mids

First seen at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the mystery handheld Lenovo was showing off now has a name.

The IdeaPad U8 was unveiled at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai Tuesday along with a few more tidbits about what it's packing inside.

We already learned at CES that it runs Linux, is Web-enabled, has GPS, plays music, and takes photos.

By the name, IdeaPad, we can assume it's a consumer device, since IdeaPad is the name of Lenovo's newest line of consumer-oriented notebooks. We also know now that Intel considers it an MID (mobile Internet … Read more

Intel is working on technology that would allow handheld Internet devices to wirelessly use big screens.

All technology is a problem looking for a solution (or the converse). Intel is working on technology that would mitigate one of the inherent problems with ultra-small devices: ultra-small screens. Vic Lortz, a research scientist and senior architect at Intel's Communications Technology Lab in Hillsboro, Ore., discussed a technology that would include a wireless display feature on big-screen digital TVs allowing Mobile Internet Devices, or MIDs, to wirelessly use the display on a big screen.

"Imagine if digital TVs included a wireless … Read more

Before the Intel Atom processor, there was the A110. This chip spawned the 2007 UMPC (Ultramobile PC) category which in turn spawned some unsightly designs.

The Intel A110 and its lower-performance sibling the A100 were launched in 2007 with the intention of jump-starting the UMPC market. But that market stalled. Intel is still promoting the UMPC as a broad, somewhat amorphous category for business, while pushing the Mobile Internet Device, or MID, for fit-in-your-pocket consumer-centric designs and the Netbook for small, inexpensive, Internet-centric notebook form factors (both of which, as I will discuss below, have a better chance of success).… Read more

For an out-there 2009-2010 chip, Intel's Moorestown seems to get mentioned a lot by executives. If you consider, however, that this silicon may represent Intel's single biggest push into the "very large" mobile phone market, then all that jawboning is understandable.

At recent Intel conferences, CEO Paul Otellini and other high-ranking executives have dropped the Moorestown name frequently. Why? First, it will be Intel's showcase system-on-a-chip, combining the CPU, graphics, and memory controller on a single die, which, in turn, will be combined with other silicon. Second, it will probably serve as the main launching … Read more

SANTA CLARA, CALIF.--Intel CEO Paul Otellini sought to reassure major investors Wednesday that the world's largest chip maker is still poised for strong growth into new areas like mobile computers, and can maintain its current lead in PC technology.

Otellini reiterated much of Intel's pitch from the last six months that the world of handheld mobile computers and low-cost PCs can supplement the slowing-but-steady growth of the PC market. Intel is investing new products like its Atom processor and attempting to break into these new markets by reminding software developers and device makers that Intel's chips … Read more

Texas Instruments has a new OMAP chip to set upon the world, and this time around it's eyeing more than mobile phones.

The new OMAP3440 made its debut in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress 2008. This is the latest in TI's line of OMAP applications processors, which are the equivalent of the CPUs inside PCs.

TI sells standalone applications processors like the 3440 to customers such as Nokia for use in high-end smartphones, but it is also talking up the potential for the 3440 as a chip for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). That's Intel's name for … Read more

After holding off on the release of a faster iPhone because of concerns about battery life, is Apple really prepared to take a step backward with Intel's Silverthorne chip?

AppleInsider reported Friday that Apple has decided to use Intel's upcoming low-power Silverthorne chip in "not one but multiple products currently situated on its 2008 calendar year product roadmap." Silverthorne is Intel's latest push to capture the handheld/mobile phone market as part of a product concept called the Mobile Internet Device.

The report goes on to say that the most likely candidates for Silverthorne are … Read more

Phone makers aren't the only ones interested in Google's Android software.

Of the 34 companies that agreed to join Google's Open Handset Alliance, Intel's decision to participate is yet another sign that the chipmaker is looking for alternative software to run on its Mobile Internet Device (MID) project. Most of the attention around Android focused on the mobile-phone market, and with good reason, as that area will be the first to get a sense of whether Google and its partners can actually make headway in this area.

But the world's largest chipmaker would still like … Read more

Apparently the Newton doesn't fall very far from the Apple tree.

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has a project underway to develop a minitablet computer based on the OS X operating system it has developed for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The site is calling it "the return of the Newton," referring to the much-maligned but cult-favorite PDA that Apple sold in the mid-1990s.

The report describes a "slate" style device that's about 1.5 times bigger than an iPhone, with a high resolution display and the same touch-screen interface that's found … Read more