MIDMoves prepares for @IDF09

I’ve just had confirmation that Intel is going to sponsor MIDMoves to cover one of the Mobile Internet highlights of the year. The Intel Developer Forum 2009 in San Franscisco. This is fantastic news.

I attended IDF last year under my own steam with UMPCPortal and it turned out to be one of the most important weeks of the year for getting hands on, speaking to the OEMs and finding out exactly what’s going on in Intel with regard to Mobile Internet Devices. This year is going to be even better.

Menlow refreshed. The Z515 CPU will be appearing in a new MID, the Compal KAX-15 and I feel sure that we’ll see some more devices too. Viliv have the S7 almost ready for launch and I know for sure that they have a few devices up their sleeve for the latter part of the year. Then there’s the stuff we don’t even know about yet!

Moorestown details. Up until now we’ve only been given basic details about the architecture of the Moorestown platform. At IDF, all will be revealed. We’ll find out about the graphics core and get real hands-on with devices. If we’re really lucky there will be time for an in-depth testing session. Just how long will that platform idle? Those 50x idle power reduction promises need to be tested.

Moblin. The Moblin story gets more and more interesting by the day. The Menlow platform is pretty much out of the Moblin picture but for the netbook platform and the Moorestown platform it’s a different story. Computex was a real eye opener in terms of Moblin support and with Wind River now in the picture, things could get very interesting indeed. Expect to see netbooks running the final cut of Moblin with modifications and enhancements.

Pine Trail. The next-gen netbook platform will be revealed and it promises to be leaner, cooler and more efficient. Netbooks have already reached into the ultra mobile PC segment with the existing platform but Pine Trail could widen the scope even further.

The Technology Showcase was a real suprise for me last year.I never expected a big exhibit hall and I never expected to get so much hands-on with the MIDs, netbooks and UMPCs that were there. This year looks to be just as good with a MID community and Moblin community to check out.

The keynotes are always interesting and entertaining and this year I may even have a chance to question the speakers in a private session.

Inter-twined across the whole three-day event are the technical sessions. This is where you can get down to the nitty gritty of the technology and meet the people that work day-in, day-out with the technology. In the MID technology area we have a ‘Meet The Experts’ session, a session about gaming on MIDs and sessions on MID and smartphone security, entertainment and user interfaces. You can see the huge range of sessions listed in the IDF content catalogue.

The extra events in and around IDF will also be interesting. This year I plan to attend the tweet-ups and other social events around the event to talk about MIDs and learn from others in the mobile computing industry. I also plan to hang around after the event and try to arrange some sort of Mobility event. Cycling, camping or just a series of meet-ups and demos. I’m not sure what it will be yet but if you have ideas, please let me know.

Stay tuned for the lead-up to IDF over the next weeks. The event starts on the 21st of September but as always, the leaks start earlier and I’ll be tracking them all here on MIDMoves.com.

You can find out more about IDF at the Intel website.

IDF-related information is also available on Twitter. Follow @idf