posted by Kari Aakre on October 29, 2008
Ever thought that if you could just have some say in what your PC looked like, how it worked, or what it DIDN’T do (like no blue screens, more USB outlets, etc), you’d have the perfect PC? Have you ever thought about designing a PC yourself? Well, now you can at a new site called www.WePC.com that Intel and Asus launched today. At WePC.com, people can propose ideas and designs for netbooks, notebooks and gaming notebooks.
What I really like about this site is that it makes use of the power of community and people coming together with their ideas and talents to explore together what the ideal PC would be. It kind of reminds me of what Dell has done with their popular Idea Storm site, where consumers can help influence product design and development. WePC.com provides the capability to collaborate and comment on each other’s designs and ideas and discuss those ideas with other members of the community. You can share your designs through the book-marking, Facebook or other social accounts you normally use and encourage friends, family and other members of the community to vote on your submission, too.
Already there have been some great posts with people submitting photos and using graffiti to show off what their dream PC would look like, including a design for a waterproof laptop. Given how many times I’ve spilled coffee and water on my laptop, this would certainly be ideal for me. I also live in one of the rainiest cities in the U.S., so I LOVE anything waterproof!
If you’re not into designing, you can also just post your ideas. I’ve seen ideas posted around incorporation of touch screens, use of GPUs, and an internal wireless USB hub adapter.
Asus and Intel will use the feedback and the creativity from the WePC.com community to influence the design for an actual PC built by Asus with Intel inside.
So, put your creative thinking caps on, go to WePC.com and join the budding group of PC designers!
Comments (4)
tagged: Asus, Intel, Netbook, notebook, PC, WePC.com
posted by Kiesha Cochrane on October 29, 2008
Love them or hate them, without Honey Bee’s we won’t survive. Bee’s pollinate the everyday foods we eat making them vital to our way of life. The honey bee population here in the US is in critical condition from what scientists are calling “Colony Collapse Disorder” or CCD where bees leave their hives to pollinate and never return. What is causing CCD is still unknown.
Comments (0)
tagged: intel, intel research, technology, video
posted by Ken Kaplan on October 27, 2008
Roman aqueducts brought life sustaining water to major cities and areas vital to the Empire. Many consider the aqueducts one of the most important engineering feats in the past 2,000 years.
I wonder what they’ll say about WiMAX?
I’ve been watching from Inside Intel for over five years as WiMAX research grew from a tall tube atop our offices in Hillsboro, Oregon to antennae in Utah streaming feature films to a theater during the Sundance Film Festival.
This month we got to see another WiMAX reality when Sprint’s XOHM home and mobile WiMAX service became available to Baltimore residents.
Leading up to the celebration event on October 8, many of us old-timers inside Intel knew something historic was happening. So we capture video, photos and soundbites for the record. Here are some highlights:
I like what the New York Times wrote about WiMAX recently:
What if you could take along your strong and speedy home Wi-Fi connection wherever you go?That’s the idea behind a new service from Sprint called Xohm, which takes Wi-Fi to its logical extreme. Fittingly, the technology behind it is called WiMax. Although it isn’t widely deployed in the United States, a test run of the service in Baltimore, where it was recently introduced, suggests that it could one day become a solid option for getting things done online and even making phone calls while on the go.
What’s Next?
Comments (0)
tagged: Centrino 2, Intel, Intel Insiders, Somewhat Frank, Sprint, WiMAX, XOHM
posted by Connie Brown on October 24, 2008
My days are filled with bites and bytes and feeds and speeds. It’s all about technology and for the most part pretty cold and clinical. Sometimes I lose sight of the amazing caring things people are actually doing with technology.
I was recently reminded when one of my friend’s 2 year old son was diagnosed with Leukemia. While he and his family have a tough, long road ahead he should be cured after his treatments. As with many unexpected illnesses it happened very fast.
Technology can help bring people together in those troubling times. My friend and her husband were told by the hospital and other families there about CaringBridge
It’s a great tool that allows families (at no charge!) to set up a webpage with photos, journal and guestbook. They can put all the updates on the webpage so that friends and family are updated on what is going on and the families are not having to repeat themselves or wondering who they’ve told what to whom.
As a person getting the updates I can just go in and look at the updates or get proactive notifications every time the care journal is updated. It’s been an easy way to stay connected.
And the really cool thing is that it’s not unique. There are many sites for people to stay connected. For example, Intel’s collaboration with the National Family Caregivers Association to develop the ConnectingForCare.com site, the first online community of its kind to connect the more than 50 million caregivers in the U.S. There are also sharing sites for patients that were highlighted in the New York Times today .
I like working for a company whose technology makes it possible for these sites to be developed for people to connect, share information and provide emotional support.
Comments (0)
tagged: healthcare, Intel, social media, technology
posted by Connie Brown on October 17, 2008
I’m doing some research on some of the latest laptops for an upcoming event and I came across an interesting new offering from Asus. Notebooks that not only have cool designs, but they are scented as well. You can check them out here.
There are a few to choose from: Vital. Grass scent. Hmmm that might help me to remember to remind my husband to mow the lawn.
Bloom. Floral scent and nice design - what’s not to love (unless you’re not manly enough to carry a pink floral scented notebook).
Extreme. I like the design, but perfume really isn’t too descriptive of the scent.
Surf. Ocean fragrance. It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer tried to sell Calvin Klein on his Beach scent.
This leads me to many questions … Have you tried them out yet? How do they smell? Should notebooks smell? What should your laptop smell like?
Comments (0)
tagged: Asus, Centrino, Intel, laptops, notebooks, perfume
posted by David Angell on October 16, 2008
I remember when I got my first 802.11b Wi-Fi network at home. Back then 11Mbps easily handled the demands of my small digital world. But the digital contents of my life grew in size. 802.11g Wi-Fi came along with 54Mbps. When I got it, my digital camera took 3 megapixel pictures, my camcorder used standard definition, and my hard drive was a few GB. Now my camcorder is high-def, my digital camera takes 10 megapixel photos, my media player can stuff a 100+ GBs of music, videos, and pictures. Once again, a new Wi-Fi has arrived to handle it.
802.11 Draft-N packs a punch with up to 300Mbps of Wi-Fi power (5x the speed of 802.11a/g networks) and up to 2x the range. But did you know not all 802.11 Draft-N products are the same? Now there’s a 450Mbps version of 802.11 Draft-N—that’s up to 50% better performance!
Comments (0)
tagged: 802.11, draftn, intelcentrino2, intelultimatenwifilink5300, intelwifilink5300, wifi, wireless
posted by Bill Calder on October 14, 2008
Many people had asked when the first Nehalem-based processors were going to be available. For those who have been watching, Intel confirmed today that the initial processors based on this new architecture began shipping to customers in Q3, and we will officially launch the new (Core i7) products this month (update—the day is November 17).
So get ready, the industry’s first dynamically scalable architecture with new levels of performance and energy efficiency is coming soon.
For more on this innovative new microarchitecture, see here. For more on the launch, including when systems will be available, stay tuned to Technology@Intel.
Comments (35)
tagged: bloomfield, Core, Core i7, desktop, extreme edition, high performance processors, Intel, nehalem
posted by Ken Kaplan on October 09, 2008
When you invite Intel Insider Somewhat Frank to a party, meeting or even to speak on a panel, this is what you can count on:
He lives the digital lifestream of a man who is not just somewhat on the move, but always in the groove helping people connect and try new technologies.
That was the case yesterday in Baltimore, where Frank gave me an dozens of online viewers videos streams of him arriving at the WiMAX event and test driving just about every technology demo on the scene, from water taxi to bus rides around the city.
As the day was winding down, we got him in front of the camera to hear his take.
Comments (0)
tagged: Baltimore, Centrino 2, Intel Insider, Intel Insiders, Somewhat Frank, Sprint, WiMAX, XOHM
posted by Ken Kaplan on October 07, 2008
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:
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:
Comments (2)
tagged: Intel Insider, Intel Insiders, InterAct2008, Somewhat Frank, Sprint., WiMAX
posted by Bill Kircos on October 06, 2008
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.
[PC Magazine] PC Magazine again InformationWeek Gearlog: http://www.gearlog.com/2008/09/xohmwimaxspeedtestresults.php Laptop Magazine
Comments (0)
tagged: Centrino 2, Sprint, WiMAX, wireless, Xohm
posted by Ken Kaplan on October 06, 2008
BenQ’s MID S6 with Intel Atom processor is now available in Italy, and last week many of my friends were asking: Have you seen it?
Well, yes and no.
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!
Comments (5)
tagged: Alice, BenQ, Intel Atom, MID, Mobile Internet Device, TIM
posted by Ken Kaplan on October 02, 2008
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.
SiliconValleyWatcher and Intel Insider Tom Foremski was nestled in the front row ahead of a swath of media filling Intel’s Executive Briefing Center. Tom reported:
Comments (1)
tagged: California, CeBIT, innovation, Intel, Schwarzenegger
del.icio.us