It’s week 4 of the Ultimate Coder Ultrabook Challenge competition where 6 teams are competing for $10K. We’re meeting all of the coders and other judges next week so if you have specific questions, leave them below and I’ll put them to the coding teams. Meanwhile, read about touch UI design, NFC breakthroughs and Windows 8 app monetization.
You can track latest posts from all competitors and all judges here.
As well as learning a lot about Ultrabook sensors and features this week I also learnt a new word. Spelunking might sound like a fetish but apparently it’s about exploring caves! Let’s do a bit of spelunking right now in the cave known as the Ultimate Coder Ultrabook Challenge. In week3 we’re getting down to serious detail.
The coding teams competing for $10000 have just completed week 2 of the Ultimate Coder Ultrabook Challenge and have all posted their updates. I’ve also received my developer preview Ultrabook with touch and sensors! Read my thoughts about the competition at this stage and view the video below.
If you aren’t following the Intel Ultimate Coder Ultrabook Challenge, tune in now because not only have we got 6 experienced software development teams creating applications for a new generation of Ultrabooks, not only is your Chippy one of the judges but we’ve got amazing new hardware to use for the competition too. You can get the latest updates on the competition here but right now I want to show you the exciting touch and sensor-enabled Ultrabook we’re using.
All 6 teams have now revealed what software they will be working on over the next 6 weeks for the Ultimate Coder Ultrabook Challenge and the chance to win $10,000. We’ll be following their progress which we hope includes methodology, tips and demonstrations. During September we’ll be meeting the developers and later in September we’ll be judging all entries on a next generation touch and sensor enabled Ultrabook.
The Coders already have the Ultrabooks so we’ve also got our first chance to take a closer look at the hardware.
You can see a summary of what’s happening in the Ultimate Coder Ultrabook Challenge at any time by visiting this Intel portal.
6 teams of developers have been recruited to do something special, with a very special Ultrabook. The Intel Ultimate Coder Ultrabook Challenge has just kicked off and I’m extremely happy to say that I’m one of the judges who has to test all the software on a next-generation touch-enabled Ultrabook.
Over the next 6 weeks myself and three other experts will be watching closely and reporting on the progress of the 6 coding participants/teams; Lee, John, George & Suresh, Sagar, Shailesh and Andreas. One of them is going to win a bunch of cash but whatever happens, we’re going to get some good insights into the process and the type of software that is possible on a touch-enabled Ultrabook.
I’m at the Mobile World Congress in Spain this week and although I’ve been covering a lot of phone and tablet news (over at Carrypad.com) I’ve also been keeping an eye open for Ultrabook news. I didn’t have to look far because when Intel talks about one silicon product, it’s now inextricably linked with the others via the ‘Compute Continuum’ which isn’t just a keynote dream any more, it’s a real project to mesh devices from various parts of Intel’s product range.
Don’t expect touch to roll-out to the whole Ultrabook category but expect that Windows 8 will make manufacturers think about making touch-enabled options in their Ultrabook portfolios later in 2012. Sensors, on the other hand, could find themselves in most of the devices hitting the market. Location and context-sensitive applications in Metro apps could really boost the usefulness of an Ultrabook, especially with instant-on and smart/always connected features.