Microsoft's most fascinating announcement today was the introduction of its Surface Dial accessory. It's a Bluetooth-powered puck that can sit on your desk or attach to the new Surface Studio display to provide contextual radial menus that you can interact with. It feels like a new form of input alongside a touchscreen, stylus, and traditional keyboard / mouse, and the Surface Studio won't be the only device to benefit from it.

While you'll be able to use the Surface Dial with any Windows 10 PC, Microsoft is also working on a firmware update to let Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 owners attach the Dial to their display and have the same functionality as the Surface Studio. Microsoft's head of devices and Windows, Terry Myerson, revealed the planned firmware update in an interview with The Verge today.

There's no exact date on the firmware update apart from early next year, but it does mean existing Surface owners will be able to transform their existing devices into mobile equivalents of the Surface Studio. The screen size is obviously a lot smaller to work on and not as high resolution, but the fact these older devices can sense the puck and let you interact with it directly on the display will open up Surface Pro and Surface Book devices to the best way to experience this new input tool.