's. 
 
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 You can do work, yes. But productivity is limited to a "preview" (beta) version of Microsoft Office. It also hurts that Office requires plunging into Windows RT's Desktop mode, where users of actual Windows 8 are able to install a decade's worth of legacy software. Normally, this would compensate. But RT users can't install any of this older software. None of it. Desktop mode is entirely worthless in RT, a cruel tease of non-functionality. It'll only remind you of how much you can't do with your Surface, and is going to confuse the living hell out of most people who buy one—especially when Surface Pro, built on x86 architecture and perfectly compatible with all of those legacy programs, steps in a few months from now. 
 
 I pity Microsoft's retail staff. 
 
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 Should you buy it? 
 
 No. The Surface, with an obligatory Touch Cover, is $600. That's a lot of money. Especially given that it's no laptop replacement, no matter how it looks or what Microsoft says. It's a tablet-plus, priced right alongside the iPad and in most ways inferior. 
 
 That could change. Maybe there will be a new Touch Cover that retains the original's terrific physical qualities while actually allowing good typing. Maybe the quasi-vaporware Surface Pro, which eschews Windows RT in favor of the real-deal Win 8, will make all the difference, opening itself up to the open seas of PC software (for several hundred dollars more). Maybe the app store will look different in a month, or a year, and have anything to offer. Maybe. But remember that Windows Phone—which has swelled from mere hundreds, to tens of thousands, to over a hundred thousand app offerings over the past two years—is still a wasteland compared to iOS and Android. Poor precedent. Maybe Windows RT will be different. Maybe. 
 
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 But those maybes aren't worth putting money on. As much as it looked (and even felt) like it for a bit, the future isn't here quite yet. 
 
 
 
 Microsoft Surface Stats 
 
 Price: $500, $130 extra for Touch Cover 
 
 Screen: 10.6-inches, 1366x768 pixels (16:9) 
 
 Processor: 1.3 GHz Quad Core Tegra 3 
 
 Storage: 32 GB, microSDXC expandable 
 
 Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g/n 
 
 RAM: 2 GB 
 
 Connectivity: 1 USB 2.0 port, HD video out 
 
 Weight: 1.5 Pounds 
 
 Dimensions: 10.81 x 6.77 x 0.37 inches 
 
 Battery: 8 hours reading/7.5 video (advertised) 
 
 Gizrank: 2.5 ||||| Story highlights Microsoft's first tablet is beautifully designed outside but software still needs work 
 
 One of the device's weakness is its small app selection 
 
 The Surface starts at $499 for a 32GB model 
 
 When Microsoft first demoed Windows 8 at the Wall Street Journal's D Conference in June 2011 , it was instantly obvious that it wasn't a Windows upgrade in the conventional sense. Instead, with its radically new, touch-centric interface, it was an attempt to reimagine the PC for the post-PC era. A wildly ambitious attempt — maybe even a visionary one. 
 
 But for all Microsoft's power and influence over the PC industry, it was in no place to reinvent the PC single-handedly. Sure, it could write a new operating system. It could also make suggestions to its hardware-manufacturing partners, But it couldn't, you know, try to build the PC of the future. 
 
 Except that it did. 
 
 In June of this year, the company unveiled Surface , a pair of tablets it designed from scratch. (One, Surface with Windows RT, runs Windows RT, the version for devices based on ARM technology; the other, Surface with Windows 8 Pro, uses full-blown Windows 8 and isn't due until early next year.) They're iPad competitors, and that's important. But they're also PCs — the first ones that Microsoft has created on its own in its 37-year history. As such, they're the clearest possible expression of where the company thinks the PC should go. 
 
 Surface for Windows RT goes on sale at Microsoft Stores and some temporary pop-up retail outlets, and at Microsoft.com , this Friday. It starts at $499 for a 32GB model: the same opening price as the current full-sized iPad, but with double the storage. Microsoft provided me with a unit for this review, and I've been using it for a little over a week. 
 
 If you were excited by Surface based on its unveiling in June of this year , I think there's a good chance you'll be excited by the shipping product. And if the idea left you skeptical — well, you probably won't be won over by this initial incarnation. 
 
 At that June Surface event — and then at a smaller press briefing at its Redmond, Washington, headquarters last week — company executives spent so much time lavishing praise on their own design choices and technical innovations that I wondered if they'd somehow convinced Apple's Sir Jonathan Ive to tutor them. 
 
 It turns out that much of the self-laudatory hoopla wasn't wildly off base. The Surface hardware is indeed a beautiful piece of work, one that's worthy of comparison to Apple's designs even though many of Microsoft's specific choices are distinctly un-Applelike. 
 
 Its slate-colored magnesium case, manufactured using a process Microsoft calls VaporMg, is really, really nice. It's good-looking, it's sturdy and it helps keep the weight down — Surface is only slightly heavier than the iPad at 1.5 pounds, even though it has got a substantially roomier 10.6″ screen. Microsoft also says that the case is pretty much scratchproof, though you might want to be careful about tossing the tablet in a backpack: I noticed that the Windows logo on the backside of my review unit began scraping off almost immediately. 
 
 Surface has a kickstand — a fold-out flap on the back, which, when used in conjunction with a keyboard cover I'll talk about in a bit, lets you use the tablet like an undersized laptop. The care that Microsoft poured into it shows: When it's closed it's flush with the rest of the case and when it's open it keeps the tablet perfectly stable. And the hinge has a luxe feel, reminiscent of the high-end car door Microsoft says was its inspiration. 
 
 (I just said that you can use Surface like a laptop, but when I first saw it, I wondered if the kickstand would prevent you from using it in your lap at all. Not in my experience: I was able to balance it and the keyboard cover on my thigh without worrying too much about the whole contraption tipping over.) 
 
 That 10.6″ screen has 1366 by 768 pixels; Microsoft used its ClearType technology to improve text display, and glued the touchscreen directly on the LCD, which makes for a thinner, less reflective display. At the Redmond press event, a Microsoft engineer argued that despite the lower resolution, the screen beats the iPad's 2048 by 1536 Retina display in some circumstances; he also said that people who are 45 and above generally can't tell a Retina screen from a lower-resolution one. 
 
 My 48-year-old eyeballs have no trouble telling the difference between iPad Retina text and the Surface's ClearType — but overall, the Surface's screen is one of the best I've seen on a tablet. 
 
 The screen, incidentally, is 16:9, an aspect ratio designed with Windows 8′s panoramic interface in mind. It lets you see more apps without panning, and is well suited to the feature that allows you to snap a widget-like version of one app on the side of the primary program you're using. Microsoft thinks Surface buyers will use the tablet mostly in landscape mode; it works in portrait orientation too, although the aspect ratio leaves it looking like a small-but-tall magazine. 
 
 Surface has basic cameras on the front and back, as you'd expect from any $499 tablet. It also has a USB port and a MicroSDXC slot that lets you add extra storage, two features that add to its PC-like personality. Microsoft doesn't seem to be making a claim about battery life except to say that the tablet is designed for "all day" use, and in my time with it, it lived up to that vague claim. 
 
 One minor nit about the hardware: I found that I needed to wriggle the magnetic power connector into place in a way I don't with Apple's MagSafe connectors or even run-of-the-mill, nonmagnetic ones. 
 
 So that's Surface's basic hardware — not flawless, but darn nifty overall. If it ran Android, people might well conclude that it was the best Android tablet on the market. 
 
 But this tablet is defined by its operating system: Windows RT. 
 
 Despite the lack of an "8″ in its moniker, RT has precisely the same user interface as Windows 8. It has the colorful Start screen with auto-updating Live Tiles, each leading to an app or service. It runs the same bundled Windows 8-interface apps: Internet Explorer, Bing, e-mail, a calendar, a news app and more. Everything's touch-friendly and fluid. It's not the Windows we've known, but it's a good start on an interface that might carry Microsoft through the next couple of decades of computing. 
 
 Like Windows 8, RT has the Desktop, an area that's essentially Windows 7, except without the Start button. As with Windows 8, switching back and forth between new Windows 8-style apps and the Desktop can be an oddly disjointed experience, as if you're teleporting between two very different planets with very little warning. 
 
 On Windows 8, the Desktop has a huge saving grace: It lets you use any old-school Windows program. Windows RT, however, can't run them. They were all written for computers based on x86 (Intel) technology, and are incompatible with Surface's ARM processor. 
 
 So why is Desktop there at all? Mostly to run four Microsoft Office 2013 programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. All come bundled with Surface, and all are largely identical to their Windows 8 counterparts, despite being "preview" editions. (Surface buyers will get the final versions free.) 
 
 Anyone who's ever struggled to get work done on a tablet with a stripped-down office suite in a Microsoft Office world will appreciate certain things about Surface's Office apps. They support the official Office file formats perfectly and have industrial-strength features such as Word's revision tracking. 
 
 Still, I found them the least satisfying thing about Surface. They're the one part of this product Microsoft hasn't reimagined. Instead, it has just tweaked the apps slightly, giving them a Windows 8-type look in certain areas and rejiggering everything else to make it slightly easier to use with a fingertip rather than with a mouse. They work, but the whole experience feels like an exercise in compromise. (I have my fingers crossed that Microsoft has a real Windows 8-style version of Office in the works.) 
 
 If you plan to use Office much, you'll certainly want one of Microsoft's keyboard covers; the Touch Cover isn't included with the base $499 Surface, but a black model comes with the $599 version, and additional colors are available for $119.99 apiece. Snap one on, using the magnetic connector, and the Start screen automatically changes color to match — pretty stylish. 
 
 The Touch Cover is super-thin and clicks on and off in a jiffy. (I did find that I occasionally had to remove it and reclick to make it work.) The keyboard's on the inside and draws power from the connector; there's no need to futz with Bluetooth or worry about charging it. The nonkeyboard side has a fleecy surface that feels great in your hand, and the whole thing folds back. 
 
 When I first saw this cover in June, I kept an open mind about it. In fact, my mind was so open that I wondered if Microsoft had managed to produce a flat, one-piece keyboard that wouldn't leave many people pining for clacky mechanical keys. 
 
 Actually, even at the June event, the company had tipped its hand: It also showed off the Type Cover, which is much like the Touch Cover except that it has discrete keys with real travel. If the Touch Cover had been a miracle, there wouldn't have been a need for the Type Cover. 
 
 But if your benchmark is on-screen keyboards rather than conventional physical ones, you might be tickled with the Touch Cover. The keys are surprisingly spacious and there's no need to fumble through multiple modes to get to digits and punctuation. More important, moving the keyboard off the screen frees up the full screen resolution for whatever app you're using — a plus in all scenarios, and close to a necessity with the Desktop Office apps, all of which work better when they don't have an on-screen keyboard in the way. 
 
 As with any unfamiliar input device, I got more comfortable with the Touch Cover as I used it. But if I were buying a Surface to use for anything other than extremely light productivity, I'd spring for the $129.99 Type Cover instead. It's also impressively thin, but comes infinitely closer to a notebook-like feel. 
 
 Both the Touch Cover and the Type Cover sport a tiny touchpad. It's approximately the size of an unfolded matchbook, and I found it adequate in a pinch, but nowhere near as nice as a full-sized touchpad on a full-sized notebook. (With the Windows 8 experience, the bigger the touchpad, the better the experience.) With a cover on, I tended to do as much as possible from the keyboard, and simply touch the screen otherwise. 
 
 With Office and a Desktop version of Internet Explorer as Surface for Windows RT's only major traditional-Windows apps, anyone who plunks down $499 or more for a Surface today will be largely dependent on Microsoft's Windows Store for software. That's the biggest gamble such buyers are making. Windows 8 is launching with 5,000 apps in the U.S. version of the Windows Store, most of which should be available for Windows RT; they include name-brand wares such as Evernote, Hulu, Netflix, Microsoft's own Skype, TuneIn, a bunch of games and more. 
 
 Many of the Windows RT apps I tried make smart use of the Windows 8-style interface. Compared to the 275,000 iPad-optimized apps in Apple's store, though, there simply isn't much there. If Surface's earliest adopters are pleased with their purchase a year from now, it'll be because the Windows Store's offerings got beefier fast; if they're nonplussed, it'll be because the selection remained too meager. 
 
 All of which leads to one question: Who should consider buying a Surface with Windows RT? Not anyone who wants the most fully fleshed-out tablet experience right now — for that, the iPad still has no rival. 
 
 Surface offers slick industrial design, an inventive interface, full-blown Office apps that haven't been truly optimized for tablets and two very clever keyboard options. If part or all of that proposition appeals to you — and you're optimistic about the Windows Store — this tablet is worth a look. For an audacious version 1.0 product, it's impressive. Now it's up to Microsoft to prove that it's serious enough about this PC business to forge ahead with Surface until it's impressive, period. ||||| SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The breakage rate for Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) Surface devices is significantly worse than for other manufacturers’ laptops and tablets, Consumer Reports said, adding that it was removing its “recommended” designation for Surface products. 
 
 The non-profit publication surveyed 90,000 tablet and laptop owners and found that an estimated 25 percent of those with Microsoft Surface devices would be presented with “problems by the end of the second year of ownership,” according to a study published on Thursday. 
 
 “If you are very concerned about how long your products are going to last, it might be better for you to go with a brand that has a higher predicted reliability,” Jerry Beilinson, electronics editor at the consumer goods testing publication, said in an interview. 
 
 Microsoft disputed the study, saying the company’s return and support rates differ significantly from the Consumer Reports study. 
 
 FILE PHOTO: A Microsoft retail store is shown at a shopping mall in San Diego, California, U.S., April 28, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo 
 
 “We don’t believe these findings accurately reflect Surface owners’ true experiences or capture the performance and reliability improvements made with every Surface generation,” the company said in a statement. 
 
 According to the Consumer Reports survey responses, the Microsoft devices were found to freeze, unexpectedly shut down or have issues with their touchscreens, Beilinson said. 
 
 Altogether, the reliability issues made Microsoft a statistical outlier compared with other brands. Apple Inc had the most reliable devices, Beilinson said. 
 
 Microsoft entered the hardware market with its first Surface tablet in 2012. Since then, the company has released a series of new Surface tablets and laptops, including the well-reviewed Surface Pro, which launched in May. 
 
 The Surface devices serve as a face for the company and exemplify how Microsoft’s manufacturing partners can build hardware around the Windows 10 operating system. However, Surface is a small part of Microsoft’s overall revenue, and Surface revenue has declined year-over-year for the past two quarters. 
 
 “The reality is that Microsoft has very little experience in some of the newer categories it’s entering very rapidly, which may expose it to more risk of problems in manufacturing,” said Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research. 
 
 Consumer Reports has conducted its annual reliability study since 1952, starting with cars. The study is also used to determine the reliability of products like refrigerators, lawn mowers, televisions and more. In more recent years, the organization has added laptops and tablets. ||||| 5:00 pm: The 5:20pm on the card turns out to be the time that I’ll get some hands-on time with Surface. Keep an eye out for a hands-on story coming soon. Thanks for tuning in! 
 
 4:57 pm: Ballmer is thanking everyone for being part of the event. And a Surface ad is playing with some very loud bass. Whoa, my ears hurt, but at least it looks cool. The kickstand really seems like a big deal for the Surface. Same the Touch Cover and its clicking sound. And that’s it folks! The presentation is over and it looks like press will get a chance to get some hands-on time. 
 
 4:56 pm: Ballmer is thanking Steven and Mike and Panos and their teams. “I was asked in the last few days here, “Why now?,” Ballmer says. “We took the time to get Surface right, and create something special. Because of windows 8 the Surface is a PC and the Surface is a tablet and the surface is something new that we think that people will absolutely love.” It sounds like we’ll get a chance to see and touch the Surface! Stations are set up next door so we can see the work that went into the Surface. 
 
 4:54 pm: Now Sinofsky is mentioning availability. Surface for Windows RT will be available in 32gb and 64gb, and will be priced comparably to other Windows RT devices. Windows 8 Pro will come in 64gb and 128gb and will be priced comparably to other Windows 8 Pro. Surface will be available through Microsoft’s physical stores in the US as well as select online stores, once Windows 8 launches. “Welcome everybody to Surface,” Sinofsky says. He leaves the stage and Ballmer is back. There’s tons of applause and cheers. 
 
 4:54 pm: Panay is leaving the stage and Steven Sinofsky is back on. 
 
 4:52 pm: “We really understand how to create a great typing experience,” Panay says. The technology behind Touch Cover is seven layers squeezed into the cover. Touch Cover knows the grams of force coming out of your hand. As you put pressure on the keys, the Touch Cover is actually measures the pressure, it’s 10x faster as measuring that than any keyboard you could purchase today, according to Panay. 
 
 4:51 pm: Touch Cover has an accelerometer built into it, so it knows when you pull it back. You never have to take it off. 
 
 4:46 pm: More on the VaporMg case. Panay is holding up his room key for comparison. VaporMg is melted magnesium molded down very thin. “Every micron matters within Microsoft Surface,” Panay says. “The best part of VaporMg is not about molding to .65mm, the best part is the smoothness and the finish.” The surface finish on the product is “perfect” according to Panay. “When you put it in your hands, it feels elegant. When you touch it, you’re going to want to hold it, I promise you,” Panay says. 
 
 4:46 pm: Panay is talking a lot about the kickstand. Now he’s talking about the sound of the kickstand. That’s a lot of kickstand love. 
 
 4:44 pm: When you look at this product, every line is calculated and built perfectly on the device. But the challenge: We had to bring creativity and productivity to foslk like yourself. We knew that if we didn’t put the kickstand in perfectly, it would be a good product. When you need the kickstand it’s there, when you don’t, it’s invisible. 
 
 4:43 pm: Panay says that we’re going to get to meet the team who made Surface, to talk about the design. “This was built for Windows 8,” Panay says. “It was important for us for the Windows software to rise to the surface. It gives you the best experience possible when the hardware fades away,” Panay says. 
 
 4:41 pm: There’s shots of a factory where Surface is being built. “What we’re making here is really special,” someone in the video says. “When you pick this unit up, you visually understand it’s high quality,” another says. “When you’re able to connect some sort of user experience to this all the way to atoms, that’s when you see new experiences evolve,” another says. Rounds of applause for the video. 
 
 4:40 pm: Now Panos Panay is taking the stage to tell some stories about the Surface product. “I’m recognizing an entire team at Redmond waiting for your blog posts,” Panay says. Now there’s a video of the team who built Surface. “We brought some of the best people at Microsoft together to make this awesome device,” Panay says in the video. 
 
 4:39pm: There’s the Surface for Windows RT and Surface for Windows 8 Pro, as well as a bunch of covers in different colors. 
 
 4:39 pm: There’s another Surface cover called the Type Cover — it has a key switch that has a 1.5mm travel built into the thinnest package. It’s fully compatible with windows and has a full modern trackpad. This completes the Surface family of products, according to Anguilo. 
 
 4:37 pm: The resolution is 1080p. But there is also a display port, which gives Surface the capabilities of a full-power PC. Anguilo shows off Adobe Photoshop Lighroom running on Surface. 
 
 4:35 pm: Surface also supports digital ink. Anguilo is demonstrating how you can write directly on a document using a stylus. The ink is being sampled at 600dpi, so it keeps your handwriting really smooth. “It almost feels like it’s writing directly on the screen,” Anguilo says. “The distance between the stylus and where I see the ink is only .7 mm.” The page also doesn’t move underneath his hand when he’s writing — Windows sees the pen and doesn’t take in touch from a hand. The crowd claps. 
 
 4:33 pm: The Surface for Windows 8 Pro is very similar to the Surface Sinofsky showed off earlier. It has the kickstand and a cover with a full on keyboard. It’s a bit thicker though, at 17 mm. It’s powered by Intel’s Ivy Bridge processor. And it features something called perimeter venting, which allows the PC to keep cool. 
 
 4:32 pm: Now Michael Anguilo is taking the stage. He’s showing off another member of the Windows 8 family — Surface for Windows 8 Pro. It’s for people who work everyday to create and design things. “It shows the same pride and craftsmanship,” Anguilo says. It has a full Cleartype full HD display. It’s a combination of pixel geometry, rendering, and optical bonding technology that makes it so your eye cannot distinguish between individual pixels. It looks like Microsoft’s take on Apple’s Retina display! 
 
 4:31 pm: The tablet is built to let you use all of the applications you want — including Photoshop. It runs on the latest Intel processors. It’s also going to work on Nvidia processors. 
 
 4:30 pm: There’s also a camera on Surface, angled at 22 degrees. Sinofsky is showing off how you can dock the camera next to Word Doc, so you ca have a meeting where you read off of your document. 
 
 4:29 pm: Surprise, the cover is a full-size keyboard! People clap and cheer around the room. The keyboard even has a built-in trackpad. With the stand and the keyboard, it’s a full-on PC. No compromises. 
 
 4:27 pm: The display is made of Gorilla Glass. But Surface still has a cover, and it’s designed to be an integral part of the tablet. It’s a magnetic cover, “Click,” Sinofsky says. It’s not unlike the Apple Smart Cover. The cover is 3 mm, and combined with Surface it’s just over 12 mm thick. 
 
 4:26 pm: Sinofsky is showing off the Netflix app on the Surface PC. To stream so well, Surface needs WiFi — it has two antennas — so it provides the best WiFi on any tablet today. Today, when you have your tablet, you have to hold it, Sinofsky says. He’s talking about add-on stands and how heavy and bulky they are. He says that the stand should be integral to a device. And now he’s pulling out a stand from Surface. It’s integrated, and made out of the same material as the rest of the tablet. 
 
 4:25 pm: Movies and entertainment look great as well, says Sinofsky. It looks like there’s a bit of a glitch with the Surface he’s using and he pulls out another from the desk on stage. Magic! 
 
 4:24 pm: It’s great for entertainment, Sinofsky says. He’s running Internet Explorer. It’s 10.6 inch optically bonded wide-screen display. Sorry, I was wrong about the 7-inch! 
 
 4:23 pm: Surface is super thin, at 9.3mm, just thin enough for a full-size USB port. The edges are beveled away at 22 degrees, so the PC fades into the background. “It feels natural in your hands,” Sinofsky says. It’s the first PC with a full magnesium case, called VaporMG Case. It’s just under 1.54 pounds. The case is one of a kind and is scratch-resistant, and accentuates the unique feel of Surface. 
 
 4:23 pm: Just as we have reimagined Windows we have also reimagined the tablet. “We see a tablet that represents a unique vision, for a seamless experience for creation and entertainment,” Sinofsky says. It’s a PC that is a great tablet and a tablet that is a great PC. 
 
 4:22 pm: It’s a place to surface ideas, enjoyments, and more. “Let’s now learn more from Steven Sinofsky and the Microsoft Surface team,” Ballmer introduces Sinofsky to the stage. 
 
 4:21 pm: This is the new Microsoft Surface, Ballmers says. And in his hands he’s holding what looks like a 7-inch tablet with Windows 8 Metro on it. 
 
 4:21 pm: An interesting video is playing with some crystal reshaping itself on the screen. And the words Surface appear. Looks like the Surface tablet is reality. 
 
 4:20 pm: We wanted to give Windows 8 its own hardware innovation. “What is this innovation?” Ballmer asks. “It’s something new, it’s a whole new division of computing devices from Microsoft.” 
 
 4:20 pm: Developers will be able to target the most consumers with Windows 8 than any other non-phone platform. 
 
 4:19 pm: We see the combination of software and hardware working together in our PC ecosystem, Ballmer says. OEM partnerships are essential to the reimagination of Windows. The ultimate landing point of the PC experience is through our partnerships with OEMs — HP, Dell, etc. OEMs will deliver more PCs this year: 375 million Windows PCs estimated to ship this year according to IDC. 
 
 4:18 pm: Our most successful hardware product is the Xbox. 
 
 4:17 pm: Ballmer says he believes that the machine experience can be made better when software and hardware work together. Take the mouse for example: Early reviews of mice were not very positive, Ballmer says, it was so new that Canadian customs quarantined the Microsoft mouse for four weeks, thinking that it was alive. 
 
 4:16 pm: A video is now playing that looks back at the hardware that Microsoft has created. They’re mentioning the mouse, keyboards, and Xbox. Xbox surface makes an appearance, as well as HD computer cameras and Kinect. 
 
 4:16 pm: A video is now playing that looks back at the hardware that Microsoft has created. They’re mentioning the mouse, keyboards, and Xbox. Microsoft Surface makes an appearance, as well as HD computer cameras and Kinect. 
 
 4:15 pm: “Today we want to add a new piece to that Windows 8 story,” Ballmer says. “At our foundation Bill Gates and Paul Allen made a bet on software, but at the same time it was always clear that the way that we do software would require us to push hardware, even in ways that hardware manufacturers hadn’t yet imagined. Hardware and software push and pull each other forward.” 
 
 4:14 pm: “We’re incredibly gratified by the enthusiastic response to Windows 8, from our OEM partners, developers, and millions of consumers who have downloaded the previews. The new OS is hot. The new user interface and store are getting a lot of interest.” 
 
 4:13: “With Windows 8 we’ve reimagined Windows products, to power a new type of PC. We approached the Windows product design in a forward looking way. We’ve designed it for a world we know, where most people are mobile and people want access to information and the ability to create content from anywhere and anytime.” 
 
 4:12pm: “While we are optimists to the core, Windows has exceeded our most optimistic expectations. It now powers more than 1 billion PCs — from desktops, to laptops, to network stations, from homes to schools to government, literally around the world.” 
 
 4:11 pm: Steve says: The past several years have seen great change for Microsoft: We’ve ushered in cloud computing, embraced mobility, and redefined entertainment… Windows is the heart and soul of Microsoft, from Windows PC to Windows servers to Windows Phone. Windows has proven to be the most flexible, general purpose software ever created, spurring off an ecosystem of unrivaled success. 
 
 4:11 pm: The lights have dimmed and Steve Ballmer is taking the stage! Round of applause for Steve. 
 
 4:09 pm: The screens are flashing a lot of “tablet-like” imagery. Maybe a dual tablet, reminiscent of Courier? No, we aren’t reading too much into it. 
 
 4:05 pm: The stage reminds me of a fashion show — there’s a large stage and a runway going down the middle. Maybe Microsoft will debut some cool threads? 
 
 4:00 pm: Michael Povarb, a freelance photographer from San Fernando Valley paper, aptly pointed out that at a Microsoft event, it’s funny that the majority of the laptops are Apple MacBooks. 
 
 3:56 pm: When we walked in we got a mystery card with the time “5:20pm” written on one side. PR people told us this would be explained later… Wonder what it means? 
 
 3:54 pm: Still no sign of any Microsoft big shots. The room is full of all the usual journalistic suspects. Microsoft has definitely generated a lot of buzz with this event. 
 
 3:51 pm: The press is inside Milk Studio and there’s a large screen with different colors and patterns playing on it. Several screens line the wall playing the same screensaver-type designs. Very Metro-esque. Microsoft has opted for some pleasant pop, including Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know. 
 
 3:46 pm: Sorry for the delay guys. Everything’s going great on our end — now it’s time to get set up and get this thing started. 
 
 3:41 pm: The line is moving and we are headed in. 
 
 3:30 pm: It’s 3:30 and we’re still in line. Come on Microsoft, let us in! 
 
 3:19 pm: There’s 11 minutes to go, and we’re outside of Milk Studio right now. There’s a long line of media folks here with us. Nobody knows what’s going on and there’s absolutely no visible Microsoft signage from outside. For all we know, we could be waiting at the DMV. The mystery continues! 
 
 LOS ANGELES — Today Microsoft will be hosting a super-secret product announcement at Milk Studios, a media company that “stands at the crossroads of the fashion, music, photography and film worlds,” according to signage on the studio’s website. 
 
 Wired will be liveblogging the event starting at 3:30 p.m. PST — or as soon as the doors open, and we can take our seats. 
 
 While Microsoft is keeping hush-hush on the details of its announcement, several reports suggest that the company will unveil its own Microsoft-branded tablet. The latest report posits that the tablet will be part of a new hardware platform called Xbox Surface — one part “tablet computing device” and one part “stationary computing device.” 
 
 The conventional wisdom on Xbox Surface is that Microsoft’s Xbox Live service would stream entertainment media to the tablet, as it already does to the Xbox 360 gaming console. But many of the new platform’s hardware specs (at least what’s been reported — and, keep in mind, this could all be hogwash) don’t square with what one would expect from current consumer electronics. 
 
 For example, the Xbox Surface tablet is reportedly spec’d to include 288MB of RAM. That’s not just a curiously specific megabyte count, it’s also much less memory than what’s currently shipping in any commercial tablet. But who knows, maybe 256MB is system memory, and another 32MB is used for fluff. 
 
 And then there’s the hard drive in the “stationary computing device.” The report has it being a 10,000 rpm SCSI drive. This is an odd parts choice considering SCSI is all but dead (at least in consumer electronics) and no mass-market media player runs platters that spin so fast. 5,400 rpm is much more common. And much less expensive. 
 
 Does Microsoft know something we don’t know? Clearly it does — including the very nature of its Monday event. 
 
 Gadget Lab staff writer Alexandra Chang (@alexandra_chang) will be in Los Angeles to cover the action in real-time, while staff writer Christina Bonnington (@redgirlsays) will be providing blogging support from Wired HQ in San Francisco. 
 
 Stay tuned and keep refreshing this page for the latest updates from the event.
– The creators of the hotly anticipated Microsoft Surface RT have touted it as revolutionary, improving upon the toy-like tablets of today by making it functional, with a detachable touch screen and a snappy design. So is it the future of computing? Not yet, most reviewers agree: Sam Biddle praises the RT's concept and design in a detailed review at Gizmodo that's worth a full read. But ultimately, he says it's "not worth your paycheck" in its current form, which retails around $600 give or take some pricey add-ons. Instead of being both a tablet and a laptop, it's "really just the worst of both worlds." It's also hard to use: "It's just a half-broken death march up the learning curve." Over at Wired, Mathew Honan loves the look of the machine, and like others, drools over the satisfying "snap" of its razor-thin kickstand. It's durable too, but the cameras lag and "the image quality looks about like the last photo you snapped with your Razr V3." Pretty much everyone hates the Windows RT software the machine runs on. It's a departure from Window's old operating systems—it's colorful and swipe-friendly, for starters. But Harry McCracken, writing for CNN, wonders why the new design still includes a desktop. Switching between the two interfaces "can be an oddly disjointed experience, as if you're teleporting between two very different planets with very little warning." The apps are a big letdown, writes David Pogue in the New York Times. You can't use any iPad or Android Tablet apps, nor any of Microsoft's own programs. That means no apps for Facebook, Angry Birds, or Spotify, among many others, and what is available is "bare-bones junky." His advice? Wait a few months for the Surface Pro.