My posts from the 2010 Intel Developer Forum (IDF) highlighted just a few of the consumer electronics (CE) innovations that were on display at Moscone-West. Intel has continued to develop the Atom processor for CE, and considerable time and space at IDF was devoted to a large range of current and forthcoming devices that are based on this platform.
The industry has yet to launch a strong competitor to the iPad, but several different Atom-based tablet computers were shown at IDF; from the Dell Inspiron Duo running Windows-7, to the WeTab that is the first to use Intel-Nokia's MeeGo operating system, and Cisco's Cius Android-based tablet for the enterprise.
"Smart TV"s had their own pavilion, and LeVar Burton (Star Trek's Geordi LaForge) was even on hand to draw attention at a special event for the press and analysts. There were demos of the Boxee Box, prototypes from Acer and Asus, and of course... Google-TV.
If you're in or nearby Silicon Valley tomorrow, come on out to see some of the IDF demos I captured on video, and to join the discussion on tablets PCs and the integration (or is it a collision?) of the web and broadcast video in "Smart TVs".
September 28 Meeting Notice
Subject:
Smart TVs" and other CE innovations from the Intel Developer Forum
Speaker(s):
Mike Demler, Tom Coughlin
Venue
NVIDIA - 2800 Scott Blvd, Building E
Date and Time:
September 28, 2010
6:30 - 7:00 Pizza + Drinks, Networking
7:00 - 8:30 Talk and Questions
There was no shortage of gadgets on stage during this morning's keynotes at the Intel Developer orum in San Francisco. We saw a succession of "Smart TV" platforms: Amino showed their box based on MeeGo (subliminally messaged with Green Days' "Know Your Enemy"), followed by a video of Google-TV and Logitech, a mention of the D-Link Boxee Box, and finally Microsoft came on stage to talk about Asus and Acer Windows 7 Media Center-based devices that will be available in 2011
However, the one device that seemed to generate actual oohs and ahhs from the crowd (as well as a mad rush of press and analysts on stage after) was the "dual-personality" Windows-7 based tablet from Dell, that is based on a dual-core Atom processor. Connectivity options will include WiMAX.
After demonstrating the tablet under intense stage lighting that made most of the screen displays nearly invisible, the show ended with dramatic flair when it was revealed that the tablet flips in its frame to convert to a netbook. This seems to be an ideal form factor to me, better than other pivoting netbooks with touch screens that I have seen.
This (unedited) video gives you a peek at the Dell Inspiron Duo that is scheduled to ship later this year. (Email subscribers need to go to my site at www.the-world-is-analog.blogspot.com)
Today, just down the street from ISSCC's venue at the San Francisco Marriott, Intel opened up their annual developer forum (IDF) at Moscone-West with an emphasis on the integration of graphics and multi-core CPUs in SandyBridge. Demo failures seem to be a consistent theme these days (see Steve Jobs and Apple's iPhone-4 debut, etc.), as Dadi Perlmutter (Executive VP and General Manager, Intel Architecture Group) tried in vain to get his gesture demo to work.
Fortunately, the GestureTek demo performed much better. If the embedding worked, you can watch the video above that I uploaded to YouTube.
