Windows 10: Surface Duo available for preorder today

Brink · Aug 12, 2020

When we created Surface seven years ago, we wanted to challenge convention by redefining expectations for what a productivity device should be, and what it should do. Put simply, we wanted to help people get things done. We didnât set out to combine two existing devices â the tablet and the laptop. We had a vision for how we could take the best elements of each to create something entirely new. To find that perfect intersection of hardware and software that unlocks a more intuitive way to work and create. We faced some skepticism, but ultimately a new category was born that drove growth for the PC industry. More than that, behaviors started to change. Peopleâs eyes were opened to the idea that touch shouldnât be just for tablets and phones. And the ability to get things done shouldnât be limited to just when you were sitting in front of a traditional PC.

Today, as we look ahead to the next wave of mobile productivity and creativity, we see that same opportunity to create something new with Surface Duo â not to reinvent the phone, but to inspire people to rethink how they want to use the device in their pocket. Available for preorder in the U.S. starting today, Surface Duo brings together the power of Microsoft 365 experiences and the full ecosystem of Android mobile apps into one device, with two screens that you can take anywhere.

Starting at $1399, Surface Duo opens into the thinnest mobile device on the market, connecting two PixelSenseâ¢ Fusion Displays to create one expansive 8.1-inch screen. The Dynamic 360-degree hinge allows you to use each screen individually or together, across a variety of modes. Join a Microsoft Teams meeting and see participants on one screen while you present your PowerPoint slides on another. Open the Amazon Kindle app and read a book like a book. Position Surface Duoâs screen like a tent and watch a video hands-free. Use Surface Duo in Compose mode to quickly respond to an email, or tilt it into portrait for a more immersive way to scroll through web pages or photos. Pair your Surface Duo with a supported Bluetooth controller to play games on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate[1] or with Surface Earbuds, coming Sept. 10 in Graphite Grey, to listen to your favorite playlist or podcast. Or easily take notes with the Surface Slim Pen, sold separately.

A more productive way to get things done

We designed Surface Duo for people who want to get more done with the device in their pocket. Our internal research shows that three out of four people report struggling to complete complex tasks while away from their computer. Thatâs because smartphones with a single screen arenât designed for you to easily do multiple things at once. Think about it. You continually have to switch between apps to get even the most essential things done â breaking focus, breaking flow. Just like using two monitors at your desk, having two distinct screens lets you open up two apps side by side, cross-reference information, and drag and drop to effortlessly move images, text and files between screens so you can get things done quicker. We know dual-screen devices not only help people complete complex tasks faster but also require less cognitive effort, making them universally preferred for productivity tasks.

A new way to use your favorite apps

The ability to use two screens together on a mobile product has a real impact on how you create, how you share, and how you feel when using the product. Just like cooking, when you combine two flavors that perfectly complement each other, some apps light up in new ways when you use them side by side. Watch a video without missing out on the text thread with your friends. Read and take notes. Look at your calendar while you respond to an email to schedule a meeting. Compare two things side by side when shopping online. You can create your own custom app groups and open them with one tap right from your home screen. Or easily move apps between screens. Pick any of your favorite Microsoft 365 apps or other apps from the Google Play store and pair them together.

Surface design innovation

To bring these experiences to life, we invented new technologies that allow Surface Duo to operate each screen individually or together as one. Duo uses a custom pixel stack and each set of panels undergo extensive color and luminance calibration. We developed new manufacturing processes to actively align pixels across screens. The proprietary digitizer algorithms even consider when you are crossing the seam with your finger, making it feel like itâs one fluid screen. Within the dynamic 360-degree hinge, custom-designed cables connect the displays to work together, across a variety of postures. We designed a completely new dual-system architecture to deliver optimal performance and battery life within the thinnest, lightest design possible. Every detail, from the layout of the motherboard and multi-cell battery, to the placement of inertial sensors, mics and antennas, was purposefully designed to unlock an entirely new interaction model across two screens.

The best combination of Microsoft 365 and Androidâ¢ apps

We built Surface Duo to give people Microsoft 365 mobile experiences, every Android app in the Google Play store, and a seamless cross-device experience with your Windows 10 PC. We have worked to optimize apps including Office, Outlook, Teams, Edge, OneNote, OneDrive, Microsoft To Do and more for two screens, while continuing to extend Windows to add more value to people also using Android phones. With the Your Phone app on Surface Duo, you can get notifications and texts, make and receive calls, share photos and even mirror the dual-screen experience of your Duo right on your Windows PC. Easily copy and paste content between your Surface Duo and PC â no more sending yourself emails or texts to transfer information.

Surface has always played a role to push Windows forward by pioneering new experiences across hardware and software. With Surface Duo, we want to help shape the dual-screen category by providing consistency in the way customers experience it and developers design apps. So as we unlock new experiences with Duo, we are working closely with Google to make additions to the Android operating system, paving the way for more apps to take advantage of the full productivity power of two screens.

As a company, we are focused on delivering purposeful innovation â pushing the boundaries of existing categories to not just move technology forward, but to move people forward. So, with Surface Duo, we didnât focus our energy on the places the industry is already advancing â processors and networks will get faster, and cameras will get better with or without us. Instead, we went after something. As with any new category or form factor, people will find it fits into their lives and workflows in different ways. When we launched Surface Pro, not everyone believed a tablet could truly replace their laptop, until it did. It takes patience and conviction to do something different. Weâve been doing that for over seven years now at Surface and many of you have been on the journey with us. For the Surface fans, Microsoft 365 fans and Android fans who are ready to take that next step with us, we canât wait for you to experience Surface Duo.

Surface Duo is available for preorder in the U.S. today through MicrosoftStore.com, AT&T and BestBuy. It will be available in store and online beginning Sept. 10. Surface Duo will work on AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless networks. To learn more about Surface Duo for Business, commercial customers can connect with their local commercial reseller.

[1] Xbox Game Pass Ultimate coming Sept. 15.

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Source: https://blogs.windows.com/devices/20...-productivity/

See also: Surface Duo brings mobile productivity powered by two screens + M365 & Android apps

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Brink · Aug 12, 2020

Surface Duo SDK Preview is getting an update – Feb 20, 2020

Hello Dual Screen developers!

We are proud to be part of this growing community and excited to share with you the latest on the #SurfaceDuo SDK front in these devblogs.

Don’t forget to read our previous editions for additional Dev goodies, and let us know (feedback links below) on what else you would like us to cover.

For today’s blog on 02/20/2020, we are going to focus on the Surface Duo Emulator Image refresh (Yes, almost a palindrome, if you’re into numbers).

Summary of changes in the 02022020 update

We have spent the past few weeks with fixing some bugs with some great results. We have updated how we report the display size, modified the DisplayMask API to improve app compatibility, and fixed several bugs that our users have reported.

You can download the refresh image for Mac, Windows and Ubuntu using this link

In details:

Change #1: Changes to how size is reported to an App:

We have been busy setting up an App Compat lab where we test against the top apps from the Google Play Store.

We found some inconsistencies in how activity, window, and display metrics were returned to apps and games. We have made the changes to how size is reported so that the app gets sizes appropriate to the displays it is on. In the case of:

For apps on a single display, windows and display metrics will be related to a single display

For apps across both displays, window and display metrics will be in relation to both displays, including the display mask

Our Java and Kotlin samples have been updated to reflect this change.

Try it out on your app and let us know if you’ve seen any issues.

Change #2: Updates to DisplayMask API

Display Metrics based on apps window and DisplayMask API change to return hinge mask relative to apps window:

Display Mask has been updated to return a bounding rectangle relative to the display metrics based on the app context. When running in single screen the DisplayMask will now return an empty list it will not intersect with the window. When running in dual screen the display mask bounding rectangle shall identify the area under the hardware hinge in relation to the app window.

As consumer of this API apps run in one of the following scenarios:

App running in single screen mode: DisplayMask will be an empty list

App running in spanned mode: DisplayMask = hinge mask rectangle

Note: a service that created a view at any point will fall into one of the categories above

Change #3: Surface Duo Image Build Flavor is now a USER build and not USERDEBUG

This image refresh contains a USER build flavor which will result in less logging and faster image access within the emulator.

Note that the ADB commands will continue to work as usual without the need to enable Developer Options in settings.

Figure 1: The Surface Duo emulator image with Drag and Drop Sample

Behind the scenes on these changes:

If you’re interested in the behind the scenes on these changes, this section is for you.

Apps query their active window and active display information using a common class – android.view.Display.

The common behaviors and API’s within android.view.Display are:

Getting current App Windows metrics (getSize / getMetrics) which returns the display size available to the app adjusted for specific system décor (cut-outs, nav bar, etc.) and compatibility.

When called within an activity with an app window this returns the size available to the app with specific system décor subtracted.

When called within an activity without an app window this returns the full display size

Getting the current “real” display metrics (getRealSize / getRealMetrics) which returns the display size available to the active WindowManager adjusted by any rotation. “Real” in this context is at times Windows Manager may run in a smaller display than the actual full available display.

The Surface Duo Emulator Image supports these standard API’s that apps depend on, but the API’s will further define “real” display based on current posture and app context.

If you would like to read more “behind-the-scenes” content, please let us know on the Surface Duo feedback forum.

Microsoft Surface Duo Emulator definitions

The Surface Duo emulator image has two displays. The gap between both displays is 84 pixels. The entire virtual display is represented as 2784×1800.

Android abstracts pixel size and resolution into a display-independent pixel metric so apps can use a single metric across devices. This is calculated as:

dp = (width in pixels * 160) / screen density

[table][tr][td][/td] [td]Native resolution[/td] [td]Resolution in dp[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Single Display[/td] [td]1350 x 1800[/td] [td]540 x 720[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Dual Display + Mask[/td] [td]2784 x 1800[/td] [td]1114 x 720[/td] [/tr] [/table]

Per the Material Guidelines, this would be classified as:

[table][tr][td][/td] [td]dp[/td] [td]Classification[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Single Portrait Width[/td] [td]540dp[/td] [td]large handset[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Single & Dual Landscape Width[/td] [td]720dp[/td] [td]large handset[/td] [/tr] [/table]

Because the default behavior for any activity creating a window is to be launched on a single screen, the display metric return value to all non-windowed activities will also be updated to be the size of a single screen to reduce discrepancies in an app default launch behavior.

To keep within the bounds of a large handset, future Surface Duo devices would need to keep a single display within the bounds of:

Portrait Width of 400-599dp or 2.5” – 3.74” (Surface Duo Emulator is 3.375”)

Landscape width of 720-959dp or 4.5” – 5.99” (Surface Duo Emulator is 4.5”)

The minimum aspect ratio recommended for Android based phones is 4:3/3:4 (which is what Surface Duo is).

We’d love your feedback

We would love to hear from you about your experiences using the SDK and emulator.

Please reach out using our feedback forum and let us know how we can help you be more productive, ask questions, make suggestions, or upvote other suggestions.

Our online Docs are at https://docs.microsoft.com/dual-screen/ and in case you missed it, the https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV_6HOhwxYLXAGd-JOqKPoQ are now available.

And as always, you can message me on Twitter or GitHub.

Thank you,
Guy Merin, Development Manager, Surface Duo Developer Experience Team
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Source: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/surfa...te-feb-202020/

How to Install Windows 10X Dual Screen Emulator in Windows 10

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Brink · Aug 12, 2020

Microsoft introduces a Surface phone called Surface Duo

Surface Duo is the first Surface to fit in your pocket. Surface Duo brings together the best of Microsoft productivity experiences, Android apps and Surface hardware design into a single device you can take anywhere. And, yes, it makes phone calls. It has two paper-thin 5.6-inch screens that unfold to 8.3 inches, and just like Surface Neo, it can be used in a variety of modes to let you work the way youd like.

To support Surface Neo, we are introducing Windows 10X, an expression of Windows 10 designed for a new category of dual-screen PCs. With Surface Duo we are building upon Android to marry cutting edge hardware with familiar software and services. Were excited to work with developers and the industry to create the next wave of dual-screen computing and unlock a new era of mobile creativity.

The Surface Duo and Surface Neo will be coming in Holiday 2020.

Source:

Watch Microsoft Surface Hardware Event on October 2, 2019

Surface reveals new holiday lineup and introduces a new category of dual-screen devices built for mobile productivity | Microsoft Devices Blog

Introducing Windows 10X: enabling dual-screen PCs in 2020 | Windows Experience Blog

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Brink · Aug 12, 2020

New Microsoft Surface Duo Emulator Image build 2020.429.2

Hello Surface Duo developers!

Today we’re excited to release a refresh to our Microsoft Surface Duo Emulator Image.

It has been a few weeks since our last Surface Duo Emulator image release and the team has been very busy addressing your feedback and has added several new features and optimizations that are detailed below.

What’s new in updated build 2020.429.2

Support for using a keyboard in all posture and flip modes

App Drawer and App searches support

Improved Notifications support

Improved Settings and quick settings experience to support dual screens

Enhanced Camera experience (you can access that via the Emulator too!)

Several platform improvements to better support App Compat around rotation, resizing, fullscreen, and spanning scenarios

We have more improvements planned for future releases, so stay tuned to our blog for future updates.

Download the latest Emulator image

You can access the latest update here. It is recommended that you uninstall the previous version before you download and install the update.

Open source access to Surface Duo samples and helper functions

We are excited to announce that as part of this public update, we are making our Helper Functions, Layouts, and Controls code available on GitHub: GitHub - microsoft/surface-duo-sdk: Helper library for developing dual-screen Android apps for Surface Duo and open for contribution.

This code, along with our Kotlin and Java samples, helps developers to understand how to build dynamic layouts for dual-screen devices. You can use the issues list to provide feedback. Be sure to check out our contribution guidelines first and we’d love for you to participate.

You can also find the previously published Xamarin.Forms and React Native dual-screen SDKs on GitHub.

Invitation to Microsoft Build

We invite you to join us at Microsoft Build on May 19-21, a free48-hour online developer event. This unique event for developers brings together developers to help the world solve new challenges—sharing knowledge and staying connected is more important than ever. Join your community to learn, connect, and code—to expand your skillset today, and innovate for tomorrow. Among the many topics, we will feature a dedicated dual-screen session for C# developers where we’ll discuss our Surface Duo SDK as part of the React Native and WebPlat talks.

Register now for free.

Feedback

We’d love to hear from you!

Please leave us feedback using our feedback forum, or message me on Twitter or GitHub.

Guy Merin,
Developer Manager, Developer Experience Team
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Source: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/surfa...-to-libraries/

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Windows 10: Surface Duo available for preorder today

Surface Duo available for preorder today

Surface Duo available for preorder today

Surface Duo available for preorder today

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