We haven’t received word on this week’s Xbox Windows Phone release just yet, but the Deal of the Week seems to have popped up for some people already. Prepare for some good news: Civilization Revolution from 2K Games is the new sale title, marked down from $2.99 to $1.99.

Microsoft is now sending out emails alerting people to the pre-order time for the Surface RT, which was just announced this morning for pricing and details.

Starting at 9AM Pacific and 12PM Eastern time, if you head to the Surface.com you should be able to place your pre-order today for a guaranteed delivery on October 26^th. [Edit: And we just checked, preorders are now live and happening]

We told you that you have to get used to seeing these side-by-side videos of the Nokia Lumia 920’s video camera in action. That’s because optical image stabilization in a smartphone is kind of a big deal for camera technology—it’s really a big step forward and one of the first real innovations since BSI hit the scene.

The video above, hailing from Russia we presume, shows the Lumia 920 mounted to the inside windshield of a car as it drives over train tracks and some bumpy terrain. It’s compared to…well, we’re not sure, as our Cyrillic translator is a bit off today. But the point should be clear that when OIS is used for video, it actually makes a huge difference in terms of quality. Needless to say, we can’t wait to try it.

Source: YouTube; via Reddit

Ever since the Microsoft Surface was announced there has been some discussion about its power adapter. That may seem like an topic to focus on but it is only because Microsoft appears to be borrowing a great feature from Apple: its magnetic power plug.

For those of you who don’t use Apple products, their laptops have a plug that “magically” sticks to the computer and charges via a tiny magnetic port. The benefit here is less wear and tear on the connector and if you accidently pull the plug or trip on the wire, it just pops off instead of dragging the laptop to the floor. It’s actually really nice.

With the Surface you’re going to have the same experience. In fact, the plug looks remarkably like Apple’s (they both have 5 prongs), which makes us wonder if Microsoft is licensing the technology from Cupertino [Edit: Turns out Microsoft has a patent on it]. Personally, we see this as a big selling point as once you go magnetic, you won’t ever want to fiddle with standard laptop power adapters again.

Source: Suning; via WPDang

We recently touched on Best Buy gearing for its pre-orders of the HTC 8X, which is likely to be available in-store (and online) on AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. As well as this tip, Windows Phone Central also received captures of upcoming promotion material that detailed Windows 8 hardware, both pricing and specification highlights.

Too much or just right?

This morning Microsoft announced the pricing of the Surface RT tablet, which will come in at $499 for the 32 GB base price with the keyboards coming in extra. If you opt for a 64GB version with a Touch Cover, you’re looking at $699.

So far, reactions have been mixed as most people were expecting something more dramatic for the price (and those earlier $199 rumors of course did not help). We’re okay with the price because we know Microsoft could not undercut their OEM partners who would have surely bailed on making their own tablets if Microsoft was going to exploit their obvious advantage.

A Windows Phone Central reader, who chooses to remain anonymous, has sent us photos of Best Buy's upcoming store ad for October 21-27 that lists the HTC 8X as available for pre-order, both in-store and online. The flyer fails to list carrier or pricing information, but the depicted device is AT&T branded. We know from previous announcements that Verizon and T-Mobile will also be getting HTC's flagship WP8 phone. Being that Best Buy offers phones from those carriers as well, it wouldn't be shocking to find the 8X up for pre-order from all three on the same day.

The 8X is HTC's premium Windows Phone 8 offering. It sports a 4.3” Super LCD2 display with Gorilla Glass2 at 720P resolution, a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm S4 CPU, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It also has a 8MP camera and NFC. HTC is hoping to set the 8X apart from the competition by partnering with Beats Audio to include advanced audio software and a 2.55v amplifier for increased sound quality.

Thanks, for the pics, Anonymous!

Ghost Motel is a puzzle game for your Windows Phone that lays out a collection of riddles and puzzles that are dying to be solved.

The storyline has the Ghost Motel filled with over fifty ghosts that inhabit the various floors of the Motel. The ghosts are in need of help and it's your job to work your way through the Motel, solving the puzzle and in turn helping out the ghosts.

The puzzles are one to a room and each floor has five rooms. The word puzzles are rather challenging and as you help the ghosts, additional floors become unlocked.

Microsoft unveiled its plan to release a family of Windows tablets branded Surface. From that point onwards, we've waited patiently, speculating what the pricing could be. Today Microsoft has revealed the pricing for both of the available ARM-based Surface RT tablets on its online store. So, how much are we required to save before looking to make the purchase?

We reported on those surface ads yesterday and so intrigued were we, that we got in touch with Mathieu to send us some more.

The original photo we posted didn’t quite do the Surface graffiti justice, so we’re pleased Mathieu got back to us with four new shots to show off.