Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet costs $999

Newsbrief: Microsoft's Surface Pro tablets will cost up to $999 when they launch in January, nearly double the price of the initial Surface Windows RT versions that launched last month. The Pro tablet, which runs Windows 8 Pro as opposed to Windows RT, will cost $899 for the 64GB version and $999 for the 128GB version, and come with a Surface pen with Palm Block technology. In comparison, the original RT models are priced at $499 for a 32GB model and $699 for the 64GB model. Other rival tablet makers, like Google and Amazon, offer smaller tablets that sell for as cheap as $199.