On target for a launch around the Computex (June) timeframe the 4th generation Core processor, Haswell, is now shipping to OEMs. Intel announced the status at the Developer Forum keynote in Beijing and took the time to re-promote some of the features we already know about. A new Toshiba hybrid Ultrabook was shown on stage and WiDi got a push too.

In a presentation due to go out at the Intel Developer Forum over the next two days Intel will outline best practices for low-power idle on Ultrabooks. Today you’ll be lucky to see an Ultrabook idle to less than 3000mW (3 Watts) which is a background drain that’s always there. On Haswell, Intel says that you could get to a screen-off idle state of 100mW.

The Lenovo Helix hybrid Ultrabook/Tablet has generated more interest than any other product we’ve covered here and naturally many people are waiting for availability and final pricing. In Japan today, Lenovo announced that the Thinkpad Helix is now available for pre-order and delivery towards the end of April so it shouldn’t take long to filter through to other countries.

At GDC 2013, developers of the popular video transcoding software, Handbrake, announced that they will support Intel’s QuickSync technology on all Intel processors that support it, which includes Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and forthcoming Haswell. If you’ve got an Ultrabook, you’ve got QuickSync. The tech allows developers to tap into hardware acceleration on Intel Core CPUs. The result is significantly increased speeds for video rendering and transcoding.

7 teams are competing in the Ultimate Coder Challenge where showcase applications are being built for a Lenovo Yoga 13 Ultrabook to demonstrate the Intel Perceptual Computing hardware. I’m involved with the judging of the Ultimate Coder event and every week you’ll find an update from me as I analyze the teams progress. This is week 6, one week before the competition closes on April 12th and teams have just come back from GDC where they demonstrated their apps to attendees and judges. Foot and tongue tracking features in the […]

The Asus Transformer Book is slowly trickling out into the wild and UltrabookReview.com have got their hands on one and have posted both a video and extensive written review of the elusive UltraBook which should help ease the wait till it hits retail in adequate quantities.

Since it was first introduced the Samsung Series 9 has been one of the most popular and best looking Ultrabooks you could buy and now Samsung has increased its appeal even more by upgrading the screen to a full HD 1920×1080 resolution panel. The model number is NP900X3E