From the Intel press release.

Michael Dell and Krzanich previewed an upcoming Dell tablet with first-of-its-kind photo capabilities. The new Dell Venue 8 7000 Series with Intel® RealSense™ snapshot is the world’s thinnest tablet and will be available in time for the holiday season. Intel RealSense snapshot is an enhanced photography solution that creates a high-definition depth map to enable measurement, refocus and selective filters with a touch of a finger. It will introduce new capabilities and new ways of using the tablet, opening up a new creative horizon for developers to come up with apps that change how consumers engage with their photos.

Updating from the keynote, live.

This 8-inch Android tablet will come with Realsense and a context sensing SDK from Intel which includes cloud-based context services.

Prototype shown on stage (see below for live images)

• 2K resolution screen (Ultra HD(
• Edge to Edge screen.
• 8.4 inches.
• Realsense snapshot
• Early November availability
• 6mm thin.

Price was not given.

Given the dimensions this has to be a Baytrail–based tablet. Update: Moorefield platform is being used here.

During Intel CEO Brain Krzanich’s keynote today at the Intel Developer Forum, Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell, previewed the upcoming Dell Venue 8 7000 Series – the first tablet with Intel® RealSense™ snapshot and the world’s thinnest tablet, measuring only 6mm in thickness. Intel RealSense snapshot is an enhanced photography solution that creates a high-definition depth map to enable measurement, refocus, and selective filters with a touch of a finger. It will introduce new capabilities and new ways of using the tablet, opening up a new creative horizon for developers to come up with apps that change how consumers engage with their photos.   For example, consumer can change the focus of a photo to different objects or foregrounds in editing.  Objects within the photo can also be measured.  The Android-based tablet is powered by the Intel® Atom™ Z3500 processor series and will be available in time for holiday.

We’re at IDF14 and will try to bring you more details as soon as possible.

I’ve been having an email conversation with Lance, a photographer, for a number of weeks on the subject of Ultrabooks for Photographers. Lance was looking for a new mobile notebook for his nature photography work and after some testing and a lot of thought from both sides he finally went for the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro. Lance has now written an article on his requirements and experiences with the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro and I’m happy to present it here. Read about ‘downrezzing’ and a huge advantage over a desktop system. Read about the problem with Yellow too. Lance has a fix he’s happy with.

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It was a tough move but following a failed OVI store upgrade on my N8 (loan from Nokia) this morning I decided that enough is enough. I’ve seen enough software install and update failures to tell me that I should move on. Considering the fact that I’m excited about Google Plus on Android along with the instant photo upload feature, the time is right. I know I’ll miss that camera but I have to move on so the N8 is packaged and ready to be returned. Thanks for the thousands of great camera shots Nokia. Thanks for a great phone and thanks for some interesting HDMI capabilities. Maps wasn’t so successful on the phone and as for apps, I didn’t really find myself using it as my go-to Internet device. I had my Galaxy Tab by my side for Internet and Apps and to be honest, without it, I would have been a little lost.

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I write a lot about connected cameras. I’m a huge fan of being able to share the moment and I’m generally writing about cameraphones because ‘real’ cameras haven’t caught up yet. They will soon though. I wonder if they will be running Android.

Over the last 6 years my phone choice has been largely influenced by the camera on it and of the phones I’ve had, only the Nokia ones have stood the test of time.

That might change soon though because the new Google Plus service raises the bar for sharing on a cameraphone.

The Instant Upload service automatically sends every photo and video taken to Picasa where it can be tagged, modified and shared, from any web browser on any device. The Google Plus application for Android exposes these images too which means its easier than ever to make them public or to share them with pre-defined groups (circles) of people. Only a Picasa app for tagging, sorting, slideshow and basic editing would make this better.

Having tested Instant Upload with photos and a video today I’m finding it powerful. So powerful that I want my next cameraphone to run Android. I’ve tried this before with the Onnia pro and Experia X10 so I’ll be treading carefully, especially as the Nokia N9 is coming!

I’ve written about the SE Satio and how it could be the perfect upgrade from the N82 for me. I’ve also written about why it’s not the perfect upgrade for me.
Today, the SE Satio goes back onto the top of the list after news about a firmware upgrade broke at the end of last week. The new features look great. Especially that boost to video recording and direct upload to YouTube.

• Support for WVGA video recording – The already great video recording will be enhanced to fit the wide screen format and hence resolution is also slightly increased to 864 * 480 pixles. (the preset size will still be VGA, user has to change to get WVGA)
• Upload of pictures to Facebook – It will be possible to upload pictures directly from the picture menu you have on the home screen or from the Media UI.
• Youtube video uploading – It will be possible to upload videos to Youtube directly from the Media UI.
• Conversational messaging – “Conversations” will be nicely integrated in the messaging menu in order to easily find and inspire to more conversations with your friends.
• DLNA support – The new software will support DLNA media server for easy transfer of audio and still pictures. (Note that video is not supported)
• UI improvements – On top of above, several minor UI improvements have been done in order to optimize the user experience.
• The Facebook application that is now available on PlayNow for free download will be included in the sw.

Owners are reporting that the device is now faster and smoother too.

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Hands-up who’s a big fan of having a decent camera in a smartphone? Hands-up who likes pushing photo’s direct to Flickr while on the go?

Hands-up who would like to take this to the next step and to have high-end on-cam editing of images, post processing and a built in full-screen browser with which to use the amazing range on online applications. Add a 3G connection and you’re able to all that while on the go. Having a great camera on a MID (or MID on a great camera – how about that for a modern data-back!) is something I’m looking forward to and when you add on-device video processing (live or post), live streaming, multiple high-brightness LEDs, concurrent, multi-format video recording, audio-only capabilities, background uploading to a web server, and a huge 4.8″ 800×480 screen, you’ve got something very special.

I’ve been testing out the camera on the Compal MID which is, for the first time on any MID, ultra mobile PC or Netbook I’ve tested, a reasonably good quality auto-focus 3mp device. With the high-brightness 4.8″ screen you get more than enough of a viewfinder, there’s a dedicated two-stage focus-and-shoot shutter button and on-screen controls for brightness, shutter and resolution. White balance is automatic as is aperture/shutter speed adjustment. There’s an override for brightness too.

I’ve taken some test shots and as you can see, the results aren’t that bad. The color balance seems good, there’s minimal flare/fogging and the auto-focus is working well. There’s a lot of compression though and it would be nice if there was an option to get a less compressed image. The shutter takes a long time to react after pressing the button too which is something you need to be careful of.

More photo’s at Flickr. Uploaded direct from the Compal MID
through Flickrs browser-based tools.

Video quality on the device I have here isn’t up to the same quality as the images unfortunately. The quality is low-end smartphone level and should really be much better. There is a nice one-touch Internet broadcast application included (using Livecast) but again, the video quality is no better than what you might see from a smartphone. The video side is a little disappointing.

If the video support can be improved and the software layer improved to allow for a bit more creativity and some streamlining of posting to websites, blogs and microblogging services, this could be make a great near-live Internet media production device. As we move forward, I’m sure we’ll see a lot of improvements in this area. With citizen journalism, high-speed microblogging and moblogging becoming more and more popular, this form factor with this spec, this screen and this keyboard make absolute sense.

I took a walk to the horses this afternoon; a live media-walk for MIDMoves to test out some geographically-tagged capabilities on the big Web thing. Tracking is nothing new. Location-based tweets and near-live video posts are nothing new. Putting it all together in a media-rich way and being able to show it live is something different though. It highlights the difference between a smartphone and a PC-based MID or UMPC. There’s just no way you can tie all the components together and post-process it into a presentation like this with a smartphone. Having access to full-screen Web2.0 applications and smooth multi-tasking was the key here. There’s lots of improvements that can be made but this is a great step forward for live, media-rich tracking.

Move and zoom the map below and click on the icons for videos, audio recordings, tweets and images.

View Larger Map

Source: MIDMoves.com
Thanks to Mobilxfor the i1. Ipokifor the live tracking app.

Source: MIDMoves.com Thanks to Mobilx for the i1. Ipoki for the live tracking app.

Watch out next week for a very special live geo-media tour on MIDMoves.

A lot of you already browse the gallery of ultra mobile PC images but most visitors don’t even know it’s there so here’s a little plug as we reach 2378 images!

You’ll find most, if not all 140+ ultra mobile products represented with some press images, guest images and a stack that we’ve done ourselves over the last 2 years. There’s pictures of UMPC’s in-use, out-and-about and even some of me in the bath!

Feel free to use any for your own use but don’t forget a friendly link-back!