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.
So……I’ve got some big news today in the world of demos (and things demo related). We did a live piece of video at Intel Headquarters today for a sneak announcement from our friends over at BigStage.com. And your favorite demo guy has all the goodies for a new hot web and content tool that internet users can really get their heads into.
Big Stage allows users to create their online “@ctor”, a digital avatar of themselves from just a few clicks of a regular digital camera. Now, this is something we’ve seen for a while now, but BigStage takes it to the next step. With the tools from BigStage, you can alter and manipulate costumes and expressions to give life to your creation, and put that “actor” directly into internet content.
That’s right. Ever wanted to see yourself in the Mona Lisa? I’ve done it. Play a cameo on your favorite TV sitcom? Been there. Digitizing yourself over Michael Phelps, so it looks like you hitting the wall for your 8th Olympic gold, and then send to all of your Facebook contacts? Priceless.
Check out Johnathan Streitzel from Big Stage talk to us about today’s big announcement.
There you go. An internet application with nearly limitless possibilities, something that always makes a demo guy drool (……don’t say I never did anything for ya). And today, it available to the non-nerd, non-geek internet viewing public. Oh, and did I mention that it’s free? It is. So load it up now, and show the MySpacers and Facebookers out there something that will really make their jaws drop. Social networkers UNITE!!!!
Lets face it, unless you have the time to really follow the technology space closely, its likely you have been left behind on at least one of the more recent online communication tools. Keeping up on texting to IM to MySpace to Twitter can be overwhelming and even intimidating. As a parent, it can be even more so as there is never enough time in a day to get everything accomplished you need to. Even as an aunt, technology is the one sure fire way to connect with my 14-year-old niece who seems to text more than any other human on the planet. Without text, I’m sure I’d ‘talk’ with her much less than I do.
Here at Intel, we’ve put together a great resource for parents to demonstrate that communicating with their kids (or family or friends) in an online world really can be easy and accessible. With kids back in school - it may be one of your best bets at reaching your child on the go. You can find the guide here. Don’t be left in the dark; check it out and start building your accounts on your Intel-powered PC, mobile phone or Mobile Internet Device (aka MID). And if you happen to need a place to check out the ins and outs of PC-buying as well as other tips and tricks, PC.com is my go-to. Happy back-to-school!
Even before the Intel Centrino mobile technology mantra hit the scene in 2003, driving up laptop performance and increasing battery life required more than better, more efficient processors. It took a holistic approach of building efficiency into just about every component and feature — from the integrated wireless chips to smarter screens, better batteries and hard drives.
At IDF this week, I was eager to learn more about solid state drives (SSD), which are starting to become available in new laptops and other computers hitting the market. I grabbed an Intel SSD on the IDF Showcase floor, even juggle a few the wallet-sized solid state hard drives. They are nifty.
Last September, just prior to the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco 2007, I met up with Intel’s Mark Parker, who gave us a sneak peak at a wafer filled with Intel Atom processors (back then codenamed Silverthorne). Seeing a few of the prototype devices helped open my imagination to what these future mobile Internet devices (MIDs) could do.
In March of this year, I caught up with Ultra Mobility Group guru Uday Keshavdas just as his team was packing up MIDs for IDF Shanghai 2008. In this video he cracks an Atom powered MID open so we could see the Atom chip and guts inside.
Uday met with me the other day to show three Intel Atom-powered devices that will be on hand this week at IDF San Francisco, the special Oylmpic edition Lenovo ideapad. See him touch the screen and finger scroll through the IDF Blog.
Intel Software Community’s Jeff Moriarty will have the special edition Lenovo in San Francisco later today and through Thursday. Watch for meet up Tweets and posts — more details in his recent IDF blog.
802.11 Draft-N is hot – up to 300 Mbps of bandwidth today with up to 450 Mbps of bandwidth tomorrow. But did you know that not all 802.11 Draft-N products are the same? To be a connoisseur of these differences, a little background is required.
The dramatic performance and range improvements of 802.11 Draft-N didn’t just come out of thin air. Well, actually they did thanks in large part to MIMO (pronounced my moh). Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) is a wireless breakthrough that takes on the physics of wireless signals by exploiting a radio-wave phenomenon called multipath. When a radio sends a signal, that signal will start to weaken as the distance from the transmitter increases. In addition, that signal can also get reflected and/or absorbed by walls, doors, or other obstacles resulting in weaker copies of the original radio signal.
Wi-Fi has given us the freedom to connect to other computers and the Internet without wires. Wi-Fi is now spreading its wings into the world of consumer electronic (CE) devices. Everything from MP3 players and digital cameras to printers and projectors are jumping on the Wi-Fi bandwagon. And there’s much more to come.
Intel’s Cliffside project will take wireless freedom one giant step further with Wi-Fi PAN (Personal Area Network) technology that will transform an Intel® Centrino® 2 notebook with an Intel® WiFi Link 5000 Series adapter into your own personal wireless network for seamlessly connecting and managing these CE devices.
Whenever we’re asked to embrace something new, it’s rarely good to blindly accept things without exploring the change as an opportunity for improvement. You take the opportunity to look back and carry forward the best stories and achievements. It’s like taking those ingredients mixed with a dash of where you want to go…and baking the future.
All laptops were tuned to Intel Centrino 2 inside the Mezzanine in San Francisco on Monday. Good thing for me because I’m hunting for a new notebook, something small and powerful for editing HD video and photos on the go.
Most of us are eager to get the best bang for our buck, so when new technology comes out we’re forced to redo our homework. That’s how I felt at the launch event — see photos. There are so many sweet, new laptops to choose from with more on the way.
So far topping my list is the nifty Sony V series, but I’m digging around for at least another week. Please help me with my homework and share what’s topping your list. I saw lots of people on Twitter sharing their favorite Centrino 2 laptop picks already. Even Engadget has some rapid fire snapshots of many of the fresh notebooks, most of them in black or dark gray finish…just what I like!
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