• ces,  intel

    Intel Unveils Full Broadwell Processor Line at CES 2015

    January 6, 2015 /

    Today at the Consumer Electronics Show, Intel has unveiled their full “Broadwell” processor line.

    The Family Legacy Continues
    The arrival of the 5th generation Intel® Core™ processor family ushers in a new age of computing. Manufactured with Intel’s cutting-edge 14nm process technology, the premium performance of the 5th generation Intel Core processor family has the power to transform the way you interact with your PC. Power to understand your motions. Power to recognize your face. Power to respond to your voice. Power to do things you never thought possible. See what’s possible with Intel Inside®.
    The Best of Both Worlds Collide
    Intel® Core™ M processors, built on the new 14 nm manufacturing process technology, deliver exquisite PC performance for a range of ultra-mobile 2 in 1 devices. With it comes the best of both worlds: The speed and power of a laptop combined with the versatility of a tablet—all in one device. Discover the potential of ultra-mobile devices with Intel Inside®.
    The following table show’s Intel’s high-level specs on the various flavors of the new Core M processor family.
    Gamers will enjoy the new advancements in the Intel Core i7 line of processors.  But it is really the advances in the Core M processor that I’m most interested in.
    The new Core M Broadwell CPU, with it’s smaller 14nm manufacturing process and power savings, are rumored to be found at the center of the much rumored MacBook Air refresh.
    If you aren’t into rumors, you need to check out the details that Intel has up on their website so you can start plotting about what new upgrades you are going to buy this year.
    Intel CES 2015 keynote highligts page has the details you are looking for.
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  • ces,  microsoft,  windows,  windows phone

    Steve Ballmer To Deliver Kickoff CES 2011 Keynote

    July 11, 2010 /

    John Paczkowski, of All Things D fame, is reporting that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will deliver the kick-off keynote address during the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

    Mr. Paczkowski writes:

    “This will be Ballmer’s third time headlining CES, and after his first two appearances, I don’t think anyone’s expecting too much. The highlight of his 2009 keynote: The widely expected announcement of the Windows 7 beta. The highlights of his 2010 address: An ill-starred Windows-based tablet and Project Natal, a controllerless game interface system the company debuted at E3 months earlier.”

    If “The Other Steve” wants to keep things interesting, he will have to really play up his company’s new Windows Phone 7 operating system and have a slew of OEM and carrier partners on stage to help launch the new phones.

    I have to admit that I’ve never watched a Steve Ballmer keynote. They lack the excitement of even the dullest Apple keynote or media event. The last Microsoft event that I watched was the “Windows Longhorn is Windows Vista” keynote. We all know how that turned out. (Because of Vista, I switched back to all Macs at my home office.)

    You can read the full article on the DigitalDaily website.

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  • ces,  pixi,  pre,  sprint,  verizon,  web os

    Palm CES Coverage

    January 8, 2010 /

    The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show is under way in Las Vegas this week and Palm has used the event to make a big splash with the media and their customers. Here’s a run down of what Palm has been up to!

    Palm 2010 CES Presentation Video and Highlights

    PreCentral has posted Palm chairman and chief executive officer Jon Rubinstein’s CES presentation for your viewing pleasure if you are like me and somehow managed to not make it out to Las Vegas this year. The highlights of the presentation include:

    • Palm makes the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus official, Verizon only, and with tethering
    • Pre coming to SFR in France
    • webOS 1.4 coming in February with built-in Flash 10.1, Video recording
    • Palm reveals open web distribution of webOS apps

    To check the video, head over to the PreCentral website.

    New Phones, Wireless Carriers Announced

    Many people will be happy to hear that Palm and Verizon Wireless will finally be bringing Palm webOS phones to market. Starting on January 25, Big Red customers will have their choice of the newly reformulated Palm Pre and Pixi smartphones known as the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus. Why “Plus?” The Plus refers to the refinements over the older versions of the Pre and Pixi smartphones already available on the Sprint network.

    The Palm Pre Plus will sport 16GB of RAM and a more streamlined form factor. As far as I can tell at this point, that simply means that the center has been removed from the front fo the Palm Pre Plus. Rather than use the Center button to zoom in/out from card view, you can simply flick up from the gesture area to zoom out of a card and then tap on the card you want to zoom back into full screen. The removal of the Center button is just one less thing that can break on the Pre form factor body and I welcome the change. And unlike the Sprint edition, the Verizon Wireless Palm Pre Plus ditches the glossy back plate battery door for the slick matte finished Touchstone charging battery door. Even if you don’t plan on getting the super cool Touchstone charging dock, in my opinion, the matte finish of the Touchstone battery door is much easier to hold than the slippery gloss finish door.

    The new Palm Pixi Plus uses the same body form factor as the older Sprint edition, however, the Verizon Pixi Plus will include an 802.11b/g Wi-Fi radio. (Shame on you Sprint for not allowing Wi-Fi in your Pixi!)

    Verizon customers will also have access to a new App Catalog application called Mobile Hotspot that will allow the Pre Plus or Pixi Plus to act as a cellular Wi-Fi router allowing other near by Wi-Fi enabled device, like a netbook, to gain access to the Internet over the Pre or Pixi’s EVDO cellular connection. Up until now, this was a trick reserved for devices like the Verizon Mi-Fi card. Kudos for Verizon for allowing their customers to share their data connections this way.

    Palm will also continue to grow their presence overseas in the second quarter of the year when they bring Palm webOS phones to France on the SFR wireless network.

    The last remaining question for US customers is when will Palm webOS devices be launched on AT&T? For right now, there is no official word from Palm on when webOS phones will appear on AT&T, however, Engadget has posted an article stating that AT&T’s President and CEO, Ralph de la Vega, has gone on the record claiming that by the middle of the year, they will be carrying two unnamed Palm webOS devices. You’ll have to stay tuned for the next few months until more details emerge on the AT&T front.

    For more details on Palm’s newest smartphones, visit the Palm blog.

    Here Come the 3D Games!

    Today Palm also unveiled 7 3D games specifically written to take advantage of the special graphics processor, called a GPU, inside the Palm Pre and Pre Plus smartphones. Combining the GPU, the new software development kit, released in beta form, and the software under pinning that are in the recently released Palm webOS 3.5.1 update, Pre customers can now play games on their smartphones that look just and play just as good as the games on Apple’s iPhone.

    Starting today, and via the Palm App Catalog, you can purchase and download the following 3D games:

    • “Need for Speed Undercover” (EA Mobile)
    • “The Sims 3” (EA Mobile)
    • “MONOPOLY” (EA Mobile)
    • “Asphalt 5: Elite Racing” (Gameloft)
    • “Let’s Golf!” (Gameloft)
    • “Glyder 2” (Glu Mobile)
    • “X-Plane” (Laminar Research)

    I’m excited about Palm’s enabling of the GPU found in the Palm Pre and Pre Plus as it means that Pre customers no longer have to feel like second class citizens in the world of mobile gaming. While I looking forward to playing some of these games (I already purchased a copy of Monopoly this evening), I am still looking forward to playing games like Bejeweled and all of the great card and board games from Astraware, the games division of Handmark.

    To learn more about today’s announcement of the new 3D games for the Palm Pre and Pre Plus smartphones, visit the Palm website.

    Ready! Set! Develop!

    Lastly, Palm announced that the Palm Developer Center is now out of beta status and open to any application developer who wishes to write applications for the Palm webOS platform. Palm also announced that developers will have a choice of selling their applications through the Palm App Catalog or promote their applications by themselves, yet, they can still leverage the Palm over the air (OTA) distribution and installation service.

    This is great news for the legions of web developers out there who know how to write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code because, as I’m told, those three languages make up the bulk of the application development foundation for webOS applications.

    For developers who are looking to write games and other applications that take advantage of the 3D rendering hardware and software found in webOS devices, like the Pre and Pre Plus, Palm is making the Palm webOS Plug-In Development Kit (PDK) available for use with the standard webOS Software Development Kit (SDK). According to Palm’s press release, “[w]ith the PDK, developers can seamlessly integrate C and C++ code into their webOS apps, enabling new functionality such as 3D games.”

    Developers who wish to further explore the possibilities of the Palm webOS platform should visit the Palm Developer Center website.

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  • apple,  ces,  google,  htc,  motorola,  verizon

    CES 2010

    January 2, 2010 /

    The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is set to kick off on January 7 in Las Vegas. Since the focus of the show is consumers, CES starts on a Thursday and ends on a Sunday.

    According to the CES website, there are over 600 technology companies from the West Coast in attendance and event organizers are expecting 110,000 attendees for the trade room floor and workshop sessions. Tickets to the event are $200.

    For more information about this year’s CES event, please visit the CES website.

    Rumors Aplenty

    As usual for this time of year, there is a flurry of rumors about upcoming devices from a number of technology vendors. This year’s rumors include: HTC’s new touchscreen tablet device, Motorola’s expected announcement of two new smartphones, Google’s Nexus One smartphone press event on Jan. 5, with the device available from Google and T-Mobile.

    Palm will also be at CES this year, however, it is expected that the focus will be on software development, and not on new device launches. However, there are those pesky Verizon Wireless Pre Plus and Pixi Plus rumors to deal with.

    Apple won’t be at this year’s CES or MacWorld Expo events. Instead, it is widely rumored that Apple will hold their own press event on or around January 26th. Speculation is running wild in the face of mounting evidence that they will finally announce the table computer that has rumored to be under development for many years now.

    [Via Boy Genius Report, Barron’s Tech Trader Daily, Gizmodo, PreCentral]

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  • ces

    CES on the Web

    January 1, 2009 /

    The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicks off in Las Vegas in just 7 days (Jan 8-11, 2009). If you can’t make this year’s show, you can still get the inside scoop on all the electronics goodness when you surf to CES on the web.

    I’m really looking forward to this year’s show as Palm is expected to give us our first glimpse at Palm’s next generation operating system, Nova.

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