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Construction needs cloud flexibility

Australia’s embattled construction sector could benefit from cloud based information systems that can be switched on and off in lockstep with individual projects – with the exception of those organisations based in remote areas like the Kimberleys.

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OEMs: time to take Intel reference designs more seriously

Opinion and Analysis

Way back in 2007 I remember seeing Intel demonstrate 'slider' tablet PCs where the screen slid down from a vertical to a horizontal position over the keyboard to create a tablet - long before the iPad hit the scene.


OEMs, or original equipment manufacturers, are a funny bunch.

Yes, that's the Samsungs, Lenovos, HPs, Dells, Acers, Asuses and the rest of the PC manufacting world.

Why? Because some of the Ultrabook designs that are seeing the light of day in 2012, and some that are coming, were previewed five years ago at an Intel IDF developer forum that I was invited to.

There are two examples that stick in my mind. One was a very slim notebook PC with an e-ink display on its outer shell, giving you access to information that was on the PC even though it was 'off' and 'closed'.

The other was an ultrabook-style tablet laptop that saw the screen 'slide' down over the keyboard so the screen remained visible in 'tablet' mode - something we saw Intel demo during CES.

I've wondered, over the past five years, given the crap-tacularness of most pre-iPad Windows tablets, why none of the OEMs had the sheer guts needed to actually take some of Intel's reference designs on board and make them actual products.

Indeed, why the heck has it taken FIVE YEARS for a slider ultrabook-style laptop to go from Intel reference design to products that will ship this year sometime?

Had Intel and its OEMs pushed such devices back then, tablets running Windows would likely have been far more popular than they are today, but I guess we'll never know if that would have been the case, or not.

Of course, should these new slider ultrabook/tablets take off in a big way, one might have imagined that they'd have taken off back then too, but today's ultrabooks are the beneficiaries of far more advanced processor, multi-touch screen and SSD storage technologies than was available five years ago.

Concluded on page two, please read on!