Just how long have we been waiting for a low-power productive computing platform and an operation system built to go with it? Atom has been around (largely unchanged in it’s CPU architecture) for many years but we’ve been through Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 before the OS finally matured to support touch, pen and mouse computing. UMPC’s won’t  be coming soon but if the convertible Windows 8 devices do well, there’s a chance that the screen-sizes will drop.   Last week at IDF I took a look at a […]

Congratulations to Firaxis Games who are about to release a touch-enabled version of Civ V. I got a few fingers on at IDF2012 and put together a video demo for you. This Ivy-Bridge optimised version will be available to everyone as an update in Steam in Q4 and it works well. Firaxis have worked around the issue of hover/tooltips b implementing scrolling using a two-finger gesture. It’s not natural at first but to be able to get the tooltips easily is welcome.

I’ve already looked into wireless charging but at IDF2012 I got a chance to speak to the engineers about it and get a first-hand demo. Video below.

At IDF this week, Intel showed off a demo of Nuance’s Dragon Assist software running on an Ultrabook. Dragon Assist, currently in beta, is a Siri-like approach to PC voice control. Using natural words and phrases you can ask the computer to do a number of tasks. The demo that Intel showed on stage was quite impressive — it was fast, accurate, and potentially quite useful. But would you use it?

Chippy is checking out Ultrabooks at IDF this week and he had a chance to get his hands on the NEC Lavie Z Ultrabook. What makes this unit stand out is its incredible weight. This is a 13.3″ screen; at just 876 grams, the Lavie Z is the world’s lightest Ultrabook in it’s class, even lighter than many of the Ultrabooks in the size class below it. For example. the Asus UX21A with an 11.6″ screen is about 1100 grams.

We’ve just had the inside information on the WiGig docking standards that are going through draft approval right now. Expected to be fully approved by end of 2013, the formal line on product availability is that you’ll see devices in 2014 but we spoke to one parts vendor that tells us we’ll see a WiGig-enabled Ultrabook at CES 2013 and that you’ll see products based on draft standards in Q1 2013. We’re believers that Ultrabooks can replace desktops for most people through on the with the use of docking solutions […]

Lenovo was kind enough to shoot us a full list of specifications for the U510, their latest Ultrabook addition to the IdeaPad U-series. It turns out that the screen is actually 15.6″ instead of just 15″, and unfortunately we’ve now got confirmation of a 1366×768 resolution. Not surprising given the low $679 price tag, but a big screen like this could make good use a of 1600×900 panel. It doesn’t look like Lenovo will be offering options for the screen either. On the plus side, discrete graphics are going to […]

Product specifications and tracking page. The Dell XPS 12 Convertible  Duo is an impressive looking Ultrabook. People here at IDF are flocking to it to check out the unique flip screen. The design works well but like all convertible  designs that retain the keyboard, can’t give you a lightweight tablet. A 1.4KG tablet isn’t very mobile but it does offer something for those that primarily want a touchscreen Ultrabook with occasional tablet-style capabilities. This could be a good one as an ice-breaker for business meetings though!