Design innovation: The PC's secret weapon in the war for relevance

As laptop and desktop sales plummet by record amounts, some PC manufacturers are wading out of their comfort zones in hopes of breathing life back into the market.
Two prominent examples have reared their heads recently. On the Wednesday of last week, Toshiba, a manufacturer perhaps best known for midrange PCs at competitive prices, took a swing at the ultrapremium market with the Kirabook, a thin and light laptop with an ultrahigh-resolution display on a par with Apple's Retina-packing MacBook Pros. And just one day earlier, HP placed a big bet on futuristic motion controls, announcing that it will bundle Leap Motion controllers with select PCs, and will embed the technology directly into future devices.
Other PC makers are trying their own experiments. Acer, for one, has teased about a "unique notebook" that may be able to convert into a desktop with a raised touchscreen. And Asus has launched a desktop that transmogrifies into a gigantic detachable Android tablet, while Lenovo is preparing a tabletop touchscreen PC designed with digital board games in mind.
These are early signs of a sea change among PC makers, companies that for years subsisted on selling unremarkable products--essentially, spec lists and price tags--with no major distinguishing features. That strategy no longer works in the age of tablets.
What we're witnessing now is an attempt to adapt.
Why humdrum laptops won't fly anymore
PC makers are being forced to experiment because the traditional laptop and desktop markets are drying up. It's not just unit sales that are in decline, it's revenues as well. HP, for instance, saw its PC revenues fall 8 percent last quarter, and Toshiba saw a 16 percent PC sales decline in its 2012 fiscal year due to falling demand in the United States.
But don't blame Windows 8 alone for the PC industry's woes. The reality is that PC sales were on the decline before Microsoft's operating system went on sale, largely because tablets have tweaked people's purchasing decisions.
As Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawanoted in January, most households no longer feel the need to have one laptop or desktop for everyone. Instead, people are buying tablets for consumption uses, and hanging onto one or two household PCs for productivity. Computers, in that sense, have become like microwaves. Users replace them only when absolutely necessary.
"The PC's not going to be an everyday device for most consumers," Kitagawa said in an interview. "Tablets will probably take that position."
As a result, PC makers are changing their focus. Instead of trying to sell lots of cheap computers, they're turning more attention to premium PCs, designed to attract shoppers who want a product built to last.
Toshiba's Kirabook and Acer's upcoming laptop-desktop crossover are examples of that trend, Kitagawa said. But selling on these new premium brands won't be easy. Acer, for example, cemented its reputation for dirt-cheap laptops in the netbook era. That may explain why the company is using a Star Trek tie-in to promote its next premium PC.
"It's been their strength, of course, to be a low-price leader, but that market is not going to go anywhere going forward, so they have to make changes," Kitagawa said.
That's not to say that PC makers are ignoring the low-end of the market. Later this year, consumers can expect touch-enabled Windows 8 notebooks running on Intel's Bay Trail processors, with prices as low as $200, along with touch-enabled Ultrabooks in the $500 to $600 range.
Still, whether these budget Windows 8 devices can compete with Apple's iPads and cheap tablets like Amazon's Kindle Fire is unknown.
But while the traditional PC market is on the decline, it's still a mammoth business, with 76.3 million units sold last quarter alone, according to IDC. As the market flattens out and tablets gobble up an increasing slice of the low end, however, PC makers will likely compensate by trying to sell more expensive machines--which is why we'll see more interesting products aimed at grabbing shoppers' attention.
To sell, a high-end PC needs to stand out.
Desperate times, desperate measures
Granted, PC makers have always offered expensive products, but in the past, the differences in prices have typically come down to component speeds. The higher the price, the heftier the hardware inside--it was as simple as that. But now PC makers are focusing on unique features, rather than raw performance, to justify higher prices.
Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, sees PC makers' newfound experimentation as an offshoot of what began last year with Windows 8 hybrids and convertibles. HP's upcoming Leap Motion devices, and Acer's convertible notebook, are part of a "second wave" intended to make the PC cool again.
"I think what they're doing is trying to get a jump on this next wave of innovation, but also to find some sort of advantage that they can put out there competitively," Moorhead said in an interview.
Over the next year or so, he expects PC makers to refine those hybrid designs, while also introducing new technologies, such as eye-tracking, voice commands, and wireless connectivity to larger displays.
"In times of pain, new tech will tend to get more creative and take more risks," Moorhead said, though he also acknowledged that some companies go the opposite way, avoiding risky bets and trying to protect their core business.
To boldly go where no man(ufacturer) has gone before
While it's true that PC makers are taking risks by investing in fresh designs and new technologies, sticking to the status quo could be even more fraught with peril. PC makers have survived for years by doing little aside from pushing prices ever lower on barely distinguishable, borderline commodity products. Hey, it's what sold.
It's not what's selling any more, though. Unexciting, low-cost laptops don't catch the public eye as ferociously as tablets. Mix that meh
with the fact that tablets often undercut cheap notebooks on price, and you have a recipe for future disaster.
On the other hand, tablets can't compete with the power or profit margins of high-end laptops, making pricier products a possible safe haven for PC makers. But first, manufacturers must convince consumers that dropping the extra bucks in these cash-strapped times is a worthwhile investment. Current luxury features such as backlit keyboards and beefy processors are nice and all, but they simply don't drive mass sales the way that eye-popping features might--repeat, might
--be able to.
The winds of change are indeed a-blowing throughout the industry, but experiments like the Kirabook, the Asus Transformer AiO, and HP's Leap Motion support show that PC makers are well aware of the challenges they face, and are actively innovating to rise to the occasion.
Will such gambles pay off? We won't know for sure for some time. One thing is certain, however: PC makers, finally, are thinking outside the ho-hum black box.

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Windows 8 touch laptop prices to hit $200 by the holidays, Intel CEO says

Intel held its first quarter earnings call for 2013 on Tuesday, and the Q&A with analysts afterwards was full of bold declarations about how cheap touch-enabled PCs and other Intel-loaded touchable gadgets were going to get.
Intel executives love to talk about how the next generation of PCs powered by Intel processors is going to be surprisingly cheap. And there's no better time to throw around price predictions than after a round of dismal reports about the future of the PC.
The most interesting price prediction came from outgoing CEO Paul Otellini who said touch-enabled laptops could get as low as $200 by the holidays.
"If you look at touch-enabled Intel-based notebooks that are ultrathin and light using non-Core processors ...Those prices are going to be down to as low as $200, probably," Otellini said. Otellini's $200 price prediction followed earlier statements from both Otellini and Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith claiming Bay Trail-powered devices would get into the $300 range. Bay Trail is Intel's Atom system-on-a-chip that's due later this year.
"Because of Bay Trail coming into the marketplace, you'll see touch-enabled thin notebooks with really good performance that are hitting kind of $300 price points," Smith said.
Ultrabook prices predicted to fall
The pair also reinforced statements that Ultrabooks would be priced less than $600 in time for the holidays. "As we get into the Christmas selling season, our expectation is you will see touch-enabled Ultrabooks that are $499 and $599 pretty commonly out there--$599 commonly, and $499 as kind of special SKUs," Smith said Tuesday.
Before getting too excited about the future of touch-enabled PCs, keep in mind Intel is the same company that predicted the first generation of thin and light Ultrabooks would be priced under $1,000. That's a price point that early Ultrabooks largely failed to meet, although there were some priced as low as $900-$999.
Intel may really like it if PCs got priced as low as $200, but the company's dreams for PC pricing have recently ended up in conflict with the real products that computer manufacturers release.
While Intel is talking up the future of the cheaply-priced touch PC and the promise of improved sales, market research analysts are painting a pretty dismal picture for the traditional personal computer.
Earlier in April, research firms Gartner and IDC both said worldwide PC shipments hit record lows during the first three months of 2013. IDC set the drop at 13.9 percent, while Gartner said the dip was around 11 percent. (Disclaimer: PCWorld and IDC are both owned by International Data Group.)
If the figures prove to be accurate, Intel's predictions of lower prices may help buoy declining PC sales as both Gartner and IDC pointed to price as a major contributing factor--along with the undesirability of Windows 8.
Blame game
Blaming the lull in PC sales on high prices for touch-based PCs is a theme we've been hearing for months. In January, PCWorld reported that Windows 8 notebooks didn't sell well during the 2012 holiday season partly due to price. Then, in early April, we saw Windows 8 hybrid and tablet prices slashed, Windows RT device pricing also fell during that time, and we even caught some Windows 7 PCs priced higher than their Windows 8 counterparts.
On Monday, financial news site MarketWatch went so far as to say PC prices were hitting "Black Friday-style deals."
All of this cheaper pricing, we're told, should help prop up the sagging PC market, especially later in the year when touch-based PCs running Windows 8 become more commonplace. But what if that's not the case at all? With PC computing power and speed hitting a wall, what if all the excitement has finally gone out of the PC market as everyone turns to tablets and smartphones for everyday computing?
What if the PC really is turning into the microwave: just another home appliance you replace only when it breaks down? Forty percent of the global PC population, after all, is still using Windows XP, an operating system that has seen three major refreshes since XP debuted in 2001.
Intel may have a tough time predicting prices for future PCs but, even if the company's predictions hold true, cheaper PCs may not be enough. There's no guarantee, after all, that holiday shoppers will prefer a $200 Windows 8 laptop just because it has a touchscreen. Not when you can pick up an equally priced Android tablet such as the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire that can fit in your back pocket.

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Windows 8 laptops can't command Windows 7 prices

Tepid enthusiasm for Windows 8 is bad news for Microsoft, but it's good news for laptop shoppers.
Notebooks with 15-inch displays and running Windows 8 with Intel Ivy Bridge processors have been spotted in the wild selling for as cheap as $299, according to the bargain hunter site DealNews.
That price, which includes 6GB of RAM and a 750GB hard drive, is $100 less than the best deals available during last year's Black Friday weekend.
Many of the Windows 7 laptops still available are priced higher than their Windows 8 equivalents, an examination of several online retailers reveals. At the 10-month mark in their lifecycle, Windows 7 laptops with Core i5 Sandy Bridge processors and 15-inch displays were selling for around $400, a 34 percent drop from their introductory price, DealNews reports. By comparison, the price of similarly configured Windows 8 systems have dropped a whopping 46 percent at their 10-month mark.
Many of the Windows 7 laptops still available are priced higher than their Windows 8 equivalents, a glance at several online retailers reveals.
Some shoppers are seeking older systems in order to avoid Windows 8, which sports a new user interface that those buyers don't want to be compelled to learn. "This hesitation to adopt--and adapt--to the touchscreen-happy UI of Windows 8 may also explain why we're seeing such steep discounts on Windows 8-equipped Ivy Bridge laptops," DealNews asserted.
Discounts on Windows RT and hybrid-style systems have also been spotted at Microsoft's online store, but those discounts aren't at the extreme levels spotted by DealNews.
Adding to the woes of Windows 8 is the news that a new version of the operating system, code name Windows Blue, will be arriving this summer in time for back-to-school buying sprees. That could ignite even further deals on Windows 8 systems.
With a possible hardware refresh in sight, it's not surprising to see deals appearing for Windows 8 systems, according to Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst with the Enderle Group in San Jose, Calif.
As for tales of Windows 7 hardware selling at a premium over newer Windows 8 systems, that's a simple case of supply and demand. "There's a massive shortage of Windows 7 hardware because the OEMs were asked to stop making it last year," Enderle explained to PCWorld.
"For the folks who want to continue the old interface, they're seeking hardware that's becoming more scarce," he said.
Meanwhile, he continued, there's no shortage of the newer hardware that was produced in large quantities.
Windows Blue isn't improving matters, either. "Whether Windows Blue will be an update or new release hasn't been clearly articulated by Microsoft and that confusion doesn't help matters," Enderle noted.
He predicted that the next generation of Windows 8 hardware will be a lot better than the first systems running the OS. The processors will be more efficient and the machines will be lighter and cheaper.
"Typically, the first hardware out with a new operating system feels rushed," he said. "The second and third waves tend to be more refined."
"Folks that really want Windows 8 probably should wait until the second half of the year when the new stuff comes out," he added.

Medion Erazer X7819 review

You can get passable gaming performance from a laptop for around ?700 – as long as you don’t mind keeping down the resolution and graphical settings a bit. But if you really want to enjoy smooth graphics at a high resolution, you’ll currently have to pay around ?1200 or more.

See: more laptop reviews.


However, Medion’s Erazer X7819 (MD98392) throws down an impressive-seeming gauntlet to its gaming rivals. It’s not the most powerful gaming laptop we’ve seen, but its performance could satisfy all but hardcore gamers while still coming in under ?1000.
Like most gaming laptops the Medion Erazer X7819 is something of a beast in girth and mass, sporting a large 17.3in screen and a weight so great it broke our scales. Medion specifies it at 3.9kg, not including another kilo for the mains charger.
It looks impressive though, as the sturdy plastic chassis has a smart fake-metal finish, joining the gratuitous glowing lights that usually go with the shoot-’em-up territory
There are several models in the Erazer range, wielding either 15.6in or 17.3in displays, with prices going as far as ?1400. We tested the entry-level model, which costs ?899 and had a quad-core 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-3630QM processor, 16GB memory, and 750GB hard drive.
We noticed that the current model on sale lists only 8GB of memory though.
As well as the built-in Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics there’s a dedicated nVidia GeForce GTX 670MX processor with 1.5GB of video memory.
We were pleased to see that the Erazer’s screen has a non-reflective matt finish; but disappointed to find that it’s been downsized to 1600 x 900 pixel dimensions, where 1920 x 1080 is the natural fit for a screen this size. Model with an HD display are available, busting the ?1000 barrier.
The brightness and viewing angle aren’t good, with the image darkening noticeably if your head moves more than about 45 degrees to the side.
The Medion Erazer X7219 scored a downbeat 3375 points in the PCMark 7 benchmark test. The hard-disk drive also means this laptop boots sluggishly – around 45 seconds to get up enough steam to launch Windows programs (with no anti-virus installed).
But once the Erazer hits its stride it does provide very good gaming performance for a machine in this price range.
With Batman: Arkham City the Erazer managed a comfortable 40fps at 1600 x 900 resolution with DirectX 11 and High graphics settings.
Stalker: Call Of Pripyat ran similarly well, hitting 50fps with its High graphics settings. We were even able to nudge Batman up to 50fps using DX11 graphics after dropping down to Medium detail settings.
The cooling fan did hum noticeably, even with the graphics switched to integrated. You could always use the loud speakers to try drowning out the fan when playing games or watching films. You’ll also have to contend with their tinny sound though.
The keyboard and trackpad are large and firm enough to take a pounding during gaming sessions, and several keys – including the WASD gaming control combo – are highlighted in red to enhance visibility. The main mouse click buttons, left and right attached to one pivoted bar – proved too stiff for comfortable use.
Battery life is a mixed bag. We were able to get a little over four hours use, when streaming video with the Intel HD Graphics 4000; and just 90 minutes when gaming.

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Apple Mac mini (Late 2012) with Fusion Drive review

Its now-famous square aluminium unibody sets a standard in build quality and design which is still many strides ahead of all the competition. It’s delightfully minimal, with all connecting ports tucked away around the back. Notable among these are four USB 3.0 ports – which Apple just couldn’t bring itself to colour blue – as well as HDMI and Thunderbolt connections. If you’re hooking the Mac mini up to a display without speakers, fear not, for there’s a basic mono speaker built into the PC itself. See all Mac reviews.

Our review model was packed with options, including the fastest processor of the group, in the form of the quad-core Intel Core i7-3270QM. Subtract ?80 and you can configure it with its standard 2.3GHz quad-core Core i7. Performance-wise, the Mac mini is pretty hard to beat. See also Group test: what's the best PC for under ?1,000?

It’s PCMark 7 score of 3286 points was beaten only by Chillblast’s Fusion NUC. However it’s important to note here that the latter is using purely solid-state storage – and there's only 128GB of that included. The Mac mini’s Fusion Drive provides over 1TB of storage space, and when functioning in its native OS X operating system, is able to take advantage of a 128GB SSD to boost performances still further.

Gaming performance is also superior to the Chillblast PC – and nearly all other comers – thanks to its considerably faster integrated processor.

This Mac mini is one of the more power-hungry of the group, with a power draw of 12.5W when doing nothing at the Windows 8 desktop. This increased to 76W under load – well over double that of any other mini PC we’ve tested. This is the price you pay for stuffing such a powerful processor and two drives into a tiny case.

Although the Mac mini features a cooling fan it is, for the most part, blissfully quiet in operation. However, when we hit it with some really hard sums there was plenty of loud whooshing in evidence as the fan worked to keep the temperature down below 100 degrees celsius.

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Chillblast Fusion NUC review: tiny PC with good performance

The Fusion NUC is Chillblast’s take on Intel’s unusual movement into complete PCs, called the Next Unit of Computing (NUC) platform. This tiny square-shaped PC incorporates a fast, low-power processor, 8GB of memory and 128GB of solid-state storage. See Group test: What's the mid-range desktop PC?

It’s a very cute-looking device, constructed from plastic but never feeling cheap – as well it shouldn’t for the ?549 price. The outer packaging consists of an Intel-branded box which plays the cheesey Intel tune whenever the box is opened. See all mid-range PCs.

A single USB 2.0 port graces the front of the PC, while the rear adds a further pair along with HDMI and Thunderbolt and a Kensington security slot.

The 1.8GHz Intel Core i3-3217U processor helps the Fusion NUC to deliver some surprisingly high performance results. Its PCMark 7 sore of 3993 points exceeds that of any other mini PC reviewed here – even quad-core systems running at higher clock speeds, such as the Mac mini. It also makes for some impressive power consumption figures, with the PC requiring only 9W to idle and 19.5W at full tilt. Internally, it’s fan-cooled but it remains very quiet indeed as only minimal cooling is required.

However, the true key to this performance lies in the blisteringly fast 128GB Intel 525 Series mSATA SSD which delivers storage performance in a different league to any other mini PC in the group. This isn’t a large amount of storage though, so you’ll almost certainly have to supplement this with an external drive or NAS. At which point much of the SSD advantage will evaporate.

We appreciate the small size of the Fusion NUC, but there are some key features missing. Where are the USB 3.0 ports? Built in 802.11n Wi-Fi is great, but why no ethernet? What about a card reader? Zotac’s even smaller Zbox Nano XS AD13 Plus shows that size is no excuse for omitting these near-essential features.

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Dell OptiPlex 9010 review - touchscreen Windows 8 all-in-one PC for business

The launch of the touch-centric Windows 8 spawned a host of new all-in-one (AiO) designs, most of which leave something to be desired. But with a little patience and forethought, Dell has delivered a considerably more usable touchscreen AiO: the OptiPlex 9010. And all they had to do was to put the touchscreen within easy reach.

Dell worked this minor miracle by engineering a double-jointed stand that allows you to move the display up and down and slightly forward, along with the tilt adjustment most AiO's provide. Even better, the 9010 has a standard VESA mount point, so you can also use a fully articulated wall- or desk-mounted arm for truly versatile placement. Add a minor landslide of options, top-notch security features, excellent service and warranty options, and you have an AiO that UKPLC can embrace.

Dell also remembered something that many vendors seem to forget: It's not just about looking sexy; reducing cable clutter and wasted space are equally important. In a market filled with AiOs that block the usable surface area behind them, the 9010's minimal footprint leaves all the surrounding area accessible. This allows you to either fill it up with other stuff, or to enjoy the serenity delivered by an uncluttered vista.

To keep cables to a minimum, Dell ships the 9010 with a wireless mouse and keyboard. This keyboard is one of the first Chiclet-style units we've seen on a desktop. Its action is just a hair soft, but thanks to the support of the surrounding plastic, the keys don't have the sloppy feel that you get with some Dell units. The mouse tracks well and has a nice heft, thanks to the battery inside.

Any doubts that the 9010 all in one PC is aimed at the corporate world are dispelled by the presence of PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports found on the back of the unit. The back is also home to VGA and HDMI video outputs, gigabit ethernet, an audio output, two USB 3.0 ports, and four USB 2.0 ports to meet more modern peripherals needs. Take a look at Group test: what's the best all-in-one PC?

On the left side of the PC are two more USB 3.0 ports, headset and microphone jacks, and a 8-in-1 card reader. On the lower right hand side of the display, you'll find the eject button for the optical drive, on-screen display, and power buttons. The absence of an HDMI input renders this system less attractive to consumers, because you can't use it as a display for a gaming console or a set-top box. Visit Busines Advisor.

Our test 9010 AiO came configured with most of the top-of-the-line component options including an Intel Core i7-3770S, 8GB of DDR3/1600 memory, and a Samsung PM830, 128GB SSD. Needless to say, the machine was fast, scoring 113 on our WorldBench 8 test suite. Gaming was nothing to brag about, but the integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics did manage playable frame rates at about 1024-by-768 and lower resolutions. We didn't receive a Blu-ray player, but got a DVD-RW burner in the bay.

The 9010 AiO's display is a 23.6-inch, 1920-by-1080 widescreen that provides a very sharp picture, and even behind the thick digitizer, plenty of usable brightness. The speakers deliver adequate volume, a tiny amount of bass, and a generally sonorous experience. The unit also has a 1.3-megapixel webcam, plus dual-array mics designed to reject background noise.

The 9010 is fully secured via Intel's Trusted Platform Module (TPM), and Intel Standard Manageability provides out-of-band management capabilities (Intel vPro Technology is available as an added option). Out-of-band management enables a remote admin to take control of the system whether or not it's powered. A three-warranty with onsite service after remote diagnosis is standard. Four- and five-year warranties are also available.

The 9010 AiO is available in a ton of configurations: Drives range from 3.5-inch 250GB mechanical models to the 128GB SSD that our test model used. CPUs run the gamut, from Pentium Dual-Core to Core i3's or the Core i7-3770S that we tested.

Dell got touch right with the OptiPlex 9010. The design of its stand makes using the computer via touch a lot easier than most other AiOs we've seen, and the inclusion of a VESA mounting point renders it suitable for almost any work environment. From a purely practical point of view, it's one of the best AiOs on the market. Take a look at Group test: what's the best all-in-one PC?

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MSI Wind Box DC110: very cheap and small PC

The Wind Box DC110 is a more competitively priced mini PC with a home-user focus. Unusually, our sample came with Windows 8 pre-installed, although examples we've seen for sale have Windows 7. It’s ready to plug-and-go and is useful for desk use where space is at a premium. See also Group test: What's the best budget PC?

When held aloft by its optional stand, its white irregular parallelogram shape appears to stick out of the desk like a dagger thrown into a floorboard. Its upward tilt angles its ports towards you and improves air flow from below. See all budget PC reviews.

It’s an undeniably plastic creation, although certainly not unpleasant to look at. A squeeze of the corner-mounted power button brings the unit to life and you’re greeted by a Windows 8 desktop with a small bundle of pre-installed software, including Office 2010 Starter Edition.

Connectivity isn’t as good as we might have hoped. There are six USB 2.0 ports, but none of them USB 3.0 or eSATA. And Thunderbolt isn’t an option. There's 320GB of internal storage provided but all external drives will be limited to dawdling USB 2.0 speeds.

HDMI and VGA ports are provided, along with analogue and digital audio, while the top of the unit features a handy flash card reader.

For the low price of ?275, you get a considerably less-powerful processor than you’d find in other PCs though. There’s no Core i7 or even Core i3 processing to be found here. Instead you get a really slow 1.1GHz Intel Celeron. Worse, this Intel chip comes with an inferior version of Intel’s HD graphics, which we found wasn't even able to run our Windows benchmark game Aliens vs Predator. It simply aborted with an error message.

So you can forget gaming, but the tasks of web surfing, office applications and viewing HD video should all be served quite adequately by the Wind Box DC110. Creating HD media is another matter entirely.

With low performance comes low power consumption, and this unit will use only around 10W at idle or 23W when pushed.

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Sapphire Edge VS8 review: a mini PC with plenty of storage

The Edge VS8's black rubberised-plastic housing contains a PC based on AMD’s 1.6GHz A8 processor which features integrated Radeon 7600G graphics, giving it considerably better graphics performance than any of the competition. See also Group test: What's the best budget PC?

The Edge VS8 offers a well-balance set of features: its large 500GB hard drive is slower and more power power-hungry than an SSD, but also considerably less expensive and offers enough storage space for many to use the PC without the need to connect up external USB drives. See all budget PC reviews.

However, should you need to, there are two USB 3.0 ports provided, along with four USB 2.0. Dual monitor outputs are also provided in the form of HDMI and Mini DisplayPort connectors. Mini DisplayPort to HDMI and Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapters have been included in the box.

There’s also digital and analogue audio, an SD card reader and a gigabit ethernet port. Annoyingly, the front-mounted USB 3.0 ports are located behind a small removable tab which we managed to lost.

Our system was supplied without an operating system. All the required drivers were supplied, but these were on optical media which the PC doesn’t support. An installation of Windows 8 went without a hitch however and we were easily able to download the required drivers from Sapphire’s website.

Performance-wise we were expecting more from the Edge VS8. The PC Mark result of 1150 points seeming uncharacteristically low, especially when considering relatively high scores in many sub tests.

Where the Edge VS8 shines however is in gaming. While it’s by no means a gaming PC, it’s leaps and bounds ahead of the competition and will give you by far the best gaming experience available. Power consumption was a little higher than the rest, but even under full load, the system cooling fan remained relatively quiet – you won’t have to sacrifice your peace in order to get faster gaming graphics.

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Tiny Green PC Intense PC Pro review

At ?791 the CompuLab/Tiny Green PC Intense PC Pro is well over double what many would be expecting to pay for such a device. But it does have some unique features combined with industrial-strength (literally) build-quality.

It also majors on being an entirely fanless design. See Group test: What's the mid-range desktop PC?

The system is based on a dual-core Intel Core i7-3517UE processor which runs between 1.7GHz and 2.8GHz depending on load. It delivers a useful level of performance, as revealed by a PCMark 7 score of 2628 points, while still retaining low power consumption.

Power draw was pushed up somewhat by the use of a spinning hard drive rather than an SSD, but the passive cooling system is so well engineered that even under full load the processor temperature never exceeded 73 degrees C. See all mid-range PCs.

The Intense PC’s ridged body is designed to radiate heat away without the need for an internal fan. However the system isn’t completely silent as, if you listen hard, you can hear the 500GB 2.5in hard disk whirring away inside. But when under stress, no competing fan-cooled system is as quiet as the Tiny Green PC Intense PC.

An impressive range of connection ports is provided, including two gigabit ethernet ports, S/PDIF in and out, HDMI, DisplayPort, two eSATA and a total of six USB ports – two of which are USB 3.0. There’s also built-in Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi with external antennae.

A unique feature of the Intense PC is its support for interchangeable FACE modules. These front panels can replace the standard four USB 2.0 ports with enhanced options.

Options include a module with four ethernet ports plus four USB 2.0 ports, and another featuring two full-size mini-PCIe sockets for expansion. You can also have bespoke FACE modules built to your own specification for specialist industrial uses.

Anders Electronics has asked us to clarify that neither it nor Tiny Green PC are the original designer or manufacturer of the Tiny Green PC Intense PC reviewed above.

At the prior request of UK distributor Anders Electronics, trading as Tiny Green PC, we had published our review of the Intense PC Pro with the Tiny Green PC website listed as the sole contact URL.

The Intense PC was designed and built by Israel company CompuLab Ltd, the same company behind the Fit PC 2 and Fit PC 3 we reviewed previously.

Anders Electronics has the exclusive distribution rights to sell the Fit PC and Intense PC mini computers in the UK, and is now doing so under the brand name Tiny Green PC.

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The most reliable Windows laptop is a Mac, says Soluto

Soluto's PC troubleshooting Web service has saved many a forehead from banging against a desk. By scanning computers for installed software and crowdsourcing problems, Soluto's consumer service helps with everything from boot times and app crashes to remote configuration. Soluto used the wealth of data it collected in this way to compile a list of the ten most reliable Windows laptops currently on the market, dominated by a surprising star...and it's not a PC.
It's Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro.
The list published today is based on information collected from 150,000 laptops since January 1, 2013. Analysis took into account application crashes, hangs, and blue screens. Soluto believes the MacBook Pro 13" may have gained its spot at the top of the list because of its clean Windows installations: When users install Windows on a MacBook, it comes as Microsoft intended, completely free of any OEM extras.
Second on the list is the affordable Acer Aspire E1-571, which costs a third as much as the MacBook Pro 13" yet was nearly as stable and trouble-free. The Acer comes out slightly ahead of the much fancier Dell XPS 13, which comes with an SSD and costs more than twice as much. Soluto notes that a full 32% of Soluto users removed the version of Windows that shipped with their Dell XPS, opting to start out with a clean Windows installation instead.
Soluto's "big-data frustration analytics" are based on objective metrics such as the number of crashes per week and the number of processes running in the background. The company used a formula to interpret the numbers and arrive at a single, simple grade for each computer tested. The list, which is published in the April 2013 edition of "Soluto's PC purchasing guide for small businesses," contains the raw scores for each computer as well, making further analysis (and alternative interpretations) easy.
SMBs, you can simmer down now
Along with the rankings, Soluto also made a product announcement today. The new Soluto for Business service, which is aimed at small businesses and IT service providers, builds on the popular consumer software. For $8 a month, Soluto for Business supports up to ten PCs, letting IT experts (formal or otherwise) remotely troubleshoot them. Soluto has created a video illustrating the process. Future editions of the purchasing guide will be available to subscribers only.
Going up against established competitors in the remote control arena like GoToMyPC and TeamViewer, Soluto drastically undercuts prices while offering additional services. Soluto will keep offering a free version of the service that supports up to three computers, aimed at home users or small businesses who want to evaluate it.
Soluto's agent runs in the background as the computer operates, collecting data about application crashes, blue screens, hangs, and other annoyances often encountered in daily work. Administrators can then view this information in an online dashboard, taking action remotely to eliminate sources of frustration.

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Zotac Nano XS AD13 Plus review:

If you’re looking for the smallest PC possible, then the contest is over. All the Nano XS has to do is work, and you’ll be satisfied. However, it does rather more than that. See also Group test: What's the best budget PC?

Despite its almost ridiculous size, it’s smart plastic and aluminium body manages to pack in far more ports and connectors than the most other mini PCs. Somehow, the case finds room for six USB ports: two of which are USB 3.0 spec and one of which doubles as an eSATA connection. See all budget PC reviews.

It also includes a gigabit ethernet connector, card reader, HDMI and optical digital audio. Zotac has cheated slightly by providing the 802.11n Wi-Fi as an external USB adaptor, but it’s included in the price, so we’re inclined to forgive them.

Inside, the Nano XS AD13 Plus uses a dual-core 1.7GHz AMD E2-1800 processor and manages to outperform both the MSI Wind Box DC110 and the Sapphire Edge VS8 – no mean feat for a PC of this size.

However, one crucial area which has been compromised is that of storage: only 64GB has been included in the form of an mSATA SSD card. You’re really going to need some external storage to make the most of this PC and this must be factored into your budget.

The bundled Windows Media Center remote control gives us a clue that Zotac is expecting many users to set up the PC as a media centre, probably storing the bulk of the multimedia content on a NAS or taking advantage of streaming services. If you do wish to use Microsoft's Media Center, don't forget to factor in an extra ?100 for Windows 8 Pro.

With only 7.5W required when idle, rising to 23.5W under full load, the Zotac Nano XS AD13 Plus can be left on without stressing over electric bills. Turning it off isn’t a problem either as we found it very quick to reboot. When hot, its cooling fan does become audible, but you really have to push it quite hard for this to happen.

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Rain Design mStand 360 review: lifting your MacBook with strength and style

The post-PC world in which we live isn’t really devoid of PCs of course. The sorry Wintel box is on the endangered list but every personal device that computes is a PC, whether phone, tablet or laptop.

And it’s laptops that are now the heavy lifters, carried from home to office and back and used as de-facto replacements for the desktop PC.
See: Apple MacBook reviews.
In this role the notebook is typically hooked up to outboard keyboard, mouse and an external monitor, its own display pressed into service as a second screen alongside the main desktop display.
It’s vital that the laptop should then be perched correctly above the desk if you’re to avoid neckache, at the very least. Fulfilling that job are many laptop stands, built to raise the laptop and support it safely. Some like the Rain Design mStand 360 here will even proffer the laptop’s own keyboard and trackpad by tilting the whole notebook gently downwards towards you.

Rain Design mStand 360, now with the power to turn heads
In the case of recent MacBooks with their generous multi-touch trackpads, this makes it a doddle to reach out and touch with OS X gestures such as three- and four-finger swipes.
Filling the laptop stand role with great aplomb is this new version of the Rain Design mStand. Unashamedly Apple-inspired to blend with some of the finest notebooks in the business, the mStand is a solid aluminium U-shaped stand that echoes the appearance of the Apple Cinema Display foot, now the Apple Thunderbolt Display, and that of recent iMacs.
It’s a solid chunk of folded metal, weighing nearly 1.4kg, and measuring a uniform 4mm thick. That’s only half the thickness of the iMac pillar, although the mStand has a lot less mass to support. And the 4mm gauge does look right.

An upturned lip at the front prevents your laptop from sliding down – that, and the four small rubber pads on the top surface of the mStand.
These are 2mm thick, separating a MacBook from the hard stand, so we’d beg to differ on one feature that Rain Design highlights: ‘aluminum [sic] panel cools laptop by acting as heat sink’. Those rubber pads ensure there’s no metal-metal contact, so little or no heat will get sunk this way.
However the inclined tilt does mean that convection currents are more likely, increasing airflow along the underside, which can't be a bad thing.
The Rain Design mStand 360 adds one distinct feature from the original, and that’s of course the swivel stand. This is a lazy-susan affair, a round plate on the bottom with eight small steel balls locked around the circumference to serve as a stable bearing.
In practice, it works wonderfully, with no play or wobble or apparent, yet enabling the whole stand-plus-notebook ensemble to be effortlessly rotated whenever required. The usual instance could be to swivel your laptop around a few degrees to share what’s on-screen with a colleague.
Build quality of the Rain Design mStand 360 is first class, notwithstanding some wrinkling in the metalwork around the large cutout hole at the rear.
Like the iMac and Cinema Display, this aperture – here 53 mm across and plastic-rimmed – enables cables to be snuck through to tidy desktop cable looms.

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Slideshow: When the PC is obsolete, how will you do this, and this, and this?

Last week, the PC industry was rocked by news that Q1 computer shipments had declined by as much as 14 percent, year on year. Analysts cite various factors, but they put most of the blame on a consumer shift toward tablets and other mobile devices.
At PCWorld, we wonder how humankind would survive on tablets alone. Tablets are great for casual Web browsing and catching up on email, but can they deliver everything we need in the so-called post-PC era?
Before you answer, walk with me through a tour of the PC's greatest talents. These are the benefits you'll give up when your last PC dies and you decide you can get by without a replacement.
Play Bioshock Infinite in all its glory
There's a reason why Angry Birds is considered the quintessential tablet game: Because most tablets can't play real games with intense 3D graphics, demanding physics engines, hordes of onscreen players, and all the other design elements that depend on desktop-class CPUs and discrete graphics cards.
Next-generation Haswell tablets will deliver a stronger PC gaming experience, but don't expect to play Crysis 3 at its highest settings. And good luck using gesture controls alone to play any desktop game.
Run multiple monitors
Tablets are one-screen ponies. Sure, you can use a tablet as an external monitor for your PC. But (except with Windows 8 tablets) you can't attach an external monitor to your hardware, and run your tablet OS and apps across multiple displays.
Multitask through 20 different open windows
iOS and Android tablets offer varying levels of behind-the-scenes multitasking, but you can't run multiple apps side-by-side-by-side. Windows 8 tablets address this issue with the system's Snap view feature, but even then you can't have more than two apps onscreen at the same time. Who in the world can work this way?
If I'm to get any work done at all, I need quick, single-screen access to Chrome, Internet Explorer, Photoshop, Stickies, HipChat, sundry Gchat windows, and even Microsoft Word.
Attach a plethora of peripherals
Take a look at that iPad. Do you see a USB port? Now check out your Android or Windows 8 tablet. You might find just one. Sure, Bluetooth offers external device connectivity, but it's not bulletproof. Nothing beats multiple USB ports when you need to attach a mouse, keyboard, game controller, external hard drive, thumb drive, and Skype headset.
Rock some serious content editing
Do not step to me with iMovie, iPhoto, GarageBand or Android Movie Studio. For serious video, image or audio editing, you need a full arsenal of features, along with all the precision control that real applications provide. We're talking Photoshop, Final Cut, Pro Tools, and a host of other content creation suites. These are the applications that separate amateurs from auteurs.
Work in big, ugly spreadsheets
Spreadsheet work is already soul-crushing enough. Do you really want to make it worse by struggling with data entry and formulas on a touchscreen display?
Store untold gigabytes of data
Even if your tablet comes with 128GB of native storage and a slot for a 256GB expansion card, you're looking at far less than 384GB of storage after you account for the footprint of your OS and native apps. This is not civilized living.
Upgrade and repair your hardware
PCs take a bold, defiant stand against our disposable consumer culture. Components that fail can be replaced. Parts that can't keep up with the latest applications can be swapped out in favor of better performers. Even laptops can be upgraded to varying degrees. But tablets? Not so much. Even if you could penetrate their hermetically sealed shells, you wouldn't be able to upgrade or replace any of their components without herculean hacking efforts.
Live a life free of shattered screens and pilfered hardware
Desktop PCs (and quite a few desktop-replacement laptops) aren't very portable, but this can be a net positive, as they rarely go places where they can easily be broken or stolen. Tablet screens shatter so often because users toss tablets around with relative abandon. And tablets get stolen in public because they're relatively light--and concealable once the hardware has been lifted. Sure, a thief could grab your Alienware gaming laptop from your table at Starbucks, but I'd like to see him sprint down the street carrying that 12-pound computer.
Run a social media command center
Tablets are great for scanning Twitter, cruising through Facebook, and even posting short updates to either service. But if your job (or--gasp--lifestyle) depends on consuming and posting massive amounts of social media, you'll need a real computer for the job. Throw in Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, and a desktop PC becomes de rigueur.
Completely disconnect
You can't take your PC with you wherever you may stroll, hike, or wander--but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sure, your PC tethers you to a desk, but it also allows you to leave technology behind when it's time for socializing--or a period of quiet contemplation.
Think about that the next time you're enjoying a day at the beach, and some D-bag starts playing Angry Birds on the spot right next to you. Those squawking, chirping, tweeting birds have never been more annoying, have they?

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Chip Shot: Two Generations of Intel® Atom™ SoCs to Power HP's Moonshot Servers in 2013

Yesterday HP announced the availability of the first production HP ProLiant Moonshot servers. These systems are based on 64-bit Intel Atom S1200 processor family and are shipping to customers now. In the second half of 2013, HP Moonshot servers will feature also the entirely new generation of Intel Atom processors codenamed Avoton. Avoton is build using 3D tri-gate 22nm transistors and new micro-architecture "Silvermont". Intel's second generation of 64-bit server SoCs will provide a significant increase in performance and performance per watt vs. currently available Intel Atom S1200. In her blog, Raejeanne Skillern - Intel's Director of Cloud Marketing, shares her thoughts on HP's Moonshot launch and how Intel is excited to see two generations of Intel Atom SoCs powering new HP ProLiant Moonshot servers this year. Additionally Jason Waxman, General Manager of Intel Cloud Infrastructure Group in this video talks about Intel and HP long collaboration and how current and new generations of Intel Atom SoC will help HP ProLiant Moonshot servers to success.

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Intel Honors 20 Companies with Preferred Quality Supplier and Achievement Awards

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 9, 2013 – Intel Corporation today announced that 17 companies will receive the 2012 Intel Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) award that recognizes commitment to performance excellence and continuous improvement. These companies distinguish themselves from the thousands of suppliers that work with Intel by exceeding high expectations and challenging performance goals while demonstrating industry-leading commitment to quality.     

In addition to the PQS award, Intel recognized three suppliers with the Supplier Achievement Award, which recognizes extraordinary accomplishments in one or more key performance areas. This year's winners were recognized for high-impact contributions to Intel's success in the areas of velocity, customer orientation and reduced cycle time. The 2012 PQS and Achievement winners will be honored at a ceremony tonight in San Jose, Calif.

"This year's Intel Preferred Quality Supplier award winners have done a tremendous job of driving and executing to world-class supply chain performance," said Jacklyn Sturm, vice president, Technology and Manufacturing Group and general manager of Global Sourcing and Procurement. "2012 was a year that put all aspects of the supply chain to the test, from core challenges of business continuity, agility and affordability to the need for continuous innovation, improved velocity and rising to the growing expectations of sustainability. These companies distinguished themselves from the thousands of other suppliers that work with Intel by providing strategic capabilities that enable our technology roadmaps, demonstrating performance that exceeds our very demanding expectations, and by maintaining a long-term commitment to quality leadership in the semiconductor industry."

"Intel's 2012 Preferred Quality Suppliers have excelled across an extremely demanding set of expectations and have distinguished themselves as industry leaders in technology innovation, supply chain excellence, and corporate responsibility," added Robert Bruck, corporate vice president and general manager of Technology Manufacturing Engineering. "These suppliers have made a substantial contribution to Intel's success through their commitment to quality in support of Intel's industry-leading silicon, packaging and test technologies."   

The PQS award is part of Intel's Supplier Continuous Quality Improvement (SCQI) program that encourages suppliers to innovate and continually improve. To qualify for PQS status, suppliers must score at least 80 percent on a report card that assesses performance and ability to meet cost, quality, availability, delivery, technology, and environmental, social and governance goals. Suppliers must also achieve 80 percent or greater on a challenging improvement plan and demonstrate solid quality and business systems. Additional information about the SCQI program is available at www.intel.com/go/quality. 

The PQS winners provide Intel with the following products or services:

Applied Materials, Inc.: semiconductor equipment, software and support servicesASML: semiconductor lithography equipmentCarl Zeiss SMS GmbH: photomask qualification, repair, metrology and tuning equipmentDAEWON Semiconductor Packaging Industrial Co., Ltd.: plastic injection molded shipping tray, BDTRDAINIPPON SCREEN Mfg. Co., LTD.: cleaning and annealing equipment and services for semiconductor manufacturingEBARA Corporation: plating systems, chemical mechanical polishing systems, dry vacuum pumps, and gas abatementFUJIFILM Electronic Materials: formulated chemicals, developers, precursors, slurries, and advanced photoresistsHitachi High-Technologies Corporation: CD SEM, dry etching, ashing and defect metrology systemsJX Nippon Mining & Metals Corporation: sputtering targets for physical vapor deposition processKLA-Tencor Corporation: process control capital equipment and servicesLinde Electronics, a Member of the Linde Group: ultra-high purity gases, equipment and onsite servicesMunters Corporation: VOC abatement and energy efficient air handling equipmentMurata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.: multilayer ceramic capacitors and LTCC device productsShinko Electric Industries Co., Ltd.: plastic laminated packages and heat spreadersSiltronic: polished and epitaxial silicon wafersSiliconware Precision Industries Co., Ltd.: semiconductor assembly and test servicesTosoh Quartz Inc.: quartzware for semiconductor wafer processing equipment

The Supplier Achievement Award winners are:

Amkor Technology: semiconductor assembly and test servicesDaifuku Co.,Ltd.: fab automated material handling systemsLam Research Corporation: wafer fabrication equipment and services

About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com.

Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

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Intel Developer Forum: Transforming Computing Experiences from the Device to the Cloud

Company Accelerates Expansion of 22nm Data Center Processor Families; Graphics Innovations, Intel® Wireless Display Coming to Next-Generation Ultrabooks

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Accelerates expansion of offerings across the data center processor product lines based on Intel's innovative 22nm manufacturing technology.Aims to revolutionize the server rack design by delivering an Intel rack scale architecture for increased flexibility, density and utilization of servers leading to lower total cost of ownership.Next-generation, 64-bit Intel® Atom™ processor for microservers, codenamed "Avoton," is being sampled to customers with broad availability expected in the second half of this year.4th generation Intel® Core™ processors are now shipping to customers and will launch later this quarter.

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, Beijing, April 10, 2013 – During Intel Corporation's annual developer forum this week, company executives announced new technologies and partnerships aimed at transforming how people experience technology from the device to the cloud. The announcements included details on new data center product lines based on the 22-nanometer (nm) process technology and the new Intel rack scale architecture, along with details on the forthcoming 4th generation Intel® Core™ processor family.

During her keynote, Diane Bryant, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Datacenter and Connected Systems Group, underscored the importance of the data center in enabling amazing personal computing experiences to deliver real-time information and services. She also outlined the steps Intel is taking to provide the hardware and software needed for data analytics to improve the capabilities of intelligent devices and data center infrastructure.

"People are increasingly demanding more from their devices through applications and services whether at home, at work or wherever they may be," Bryant said. "Intel is delivering a powerful portfolio of hardware and software computing technologies from the device to the data center that can improve experiences and enable new services."

Bryant outlined plans to accelerate the expansion of Intel's offerings across the data center processor product lines based on its innovative 22nm manufacturing technology before the end of the year, thereby enabling a more cost-effective and efficient data center infrastructure. Intel's broad portfolio of data center intellectual property enables Intel to quickly integrate features into new products and bring them to market. For example, Intel is launching the new Intel® Atom™ S12x9 processor family customized for storage today, just four months after the debut of the Intel Atom S1200 processor for microservers.

Intel plans to deliver two more Intel Atom processor-based products this year that promise to deliver new architectures, improved performance-per-watt and an expanded feature set. Bryant demonstrated for the first time the next-generation Intel Atom processor family for microservers, codenamed "Avoton," and confirmed it is currently shipping samples to customers for evaluation. Avoton will feature an integrated Ethernet controller and is expected to deliver industry-leading energy efficiency and performance-per-watt for microservers and scale out workloads.

Re-Architecting the Data Center

Bryant also revealed details on Intel's plans to develop a reference design for rack scale architecture that uses a suite of Intel technologies optimized for deployment as a full rack. Hyper-scale data centers run by companies that maintain thousands of servers and store vast amounts of data require continued advancements in rack designs that make it easier and more cost effective to deal with major growth in users, data and devices. Traditional rack systems are designed to handle a wide variety of application workloads and may not always achieve the highest efficiency under all hyper-scale usages. The reference design will help re-architect a rack level solution that is modular at the subsystem level (storage, CPU, memory, network) while providing the ability to provision and refresh or logically allocate resources based on application specific workload requirements. Benefits include increased flexibility, higher density and higher utilization leading to a lower total cost of ownership.

Additional information on these announcements as well as the new Intel Atom processor S12x9 product family for storage servers, Intel® Xeon® processor E3v3 product family, Intel Xeon processor E7v2 product family and Intel Atom processor for communication and networking devices codenamed "Rangeley" is available in the news fact sheet.

Reinventing the Computing Experience

During his keynote, Kirk Skaugen, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group, provided a deeper look at the forthcoming 4th generation Intel Core processor family, which he said is now shipping to OEM customers and will launch later this quarter.

"Ultrabooks based on the 4th generation Intel Core processor family will enable exciting, new computing experiences and all-day battery life delivering the most significant battery life capability improvement in Intel's history," said Skaugen. "It will also bring to consumers a new wave of 'two-for-one' convertible and detachable systems that combine the best of a full PC experience with the best of a tablet in amazing new form factors."

The new Intel Core microarchitecture will allow the company to deliver up to double the graphics performance over the previous generation. In addition, the new graphics solution will have high levels of integration to enable new form factors and designs with excellent visual quality built in. Skaugen demonstrated these graphics improvements on the 4th generation Intel Core processor-based Ultrabook reference design called "Harris Beach." The demo featured Dirt 3*, a popular gaming title, showing the same visual experience and game play as a discrete graphics card that users would otherwise have to add separately. He also showed the 4th generation Intel Core processor-based concept, codenamed "Niagara," a premium notebook with the ability to play the unreleased enthusiast title Grid 2* from CodeMasters* without the aid of a discrete graphics card.

Along with touch capability, Intel® Wireless Display (Intel WiDi) will be enabled on all 4th generation Intel Core processor-based Ultrabook devices to allow people to quickly and securely stream content and apps from devices to the big screen, free from the burden of cables. Skaugen said the China ecosystem is taking the lead on integrating Intel WiDi into systems, and announced that the leading television manufacturer in China, TCL*, has a new model with the Intel WiDi technology built in. He also announced new receivers certified for Intel WiDi from QVOD* and Lenovo* and a set-top box from Gehua*.

Illustrating the low-power advances in Ultrabook devices, Skaugen showed off the new Toshiba Portege* Ultrabook detachable, based on the new low-power line of the 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processors.

Furthermore, Skaugen revealed that voice interaction in Mandarin is now available on Ultrabook devices from Intel through Nuance*.

Augmenting the company's offerings for computing at a variety of price points, Skaugen announced plans for new market variants of its "Bay Trail" 22nm SoC with PC feature sets specifically designed for value convertibles, clamshell laptops, desktops and value all-in-one computers to ship later this year.

Mobile Inside

Tan Weng Kuan, vice president and general manager of the Mobile Communications Group, Intel China, highlighted how the company is working with ecosystem partners to deliver the best smartphone and tablet experiences with Intel inside. Tan discussed the company's progress with the new Intel® Atom™ processor Z2580 ("Clover Trail+") for smartphones and the Intel Atom Processor Z2760 ("Clover Trail") for tablets, both of which are helping to usher in a range of new devices and user experiences.

Taking full advantage of the broad spectrum of capabilities enabled by Intel® architecture, processor technology leadership, manufacturing and multi OS support across Windows* 8 and Android*, Tan discussed the company's forthcoming smartphone and tablet products based on Intel's leading-edge 22nm process and an entirely new Atom microarchitecture.Intel's quad-core Atom SoC ("Bay Trail") will be the most powerful Atom processor to-date, doubling the computing performance of Intel's current-generation tablet offering1. Scheduled for holiday 2013 tablets, "Bay Trail" will help enable new experiences and designs as thin as 8mm that have all-day battery life and weeks of standby.

Tan also highlighted Intel's Atom SoC, codenamed "Merrifield," which is scheduled to ship to customers by the end of this year. The product will deliver increased smartphone performance, power efficiency and battery life over the current-generation offering.

Tan closed his remarks by calling upon China developers for collective innovation in helping to accelerate and grow the mobile market together. He announced the creation of a China-specific expansion of the company's platform and ecosystem enabling efforts, focused initially on Atom processor-based tablets running Android*, and designed to speed time-to-market of leading-edge mobile devices based on Intel technology. He added that China developers are instrumental to this effort and will bring speed, scale and ingenuity that will drive new innovation globally.

Day 2 IDF Preview

Doug Fisher, vice president and general manager of Intel's System Software Division, will open the second day of IDF, addressing several myths surrounding the industry and providing a vision on the vast opportunities that await developers. Specifically, he will showcase Intel's transformation of the PC experience and advances in device segments, support of multiple operating environments and efforts to help developers scale and modernize computing with new hardware features and software advancements for more compelling user experiences. He will discuss how developers can utilize HTML5 to help lower total costs and improve time-to-market for cross-platform applications development and deployment, incorporate touch and sensor interfaces to modernize applications, and use perceptual compute technologies to enable consumers to interact with PCs via voice control, gesture recognition and more.

Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner will also take the stage to discuss how Intel Labs is drawing up plans for a bright future. He will reveal a vision for connected and sustainable cities where information technology helps to address challenges of clean air, clean water, better health and improved safety. He will also explain how today's mobile, urban lifestyle is demanding faster and cheaper wireless broadband communications. Forecasting a move beyond the information age, Rattner will describe a new era coined "the data society" and show how information in the cloud will work on everyone's behalf, collaboratively and safely, by analyzing and relating different data to deliver new value to individuals, enterprises and society as a whole. Rattner plans to surprise the audience with an exclusive first look at Intel® Silicon Photonics Technology.

Intel Developer Forum
IDF spans the worlds of mobility, digital enterprise, digital home, and technology and research. Held at the China National Convention Center on April 10-11, the event is geared toward the Chinese market in support of local innovation and Intel’s industry leadership in the region. Next up on the IDF schedule is a 3-day event in San Francisco, which will be held Sept. 10-12 at Moscone Center West. Further information is available at www.intel.com/idf.

About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com.

Intel, Intel Atom, Intel Core, Intel Xeon, Ultrabook and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries. 

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

1 Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products.

Intel's compilers may or may not optimize to the same degree for non-Intel microprocessors for optimizations that are not unique to Intel microprocessors. These optimizations include SSE2, SSE3, and SSE3 instruction sets and other optimizations. Intel does not guarantee the availability, functionality, or effectiveness of any optimization on microprocessors not manufactured by Intel.

Microprocessor-dependent optimizations in this product are intended for use with Intel microprocessors. Certain optimizations not specific to Intel microarchitecture are reserved for Intel microprocessors. Please refer to the applicable product User and Reference Guides for more information regarding the specific instruction sets covered by this notice

Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products.

Results have been estimated based on internal Intel analysis and are provided for informational purposes only. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance.

All products, computer systems, dates and figures specified are preliminary based on current expectations, and are subject to change without notice.

Intel processor numbers are not a measure of performance. Processor numbers differentiate features within each processor family, not across different processor families: Go to: Learn About Intel® Processor Numbers

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Dell Inspiron 17R-5720 review

We’ve been so swamped with Windows 8 tablets and Ultrabooks in recent months that it actually makes a nice change to see a good old-fashioned desktop replacement laptop machine arrive for once.

See: more laptop reviews.
Dell’s Inspiron 17R is big and heavy, and not very mobile at all. But it’s an affordable workhorse machine that provides i7 performance and a large, attractive display for a little over ?700.
It’s not, admittedly, the most elegant of laptops. With its 17.3in screen and built-in optical drive the Dell Inspiron 17R measures 35mm thick when folded flat, and weighs in at a hefty 2.9kg. This is definitely a laptop that will spend most of its time at home or in the office.
It’ll earn its keep, though, being powerful enough to handle both home entertainment and serious productivity apps. Our sample’s screen had been upgraded from 1600 x 900 to 1920 x 1080 pixels for this latest version, and provided a very bright, clear image – in fact we were able to watch a film streaming online perfectly well with the brightness set to its nominal 50%.
Turn the brightness right up and you’ll get a viewing angle closer to 150 degree, which will be handy for PowerPoint presentations.
It’s a shame, though, that the glossy screen is so annoyingly reflective. The speakers are also quite poor – particularly with higher frequencies, which sound like a Dalek snorting Helium.
But for the most part, the Inspiron 17R is well put together. The size of the screen means that there’s room for a full-size keyboard and numeric keypad, both with large, comfortable keys that travel well.
The trackpad is rather small in contrast – a relatively modest 100 x 55mm – but is quite usable and we liked its large, chunky buttons.
There are several models in the 2013 Dell Inspiron 17R range but we tested a top-of-the-range model that costs ?729 with Windows 8, a dual-core Core i7 running at 2.0GHz (3.1GHz with Turboboost), 8GB memory, 1TB hard drive and both integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics and a discrete AMD Radeon HD8730M with 2GB video memory.
That’s good value for money and compares well with other laptops that we’ve seen recently. Unfortunately, the dual- rather than quad-core processor, and a slow hard disk underminded the Inspiron 17R’s performance. It produced a slightly disappointing score of just 2535 when running the PCMark 7 benchmarks.
Even so, it still provided enough horsepower to handle basic web browsing and MS Office work with ease. And, with 8GB of memory to play with, it’s also quite capable of handling more demanding tasks such as photo- and video-editing too.
It can even handle some decent gaming action when asked. Running Batman: Arkham City at the screen’s native 1920 x 1080 pixels, with DX11 and High graphics detail, it played at just 21fps. When we dropped to Low graphics settings that doubled to 42fps. I
In the end we settled for 1600 x 900 pixel display, which allowed us to enjoy the DX 11 eye-candy and Medium graphics swhile still running at a playable 35fps.
There’s a large cooling vent on the left-hand side of the unit, but we were pleased to see that the Inspiron 17 never became uncomfortably warm or noisy even when gaming with the AMD Radeon graphics.
The graphics processor does take its toll on the battery, though, only letting the Dell last for about 90 minutes. Using AMD’s Catalyst software to switch to integrated graphics on the fly did allow us to get 3.5 hours of streaming video out of the same battery.

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Intel Reports First-Quarter Revenue of $12.6 Billion

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Apr. 16, 2013 – Intel Corporation today reported first-quarter revenue of $12.6 billion, operating income of $2.5 billion, net income of $2.0 billion and EPS of $0.40. The company generated approximately $4.3 billion in cash from operations, paid dividends of $1.1 billion, and used $533 million to repurchase 25 million shares of stock.

"Amidst market softness, Intel performed well in the first quarter and I'm excited about what lies ahead for the company," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "We shipped our next generation PC microprocessors, introduced a new family of products for micro-servers and will ship our new tablet and smartphone microprocessors this quarter. We are working with our customers to introduce innovative new products across multiple operating systems. The transition to 14nm technology this year will significantly increase the value provided by Intel architecture and process technology for our customers and in the marketplace."

Q1 Key Financial Information and Business Unit Trends

PC Client Group revenue of $8.0 billion, down 6.6 percent sequentially and down 6.0 percent year-over-year.Data Center Group revenue of $2.6 billion, down 6.9 percent sequentially and up 7.5 percent year-over-year.Other Intel® Architecture Group revenue of $1.0 billion, down 3.9 percent sequentially and down 9.0 percent year-over-year.Gross margin of 56 percent, down 2 percentage points sequentially and down 8 percentage points year-over-year.R&D plus MG&A spending of $4.5 billion, in line with the company's expectation of approximately $4.6 billion.Tax rate of 16 percent.

Business Outlook

Intel's Business Outlook does not include the potential impact of any business combinations, asset acquisitions, divestitures or other investments that may be completed after April 16.

Q2 2013

Revenue: $12.9 billion, plus or minus $500 million.Gross margin percentage: 58 percent, plus or minus a couple percentage points.R&D plus MG&A spending: approximately $4.7 billion.Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles: approximately $70 million.Impact of equity investments and interest and other: approximately zero.Depreciation: approximately $1.7 billion.

Full-Year 2013

Revenue: low single-digit percentage increase, unchanged from prior expectations.Gross margin percentage: 60 percent, plus or minus a few percentage points, unchanged from prior expectations.R&D plus MG&A spending: $18.9 billion, plus or minus $200 million, unchanged from prior expectations.Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles: approximately $300 million, unchanged from prior expectations.Depreciation: $6.8 billion, plus or minus $100 million, unchanged from prior expectations.Tax Rate: approximately 27 percent for each of the remaining quarters of the year.Full-year capital spending: $12.0 billion, plus or minus $500 million, down $1.0 billion from prior expectations.

For additional information regarding Intel's results and Business Outlook, please see the CFO commentary at: www.intc.com/results.cfm.

Status of Business Outlook

Intel's Business Outlook is posted on intc.com and may be reiterated in public or private meetings with investors and others. The Business Outlook will be effective through the close of business June 14 unless earlier updated; except that the Business Outlook for amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, impact of equity investments and interest and other, and tax rate, will be effective only through the close of business on April 23. Intel's Quiet Period will start from the close of business on June 14 until publication of the company's second-quarter earnings release, scheduled for July 17, 2013. During the Quiet Period, all of the Business Outlook and other forward-looking statements disclosed in the company's news releases and filings with the SEC should be considered as historical, speaking as of prior to the Quiet Period only and not subject to an update by the company.

Risk Factors

The above statements and any others in this document that refer to plans and expectations for the second quarter, the year and the future are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should" and their variations identify forward-looking statements. Statements that refer to or are based on projections, uncertain events or assumptions also identify forward-looking statements. Many factors could affect Intel's actual results, and variances from Intel's current expectations regarding such factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. Intel presently considers the following to be the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's expectations.

Demand could be different from Intel's expectations due to factors including changes in business and economic conditions; customer acceptance of Intel's and competitors' products; supply constraints and other disruptions affecting customers; changes in customer order patterns including order cancellations; and changes in the level of inventory at customers. Uncertainty in global economic and financial conditions poses a risk that consumers and businesses may defer purchases in response to negative financial events, which could negatively affect product demand and other related matters.Intel operates in intensely competitive industries that are characterized by a high percentage of costs that are fixed or difficult to reduce in the short term and product demand that is highly variable and difficult to forecast. Revenue and the gross margin percentage are affected by the timing of Intel product introductions and the demand for and market acceptance of Intel's products; actions taken by Intel's competitors, including product offerings and introductions, marketing programs and pricing pressures and Intel's response to such actions; and Intel's ability to respond quickly to technological developments and to incorporate new features into its products.The gross margin percentage could vary significantly from expectations based on capacity utilization; variations in inventory valuation, including variations related to the timing of qualifying products for sale; changes in revenue levels; segment product mix; the timing and execution of the manufacturing ramp and associated costs; start-up costs; excess or obsolete inventory; changes in unit costs; defects or disruptions in the supply of materials or resources; product manufacturing quality/yields; and impairments of long-lived assets, including manufacturing, assembly/test and intangible assets.The tax rate expectation is based on current tax law and current expected income. The tax rate may be affected by the jurisdictions in which profits are determined to be earned and taxed; changes in the estimates of credits, benefits and deductions; the resolution of issues arising from tax audits with various tax authorities, including payment of interest and penalties; and the ability to realize deferred tax assets.Gains or losses from equity securities and interest and other could vary from expectations depending on gains or losses on the sale, exchange, change in the fair value or impairments of debt and equity investments; interest rates; cash balances; and changes in fair value of derivative instruments. The majority of our marketable equity security portfolio balance is concentrated in ASML Holding, N.V, and declines in value could result in impairment charges, impacting gains or losses on equity securities.Intel's results could be affected by adverse economic, social, political and physical/infrastructure conditions in countries where Intel, its customers or its suppliers operate, including military conflict and other security risks, natural disasters, infrastructure disruptions, health concerns and fluctuations in currency exchange rates.Expenses, particularly certain marketing and compensation expenses, as well as restructuring and asset impairment charges, vary depending on the level of demand for Intel's products and the level of revenue and profits.Intel's results could be affected by the timing of closing of acquisitions and divestitures.Intel's current chief executive officer plans to retire in May 2013 and the Board of Directors is working to choose a successor. The succession and transition process may have a direct and/or indirect effect on the business and operations of the company. In connection with the appointment of the new CEO, the company will seek to retain our executive management team (some of whom are being considered for the CEO position), and keep employees focused on achieving the company's strategic goals and objectives.Intel's results could be affected by adverse effects associated with product defects and errata (deviations from published specifications), and by litigation or regulatory matters involving intellectual property, stockholder, consumer, antitrust, disclosure and other issues, such as the litigation and regulatory matters described in Intel's SEC reports. An unfavorable ruling could include monetary damages or an injunction prohibiting Intel from manufacturing or selling one or more products, precluding particular business practices, impacting Intel's ability to design its products, or requiring other remedies such as compulsory licensing of intellectual property.

A detailed discussion of these and other factors that could affect Intel's results is included in Intel's SEC filings, including the company's most recent report on Form 10-K.

Earnings Webcast

Intel will hold a public webcast at 2 p.m. PDT today on its Investor Relations website at www.intc.com. A webcast replay and MP3 download will also be available on the site.

Intel plans to report its earnings for the second quarter of 2013 on July 17, 2013. Immediately following the earnings report, the company plans to publish a commentary by Stacy J. Smith, executive vice president, chief financial officer, and director of corporate strategy, at www.intc.com/results.cfm. A public webcast of Intel's earnings conference call will follow at 2 p.m. PDT at www.intc.com.

About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com.

Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

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Intel Accelerates the Data Center and Telecom Network Transformation with New Reference Architectures

Reference Designs Built to Improve the Flexibility and Economics of Networks

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Using standard x86 servers and programmable switches to deploy and manage virtualized networking infrastructure with software-defined networking will radically lower costs and enable datacenter and telecom networks to deploy new services.Intel announces several hardware and software tools aimed to boost data center networking efficiency and performance, including Intel® Open Network Platform Switch and Intel® Open Network Platform Server reference designs and Intel® Data Plane Development Kit Accelerated Open vSwitch.Several ISVs, OEMs and service providers including Big Switch Network*, HP*, NEC*, NTT Data*, Quanta*, Super Micro, VMware* and Vyatta* (a Brocade company) are building innovative solutions based on new Intel reference architectures.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 17, 2013 – Three strategic reference architectures that will enable the IT and telecom industries to accelerate hardware and software development for software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) were announced today by Intel Corporation at the Open Networking Summit conference.

These reference architectures, aimed for the telecommunications, cloud data center and enterprise data center infrastructure market segments, combine open standards for SDN and NFV with industry-leading Intel hardware and software to enable networks to be more agile and intelligent so they can adapt to changing market dynamics. Integrating SDN and NFV on standard x86 platforms allows lowering the acquisition and management costs as well as enabling new innovative services never before possible in networking infrastructure.

"SDN and NFV are critical elements of Intel's vision to transform the expensive, complex networks of today to a virtualized, programmable, standards-based architecture running commercial off-the-shelf hardware," said Rose Schooler, vice president of Intel Architecture Group and general manager of Intel's Communications and Storage Infrastructure Group. "The reference designs announced today enable a new phase in the evolution of the network and represent Intel's commitment to driving an open environment that fosters business agility and smart economics."

Data centers and network infrastructure providers are under constant pressure to support new, revenue-generating services in the public and private cloud, yet the costs of building the infrastructure are often too high to do so. The reference designs and development kits are an important part of Intel's strategy to enable the industry to move toward open, standards-based technologies such as SDN and NFV. In doing so, telecommunications and cloud service providers will be better able to reduce capital and operating expenses while also delivering new services for revenue growth.

SDN and NFV are complementary networking technologies poised to transform how networks are designed, deployed and managed across data center and telecom infrastructure environments. By separating control and data planes, SDN allows the network to be programmed and managed externally at much larger and more dynamic scale for better traffic control across the entire datacenter. NFV allows service providers to virtualize and manage networking functions such as firewall, VPN or intrusion detection service as virtual applications running on a high-volume x86-based server.

Many ISVs, OEMs and service providers are building innovative solutions on top of Intel's switch reference architecture, including ATT Foundry*, Big Switch Network*, Chunghwa Telecom*, HP*, NEC*, NTT Data*, Quanta*, Super Micro and VMware*.

"By decoupling the network from underlying hardware and enabling a new network architecture based on industry-standard x86 technology, network virtualization can transform the operational model of networking to help customers dramatically lower operational and capital expenses," said Allwyn Sequeira, vice president, Networking and Security, VMware. "VMware and Intel have built a strong relationship driving server virtualization on x86 platforms, and we are pleased to be working together to continue this transformation through network virtualization to enable the software-defined data center."

"We share Intel's vision of enabling the network transformation with SDN and NFV across the telecom industry," said Atsuo Kawamura, General Manager Telecom Carrier Business Unit, 1st Carrier Services Division, NEC Corporation. "We are excited to work with Intel to design with the Intel DPDK Accelerated Open vSwitch into our virtual Evolved Packet Core to deliver industry leading packet throughput and performance on Intel architecture."

The Intel® Open Network Platform Switch Reference Design

Codenamed "Seacliff Trail," the Intel® Open Network Platform (ONP) Switch Reference Design is based on scalable Intel processors, Intel® Ethernet Switch 6700 series and Intel® Communications Chipset 89xx series, and is available now. The ONP Switch Reference Design will include Wind River Open Network Software (ONS), an open and fully customizable network switching software stack using Wind River Linux. Wind River ONS allows for key networking capabilities such as advanced tunneling as well as modular, open control plane and management interface supporting SDN standards such as OpenFlow and Open vSwitch. Common, open programming interfaces allow for automated network management, and coordination between the server switching elements and network switches enabling more cost-effective, secure, efficient and extensible services.

The Intel® Data Plane Development Kit (Intel® DPDK) Accelerated Open vSwitch

Network architectures have traditionally been optimized for large packet throughput to meet the needs of enterprise end-point applications. Intel is executing a project aimed at improving small packet throughput and workload performance that can be achieved on the Open vSwitch using the Intel DPDK. Intel is specifically re-creating the kernel forwarding module (data plane) to take advantage of the Intel® DPDK library. The Intel® DPDK Accelerated Open vSwitch is planned to initially be released with the Intel® ONP Server Reference Design in the third quarter of this year.

The Intel® Open Network Platform Server Reference Design

This server reference platform, codenamed "Sunrise Trail," is based on the Intel® Xeon® processor, Intel 82599 Ethernet Controller and Intel Communications Chipset 89xx series. The ONP Server Reference Design enables virtual appliance workloads on standard Intel architecture servers using SDN and NFV open standards for datacenter and telecom. Wind River Open Network Software includes an Intel DPDK Accelerated Open vSwitch, fast packet acceleration and deep packet inspection capabilities, as well as support for open SDN standards such as OpenFlow, Open vSwitch and OpenStack. The project is in development now: the first alpha series is slated to be available in the second half of this year.

About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com.

Intel, the Intel logo and Intel Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

View the original article here