The ability to have everything you need and do anything you want from anywhere you are at any moment is one of today’s most powerful ideas in personal computing. Computers and notebooks based on the 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processor family can provide this continuous experience—not only with other PCs in the home or office—but also with mobile devices and the cloud, from Windows* to Android* to iOS*.
Computing Evolution
In 1993 an Intel® Pentium® processor running at 60 MHz built with 3.1 million transistors encased in a box roughly the size and shape of a microwave oven was a fixture on many desks. Display technology revolved around CRT monitors, and portability was not an option—a combined equipment weight of over 40 pounds was common.
Around the same time, the second generation of mobile phones, which consisted of car-mounted devices and the earliest handheld, hard-keyed design, was hitting the market. Carrier limitations minimized the use of these devices outside the home market, and the devices were strictly for telephone calls; the first SMS text messages didn’t become available until the middle of the decade.
Today’s computing hardware barely resembles what was commonplace 20 years ago. The 3rd gen Intel Core processor family (code-named Ivy Bridge) operates at clock speeds as high as 3900 MHz and is built using 1.4 billion transistors, yet the processors run on just one-fifth the current required by the original Intel Pentium processors. Desktop display resolutions have increased to 2560x1600 and beyond.
Equally dramatic is the leap forward in the cell phone market. With today’s smartphone designs, much of daily life can be run with your fingertip from a 4.3-inch high-resolution screen. Nearly ubiquitous connectivity and data speeds give consumers the ability to interact with e-mail and web sites on their mobile devices, experience high-definition media, and access information and compute resources from around the world.
Interface Evolution and Sensory Perception Technology
How we interact with the devices that power our computing lives is also being transformed. While the keyboard and mouse remain the de facto option for productivity, consumers are being offered new ways to interact.
Touch technology has increased in popularity in the consumer space. The use of this technology, particularly in the design of smartphones where device real estate is limited, allows hardware designers to keep a large portion of the unit for display. Tablets and convertible notebooks are also using touch technology either as a supplement to the traditional keyboard and touchpad, or as the lone interface.
Another popular interface is gesture control, either with or without in-hand hardware. Popularized by the Nintendo Wii* gaming console and pushed further by Microsoft’s Kinect*, these unique options take advantage of the processing power on the computing side while enabling new and interesting input mechanics.
Image above: Photo courtesy of PointGrab Ltd., Israel.
User Expectations Drive Innovations
As computers and mobile devices continue to increase in complexity and compute density, consumers are expecting more creative ways to interact with them.
The use of digital media is now standard for consumers, including digital cameras, music, and even streaming video for movies and TV shows. Sharing photos of a vacation with friends, listening to a personal music collection while driving to work, and editing a presentation during a cab ride—these activities unheard of just a few years ago—are now standard consumer expectations.
People want access to their files and apps even when out of the home or office. Further, they expect the same computing experiences across all platforms—a seamless environment without sacrificing performance. While mobile devices present some limitations today, the consumer still wants to edit files, watch high-definition video, and access a media library in a way that is familiar and easy. But access to “everything, everywhere” is only as good as the experience on a mobile platform.
Intel and Microsoft Windows* 8: Enabling Everything, Everywhere
Intel hardware and software architectures are part of the vast array of computing technology that’s enabling this everything, everywhere transition.
The emergence of the Ultrabook™ device is one of the most prominent and direct results of this technology transformation, especially in terms of its portability. Ultrabook devices provide lightweight design, attractive aesthetics, and long battery life—all while maintaining the high user responsiveness of desktop platforms.
Intel is also integrating Intel® Wireless Display (WiDi) technology on its platforms to improve the user experience. WiDi allows users to create a completely unique computing experience with existing hardware for video sharing, home theater experiences, and rich visual presentations. Many notebooks with the 3rd gen Intel Core processor will ship with the ability to wirelessly stream the desktop—including high-definition and Blu-ray* video—to a TV with a simple receiver (attached using HDMI*).
Intel will bring this same technological push to the world of mobile phones. When desktops, notebooks, tablets, and mobile devices share the same basic architecture (x86 and Intel® architecture), software developers will more easily be able to share information and mimic desktop experiences across nearly any device.
To complete the transformational UI picture, Microsoft Windows 8 begins a new era in human-computer interaction. Its Metro style UI unifies the computing experience across the device and desktop continuum with a consistent look and feel.
Seamless Computing of the Future
Every day more consumers see the power and benefits of being able to access their information from nearly any device at any time thanks to the processing power of Intel® technology and UI innovations by Microsoft. Intel® platforms and technology will provide the tools developers need to further revolutionize the computing industry.
The paradigm shift that is predicted to occur over the next 20 years will likely be as exhilarating as the shift from 1990 to 2010. With Intel at the heart of this change, consumers and developers can be wildly creative today and in years ahead.
Intel® Pair & Share
Intel Pair & Share is an easy-to-use photo-sharing application that allows users to wirelessly display photos from their Android* or iOS*-based mobile phone to a laptop screen, desktop display, or even a living room TV. All that is required is a small, secure application installed on your computer and the Intel Pair & Share application (downloaded from the Android Marketplace, Intel AppUp® center, or Apple App Store). Once installed, the software securely connects devices over Wi-Fi*, allowing mobile phone users to share photos with any of the connected devices. Middleware is unnecessary; the app can be used over any Wi-Fi connection.
Intel® TelePort Extender
Intel Teleport Extender is another free application that enables a seamless computing experience from your desktop to your mobile device. Using a secure Wi-Fi connection, an Android-based phone, and a PC or laptop running the Intel TelePort Extender app, you can access and send text messages using the larger screen of your PC and the convenience of your keyboard and mouse. The application also gives PC users the ability to view caller-ID information of incoming calls and send unwanted calls directly to voicemail.
Learn more about these apps at:
www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/home-users/get-more-from-your-devices-wi...
About the Author
A contributing writer, roving reporter, podcast host, and blogger for the popular technology site PC Perspective, Ryan Shrout researches and writes product reviews for today’s leading-edge hardware and software products. When he’s not tracking down the pending changes to the various CPU and compute architectures, Ryan is on tap to assist the RH+M3 group when the need for a hardcore computer-geek writer arises.
