You would think the PC was six feet under by reading tech coverage this week.

With every aspect of the iPhone 5 dissected ad nauseam by legions of tech journalists worldwide, coverage of the ultrabook at the concurrent Intel event didn't stand a chance.

Problem is, there's just too much cool tech that Apple -- and the Android guys too, by the way -- pack into a handheld device. PCs, as they stand now, are a bit boring by comparison.

Here are a few of the most prominent technologies that ultrabooks -- the standard for cutting-edge PC design … Read more

Today, you likely charge your phone with a USB cable. Tomorrow, you might well use one to charge your laptop and other devices.

With a new Universal Serial Bus technology called Power Delivery (USB PD), Intel and its allies hope the ubiquitous cable will become even more widespread. "One USB cable does it all," said Brad Saunders and Bob Dunstan, two Intel architects in a presentation at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco this week.

USB 2.0 can carry 2.5 watts of power. USB 3.0, which is just catching on now, can handle 4.… Read more

Apple has taken a wait-and-see approach to 4G LTE, and that may pay off for the iPhone 5.

While LTE on Verizon's network has become a standard offering for Android phones over the last year or so, Apple CEO Tim Cook has resisted -- until Wednesday.

Cook always said pretty much the same thing: iPhone-use LTE chipsets aren't good enough yet for Apple.

And he had a point. Previous generations of LTE tech had power-consumption and chip-integration tradeoffs. Plus, Verizon's build-out of LTE has been steady but slow. (It just reached an area near my stomping grounds, … Read more

So, just how thin will future touch screen ultrabooks get? Intel provides plenty of guidance on how to get there.

Ultrabooks these days typically range between 17mm (0.66 inches) and 20mm (0.78 inches) in thickness. With the emergence of Windows 8 tablet-esque ultrabooks with touchscreens, Intel wants to shave off a few more millimeters.

At its annual conference today, Intel released a slide (above) showing a touch screen ultrabook with a thinly-sliced 2.5mm keyboard (Microsoft's Surface tablet has a keyboard that is 3mm thin by comparison), a sub 0.5mm touch panel, and a 5mm hard … Read more

With the iPhone 5 expected to sport 4G LTE tech, one analyst wonders whether Apple will have dealt with all of the "compromises" that CEO Tim Cook mentioned as an LTE deal-breaker last year.

It is "unlikely" that Apple will be able to deliver LTE sans compromises for its next iPhone, said Will Strauss, principal analyst at Forward Concepts, a market research firm that covers wireless communication chips, among other chip technologies.

4G LTE phones have been notorious for underwhelming battery life.

"First of all that chip is going to have to handle not only … Read more

Apple take note. An Intel executive says everything is going the way of touch.

"Intel has put its money where its conviction is" and invested heavily in touch screens, Rob DeLine, director of Ultrabook product marketing at Intel, said in an interview.

DeLine pointed out that although there are plenty of touch screens that are 10 inches and smaller avaialable, that isn't the case for larger sizes.

The larger-screen ecosystem "really didn't exist," he said. "The ecosystem for 10-inch and below for tablets is pretty mature. So, we've made investments to ensure … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- As technology becomes more "intuitive," Intel is working to add "human-like senses" to computing by enabling touch and speech functionality across all devices, according to chief product officer David Perlmutter.

The general manager of the Intel architecture group opened Intel Developer Forum 2012 on Tuesday morning by noting that this is the 15th year the conference has taken place, asserting that Intel has "been evolving since then and launched a lot of great technologies."

But this year, Perlmutter said that the big discussion this week is about experience and how Intel … Read more

The iPhone 5 and iPad Mini buzz dominates headlines, but signs point to Apple also coming out with a new MacBook Pro that's nothing to sniff at.

DisplaySearch has been telling CNET for a few weeks now that a 13.3-inch Retina version of the MacBook Pro (MBP) is slated for production this quarter.

An Asia-based report followed suit today, saying that "mass production" has begun of the 13.3-inch Retina Pro. An Apple announcement is expected in either September or October, according to the DigiTimes report, citing "supply chain" sources.

That MBP 13-incher will … Read more

Just how big is the expected release this Wednesday of the iPhone 5? How about big enough to show up in U.S. GDP growth and account for a sizable chunk of global chip revenues.

Adds to U.S GDP: Let's start with the U.S. economy. "We believe the release of iPhone 5 could potentially add between 1/4 to 1/2 percent-point to fourth quarter annualized [gross domestic product] growth," said JP Morgan in a research note today.

The note continued. "Our equity analysts believe around 8 million iPhone 5's will be sold … Read more