In a new ad very much dominated by a heavy holiday theme, Microsoft wants you to know that the Surface Pro 3 tablet is better than Apple’s MacBook Air.

So far we’ve seen the promo videos, as well as a football-themed ad for the slate, but now it’s time for some comparisons with an Apple product – something Microsoft loves to do from time to time. Read more »

Today Microsoft has unveiled a new free video editing app for Windows Phone 8.1. It’s called Movie Creator, and it’s available in beta in the Windows Phone app store, for Lumia smartphones. It also works on tablets running Windows 8.1.

It lets you create movies using up to 25 videos you’ve recorded on your phone, as well as photos, cinemagraphs, ‘living images’, and music from your mobile device. Read more »

Lenovo took the wraps of a Yoga Tablet 2 model with 13” display and Windows 8.1. The slate will hit the shelves in November for $699. The price tag includes a bundled keyboard cover.

The latest Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 is powered by an Intel Atom Processor Z3745 with four CPU cores, clocked at up to 1.86GHz). Read more »

Microsoft is enabling Kinect owners to use it with Windows by launching today a special adapter for PCs. It makes the Kinect fully compatible with WIndows 8 and Windows 8.1 PCs and tablets with identical performance to the Xbox One.

The new Kinect adapter only works with the newly announced Kinect SDK 2.0. It allows developers to create third-party apps for the Kinect and upload them to the Windows Store. Hopefully, we get to see some cool new uses of the gadget apart from making voice commands and playing fitness-oriented games. Read more »

Microsoft and 343 Industries announced Halo Spartan Strike. The twin-stick shooter game will be available on Windows/Windows Phone devices and Steam on December 12 for $5.99.

The events in the successor of Halo: Spartan Assault take place during Halo 2. Read more »

At this week’s HKTDC tech show in Hong Kong, an interesting Windows tablet made an appearance sporting the hard-to-believe price tag of $65 (CNY 399). The tablet is called the Emdoor EM-I8170 and sports a 7″ 1024 x 600 pixel display.

Under the hood, there’s an Intel Z3735G quad-core Bay Trail processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It boots Windows 8.1 and the company boasts it has received over 50,000 orders for the tablet already. Read more »

Microsoft has released a new app for the Surface 3 tablet. Called Surface Hub, the app lets you customize the settings for the stylus that comes bundled with the tablet.

The app lets you adjust two aspects of the stylus. The first is the pressure sensitivity, and now you can increase or decrease the pressure required to activate the stylus. Read more »

In addition to its tablet line-up, Lenovo has also announced the Yoga 3 Pro laptop with a 13.3″ 3200 x 1800 (QHD+) display with Gorilla Glass 3 on top. Under the hood, there’s the latest Intel Broadwell chip, the Core M-70, which doesn’t require any fans.

The Yoga 3 Pro has also lost some weight and is 17% thinner and 15% lighter than its predecessor at 1.19kg. Further specs include up to 8GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, but there’s also a base model with 256GB. Read more »

Large smartphones and cheap tablets put the PC market in a tough spot with a number of companies jumping ship (Samsung left the European market, Sony sold off the business altogether). However, analysts at both Gartner and IDC report that the PC market is finally showing signs of stability.

Tablet penetration is reaching its peak and cheap computers (like Chromebooks) have helped breathe new life into the segment. Read more »

In case you wondered, Samsung Gear Live can boot Microsoft Windows 95. A crafty user managed to install Redmond’s classic desktop OS on the Android Wear smartwatch.

The successful port of Windows 95 was performed using aDosBox. Read more »

Just as it promised yesterday during Windows 10′s big unveil, Microsoft has now made a Technical Preview of the new operating system available to download for those who are interested.

This is probably best thought of as a pre-beta release, so only the truly adventurous need apply. To download, you first need to join the new Windows Insider Program. Read more »

For whatever reason, Microsoft decided to skip the number 9 entirely and name Windows 10 as the successor to Windows 8.1. The new OS version will unsurprisingly come with the features that have been rumored for the next Windows iteration over the past few months.

On the PC side, Windows 10 seems to be all about convincing those who are still sticking with Windows 7 to finally upgrade. Read more »

The previously rumored sub-$200 Windows notebook by HP is now a fact. HP Stream 11 will hit the shelves in November in Orchid Magenta or Horizon Blue with a $199.99 price tag.

HP Stream 11 features Intel Celeron N2840 dual-core CPU with fanless design. Read more »

The latest ad for Microsoft’s latest tablet, the Surface Pro 3, is all about football. And the NFL. And specifically, the Seattle Seahawks. The whole idea is that the Surface Pro 3 is “trusted by the pros”, yet “built for the fans”.

Since Microsoft has a $400 million advertising deal with the NFL, perhaps this ad shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Read more »

Just two days separate us from the next release in Gameloft’s Asphalt series of games. It’s going to be called Asphalt Overdrive (and not Asphalt 9, as you may have expected), and it will be out this Thursday, September 25, on Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and Windows 8. It will be free to download, but will feature in-app purchases.

This won’t be an arcade-style racer, but an endless racer. It’s like an endless runner, but with cars. Interestingly, you’ll play this one by holding your phone or tablet in a vertical, portrait orientation, and not landscape as you’re used to (hence the two screenshots above). Read more »