Last week I was invited to be on a panel at InterAct 2008 in Washington DC. There are lots of great social media pioneers in DC — some at the event included:
Debbie Weil, author the the must-have Corporate Blogging Book
InterAct2008 was one of DC’s first two-day gatherings for social computing enthusiasts and companies. It has some solid momentum, and I hope to see an even bigger event for DCers next year.
After the closing “Growing Your Business Through Social Media” panel, I asked Frank Gruber to share his take, tips and look ahead to test driving WiMAX this week in Baltimore.
As an Intel Insider, Frank grabbed our WiMAX event invite and is getting himself to the event, where my Intel pals are setting him up to test drive a Lenovo laptop tricked out with Intel’s Centrino 2 technology and built-in WiMAX.
Frank is prolific at shooting photos and videos then often sharing his media online, on-the-scene, allowing him to get his work done before he gets home. Having even higher speed wireless Internet connection than he’s used to just might help him be even more prolific…and get home earlier!
Frank will join others gathering around the Baltimore’s Bond Street Wharf Park to see WiMAX in action and hear from:
Wednesday is the day…Sprint-Nextel and its XOHM unit, Intel and several partners will be in Baltimore to officially unveil the U.S.’s first 4G network based on WiMAX. Creating and deploying a tailor-made network for broadband wireless Internet access, speedy Intel-based laptops and voice has been an almost six year goal of Intel, and key to our company’s ongoing push to a more ‘mobile’ Internet.
Much of our focus has been on creating the processors, accompanying chipset products, network and entirely new devices such as MIDs and net-books to achieve this vision. Using our reinvented transistors and unique manufacturing capabilities, we’re able to build tinier chips that increase performance for things like video, music downloads and all those social networking sites and tools. And we do this in a way that extends battery life, reduces electricity costs and creates stunningly skinny and light computers with uninhibited Internet access in all kinds of sexy shapes and sizes.
But enough about Intel. Sprint turned on Baltimore’s network on September 29th. What have some media had to say about the network, which is literally in its infancy stage as Sprint goes neighborhood by neighborhood to unwire, test and expand reach throughout the city?
Here’s some snippets on some initial products selling out at stores, along with some great, good and mixed signal speed testing. And, how it feels not to be tethered to a wire, and/or 1000 square foot wireless hotspot or slow cell phone Internet connection. Especially when trying to upload those instant photos and videos. Want to see a video on WiMAX, go here.
I’ve seen the BenQ before, but not the whole Italian package. I did get to see some of the promotional materials working their way to Internet savvy Italians. Hope they make it to my family and friends in Calabria!
A famous punk anthem jostled through my mind today after seeing California Governor Arnold Schwarzeneger at Intel headquarters celebrating California as the first state ever to be named “official partner” of the enormous and enormously successful tech trade show CeBIT, held every year in Hannover, Germany.
Intel’s been at CeBIT showcasing cutting edge Information and Communication Technologies at CeBIT for many years.
That and the fact that Intel has been a technology innovator for more than 40 years…well I guess it made sense to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s team that the CeBIT announcement ought to be celebrated inside Intel headquarters.
It’s great to see all the momentum out there in netbook-land. These simple little internet devices, while limited in their capability, are generating a lot of buzz out there. That’s a good thing, and Intel has certainly been behind this trend with a great little energy efficient processor called Atom. But as with anything new and exciting and different there are bound to be misperceptions.
We’ve seen some really innovative Atom-based netbooks—-from Dell, Acer, Asus, MSI (be sure and check out the “love” edition), and others. But there’s also been some confusion as to what constitutes a netbook. We’ve seen full featured laptops with 160G hard drives and $700+ price points referred to as netbooks. We’ve seen full featured laptops with multiple expansion slots running Vista compared to the Intel Classmate PC and the Asus Eee PC, both of which are more clearly in the netbook category.
It’s important to note what a netbook really is: a basic, single function device designed primarily for internet consumption. They are great for this purpose — browsing, checking email, social networking, etc. But buyers may be disappointed if they expect to do video editing, watch full length movies, and multi-task with multiple applications running as they would a traditional laptop computer. As awesome as this little Atom processor is — the smallest chip Intel makes with the world’s smallest transistors — in netbooks, it is not meant to replace the rich user experience one gets from the Core 2 Duo or Intel Centrino 2 Processor technology based machines.
Imagine strolling through the Colosseum wirelessly connected to the Internet and sharing the experience with the world using the video camera on you mobile Internet device!
BenQ booted up its Intel Atom-based MID this week in Italy thanks to the TIM network, and Engadget wrote “Let’s get these out to other nooks and crannies of the wide world, eh BenQ?”
Here’s a look at the Alice Mobile MID S6 (a.k.a Aries2), from Slashgear.
We’re starting to see more Intel Atom-powered devices like the BenQ to hit the mainstream due to hard work by device makers, Internet service providers and the development community. And it’ll take the buzz from enthusiasts spreading their desire to have one for their social and family networking — here’s “Chick digs MIDs” video roundtable chat with Intel Insiders, employees and Steve Paine I shot at IDF in San Francisco for Intel Atom Software Community guru Jeff Moriarty.
As the August IDF was caming to a close, I grabbed my video camera and asked Steve and Jeff what’s ahead for Intel Atom-powered MIDs and some of the Netbooks they as at the event.
In addition for keeping my eye out for the new Clarion release in the U.S., there are some upcoming events I’m watching, hoping to stay in sync with rise and spread of MIDs:
The head of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, Anand Chandrasekher is keynoting at Ceatac next Tuesday, September 30.
Intel Developer Forum in Tiapei October 20-21, where Anand and his team will share the latest insights on Intel Atom with developers.
On September 20 Gordon Moore was awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor, the Institute’s highest award, in a ceremony in Quebec City, Canada. He is being recognized for his contributions to the advancement of semiconductor technology, both as an engineer and entrepreneur. I can think of no more deserving individual in our industry. Gordon was one of Intel’s co-founders and served over periods of time as CEO and chairman of the board. This is the entrepreneur and manager side of Gordon, and Intel wouldn’t have survived its turbulent early years and risen to the top of the semiconductor industry without his leadership. But Gordon was always a process engineer at heart, always interested in the latest technological advances that propelled Intel to the leading edge first of memory technology, then of microprocessor technology. When I was elected to the position of Intel Fellow it was Gordon who introduced me at the awards ceremony, an honor that I will never forget.
One of Intel’s key competitive advantages is the “Tick-Tock” chip design and manufacturing method. To help Intel shareholders — like me, my family and many friends — better understand how this Tick-Tock method really works, my pals inside Intel’s Investor Relations created this video with Intel CIO Dianne Bryant.
Intel’s Sean Maloney got to literally test drive Clearwire’s upcoming WiMAX network while visiting Portland, Oregon a few weeks ago.
Check out the promise of a WiMAX network - the ability someday soon to drive around town and always be connected. Just how many people in one car downloaded e-mail, streamed high-def video, made a clear Skype phone call and tested Internet radio? What wireless speeds did they hit while driving around town on one connection? What are the (hefty) differences in the scope of equipment needed for a 2G cell tower vs. a WiMAX one?
It’s been a milestone year for WiMAX. At IDF two weeks agoDell and Sony joined several others in publicly committing to adding WiMAX to some of their laptop models. Sprint XOHM will light up its first US city, Baltimore, next month. Efforts around the world sprout up virtually every day.
A second proposed and somewhat similar network called LTE is now hoping to move its own network availability timeframe in from 2012. We plan to ship our first ever Wi-Fi/WiMAX product later this year in the U.S. for our popular Centrino 2 laptops.
And of course, the big U.S. news - the proposed formation and $3+ billion joint investment in a new Clearwire company, backed by Sprint, Comcast, Google, Time Warner and others. That, and the Open Patent Alliance effort for easier and more open intellectual property rights should further speed WiMAX adoption.
For me, the Intel Developer Forum is a place to witness real progress, talk with tech demo lab gurus and test drive new devices and services before many of them hit the market.
I learn a lot about the engineering wonders being built into the latest chips — turbo mode for the new Nehalem-designed chips — but getting my hands on things like new laptops, mobile Internet Devices and netbooks helps me set my sights on how new technologies can help me experience my interest (photos, video making, collecting information, travel) in new ways.
I got to spend time with the super nice and wise Steve “Chippy” Paine from UMPCPortal.com, who keenly tested and collecting information of just about every MID and Netbook at IDF.
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