The recent price cuts for the Surface devices have been made permanent. Prices are dropping, but are they worth it even at the lower price? My iPad is limited, similar to the Surface RT. It won’t run full desktop applications (for the most part). The Windows Store has a much more limited selection of usable applications than the Apple Store, as well. For many, they want the full PC functionality in a tablet form – the Surface Pro. That is what I am looking for right now. The price is getting better, and it’s an excellent product. I am waiting to hear about the Surface 2 before I make a decision (close out prices on Surface Pro as well as comparing specs and battery life).

What are these adjustments?

• $100 (U.S.) off Surface Pro (including the 256 GB SKU). This means the entry-level Surface Pro will now start at $799 (U.S.)
• $40 (U.S.) off Touch Covers. Touch Covers will now start at $79 (U.S.), and Limited Edition Touch Covers will now start at $89 (U.S.)
• $50 (U.S.) off Surface RT bundles. Surface RT bundles will now start at $399 (U.S.)

The talented Heroes actress Ali Larter gives a pitch for Office 365, Microsoft’s subscription based Office suite. Microsoft is starting to put more effort into the promotion of the Office 365 platform. Many people have no idea what it is. I’m glad Microsoft is putting more push into promoting it.

Mary Jo Foley has finally gotten an interview with Steve Ballmer (after many, many years!) after he announced his retirement from Microsoft. Some great questions in there – Regrets, successor, plans for the future.

Part 1 is here, and part 2 is here (includes from from lead Microsoft board member John Thompson).

Ballmer: I’m proud of being I would say a significant part even of the birth of intelligent personal computing, the notion that people use computing technologies, whether that’s phones, PCs. I mean, we kind of birthed that over the course of the ’80s and the ’90s, and that’s had such an unbelievable impact on people’s lives. I would say a billion plus people and now more with phones, even if they’re not all our phones, I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished there.

Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, has started the retirement process and will be gone within a year. Quite a few people that really disliked Windows 8 were calling for his head, but his actual motivation is unknown. He may just want to finally pass on the torch.

I definitely didn’t see this coming, but I wish the best for Steve in his retirement.

As for a successor? There is no one in mind yet, but I’m sure in the next few months a few names will be suggested.

“There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time,” Ballmer said. “We have embarked on a new strategy with a new organization and we have an amazing Senior Leadership Team. My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our company’s transformation to a devices and services company. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction.”

The upcoming Xbox One will have a nice selection of games, some at launch and some soon after, that are exclusive to the Xbox One or exclusive for a limited time. A good list is available for those wanting to check them out, and I’m sure more will be announced as the console gets closer to launch. All these great games still have me wondering which console to get this fall…

Here are some statistics about Xbox One’s line-up of announced games:

• 38% of titles are exclusive to Xbox One
• 37% of titles are brand-new IP
• 44% of titles will include either timed or exclusive content to Xbox One

• Microsoft exclusive titles received 272 award nominations and 111 wins at E3 2013.
• Xbox One titles earned 10 Game Critics Awards, with Xbox platform exclusive “Titanfall” taking home a record-breaking 6 awards, including “Best of Show.”

We’re really excited to see the positive response to the Xbox One games line-up and remain committed to making Xbox One the best place to play games.  Below is the complete list of announced Xbox One games – for more information, visit news.xbox.com

For those that use Outlook.com for your email, you have a new feature rolling out (for some regions, as usual). Integrated Skype calling from within your Outlook.com window. Skype is a great service that allows you to make video and voice calls to others.

Having more features within Outlook.com is a great thing, and increasing your communications ability from within the single interface is excellent. Being able to answer an email with a face to face quick chat (or longer conversation) can be very helpful to many.

Email is an important and personal tool for most people, but there are moments when you want to be able to speak live or chat face-to-face. In a recent Ipsos Public Affairs poll 76% of people say that their email conversations frequently or occasionally result in a follow up phone or video call, or other means of communication. Those moments are perfect for Skype and now, face-to-face connection right from your inbox is just a click away.

Support for Windows XP ends on April 8th, 2014. Tim Rains of Microsoft goes over the risks of running the operating system after support ends. Running the OS after that date is definitely not something that I would really trust. So, for you still running it, it might be getting time to update your PC.

Some of the people I have discussed this scenario with are quick to point out that there are security mitigations built into Windows XP that can make it harder for such exploits to be successful.  There is also anti-virus software that can help block attacks and clean up infections if they occur.  The challenge here is that you’ll never know, with any confidence, if the trusted computing base of the system can actually be trusted because attackers will be armed with public knowledge of zero day exploits in Windows XP that could enable them to compromise the system and possibly run the code of their choice. Furthermore, can the system’s APIs that anti-virus software uses be trusted under these circumstances? For some customers, this level of confidence in the integrity of their systems might be okay, but for most it won’t be acceptable.

The Xbox One is able to monitor it’s temperature and adjust the fan speed and it’s power usage based on if it’s overheating. This is something that may have helped the initial runs of the Xbox 360 and it’s overheating causing the RRoD’s.

“We can’t prevent misuse of the product," del Castillo says, "but we can certainly anticipate it." That’s done by the Xbox being aware of the temperature it’s running at, and having the capacity to cool itself down in a few ways. "The way we designed the box, we don’t actually intend it to ever have to go to maximum speed under normal environmental conditions. But there is overhead. So we’ll allow the fan to go all the way up to its maximum speed and if that solves the condition without the user having to do anything."

Save the date – October 17th for the public release of Windows 8.1, the free update to Windows 8. A few good new features with it – new Start button (not the start menu), animated backgrounds for Metro – or the same background as your desktop, integrated Bing search, and a bit more.

Windows 8.1 continues the vision we began with Windows 8 and is an example of our commitment to continuous innovation and improvement for our customers. And Windows 8.1 brings many improvements in areas like personalization, Internet Explorer 11, search which is powered by Bing, built-in apps including a few new ones, an improved Windows Store experience, and cloud connectivity with SkyDrive (and much more) that people will enjoy. If you haven’t already, you can give many of the new features and improvements in Windows 8.1 a try with the Windows 8.1 Preview. Business customers can begin testing Windows 8.1 for deployment in their environments with the Windows 8.1 Enterprise Preview.

The Xbox One no longer requires the Kinect to be plugged in. For me, that was not so much about the tin foil hat spying stuff, but more of ‘what happens when the Kinect breaks’ or ‘what if I block it or don’t want it sitting there’ (My first Kinect broke, I’d hate to have a $500 paperweight if that happened again)? I guess it appeases both crowds. Microsoft seems to be really listening to the consumer this round. Better shout this next: “PRICE! I WANT IT FOR $149 AT LAUNCH!”… Nah, not that lucky!

We already knew that you could turn off the Kinect, but now Microsoft says it doesn’t have to be plugged in at all. Speaking to IGN, Microsoft’s Marc Whitten shared the news that the Xbox One will indeed work without Kinect.