This post first appeared as a live blog at Forbes.com
Mooly Eden general manager of Intel’s PC client group is speaking. “I’m going to dedicate my presentation about user experience … and how we’re implementing it in the Ultrabook.”
He said that a great computer needs to be fast and secure and people should say “I love it” about their PC. He said it must also be at mainstream price range.Target is to get prices a lot lower than the typical $999 price point on early units.
He is showing ArcSoft software that lets Ultrabook users quickly compress 100 photos into a 2 mb file to send via email.
Showing real time video rendering to demonstrate compute power of the Sandy Bridge processor in Ultrabooks.This is a strange CES press conference. Mooly is charming and funny and I guess it’s good that he’s not just spewing out feeds and speeds. He’s now showing a driving game, again to show off the speed of the processor.
He’s now talking about security. “We are trying to develop more and more security into our systems.” They will put anti-theft technology “built-in” to Ultrabooks. Showing a demo with MasterCard where you tap your card on the device, using NFC (near field communication) and verify that the card is present. The card is linked to the machine so it won’t work if the card is lost or stolen and used from a different computer.
Design
People want it to be thin “beautiful form factor.” Big challenge is to take a 32 mm notebook and translate it to 18 mm, there are many components that need to be redesigned.” Display panel had to be reduced to 3 mm. They needed to develop 9.5 mm batteries. Going through every component to show how they had to shrink them to fit into a thin PC. “We have been able to translate inches into millimeters.” Are Ultrabooks are 18 mm or below now but will get thinner over time. Showing machines from Lenovo, HP, Toshiba, HP and others.
Mooly is talking about evolution of PCs. In the last 30 years the number of transistors grew by one million percent but in terms of user interface “we didn’t do enough. We didn’t have enough compute power to do what we knew people wanted to do.”
He mentioned DOS – “User friendly because you had to have a lot of friends to use it.”
He said that touch skipped the notebook. Dedicated to tablets. He said it won’t skip the Ultrabook. Ultrabooks with touch “would be an ultimate solution.” People don’t want to give up the keyboard, but they want the choice. The concept Ultrabook they showed is convertible. Keyboard can slide away.
Showing a prototype device code-named Nakiski (not sure about spelling) running Windows 8 where you can close the lid and you can see the touch pad and see urgent data without having to open the lid. “A very powerful notebook, but when you’re on the go you have the data with you.”
When you touch the pad with your finger it knows to act as a touch pad but when you put your palms on it to type, it shuts down because it knows you’re typing.
Speech recognition
Intel is working with Nuance to deliver speech recognition. Nuance is working on a “deep integration” to create a natural voice experience with Ultrabooks. Peter Mahoney of Nuance on stage said “you’ll have great performance without having to have a head set.” He said you can leverage the device’s processing power and sound system. He said that it won’t have to go to the cloud to process speech, it will do so on the device. They are working on the ability to speak in one language and have computer instantly translate to other languages.
“We believe we’ll see gestures with Ultrabooks. Showing a peak into their lab to “meet the challenges of gestures on Ultrabook.” Showing a prototype game where someone is using his hands to fire a sling shoot. No mouse or other pointing device. It’s similar to Microsoft XBox Kinect with the Ultrabook’s camera following the position and movement of your hands.
Screen sizes
Screen sizes will start at 11-inches but 15% of devices will be 14 or 15 inches.
Bringing Ultrabooks to market
Kevin Sellers VP of Advertising and Digital Marketing is now speaking about bringing Ultrabooks to market.
In the course of its history, Intel “has made inside relevant” and has “looked at the world in terms of performance.” He said that Intel knows people don’t buy processors, they “buy experiences.” They will focus on “experience.”
“Stolen” Ultrabook
They showed a funny video to demonstrate the size and weight of the Ultrabooks by sneaking aToshiba Ultrabook into a young woman’s bag. Then some fake cops came up to search her bag and “arrest” her for having the less than 2.5 pound Ultrabook without knowing it. They gave it to her after admitting that they had put it in her bag.
Fifty people at the press conference found a free Ultrabook under their seat.
Be the first to comment