Intel announced on Jan. 5 that it is launching the 14-nanometer 5th Generation Intel Core “Broadwell-U” family of processors, which will include such features as Intel’s RealSense 3D camera technology, Wireless Display offering and voice assistants.
The new processors will be smaller, more energy-efficient and less expensive than their larger predecessors, which the company hopes will help fuel production of new PC form factors that Intel has been promoting.
Microsoft unveiled the new $29 Nokia 215 on Jan. 5. Microsoft said it released this inexpensive new model to take on competitors in the market for smartphone buyers who don’t want to spend more for higher-priced handsets.
The sub-$100 smartphone market is filled with competitors from China and other nations where low-margin manufacturers are creating cheap, well-designed and full-featured phones sought by new users.
The International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is packing a record 150,000 visitors into cabs, hotels and exhibition spaces this year. Most attendees flew in Jan. 4 and 5. After two days of press previews, CES opens Jan. 6 and continues through Jan. 9.
CES is all about connecting a plethora of new devices to the Internet of things. To be more specific, the emphasis is on connecting consumers of all ages and locales to the IoT via wearables, handheld devices, vehicles as well as home utility and entertainment systems.
Hewlett-Packard recently unveiled the Pavilion Mini Desktop and Stream Mini Desktop, two PCs that can easily fit in the palm of the hand and are designed to give users the same high performance and affordability as Chromebooks that run Google’s Chrome OS. The systems also are part of a wave of computers that a broad array of OEMs, including Lenovo and Acer, are showing off at CES as it gets under way this week.