Microsoft Surface for Windows RT pricing now official: tablet starts at $499, keyboard not included

With Surface for Windows RT going on sale in just 10 days, Microsoft is finally ready to talk about pricing and availability — not to mention, some technical details it left out when the tablet debuted back in June. After the Surface product page prematurely went live on Microsoft’s site a few hours ago, the company just officially announced that the 10.6-inch, ARM-powered slate will go up for pre-order at 9AM PT today, starting at $499 for the 32GB version. The 64GB model will cost $599.

To be clear, these prices do not include that snazzy Touch Cover with the flat, pressure-sensitive keys. Rather, it’ll be sold separately for $120. Ditto for the more traditional Type Cover keyboard, which is priced at $130. If you already know you want the packaged deal, however, you can buy the 64GB tablet and Touch Cover as a bundle for $699. Lastly, when Surface starts shipping on October 26th, you’ll be able to buy it on Microsoft.com or at a Microsoft Store (if you happen to have one in your neck of the woods). If you’re hankering for hands-on photos, we’ll redirect you to the first look we published the day Surface was announced. Hopefully, though, we’ll soon get a review unit so that we can supplement our preview with meaty, real-world impressions.

Microsoft Surface for Windows RT press shots

Microsoft (Surface pre-order page)

Microsoft’s Windows 8 Preview event videos now available

Still not satisfied after our minute by minute liveblog of Microsoft’s Windows 8 Consumer Preview event this morning from Barcelona and detailed hands-on impressions? Video of the entire presentation, along with a few demo trailers are available on the company’s press site so you can feel that Sinofsky magic for yourself. One of the preview videos is embedded above, press play or hit the source link to download the 688MB 90 minute long version for repeat viewing (Update: Also available embedded after the break, just in case hard drive prices have cut down your storage space).

Microsoft

Microsoft launches Windows 8 developer preview, downloads are live!

We got a taste of Windows 8 back at D9, but the real bounty is waiting in Anaheim. The company’s kicking off its Build conference with a full-on developer preview of its next major desktop operating system, still code-named Windows 8 for the time being. According to Steven Sinofsky — president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft — the company has “reimagined Windows,” bringing about a “new range of capabilities” that coders will begin to dig into sooner rather than later. As we’d seen before, the “Metro-styled” user interface is front-and-center, bringing graphical elements of Windows Phone 7 to desktop, laptop and tablet users of the future. Internet Explorer 10 is also onboard, as well as a focus on “apps” that can communicate with one another, and content that can sync across devices. Folks comfortable in a Win7 environment ought to be right at home here — Win8 is built on the same foundation, though the retooled Task Manager and Windows Explorer should tickle the average fancy.

The Windows Store will enable devs to hawk their apps to any nation where Windows is sold, and yes, support for ARM-based chipsets is proudly included alongside compatibility with x86 devices. In other words, everything from “10-inch tablets to laptops to all-in-ones with 27-inch HD screens” will be able to ingest Win8 with ease. That’s a markedly different take than the folks in Cupertino have expressed, with an (admittedly limiting) mobile OS being chosen to run the tablet side of things. Only time will tell which mantra proves more viable, but we’re guessing the both of ‘em will find varying levels of success. Microsoft has also confirmed backwards compatibility with “devices and programs” that support Windows 7, and while an exact time has yet to be revealed, we’re told that developers will be able to download the Windows Developer Preview via the new Windows Dev Center later this week. Full fact sheets can be seen in the source link below.

Windows 8 Developers Guide [PDF], Fact Sheet [PDF]

Microsoft unveils Windows 8 (video)

We’re live from Microsoft Windows president Steven Sinofsky’s keynote at D9, and there’s something rather exciting on stage — a pair of experimental Windows 8 dev boards running an OS that looks very much like Windows Phone 7′s Metro UI. All Things D actually sat down with the man earlier today and got a sneak peek at what to expect starting with the live tiled screen you see above — and yes, like Windows Phone 7, this OS is designed for touch.

There’ll be two kinds of applications for Windows 8, one that runs in a traditional desktop, and the other pseudo-mobile apps based on HTML5 and Javascript, but both environments — rather, the entire OS — have been designed from the ground up for touchscreen use. Keyboard and mouse will still be options for both sets of programs, but there are multiple virtual sets of keys for different form factors, including a split keyboard for vertical slate use. Multitasking is simply a matter of swiping running apps into the center of the screen, and you can pull windows partway to “snap” them in place alongside other windows — even mixing and matching traditional desktop programs with web apps simultaneously (like Twitter alongside your spreadsheet). There’s a new version of Internet Explorer 10 (which runs Silverlight) and an app store built into the touchscreen interface, along with integrated services like Office 365. Microsoft says the new OS will run on laptops, tablets and desktops when it appears — whenever that might be.

All Things D didn’t have any details on when we’ll get pricing or availability, but we’re looking at some Intel Atom-based demo units on stage right now, and Microsoft says it will have ARM designs (the OS will support NVIDIA, TI and Qualcomm) viewable on the Computex show floor, and more will be revealed at the Build Windows developer conference in September. We should note that “Windows 8″ is just a codename for what we’re seeing here — “we’ll figure out the real name in due time,” Sinofsky told the crowd — but we don’t see much harm in calling it Windows 8 for now.

Ballmer: 'next generation of Windows systems' coming next year

The name “Windows 8″ may have been tossed around a lot as of late, but Steve Ballmer himself has only just now uttered the name for the first time in public at the company’s developer forum in Japan. What’s more, while he didn’t divulge a ton of specifics, he did say that the “next generation of Windows systems” will be coming out next year, and that “there’s a whole lot more coming,” including “slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors.” As ZDNet‘s Mary Jo Foley notes, the distinction between “slates” and “tablets” as two separate form factors is certainly an interesting one, as is the fact that he curiously didn’t use the name Windows 8 in connection with those next generation Windows systems. What does it all mean? Perhaps Microsoft’s Windows chief, Steven Sinofsky, will have more to say during his appearance at the D9 conference next week — Winrumors is reporting that he may even be set to demo the company’s Windows 8 Tablet UI. And, yes, you can count on us being there to bring it all to you live.