“IDF 2013 represents the beginning of a new era for Intel” says the first line of the keynote overview for Intel’s Developer Forum 2013. It starts on Tuesday Sept 10th in San Francisco and we’ll be there. IDF is always an informative experience and, if you listen and read carefully, you get some big tips on Intel’s strategy.

It looks like Pentium and Celeron branding will be used on Atom chips when Baytrail launches. And why not? As Haswell/Core reaches down into sub 10W territory, where Netbooks used to operate, and Baytrail reaches up into power bands above where Atom Netbooks were, there’s a big overlap. Intel will slap the Pentium and Celeron brands on Atom products. It could be an attempt to re-brand Atom for Windows and Android based devices.

Is it for people with bad eyesight? For more ‘impressive’ gaming FPS? Or is it just stupid and cheap? I’m looking at a newly announced 15.6” Haswell-based Ultrabook, with a 1366×768 screen and shaking my head.

I’ve just fired-up my blogging tools after reading this. Shopping for a laptop has got harder since the Ultrabook launched. Hell, even shopping for an Ultrabook is getting harder now that you’ve got three definitions on the market and devices like the Acer P3 that look like tablets and devices like the Dell Latitude 7000 which might, or might not be an Ultrabook depending on the version you buy! Then there are devices that look like Ultrabooks, but aren’t. The price range of $433 [today] to over $3000 doesn’t help […]

Dell have announced a Latitude 7000 series laptop that, in some configurations, will be an Ultrabook. It’s aimed at business and education, offers VPro and other business features, a large set of options and comes in 12-inch and 14-inch versions, unlike the similar Latitude 6430U, Ivy Bridge Ultrabook that only came in a 14-inch version.

Have you been thinking about the Acer Iconia W3 since the price was reduced? A full Windows 8 tablet with a full Web experience, flexible connectivity and a weight of just 540 gram / 1.2lb? I have. At $299 it’s a ultra mobile PC at almost giveaway pricing. It even comes with a Microsoft Office license! The problem is that the screen is cheap. The viewing angles are tight, there’s a mesh-like layer which reduces clarity and it’s only 1280×800 in resolution. I had a chance to get the W3 […]

I’m very lucky to be one of the few people with a Haswell-based Ultrabook. There are even fewer people that have a Connected-Standby capable Haswell Ultrabook and when you add 3G, FullHD, NFC, GPS, HD5000 and a great looking build, you’re talking about leading edge. What a shame this Ultrabook isn’t available to buy. Developers will have access to it (I’m working on getting information as to how developers can get one) but end users will have to wait because this product has been made by Intel as a showcase […]

What can the new Intel Haswell HD 4400 graphics manage? That’s what I wanted to find out. Aside from our usual slew of benchmarks, which we’ll be showing in our forthcoming Sony Vaio Duo 13 review, I wanted to find out how games felt with HD 4400. So I fired up two classics, Minecraft (2011) and World of Warcraft (2004), to see how Haswell managed.