intel

Touch devices to drop to $200, says Intel CEO

Touch laptop prices are headed south. Way south, according to Intel executives.

The price of Intel-based touch devices, including laptops, will sink to price points that penetrate inexpensive tablet territory. These new "innovative" designs will be based on Intel's Atom chip, Intel executives said today during the company's first-quarter earnings conference call.

"If you look at touch-enabled Intel-based notebooks that are ultrathin using [Atom] processors. Those prices are going to be down to as low as $200," said Intel CEO Paul Otellini.

Though neither Otellini or Smith mentioned screen size specifically, those price points … Read more

Intel profit drops 25 percent as it grapples with weak PCs

Intel managed to eke out quarterly results and guidance largely in line with expectations, despite dismal conditions in the PC market. Still, its net income dropped 25 percent as its key computing market struggles.

The Santa Clara, Calif., company, which makes chips that power the majority of the world's computers and servers, said its revenue for the first quarter totaled $12.58 billion, down 2.5 percent from the previous year. This number was in line with its forecast in January of $12.2 billion to $13.2 billion in sales. With earnings that match about what analysts had … Read more

Intel factories signal Windows 8, PC doldrums

Intel isn't churning out chips at the usual rate, reflecting the PC market's downturn and the slow uptake of Windows 8, according to an analyst.

Intel's factory utilization is down around 60 percent, well below normal, said Jim McGregor, principal analyst for Phoenix based Tirias Research, in a phone interview. The news was first reported at ITWorld.

"A lot of this started in September when holiday shipments of PCs didn't go the way they expected," McGregor said. "That [60 percent utilization rate] is increasing as they burn off inventory. But they're still … Read more

Intel releases Web-based app programming kit

Intel has released its first version of Web-based programming tools to help developers make mobile apps for Android and iOS.

The free software, called Intel XDK, isn't brand new. It's a rebadged version of the AppMobi software that Intel acquired in February. XDK lets people create software that uses the so-called HTML5 foundation, a collection of standards designed to advance the Web beyond static documents toward dynamic applications, then convert those apps so they can be used on mobile devices.

Intel announced the XDK release at its Intel Developer Forum show in Beijing this week. The software is … Read more

Haswell chip notebooks won't save PC sales, says analyst

PC sales are in the dumps, and not even a promising new chip from Intel may be enough to revive them, believes J.P Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz.

The computer industry took it on the chin yesterday after both IDC and Gartner revealed that first-quarter shipments reached their lowest point in years. IDC fingered Windows 8 for failing to pump up PC sales but also blamed the weak economy and consumer demand for smartphones and tablets.

PC makers have been awaiting the arrival of Intel's new Haswell chip, which promises higher performance and lower power consumption. As such, the … Read more

The best Windows 8 gaming laptops

We recently complained about the lack of a single best-case gaming laptop for the Windows 8 era. That was largely because of the handful of portable PCs with higher-end graphics cards we'd reviewed in the six months since Microsoft's new OS took over, none thought to include a touch-screen display. That's a feature not particularly called for in even current-gen PC games, but it's one that Windows 8 practically begs for during the hours when you're not using your laptop for gaming.

Since then, we've finished reviews of a couple more gaming laptops -- … Read more

ZTE announces Intel Atom-powered ZTE Geek

At the Intel Developers Forum in Beijing, China, today, ZTE debuted the ZTE Geek, a 5-inch handset featuring a 2GHz Intel 32nm Atom Z2580 processor.

The device also features an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash, and a front-facing, 1-megapixel camera. Inside, you'll find a 2,300mAh battery.

As for capacity, the Geek has 8GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. It runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and its HD touch screen has a 1,280x720-pixel resolution.

Despite its rather insipid name, I like what I'm seeing with the Geek -- on paper, at least. Just as … Read more

Windows 8 tablets to go quad-core? Intel talks next chip

Intel discussed the next-generation "Bay Trail" tablet processor today at its annual conference in Beijing. Expect to see a new crop of faster yet still power-efficient Windows 8 -- and likely Windows 8.1 -- tablets later this year.

An "entirely new Atom microarchitecture...will [enable] the most powerful Atom processor to-date, doubling the computing performance of Intel's current-generation tablet offering," Tan Weng Kuan, vice president and general manager of the Mobile Communications Group, Intel China, said today at IDF Beijing.

Bay Trail will allow designs "as thin as 8mm (0.3 inches) that … Read more

Intel shows off speedier Thunderbolt tech

Intel today announced the next generation of its Thunderbolt technology, which doubles the speed and works with previous inputs.

The technology, which Intel announced at the National Association of Broadcasters conference today, supports up to 20Gbps bidirectionally (up from 10). That extra speed means the cables can now support both transferring a 4K video and putting it on screen at the same time, reports Engadget.

Thunderbolt is the input/output technology that brings transfer speeds that exceed what is currently available with USB 3.0 (though not for long), as well as extending that speed across several devices at once. … Read more