intel

Don't buy a new PC or Mac before you read this

While summer break has just started for students across the country, that means that the all-important back-to-school shopping season is not far behind. And with it comes a flood of new or updated systems -- everything from traditional laptops and desktops to tablets and hybrids.

But before swiping your credit card on a new ultrabook, all-in-one, or convertible, you're going to want to dive a little deeper into the spec sheets. That's because the latest Intel CPU upgrade -- code named Haswell, but officially known as "fourth-generation Core i series" -- is offering significant battery life … Read more

Smart tech, big data top priorities at Intel Labs

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's what inside that counts, posited Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner.

Now, for a microprocessor giant, this tagline should be interpreted in multiple ways.

The obvious reading being that, because it's coming from Intel, the company is touting its own hardware bits.

But being that this is the theme of this year's Research@Intel summit on Tuesday, the line is also meant to promote what Intel Labs has been cooking up to improve people's lives and communities rather than to just play a numbers game of making devices more faster or efficient.… Read more

Intel's TV 'Black Box Project' poised for big changes in debut

Thousands of Intel employees have exclusive trial access to the company's up-and-coming TV service, but what they're using is leaps away from the final product, CNET has learned.

As CNET earlier reported, Intel in late March started conducting closed trials of its Internet TV service and set-top box with company employees in three West Coast markets. We've now learned more about that test program, code-named the "Black Box Project."

Currently, more than 2,000 Intel employees in Northern California, Arizona, and Oregon are testing the product in their homes, people familiar with the matter told … Read more

Lenovo updates laptop lines for back-to-school

Lenovo has a short stack of new Windows 8 systems hitting stores in the third quarter of 2013, and while there's nothing as revolutionary as the Yoga hybrid or the Horizon 27 tabletop PC, there are some worthwhile updates to existing product lines and one new system, the Windows 8 Miix tablet, detailed here.

The more traditional systems come from the IdeaPad U, Y, and S lines, with a few important changes, as detailed below.

IdeaPad U330 Touch and U430 Touch This ultrabook line, with 13 and 14-inch screens, gets a necessary update to Intel's new fourth-generation Core … Read more

Intel joins A4WP, a newcomer to wireless power standards

Wireless charging isn't a very useful idea if every device needs a separate charging station, which is why it's notable that Intel has joined a newer consortium called the Alliance for Wireless Power

The chipmaker got itself a seat on A4WP's board of directors, joining Samsung, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Integrated Device Technology, and Gill Industries, the consortium said Wednesday in a statement (PDF).

Intel likes A4WP because the technology extends not just to mobile phones but also laptops. Here's how Navin Shenoy, vice president of Intel's PC client group and general manager of its mobile client … Read more

Inside the 2013 MacBook Air: SSD sizzles, graphics gain

It may look the same outside, but the MacBook Air got overhauled on the inside.

In the case of the solid-state drive (SSD) and graphics, it's a major overhaul.

SSD: Apple appears to be one of the first to stick a PCI Express (PCIe) SSD in a thin laptop. And that makes a huge difference, according to Anand Shimpi of Anandtech.

"This is a huge deal, totally the future. And pretty much all other notebooks announced at Computex still use [Serial ATA]. Apple did the right thing here," Anand said in response to an e-mail query.

Running … Read more

The current enigma of the Retina MacBook Pro

It's hard to imagine, but Apple's MacBook lineup has been turned on its head. As of right now, the highest-priced MacBooks are a technological generation behind the least expensive MacBooks, making for shopping confusion if you're about to invest in a new system from Apple.

The cause of the confusion is this. At WWDC 2013, Apple introduced laptops updated to the latest generation of Intel Core i-series processors. These fourth-gen chips are also known by the code name Haswell, and they promise improved performance, better integrated graphics, and greatly boosted battery life. These CPUs were launched earlier … Read more

Intel intros low-cost enterprise SSD for data centers

Intel today introduced the DC S3500 series solid-state drive, which brings enterprise performance at a cost that general consumers can afford. The new drive is optimized for read performance, which is important for data centers, or storage servers.

The new drive supports the SATA 3 (6Gbps) standard and is available in both 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch designs. The former is available in 80GB, 120GB, 160GB, 240GB, 300GB, 480GB, 600GB, and 800GB capacities, while the latter is available in 80GB, 240GB, 400GB, and 800GB capacities. Both designs are 7mm thick.

Intel says the new SSD uses its 20nm NAND flash … Read more

Intel tablet keeps tabs on your heart rate

Intel's perceptual computing isn't just fun and games.

In the past year or so, Intel's demoes of perceptual computing have focused on interacting with the computer in the 3D space in front of the device. It's not unlike the motion-sensing Kinect gaming technology from Microsoft, which allows interaction via gestures.

Well, that same sensing technology does more than just games. Using "sophisticated computer vision algorithms" Intel showed a tablet monitoring a person's heart rate (see image at top).

"When oxygenated blood comes to my face, we can't see it with our … Read more