IDF 2012 Opening Keynote - Haswell, Windows 8 & More

This morning Intel kicked off the corporations 15th Intel Developer Forum (IDF) with an opening keynote that was given by David Perlmutter. Each year IDF has a theme and this year that theme is “The Future of Innovation is Wide Open.” Intel hopes that theme will create some buzz and demonstrate how developers can take advantage of the latest innovations in hardware, software and services to help enable the best user experiences on Intel architecture -- from the cloud to devices. Intel isn’t the only company that is doing major announcements this week as tomorrow Apple is holding an event just down the street, where the iPhone is expected to be announced. You also have companies like AMD and ARM holding meetings just down the street during the show, so all the big name tech players are active in San Francisco this week. Since all eyes are on the tech market this week, it means that Intel must show that the PC is alive and well and that the chip giant is going to be able to branch out to smartphones, tablets and anything else that's coming down the road.

Intel IDF 2012

For the past several years Intel has been focusing thinner and lighter laptops, known as Ultrabooks, but Microsoft’s “reimagining” of Windows and the move to touch interfaces have added some complications to those plans. Microsoft Windows 8, which officially arrives on October 26, is designed to work on both PCs and tablets. With the introduction of Windows 8 you’ll start to see a ton of new touch and voice features (Dragon Assistant Beta). Sure, there will be still be the traditional laptop with and without touchscreens, but you’ll start to see more slates and tablets that try bridge the gap between the PC and laptop. Companies like ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo have recently started announcing these so called ‘Windows 8 convertibles’. This is great news for consumers as it expands the definition of computing by introducing natural interactions to computing experience. If it makes the experience better for consumers, then it should be a win for everyone.