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Microsoft currently offers two types of Surface tablet: models with Windows or models with Windows RT. Both types come with 10.6 inch displays.
But eventually the company could branch out and offer its tablets in a range of shapes and sizes. Speaking at an event in Seattle, Microsoft’s Panos Panay said the company plans to offer new models with “multiple aspect ratios and sizes.”
What he wouldn’t say is if one of them will be the long-rumored Surface mini with a 7 or 8 inch screen.
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.
- Microsoft working on Surface tablets with different screen sizes, aspect ratios
Changing up the aspect ratio could make Surface tablets easier to use in portrait mode. Right now Windows tablets can be a bit awkward to hold and content a bit awkward to view since the tablets are so much longer than they are high. [GeekWire] - Sony Vaio Tap 11 tablet has starting price of 799 Euros
Don’t want a Surface tablet? Sony’s Vaio Tap 11 is a nice looking alternative, sporting a Haswell processor, digital pen support, and what appears to be a pretty reasonable price. [Ultrabook News] - Samsung caught optimizing the Galaxy Note 3 to perform well in benchmarks
Samsung has been making a habit of tweaking its devices to ramp up performance when running benchmark tests (providing unrealistic expectations of real world performance). The funny thing is even without the tweaks, the Galaxy Note 3 is crazy fast. There’s not much upshot to cheating. [Ars Technica] - Chinese electronics company Hasee launches its first smartphone, a $65 Android model with basic specs
With a 4.5 inch display, a dual-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage, this phone is nothing to write home about. But it’s the first model from a major electronics company, and there are rumors about an upcoming monster of a phone with 4GB of RAM, among other premium features. [GizChina] - Puppy Linux founder Barry Kauler retires, puts the light-weight Linux distro in maintenance mode
Puppy is a light-weight Linux distro that’s easy to run off a USB flash drive. It’s been around for 10 years, but the lead developer is putting the project on hold… at least until someone else decides to take over. [OStatic] - Regulators sign off on plan to take Dell private
The personal computer space is shifting rapidly, and a lot of companies are having a hard time keeping up with the changes. Rather than go through all of that as a public company, Dell founder Michael Dell and a group of investors want to take the company private so they’re not answerable to public shareholders while trying to come up with strategies for the future. Federal regulators are OK with that. [CNet]
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