How's about this for a coincidence? We've just benchmarked the Snapdragon 800 reference tablet, with some very nice results, and now Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft will use a Qualcomm chip in its next refresh of the Surface RT. The report, based on insider sources, doesn't stretch to detailing whether we'll be looking at the flagship 800 processor specifically, but that'd seem like a logical upgrade for the current hybrid which runs on NVIDIA's Tegra 3 and already feels underpowered. As for NVIDIA, the same unconfirmed report suggests that the company will still have a role to play as a supplier "for some versions" of Microsoft's product. That's a curious notion, because it implies we might see multiple iterations of the Surface RT to suit different price points or markets (e.g., those with or without LTE), and at least one version of those could house a Tegra 4. Or it could simply be a diplomatic way of saying that the existing RT products will continue to be sold and supported for a while. Either way, if Microsoft doesn't implement the full force of Snapdragon, someone else hopefully will.
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If you joined us for the Xbox One reveal yesterday, you'll probably know that amidst all the excitement, we learned that a single Xbox Live Gold membership will cover both the 360 and the next-gen console. Good stuff -- no extra expenditure, subscription sign-ups or other irritations. But, it gets even better, as a couple of Microsoft bigwigs told Polygon that Live memberships can also used by multiple profiles. That means several accounts can be created on one console, for discrete friends lists, personal Home screens and the like, but they'll all be able to feed off the same subscription. We're not sure how this'll work exactly, but it already sounds better than the Gamertag-specific membership model on the 360, which is responsible for far too many amazing kill stats being lost to the dreaded "Guest" account. when.eng("eng.perm.init")