Microsoft has just lifted the covers from the brand-new Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch, both of which retain the same design as their respective predecessors, but add a new color to the mix and get updated innards as well. And oh, did I mention that they are also pricier? Yeah, that too. You can blame that on the ongoing industry-wide memory crisis, all thanks to AI. Duh!
Starting with the upgrades, the most notable change is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Plus processor, which is said to deliver up to a 17% speed boost at Office productivity workloads, 60% faster graphics performance, and 95% faster local AI inferencing courtesy of the NPU. The updated Qualcomm chip will also be easier on the battery uptake, with Microsoft touting energy efficiency gains of up to 18% on its latest machines. Importantly, the baseline memory capacity has climbed up to 16GB, and there’s no 8GB RAM option available this time around, though the storage still starts at 256GB.
On the second-generation Surface Pro 12-inch tablet, Microsoft is serving a 25% brighter display, which now climbs all the way up to 500 nits of peak brightness. Microsoft says it also lasts an extra hour per charge, and optional 5G support has been thrown into the mix, as well. The tablet now comes in a new black shade, and ships with a new (and pre-installed) Microsoft Ink Canvas app for sketching, annotating, and a few AI-powered tricks in tow.
Here’s a quick look at the specs of the Surface Pro 12-inch:
The Surface Laptop 13-inch (2nd Edition), on the other hand, also gets a brighter screen, up to 22.5 hours of battery life, and a new black color option to go with the peppy lavender shade. The second-gen Surface Laptop starts at $1,199, while the 12-inch Surface Pro will now set you back by $1149.99, hitting the shelves starting October 13 in the US. Check out the full deets of the new 13-inch Surface Laptop below:
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).
Two residents of Chicago have filed a lawsuit in the US over claims that robots run by Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics captured their facial and hand measurements without consent, bringing renewed attention to the food delivery robots. The cases raise a troubling question: If a robot delivers food to your door, can it also be gathering sensitive information about you?
According to a report by The Associated Press, the proposed class-action lawsuits were filed in Cook County on Oct. 9 and allege violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The complaints claim that the robots’ cameras and LiDAR sensors captured information on customers’ faces and hands as they approached the machines to pick up their orders. Both have denied the allegations.
Nearly a month after announcing the GPT-6.1 Sol model, OpenAI unveiled GPT-6.1 Terra today. The latest addition to the family focuses on computer use, visual reasoning, coding, and professional work, while costing 50% less through the API than GPT-5.6 Terra.
OpenAI says Terra can handle everything from filling out browser forms and working inside spreadsheets to interpreting technical drawings and editing videos. The company says it can also complete computer-based tasks more than three times faster than GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol.