Here’s your weekend Surface news roundup for July 12th, 2015. The topics this week include:
- Firefox for Windows 10
- Rumor: Surface 4 Probably Delayed until 2016
- Virtual X-Box Controller
It’s been a little quieter on the Surface news front since the Surface 3 release (though we’re still waiting on the US release of the LTE version) and Microsoft’s release of “low-end i7” Surface Pro 3. Nonetheless, here are the things of note.
Surface News Roundup: Firefox For Windows 10
It looks like Mozilla is going to make a version of Firefox for Windows 10. The new version is expected to look a lot like the current iteration (39) but be better optimized for Windows 10.
They claim the new version will be an “independent and high-performing alternative to the stock browser, Microsoft Edge.”
You may recall that they said they we were going to do that for Windows 8 but didn’t follow through. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Related: Neowin, Mozilla, WinBeta
Surface News Roundup: Surface 4 Probably Delayed Until 2016 (RUMOR)
I know. I said that I was going to stay away from the Surface Pro 4 rumors but this one is not the “wild guess” type that normally come through the news feed. It is based on some actual supporting evidence.
Wait. I’m getting ahead of myself…. There’s a new rumor going around that the Surface Pro 4 will not appear until 2016.
This rumor is mostly based on two pieces of information:
- The new Skylake processor has not yet been released by Intel. It’s not expected to ship until fall at this point
- Samsung just got a big order of 256GB SSDs from Microsoft to be delivered next year
It makes sense that Microsoft wouldn’t try to use the same (or nearly the same) hardware for the SP4 that they used in the SP3. I mean, what’s the use, right?
Then you throw in the fact that Microsoft placed that order with Samsung and it starts to look like a pretty good bet that we won’t see the SP4 until 2016.
Related: TechieNews, WinBeta
Surface News Roundup: Virtual X-Box Controller Patent
A recently published patent application from Microsoft reveals that they’re planning to bring virtual Xbox gaming controls to touch screen devices like the Surface tablet.
For gamers, like me, this is potentially good news as it might make a standard for touch gaming controls on the Surface as opposed to every developer making his/her own set of controllers that is slightly different than everyone else’s.
Related: PatentlyApple
Tim
