In this week’s Weekend News Roundup, I have the following stories that may be of interest to Surface owners or enthusiasts:
- New Firmware for Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3
- Surface 3 LTE Hits AT&T Stores
- Surface Revenue Up
- New Surface Ad
With the Windows 10 release in a few days, you can expect that Windows 10 will be dominating the tech news headlines for the next couple of weeks. Personally, I’m looking forward to the respite from outlandish Surface Pro 4 rumors. In any case, here is what I have for you for this week:
Surface News Roundup: New Firmware for Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3
This week, Microsoft released some new firmware and driver updates for Surface tablets. Most of the updates were pointed at systems running Windows 10 but a couple apply to the Surface 3 LTE model running Win 8.1. Below are some details on what the updates covered for each model:
Surface Pro 3
The Surface Pro 3 received ‘System Hardware Update – 7/23/2015‘, for machines running Windows 10, there is no new update for machines running Windows 8.1 this month:
- HD Graphics Family driver update (v10.18.15.4248) improves graphics performance and stability on Windows 10.
- Audio driver update (v6.0.1.7543) improves the Cortana experience on Windows 10.
- USB driver update (v10.0.10125.31214) improves system power usage.
Surface 3
The following changes for Surface 3 are listed as ‘System Firmware Update – 7/23/2015‘, for machines running Windows 10.
- Surface UEFI update (v1.50410.78.0) adds features to display and a system asset tag and support for the Surface Cover during PXE boot.
- HD Graphics Family driver update (v10.18.15.4248) improves graphics performance and stability on Windows 10.
Surface 3 (4G LTE)
The Surface 3 LTE model also received ‘System Firmware Update – 7/24/2015‘, with changes for Windows 8.1.
- Surface UEFI update (v1.50410.218.0) improves mobile broadband network connectivity.
- USB 3.0 Host Controller Adaptation driver update (v603.9600.2588.2097) improves mobile broadband network connectivity.
- USB Composite Device driver update (v2.0.268.0) improves mobile broadband network connectivity.
- Surface_IA7260.inf update driver for delivering future updates and refreshing production software signing.
- Surface CoSAR driver update (v2.0.270.0) improves mobile broadband network connectivity.
Surface Pro 2
Surface Pro 2 received ‘System Hardware Update – 7/23/2015‘, which adds the following for Windows 10:
- HD Graphics Family driver update (v10.18.15.4248) improves graphics performance and stability on Windows 10.
- Surface Integration Driver update (v2.0.304.0) resolves issue where Surface would wake from sleep by itself.
The Surface Pro 1, Surface RT, and Surface 2 did not receive any updates this month.
Related: Microsoft (SP3), Microsoft (Surface3)
Surface News Roundup: Surface 3 LTE Hits AT&T Stores
As we reported earlier this week, AT&T has begun selling the Surface 3 LTE in U.S. stores. The 10.8-inch tablet with 4G LTE is available (as of Friday, July 24th) for $599 without a contract, $499 with a two-year contract, or $30 a month for 20 months under AT&T’s installment plan.
In a Surface 3 LTE available starting in August. AT&T and T-Mobile SIM cards for the tablet will also be available at Microsoft Store retail locations at that time.
According to the same blog post, T-Mobile will begin offering the Surface 3 LTE to business customers in its @Work program on July 31.
Surface News Roundup: Surface Revenue Up
Microsoft’s Surface revenue has grown 117 percent to $888 million. The report explicitly states that Surface was one of the divisions to offset the decreased revenue of Windows phone hardware which took a hit with the Nokia write-down.
In case you’re wondering, Surface revenue for FY 2015 was $3.6 Billion, up a whopping 65 percent from the previous year.
Related: Microsoft
https://youtu.be/E-bWgMD1DOk
Surface News Roundup: New Surface Ad
It’s become a bit of a tradition for us to point out when Microsoft releases new commercials for the Surface. Above is their newest spot which is focused at the back to school crowd.
That’s it for the Surface News Roundup this week.
Tim
