It's been a crazy week in news, and after a couple cross-country flights the podcast crew is together and ready to break it all down. Join Josh, Paul and Nilay as they take on Microsoft's Courier tablet concept and rumored Pink smartphones, dish on the HTC Leo and Windows Mobile, debate the finer points of net neutrality, and talk over the highlights from the Intel Developer Forum and the Tokyo Game Show. Yeah, there's a ton here -- grab a snack and tune in!
Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller Producer: Trent Wolbe Song:Today
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Phoenix is showing off a few interesting things at IDF, but the real standout is their new Instant Boot BIOS, a highly optimized UEFI implementation that can start loading an OS in just under a second. Combined with Windows 7's optimized startup procedure, that means you're looking at incredibly short boot times -- we saw a retrofitted Dell Adamo hit the Windows desktop in 20 seconds, while a Lenovo T400s with a fast SSD got there in under 10. It's pretty slick stuff, and it should be out soon -- check a video after the break.
Viliv has one of the best-looking convertible tablets we've ever seen here at IDF, the new S10 Blade. It's actually quite striking in person -- it's thin and light, while still offering a convertible touchscreen and a decent keyboard. Sadly the version pictured here has a pretty slow single-touch resistive touchscreen and will be limited to Windows 7 Starter when it launches in November for around $570, but we're told that a multitouch resistive model will hit early next year with Windows 7 Home Premium for around $700. We'll see if that one has the functionality to back up these hot looks when it hits -- but for now, check the rest of the pics in the gallery.
Intel just did a pretty impressive demo of its new Light Peak optical device interconnect, driving a greater-than-HD display while saturating an SSD RAID all over one cable, but we couldn't help but notice the monster Frankenstein test rig on stage was running OS X -- looks like someone's violating their EULA! Video after the break.
Intel's CE3100 media chip has been behind some of the coolerdemos they've done here at IDF, and it's just gotten a big brother, the Atom CE4100. As you'd expect, the big change is the replacement of the CE3100's Pentium M core with an Atom core, but this thing is actually kind of a monster -- it can decode two 1080p video streams with various high-end audio codecs, it adds MPEG-4 support and 3D graphics capability, and it can even capture uncompressed 1080p video. Of course, it's up to manufacturers and cable companies to actually put all this power to use, but Intel's promised us some hardware demos from partners -- stay tuned.
Look, Moblin and MIDs and USB 3.0 are all well and good, but the real highlight of IDF is hiding in plain sight: it's Intel's CE 3100 Media Processor-based Tru2way DVR server, which has three digital cable tuners that can be streamed over a regular gigabit Ethernet or MoCA to any number of clients, ranging from other 3100-based set-top boxes to DLNA devices like laptops and even the PS3. It's seriously cool -- the clients all see the server's tuners as their own, so the experience is seamless, and since it all runs on the Tru2way stack, it doesn't matter what kind of client you plug in -- the three clients on the show floor were running interfaces from Intel, Comcast (Rovi), and Digeo. Of course, since it's a DVR, you can actually add more clients than tuners and have them play back recorded content while your other boxes use the tuners -- Intel was demoing XBMC on a Sony laptop connecting over DLNA and streaming a recorded program while a PS3 nearby ran a photo slideshow, all while the three cable clients streamed uncompressed HD video from the tuners. Intel says a number of cable companies are interested in deploying this stuff and that we should see things on the market in the next year -- we honestly can't wait. Check a video after the break.
Although Intel made some waves yesterday with the announcement of the smartphone-capable Moblin 2.1 release, the reality here on the ground at IDF is pretty much status quo: phones and other connected devices based on the next-gen Moorestown mobile platform are nowhere to be found, and the actual products on the floor are the same chunky MIDs we've all come to know and ignore. But while the devices remain somewhat uninteresting, Moblin itself has some terrific potential from what we've seen -- there's deep location and social networking integration with a unified contacts list that works a lot like Palm's Synergy, standard Linux apps can be easily ported over and run without any fuss, and manufacturers and developers can even ditch the standard UI and develop whatever they want on top. It's definitely cool stuff -- we just wish Intel had given us this demo on a compelling hardware instead of an older Menlow-based Compal MID, you know? Video after the break.
UMID's got a couple prototype M2s lying around IDF, and while they don't seem like the most stable or production-ready things in the world -- one of them booted straight to an all-white screen, while another had its logo stuck on by a doting booth attendant -- it's clear that this revision of the M1 will correct a few glaring flaws. The major fix is that there's now a regular USB port on the side, instead of the M1's goofy dongle, but we're also glad to see a 3.5mm headphone jack and a (tiny) trackpad with two mouse buttons flanking the screen. Yeah, it's still a quirky little MID, but hey, maybe that does it for you. We're not here to judge what you do with the gallery below.
Dell just announced the first shipping Moblin netbook, a developer-edition Mini 10v that runs Canonical's Moblin Netbook Remix. No pricing info yet, but it'll go on sale tomorrow, September 24, on Dell.com. We're told they have units on the show floor for us to play with, we'll be back with way more details soon.
Update: Dell tells us the Moblin Mini 10v will be $299 to start and available with the usual customization options, but that they're not really aiming it at consumers just yet -- the idea is to give Moblin developers best-of-class hardware to work on. That said, nothing's stopping you from snagging one tomorrow, since they won't be requiring proof that you're actually a dev. You sneaky Linux-loving dog, you.
USB 3.0 might be one of the big stories here at IDF, but Intel just showed off a glimpse of the future: Light Peak, an optical interconnect for mobile devices that can run as fast as 10Gbps. That's fast enough to do everything from storage to displays to networking, and it can maintain those speeds over 100-meter runs, which is pretty astounding. Intel says the idea is to drastically reduce the number of connectors on mobile devices, which should allow them to get even smaller -- but the demo was on a huge Frankenrig, so don't expect to see Light Peak devices shipping any time soon. Update: We just snapped a quick pic of the connector -- it's a connector, that's for sure. Check it after the break.
