CES 2013: Live from Intel's press event

It’s Intel’s turn to take the stage at CES 2013. Expect a lot of talk about Ultrabooks and mobile devices, with Bay Trail (Atom) and possibly Haswell (4th generation mainstream Core CPUs) being announced.

Interactive tree of Ultrabooks at the Intel booth.

The event kicks off at 2:30am IST (1:00pm in Vegas)

2:34am

Mike Bell, Intel vice president, Mobile and Communications Group is on stage. First will be mobile tech and an update about phones.

(We’ve been hearing promises from Intel about a smartphone platform for several years. Last year saw a few product launches but no real excitement.) Bell talks about the Xolo and other products, including models from Motorola, Lenovo. Android on X86 was a priority.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

2:38am

Slides with benchmarks. Google’s Octane benchmark. Slide shows a RAZR i beating various iPhone and Android models. Battry life beats the competition as well, says another slide.

2:40am

Debuting “Lexington”, a new smartphone platform for emerging markets, specifically including India and China. Atom Z2420 CPU with XMM 6265. 1.2 GHz, hyperthreading, Android. Bell holds up a reference model.

Further specs: HD video encoding and decoding, 5MP rear and 1.3MP front cameras supported, 7fps burst capture. No hard numbers but “experiences” will be fast, smooth, etc. “Great gaming performance”.

Featues for emerging markets? Dual SIM with dual standby, FM radio, microSD slot, WiDi (!)

Acer, Safaricom and Lava will be the first to market. 

Mike Bell holds up the Lexington reference design.

2:44am

Slide shows a two-pronged approach now: Medfield and successors for premium smartphones; Lexington and successors for value.

Future generations shown as 22nm, so Lexington would appear to be fabbed on an older process.

On the tablet side, 10 OEMs are now making Atom-based Windows 8 tablets. It’s all about the Z2760 Atom up to 1.8 GHz, dual core, 10 hours battery life. 

2:47 am

Next gen Bay Trail platform for tablets. Twice as fast, out late 2013. 

Kirk Skaugen of the PC Client Group is now on stage to talk about Ultrabooks, hybrids, convergence, more experiences.

Atom vs Core for tablets. Atom can do 2W and now the gap is filled with new 7W low-power 3rd gen Core for hybrids and tablets. New design from Acer is 20 percent thinner. Longer battery life also possible.

2:53am

Showing off the Yoga 11S from Lenovo.

140 Ultrabook models are shipping, goal is to ramp volume and hit lower prices with Ivy Bridge gen.

Now Haswell! 4th Gen Core. Due out this year, by the end of the year $599 touch-based devices (he didn’t say Ultrabooks) will be possible. 

NEC notebook, 15-inch screen, 12.8mm thick. 

5X increase in use of lower-power Core models since 2011. Low-power is now the focus rather than a variation of another product. Haswell designed ground-up for the first time.

2:59am

Touch will be mandatory on all Haswell products! Talking up style, responsiveness, all-day battery life, wide range of choices, Wi-Di.

Intel antitheft and identity protection. Natural interaction with touch and voice.

Clarification: touch, voice not mandatory for all Haswell products, only for products which advertise themselves as Ultrabooks.

Kirk Skaugen compares a Haswell Ultrabook to a three-year old notebook.

3:04am

New reference design called Northcape. Incredibly slim (of course) with battery and motherboard in the lid instead of the base, like a tablet with a dock. Keyboard separates, has own battery. i7 CPU, 10 hour battery life. 11.6-inch screen, toggle for screen rotation when in tablet mode. 

3:10am

Now on to all-in-ones. Talking about families. Sony Tap 20 device used for demo. Completely wireless, can be picked up and moved around like an oversized tablet. 

Announcing a new AIO ecosystem with software from Microsoft, EA, Omnitapps specifically for this kind of design. EA shows digital board games, where a family can sit around a table. Monopoly!

Unsurprisingly, Lenovo Horizon demo up now. Can play poker on the “table” while holding cards in hand on your smartphones.

3:16am

Announcing a premium paid TV content on computers. Coming year end, presumbaly that refers to US only.

Deals with various US cable and service providers, no set-top box required.

3:20am

New demo. “Perceptual computing”. Combination of senses, emotion and context. Better eyes and ears for computers. Nuance Dragon software will come with more devices this year. Demo of face recognition to unlock a Windows 8 PC. Gesture controls, the same Creative cam accessory showed at IDF. 

Portal 2! Using Sixense tech to manipulate a Companion Cube on screen with only hands. Eye tracking to turn pages of a book.

3:31am

And that’s a wrap. It’s all about experiences, sharing, natural interaction.