Hasta La Gadget!

Intel has responded to the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust investigation, unsurprisingly challenging the FTC’s allegations as well as criticizing the agency for what the company calls an attempt “to turn Intel into a public utility”.

The motion is a response to the FTC’s December announcement of a lawsuit brought by the FTC, accusing Intel of anticompetitive practices.

The motion, filed on Dec. 31 before the hubbub of the Consumer Electronics Show, comes out swinging, with an inflammatory quote by AMD’s then-vice president of sales, Henri Richard. “If you look at it, with an objective set of eyes, you would never buy AMD,” Richard is quoted as saying, “internally”. “I certainly would never buy AMD for a personal system if I wasn’t working here.”

Along with its much anticipated tablet (still in the rumor stage), Apple could announce an upgrade for its MacBook Pro notebooks featuring new Intel chips in a late January event.

Intel has sent e-mails members of its Intel Retail Edge program, promoting a chance to win two MacBook Pros equipped with Intel’s new Core i5 processors during January, according to a report by MacRumors.

Multiple independent reports say these promotional e-mails have been sent to members in the United States, United Kingdom and Spain.

Intel offers its Retail Edge program to employees at retail stores where Intel-based products are for sale. It’s a training program to educate employees on Intel products. The program also offers promotions and discounts.

The MacBook Pros still feature Intel’s older Core 2 Duo processors. It’s reasonable to expect Apple to upgrade its MacBook Pro family with Core i5 chips soon. Intel’s newer chips have significantly outperformed its older Core 2 Duo processors in early benchmark testing. Also, several manufacturers at CES showcased notebooks with Intel’s latest chips, including the Core i7 processor found in the 27-inch iMac. That means Apple needs to catch up soon.

Apple will host a special event on Jan. 27, according to The Wall Street Journal, where the company is expected to launch a touchscreen tablet. Apple could use the event to promote new MacBook Pros, as well. The company has done similarly in the past: At 2009’s Worldwide Developers Conference, for example, Apple announced new MacBooks prior to the major announcement of the iPhone 3GS.

Updated: Intel has dismissed the promotion as a mistake and said it meant to promote new HP notebooks instead. (Though it’s possible the mention of MacBook Pros was an accidental slip, and Intel is playing cover-up for its partner, Apple.)

See Also:

• MacBook Price Cuts Highlight Tough Choices for Apple as Growth …
• Apple Debuts Aggressively Priced iPhone 3GS, MacBooks

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Should you be lusting after some of that Core i7 oomph but have a distaste for the large thermal and physical footprint of desktops, you’ll want to hear more from Congatec. A relative unknown hailing from Germany, the outfit has just announced its BM57 small form factor setup, which looks to be ideal for homebrew HTPC enthusiasts — primarily because its i7-620M CPU is both powerful (up to 3.33GHz with Turbo Boost) and relatively easy to cool (35W TDP, including chip-integrated graphics). The kit is able to support up to 8GB of dual-channel DDR3, as well as drive two video outputs concurrently. Choices include HDMI, DisplayPort and VGA, leading to some tantalizingly versatile possibilities for the creative self-builder. Prices are not yet available, but the BM57 will be demonstrated at the International Gaming Expo in London at the end of this month.

Congatec BM57 fits mobile Core i7 onto tiny mobo originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you recall all the way back to last week — yes, it’s a bit of a blur to us, too — Intel CEO Paul Otellini brought to his keynote an Atom-powered home monitor system, demonstrated by him and his rockstar compadre Craig. It was actually quite impressive, and thankfully Intel’s gone ahead and launched an educational page for the Intelligent Home Energy Management Proof of Concept. The specs break down as follows: a gorgeous 11.5-inch capacitive OLED touch screen, Z530 processor, motion sensor and video camera support, stereo audio, WiFi, and Zigbee integration. Throw in an open API and we’re pretty sold on this — assuming it was real, of course, and at this point it’s nothing more than a teaser of things to come. Hit up the source link and expect a notable uptick in your longing for the future.

Intel’s Atom-powered home energy dashboard concept gets itself a website, no closer to retail reality originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve kept even a loose eye on our CES coverage this year, you’d know that 3D is firmly “in.” But our main gripe is that the glasses requirement makes it largely impractical for in-home use. Intel had a comparison demo setup in its massive booth, and it had a top display arranged to showcase glasses-free 3D and the bottom to demonstrate the more traditional glasses-required 3D. A technician at the booth explained that the footage was all specifically shot to fit the format, and a special overlay was applied to the 3D HDTV in order to complete the magic. He confessed that the resolution was “sub-720p,” and there were only eight specific places that you could stand at in order to actually get the full experience. We stood around 10 feet back, dead center, and were downright wowed by the results. You could honestly see loads of depth, and everything appeared buttery smooth. Stepping closer resulted in less-than-awesome visuals, but we’re definitely stoked by the possibilities here. Take note, TV / content makers — glasses free > glasses-required.

Continue reading Intel shows off glasses-free 3D demo — now this is more like it

Intel shows off glasses-free 3D demo — now this is more like it originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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