Intel wants hybrid tablets to get thinner, down to 0.27 inches to be exact, and has advice for OEMs for getting there. The company gave recommendations at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Lilputing is reporting.
OEMs should consider ditching the fan, using MicroSD ports instead of full-sized ones, replacing USB Type-A with the smaller USB Type-C, and putting the circuit board in the middle of the tablet instead of on the sides, to save on internal cables.
All that could get things down to 0.27, but the current sweet spot, according to an Intel slide, is 0.31 to 0.37 inches.
A quick look at tablets we’ve recently reviewed suggests this is accurate:
The Acer Switch Alpha 12 falls outside Intel’s sweet spot, and from experience we can tell you that it feels bulky. That tablet sports a Core i5 processors, and uses liquid cooling, which of necessity takes up more space. The Matebook, meanwhile, is super thin and light, but is a little short on power, especially considering the price point. Occupying the Goldilocks space outlined by Intel are the Surface Pro 4 and the ThinkPad X1. We feel like both these machines managed to offer a considerable amount of computing heft without sacrificing portability.
The goal, then, is for devices like these to eventually fit into the current form factor of the Matebook and the iPad Pro. A few of the suggestions outlined by Intel include:
What does this all mean for users? That tablets are going to get thinner, but possibly harder to repair. It’s a trade-off for sure, but for now it seems like one the market demands.
It will be interesting to see if more OEMs manage to hit 0.27 inches without compromising power, and we’ll let you know when that happens.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.