Up until now, Microsoft has reserved its customized NVIDIA GPU configuration to the more expensive Surface Book models, meaning the budget tier was locked out. But now the catalogue has been updated and Microsoft now offers dGPU options to every Surface Book make and model--for a price.

If you plan to opt in for the dual-GPU solution for the Windows 10-powered laptop, Microsoft tacks on an extra $200 to the retail price. $200 might sound like a lot, but the difference is pretty substantial: default Surface Book models come equipped with Intel's integrated Iris Graphics, and the extra cash will unlock a second graphics solution, a custom Maxwell-based NVIDIA GPU that will enable more graphically-intense workloads.

Equipped with the second dGPU in the keyboard base, the budget Surface Book with a Skylake Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB RAM and a 128GB HDD now rises to $1,699. We've reported that the Surface Book's custom NVIDIA GPU is actually equal to a GeForce 940M with 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM.

Xbox Australia plans to show off live Halo 5 gameplay footage on the world's most gigantic aerial screen in a bid to promote 343i's new shooter.

Microsoft really wants the world to know about Halo 5, and the Redmond-based tech giant is pulling out all the stops in one of the most memorable promotional showcases in gaming. At 7:30PM on the eve of Halo 5's launch, October 26, Xbox's Australia division will broadcast live Halo 5 gameplay onto a massive floating screen 2,000 feet in the air.

The huge floating screen has a projected path down the coastline from Curl Curl to Coogee, where it will fly back and forth a single time. The team boasts that the screen can be seen from over 3 kilometers (9842 feet) away. Plus Xbox affirms that the broadcast won't be sent from the ground: a fan will be picked to play the game remotely via helicopter, hinting that the player will be able to use the giant floating viewscreen. "A lucky fan in Australia will play "Halo 5: Guardians" from a helicopter flying over Sydney, as gameplay is broadcasted via a screen suspended from a second helicopter," reads the official announcement on Major Nelson's website.

With its new autonomous, electric DeLorean, Stanford University has all the other Back To the Future Day creations beat.

Named after the film's iconic hoverboard-riding don't-call-me-chicken Marty McFly, Stanford's self-driving DeLorean was built in conjunction with the Revs Program at Stanford and Renovo Motors, and stands as the team's newest research project.

"We want to design automated vehicles that can take any action necessary to avoid an accident," said Chris Gerdes, a Stanford professor of mechanical engineering who orchestrated the project. "The laws of physics will limit what the car can do, but we think the software should be capable of any possible maneuver within those limits. MARTY is another step in this direction, thanks to the passion and hard work of our students. Stanford builds great research by building great researchers."

Microsoft has been quiet about the GPU specifications for its 2-in-1 Surface Book, so enthusiastic Reddit users took to the Microsoft Store, sneakily installed GPU-Z on Surface Books, and found out for themselves what's inside.

The results may be familiar to you, as they're not unlike the 940M. The custom hardware is an upgrade though, including 1GB dedicated GDDR5 RAM, among other things. You can see the specs in the images here, as well as in the rundown below.

Operating System: Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit

Xiaomi has just unveiled its latest 60-inch 4K TV, with the new Mi TV 3 featuring the aforementioned 4K resolution, but it is a truly different 'smart' TV.

The Xiaomi 60-inch 4K Mi TV 3 features something that looks suspiciously close to a soundbar, but it's far from just an audio device. Inside of the speaker, there's an MStar 6A928 processor, 2GB of DDR3 RAM and 8GB of flash storage. When this soundbar is connected to the Mi Port on the 60-inch 4K TV, it'll also run power through the cable, while providing you with access to MIUI TV. MIUI TV is Xiaomi's Android-based smart TV platform.

The Mi TV Bar can be purchased separately, and works with any TV, monitor or projector - which is a nice bonus. Xiaomi says that a TV's motherboard represents 20% of the overall cost of the TV, so by removing these components out of the TV and into a separate device, Xiaomi hopes you'll upgrade and replace your TV's motherboard more often - keeping the glorious 60-inch 4K panel, instead of buying an entire new TV set.

Today Lenovo announced its new line of Windows 10 devices, branded as the Yoga 900 line. The most eye-catching of the new hardware is the massive all-in-one that takes the term "desktop" quite literally, bringing huge size as well as huge potential.

Lenovo's Yoga Home 900 isn't made for on-the-go use; as its name implies, it's optimized more for a home-based experience. Its massive 27-inch full HD 10-point touch display can be set at an angle for traditional browsing on or doing work across Windows 10 apps, or it can be laid flat for some competitive air hockey with the family. It weighs just 16 pounds, so you can easily heft it from room to room without worrying about a cumbersome bulk or the device bending under its own weight.

The tabletop PC has some beefy specs under the hood, with Broadwell class Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, a dedicated NVIDIA GPU (up to a 2GB VRAM GeForce 940A), up to 8GB of RAM and up to 1TB of onboard SSHD storage. The six-cell battery is lacking, only supporting up to 3-hours of usage per charge, but given the huge 27-inch display, that's to be expected.

Researchers have discovered there are 256 apps on the App Store that have found their way around Apple's vetting process and violated privacy rights. All of them use the Chinese-developed Youmi SDK. In total, approximately one million people use the apps in question.

To be clear, the developer of any of these apps is not necessarily to blame at all. It appears Youmi is the one interested in acquiring your data, and has insidiously worked gathering tools into its development kit, thereby attempting to cover its tracks and pass the blame onto developers, should the scheme be uncovered.

Nate Lawson, founder of security analytics startup SourceDNA (which uncovered the violations), says this is "definitely the kind of stuff that Apple should have caught."

MSI has announced that its new compact and lightweight GS40 Phantom is now available to ship out, giving an edge to consumers who want to take high-performance enthusiast-grade gaming on the go.

The GS40 Phantom packs in all the latest trappings you'd expect in a high-grade gaming rig into a 3.5 lbs package, making it the "world's thinnest and lightest gaming laptop". Although it's so portable, the laptop sports serious hardware with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M GPU, 16GB of onboard DDR4 RAM clocked at 2133 MHz, and a sixth-gen Intel Core i7-6700HQ CPU clocked at 3.5GHz with Turbo Boost. The display is a 14" non-reflective full HD screen at 1920 x 1080 resolution with a 16:9 aspect ratio and True Color support. For blistering-fast game loading, the Phanom sports a high-performance PCIe Gen 3.0 SSD configured in NVMe to deliver read speeds over 2,200 MB/s.

"The GS40 Phantom is a breakthrough in design that combines the power of bigger gaming laptops with the portability of a netbook," said MSI president Andy Tung. "The GS40 Phantom does not scale back on performance just to be lighter or thinner, it complements its svelte physique with technologies not even found in larger units."

AMD CEO and President Lisa Su affirmed her company's commitment to high performance x86 CPUs in its earnings call last week, for anyone in doubt following the recent news of financial troubles.

"In terms of long-term roadmap we are extremely committed to high performance x86 CPUs," she says. "And there should be no confusion on that point. [Chief Technology Officer] Mark Papermaster is currently directly engaging with the team on that execution and we'll have more details to come. But [we're] overall pleased with the execution and it continues to be our number one priority for the company."

More, she states Zen's impressive target 40% IPC performance is "on track" and that multiple FinFET designs have been taped out (meaning design is finalized, and the chips need only be produced).

Google's new Marshmallow-flavored, fingerprint-toting flagship Nexus duo--the affordable Nexus 5X and premium Nexus 6P--went on sale today, and to celebrate Google is handing out instant invites to its Project Fi cellular network.

If you've been waiting to get in on Google's own Project Fi connection, now's your chance: the tech titan will answer all requests with an instant invite to join up within the next 24 hours. All you have to do is sign up here. The service normally requires an invite to get in, and not all applications for an invite are met quickly--you often to have to wait quite some time on backlists to join.

Google's Project Fi starts at $20 per month for unlimited domestic talk and text, and even lets you use your phone as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot to power other devices. Users pay an extra $10 per GB of data they plan to use after the intial $20 basic plan, and their unused data always rolls over to the next month. Project Fi is currently limited to the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P and Nexus 6, but if you're in the market for a new phone, Amazon currently has a great sale on a Nexus 6 for $349.