Ultrabook Features

Responsiveness

• Rapid Start enables Ultrabooks to resume from hibernate and connect to the internet in sub 7 second times. Rapid Start technology (or other technologies that provide a quick start solution) is a requirement for all Ultrabooks.

• Smart Connect  will wake-up a laptop regularly on a user-configured schedule to check for updates. E.g. Twitter, email, calendar sync. Not much detail is available on these features at the moment. This technology is optional for Ultrabooks.

• Smart Response Technology – SSD-like performance from hard drives. (Hybrid hard drives with small embedded SSDs.) All Ultrabooks will either use all-SSD configurations or the Smart Response technology to enable quick application start-up times. The Smart Response Technology will not be exclusive to Ultrabooks.

Security

• Identify Protection Technology – Not exclusive to Ultrabooks, IPT will link the PC to an online account as a second-stage authorisation mechanism. This works through a software and hardware solution with IPT-enabled websites. Two-stage authorisation is also available when not using the IPT-enabled laptop through the use of extra security questions or through the sending of a code via SMS. IPT is an option Ultrabooks.

• Anti-Theft – Detects suspicious activity or lack of ‘check-in’ or accepts theft notification messages send over the Internet. Can lock a PC and disable data access and offers the ability for a user to easily re-enable the device if recovered.  Hard drive is non-removable. System can be restored by owner. Finally a ‘Good Samaritan’ message can be enabled on the device to alert someone that the device is lost or stolen. This is optional for Ultrabooks. 

Media

• Intel Insider technology provides a trusted, encrypted path for the delivery of high-value HD video content. Mainly for film sales and rental.More information here. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks but available on all 2nd and 3rd generation Core notebooks including all Ultrabooks.

• Quick Sync Video / Intel Media SDK. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks, the hardware-base video encode and decode assists video editing rendering and format conversion. More information here. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks but available on all 2nd and 3rd Generation Core platforms (including all Ultrabooks.)

• Intel Wireless Display. Aka Wi-Di and Wireless Audio. Using Intel-specified wireless chipsets the Ultrabook is able to wirelessly transmit up to 1080p content to a 3rd-party receiver box connected to an A/V system. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks.

Battery Life

• Latest generation ‘Ultra Low Voltage’ Core-family processors
• Sealed batteries for higher capacity in a given size. This is a design recommendation for all Ultrabooks in order to achieve thin Ultrabooks but some models may offer removable batteries.
• Low standby drain via highly integrated design. Again, a requirement of Ultrabooks to keep keep the component area small.

Performance

• 2nd Generation Core processors known as ‘Sandy Bridge.’ More information (PDF) In 2012, the latest Ultrabooks will use the 3rd generation of the Intel Core architecture codenamed Sandy Bridge.
• Turbo. Core i5 and i7 processors offer thermal monitoring to allow the CPU to overclock until the system reaches a thermal limit that cuts the CPU speed back down again. Some Ultrabooks will come with Core i3 processors that do not have this feature.
• Gaming. Intel HD Graphics 3000 enables casual gaming capabilities on-chip. Intel HD 4000 graphics on the IVy Bridge platform offers up to double the 3D performance which allows some recent graphics-intensive games to be played. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks but available in all Ultrabooks.

Pricing

Entry level pricing for Ultrabooks is currently about $699 but we expect $599 entry level prices in Q3 2012.

Future Thoughts

• Mcafee in hardware. According to the Intel slide on the right, there will be increased malware protection included in Ivy Bridge. This could be the first step at integrating McAfee technologies into silicon.
• Thunderbolt, the dual 10Gbps communications interface, is likely to be integrated, along with USB 3.0 in the Ivy Bridge platforms. 2012 Ultrabooks will all have USB3 ports and some will offer Thundarbolt.
• 3G and 4G cellular data options are available on some 2012 Ultrabooks.

             

• Lower Power. An estimated 12-15W TDP compared to the 17W TDP of 2011 Ultrabook platforms.
• Touch and new form factors
• Fanless operation may not be possible but fan-off modes should be achievable.
• Always-on could be introduced if Windows 8 has been tightly developed alongside the Haswell architecture

• Application store. Could Intel use their AppUp product to deliver content?
• Intel is investing $300M into new technologies via their Intel Capital fund.

iPhone Technology

The iPhone  is a line of smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It runs Apple's iOS mobile operating system, originally named "iPhone OS". The first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007; the most recent iPhone, the sixth-generation iPhone 5, was released on September 21, 2012. The user interface is built around the device's multi-touch screen, including a virtual keyboard rather than a physical one. The iPhone has Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity (2G, 3G and 4G (iPhone 5 only)).

An iPhone can shoot video (though this was not a standard feature until the iPhone 3GS), take photos, play music, send and receive email, browse the web, send texts, and receive visual voicemail. Other functions—games, reference, GPS navigation, social networking, etc.—can be enabled by downloading apps; as of 2012, the App Store offered more than 700,000 apps by Apple and third parties.

There are six generations of iPhone models, each accompanied by one of the six major releases of iOS. The original iPhone was a GSM phone, and established design precedents, such as screen size and button placement, that have persisted through all models. The iPhone 3G added 3G cellular network capabilities and A-GPS location. The iPhone 3GS added a faster processor and a higher-resolution camera that could record video at 480p. The iPhone 4 featured a higher-resolution 960 × 640 "retina display", a higher-resolution rear-facing camera and a lower-resolution front-facing camera for video calling and other apps. The iPhone 4S added an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording, a dual-core processor, and a natural language voice control system called Siri.  iPhone 5 features the new A6 processor, holds a 4-inch Retina display that is larger than its predecessor's 3.5-inch display, and replaces the 30-pin connector with an all-digital Lightning connector.

For some years, Apple and its manufacturing contractor Foxconn have received criticism due to poor working conditions at the assembly plant in China.

Top 5 Windows 8 Features

1. Speedy Boot Time

The load and boot up speed has improved significantly over Windows’ predecessors. This is partly due to the better resource allocations to applications and the system. When compared to Windows 7 desktop CPU, Windows 8 has an even speedier boot time.

2. Innovative & Dynamic Desktop

The tiles-based interface, or the Metro UI, will be the first thing you see upon logging in to Windows 8. At first glance, the UI seems to go intuitively with touchscreen devices like tablets and smartphones. Indeed, in such devices, you tap on those apps to open them. The grid layout seems to facilitate such interactions. Needless to say, you can customize your grid by adding and arranging applications.

3. Improved Search Function

8 has no search box at the bottom of the Start menu. Heck, it doesn’t even have the trademark Start menu! That doesn’t mean that there’s no convenient search function available. All you need to do is to type anything, and a search box will appear from the right and give you the results. The search capability is even stronger this time, displaying all the matching apps and files instantaneously.

4. Windows To Go

Of the entire list here, this is one feature that offers the most convenience to users. Windows To Go allows users to make a copy of their OS complete with their settings, wallpapers, files and even apps, into a USB thumb drive. Plugged it into another computer with Windows 8 already installed, and you can boot up the PC and make it look exactly alike the OS you normally use, with all settings intact.

5. Windows Live Syncing

Similar to Windows To Go, the new Windows 8 will provide Windows Live syncing, such that users can login on any Windows 8 PC with ‘Live ID’ and get back their own personalized settings on it. The desktop will look the same every time the user login on a PC with their Windows Live account.Migrating to a new PC is probably made easier when the user has all the essential settings synced.

Software Compatibility

Windows 8 for IA-32 and x64 processors runs most software compatible with previous versions of Windows, with 

the same restrictions as Windows 7: 64-bit Windows 8 runs 64-bit and 32-bit software while 32-bit Windows 8 will 

be able to run 32-bit and 16-bit software (although some 16-bit software may require compatibility settings to be 

applied, or not work at all).

Windows RT, a version of Windows 8 for systems with ARM processors, only supports applications included with 

the system (such as a special version of Office 2013), supplied through Windows Update, or Windows Store 

apps, to ensure the quality of apps available on ARM. Windows RT does not support running IA-32 or x64 

applications. Windows Store apps can either be cross-compatible between Windows 8 and Windows RT, or 

compiled to support a specific architecture.

Development History

Windows 8 development started before Windows 7 had shipped in 2009. In January 2011, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Microsoft announced that Windows 8 would be adding support for ARM microprocessors in addition to the x86 microprocessors from Intel, AMD and VIA Technologies. On June 1, 2011, Microsoft officially unveiled Windows 8's new user interface as well as additional features at the Taipei Computex 2011 in Taipei (Taiwan) by Mike Angiulo and at the D9 conference in California (United States) by Julie Larson-Green and Microsoft's Windows President Steven Sinofsky. A month before the BUILD conference was held, Microsoft opened a new blog called "Building Windows 8" for users and developers on August 15, 2011.

At Japan's Developers Day conference, Steven Sinofsky announced that Windows 8 Release Preview (build 8400) would be released during the first week of June. On May 28, 2012, Windows 8 Release Preview (Standard Simplified Chinese x64 edition, not China-specific version, build 8400) was leaked online on various Chinese and BitTorrent websites. 

On May 31, 2012, Windows 8 Release Preview was released to the public by Microsoft.On 29 February 2012, Microsoft released Windows 8 Consumer Preview, the beta version of Windows 8, build 8250. For the first time since Windows 95, the Start button is no longer present on the taskbar, though the Start screen is still triggered by clicking the bottom-left corner of the screen and by clicking Start on the Charm bar.Windows president Steven Sinofsky said more than 100,000 changes had been made since the developer version went public. The day after its release, Windows 8 Consumer Preview had been downloaded over one million times.

Like the Developer Preview, the Consumer Preview is set to expire on January 15, 2013.Microsoft unveiled new Windows 8 features and improvements on the first day of the BUILD conference on September 13, 2011. Microsoft released Windows 8 Developer Preview (build 8102) the same day, which included SDKs and developer tools (such as Visual Studio Express and Expression Blend) for developing applications for Windows 8's new interface. According to Microsoft, there were more than 500,000 downloads of the developer preview within the first 12 hours of its release. Originally set to expire on March 11, 2012, in February 2012 the Developer Preview's expiry date was changed to January 15, 2013.

Major items in the Release Preview included the addition of Sports, Travel, and News apps, along with an integrated version of Flash Player in Internet Explorer. Like the Developer Preview and the Consumer Preview, the release preview is set to expire on January 15, 2013.

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Windows 8

Windows 8 is the current release of the Windows operating system, produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablets, and home theater PCs. Development of Windows 8 started before the release of its predecessor in 2009. Its existence was first announced at CES 2011, and followed by the release of three pre-release versions from September 2011 to May 2012. The operating system was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, and was released for general availability on October 26, 2012.

Windows 8 introduces significant changes to the operating system's platform, primarily focused towards improving its user experience on mobile devices such as tablets to rival other mobile operating systems (such as Android and iOS), taking advantage of new or emerging technologies (such as USB 3.0, UEFI firmware, near field communications, cloud computing and the low-power ARM architecture), new security features (such as malware filtering, built-in antivirus software, and support for secure boot, a controversial UEFI feature which requires operating systems to be digitally signed to prevent malware from infecting the boot process), along with other changes and performance improvements.

Windows 8 also introduces a new shell and user interface based on Microsoft's "Metro" design language, featuring a new Start screen with a grid of dynamically updating tiles to represent applications, a new app platform with an emphasis on touchscreen input, the new Windows Store to obtain and purchase applications for the system, and the ability to synchronize programs and settings between multiple devices.