Microsoft Surface Pro engineers recently hinted at plans for a detachable battery or keyboard dock unit, during an ’Ask Me Anything’ session on social media site Reddit.

Led by Microsoft general manager and “Surface creator” Panos Panay, the team discussed aspects of the Surface Pro’s design, construction, and development process, responding to questions from Reddit users.

Beyond fielding the expected questions about the battery life of the Surface Pro, which has been criticised in the first wave of reviews from US technology publications, the team also teased some information on future accessories and upgrades.

When asked about any plans for an external battery, or a thicker keyboard cover with integrated battery, a Surface engineer responded, “That would require extending the design of the accessory spine to include some way to transfer higher current between the peripheral and the main battery. Which we did…”

This not-so-subtle hint at an expanded range of accessories was joined by another comment asking about the Surface Pro’s extended accessory spine pins: “…we haven’t announced what they are for but they aren’t an accident!

“At launch, we talked about the ‘accessory spine’ and hinted at future peripherals that can click in and do more. Those connectors look like they can carry more current than the pogo pins, don’t they?”

These two comments point towards at least one, if not more, accessories designed to take advantage of the high-current pathways in the expanded accessory connector – almost certainly an expandable detachable battery pack, or a larger clip-on keyboard with an integrated battery slice.

It’s also possible, given the downward-facing direction of the accessory connector, that a larger clip-on keyboard may include an articulated hinge to give the Surface Pro the same flexible screen adjustment of a standard Ultrabook laptop.

A keyboard of that design would simultaneously alleviate concerns about the fixed 26-degree lean-back of the Surface Pro’s kickstand, and the device’s mediocre battery life.

The team also defended the $899 and $999 prices of the tablet, noting that its target market was the user that “wants a MacBook Air and an iPad, but doesn’t want the weight or hassle of both devices”.

Other comments show that the Surface Pro’s speakers are improved over the Surface RT’s, a fix for unstable Wi-Fi is imminent, and that the team’s main compromise for the system was in choosing an internal battery that fit in under the device’s 2-pound weight threshold.

As usual, questions about availability outside the U.S. were met with the standard, simple, if frustrating response – “coming soon”.

Microsoft dished its second quarter earnings today without too many surprises.

Windows 8 sales were the biggest news the company had to share, though the figures weren't anything we haven't heard before - Microsoft said it sold more than 60 million licenses of the new operating system since it launched in October.

Other than that, Microsoft's numbers stayed pretty steady compared to the same quarter last year. Its total revenue rose to $21 billion in the last three months of 2012, compared to $20 billion at the end of 2011.

The tech giant's operating income slipped a few hundred million in the last year to about $7.8 billion from just below $8 billion in 2011.

Windows 8's winnings

Windows 8 seemed be the best bread winner for Microsoft. Windows Division posted a revenue of $5.88 billion, which is up 24 percent from last year.

Though Microsoft touted its Windows 8 sales, it seems like it still has some ways to go before it dominates the PC landscape. CFO Peter Klein noted that about 60 percent of enterprise desktops worldwide still are operating on Windows 7.

Klein painted the launch of Windows 8 as a bold rebuilding of the desktop environment that will take a bit of time to gain traction among consumers.

"This is a big, ambitious reimagining of Windows and this quarter was the first step in that process," Klein said during a Q&A with investors.

"So the traction, the ramp, should get better over time? So we should not be judging the cycle over the December quarter?" one caller asked.

"I highlighted the things that drive that, exactly," Klein replied.

But Windows 8 seems to be keeping pace with Windows 7 sales when it just launched. With Windows 8 selling 60 million copies in the first three or so months after release, both operating systems moved about 20 million licenses a month.

Windows 7 was able to keep up that sales rate for the first nine months, and we'll just have to wait and see how the newest version fares.

On the Surface

Though Microsoft shared plenty of figures, some numbers were notably absent: Microsoft Surface sales.

During the call, Microsoft executives were careful to dance around the sales numbers of new touch tablets, giving few clues to how the Surface RT (the Surface Pro won't go on sale until Feb.) is actually fairing.

Though the Xbox 360 remains to be the top selling console, the Entertainment and Devices Division only posted $3.7 billion in revenue, down 11 percent from last year and 2 percent from Q1.

Since Surface sales are lumped in with game sales, it's hard to get a precise gauge of how the tablet is selling. There are plenty of other devices included in those numbers, but something has to be dragging down that revenue.

Price points

Throughout the investor call, the point was repeatedly brought up that the price tag of Surface tablets is a little too high for consumers' tastes, though nothing was said explicitly.

Klein said the launch of Windows 8 provided a good learning experience for the company, especially when it comes to the price of a tablet.

"Obviously we had some limited distribution [of Surface] this quarter in our stores, and as you know, we're excited about expanding that," he said.

"We learned a lot this quarter. We learned a lot about the types of experiences and scenarios, and to some extent, the price points that customers are looking for in their devices."

He said the key was finding the right price points for the right devices, and folks should expect to see a greater variety of devices with more diverse prices.

Though Microsoft was shy to share news of how Surface was doing, it doesn't seem like the big M is giving up on tablets. Klein said the company recently increased production of Surface tablets, and is expanding their availability into third-party retailers.

Next month, Microsoft will be expanding Windows RT into 14 more countries, and at the same time release Surface Windows 8 Pro.

A 1080p webcam sounds a little ridiculous doesn't it. But of course, webcams aren't just for video calls, they're for recording your thoughts to YouTube, presenting a video podcast or lip syncing to Carly Rae Jepsen. They are, in fact, cheap camcorders that have admittedly restricted mobility, but even so offer lots of promise.

The LifeCam Studio is one of few on the market claiming to offer 1080p video. And while we take its performance abilities with a large pinch of salt, it's still impressive to see electronics cut down to this size.

Design

Unlike most webcams, the LifeCam looks more like an action camera, designed to be bolted onto your helmet as you fly down the piste. It's a metallic tube with an LED light, single button and microphone built in to the top.


It is mounted on a rubber foot that is designed to work in conjunction with any monitor, or nearby surface and it bends and flexes in a number of directions to make sure you can give it a stable footing before you make your first video call online. There's also a mount on the bottom that would allow it to be fixed to a tripod. Obviously, a full size three-legged support is unlikely to be a fixture of your home office, but you might use it with a GorillaPod or similar to get some interesting desk angles.

The camera connects, as all webcams do, via a USB 2 cable. This is a decent enough length, but it's not over generous. Obviously, there's a fine line between having a cable that's long enough for desktop users, but short enough to be practical to laptopers too. Although we can't see many users giving up on their built-in webcam for this, even if it does offer a massive jump in resolution.

Skype HD

It has to be said that Microsoft webcams are, in our experience, the best to use with Skype. Now, given Microsoft owns Skype, that might sound like a given, but in fact, it was true long before the MS buyout of Skype.

What that means, is that when we call people using this, or any other HD Microsoft webcam, we usually get HD - widescreen video - quite quickly. To explain further, you need to be slightly familiar with Skype and the weird things it does, but essentially, when you have an HD capable webcam, Skype may sometimes refuse to send HD video. This can be because of a lack of bandwidth, but we've made calls to the same people, on the same day, and had other manufacturers webcams fail to make the HD call, while Microsoft's does with no problem.

In our test calls, we found that the quality of Skype calls was pretty good from this camera. Indeed, by far the best we've used so far. If Skype is your game, then the LifeCam Studio is probably a great choice of camera for you.

Some significant problems

There are a couple of things that we HATE about Microsoft webcams. And annoyingly, these things have been true for all the cameras we've tried from the firm.

Firstly, you have to plug it into a USB port on your computer, rather than an extension. Cable extenders may be fine, but we found the hub built into our Samsung monitor would work fine for SD video, but when Skype switch to HD there would be picture break-up all over the place. Switching to a USB port directly attached to the computer solved this problem easily though.

The other problem we find even more unforgivable, and it's the autofocus. It quite simply does not work. In our normally lit room, the camera would hunt constantly for a focus lock. Even if the subject of the video - us, in this case - didn't move at all, the camera would still keep looking around for us. This makes using the auto focus entirely impractical.

There is a way around this problem though, and that's to turn off the autofocus. Should you have to do this? No. Does the camera have enough going for it elsewhere to make it worth considering? We think it does.

Picture and sound quality

The sound from the top-mounted microphone is actually very good, and you will certainly have no problems being understood when using it.

The image is very, very good for the most part. When in normal 4:3 mode, it's a little unimpressive, but when you get an app that supports HD and 16:9, the whole thing jumps up and becomes a whole new experience. The field of view is wide, and that gives you a much less cramped and claustrophobic feel in video.



There's plenty of detail too, and even in lower lighting conditions there's a decent amount of image quality to make out what's going on. It's not noise-free, but it's better than a lot of cameras we've seen. The auto-exposure is very good too, making up for the shonkyness of the auto-focus.

Colours seem very natural too, which is a good thing, and the camera seems to do a very good job with its TrueColor (sic) system. This seems to get you a natural, well-balanced image no matter what light you're sitting under. It was even able to cope with our eclectic mix of monitor glow, LED overhead light and standard bulbs.


If you're in the mood for fun, install the optional LifeCam software, and you can overlay cartoon animations and special effects onto your video chat. It is incredibly pointless, and the overlays are beyond absurd, but nothing cheers up a serious online video conference like you suddenly sprouting a set of bunny ears.

Review Recap

Made by : Microsoft
   
Price as reviewed : £89.99

The good : Beautiful picture quality, stylish and compact, great sound

The bad : Somewhat expensive, autofocus is dreadful, plugging into USB hub caused us picture problems

Quick verdict : At first the price looks alarming, but you can get this camera for £65 or less if you look about. We don't like the fact that the autofocus is dreadful, and the minor glitch when using a USB hub is irritating, but forgivable. But the picture quality of this little camera makes up for all of it, and it's the best webcam we've ever seen for pure image quality.

bY JuLee (Technewswebsite)