This article was published on February 11, 2013

Following Surface Pro pen complaints, Microsoft is ‘working with partners’ to ensure compatibility


Following Surface Pro pen complaints, Microsoft is ‘working with partners’ to ensure compatibility

If you are one of the folks who picked up a Surface Pro this past weekend, you might have realized that not all applications play nice with its much-touted pen. Photoshop is an oft mentioned example. Microsoft, we learned today, is working on the issue.

Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet received a statement from the company that details its acknowledgement – albeit in Microsoft-speak – of the difficulty, and a promise that it is working to alleviate the problem [Formatting: TNW]:

“Surface Pro uses Windows Inbox Drivers and APIs (application programming interfaces) for the Surface pen, which support advanced features such as pressure sensitivity and eraser functionality. There are a number of apps in the Store that leverage these new Windows APIs and can take advantage of all that the Surface pen has to offer.

The Surface pen does work with Photoshop, which runs on Surface Pro, though advanced features such as pressure sensitivity and eraser functionality may not be available at this time. Microsoft is working with the necessary partners to make advanced features of the Surface pen available across a number of applications in the near future.”

The launch of the Surface Pro appears to be going well. Every major hardware release brings with it bated breath at the potential for a key flaw to be discovered. The pen issue should be solvable via either first or third-party software update.

In case you took the weekend off – you rogue – the Surface Pro launched to wildly tight supplies, leading the 128 gb model selling out in several locations, including Microsoft’s online store. How many units were in fact sold remains a mystery, but we can in fact rest assured that there is a core demographic that wanted the device.

For more, our hands-on review is worth reading, if I may say so.

Top Image Credit: Jeff Dlouhy

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