The Intel CES press event didn’t hold any major news for us yesterday. Low power 3rd-Gen Core, Perceptual Computing, Convertibles, Haswell and even a touch of Bay Trail were expected as Ultrabook-related news but to announce that all 4th-gen Core Ultrabooks (Haswell platform, Q3/Q4) will have Touchscreens was a complete surprise and I can only describe it as a massive risk-taking move by Intel. What does it really mean though? Higher pricing, consumer focus? There won’t be any Windows 7 Ultrabooks, that’s for sure.

One thing that is for sure is that the Ultrabook is going to get more difficult to use in bright light. Capacitive touchscreens mean fingers-on-glass and in general, glossy finishes. It means that all Ultrabooks will now have additional costs associated with them and it means that some users and some commentators will rebel because they don’t want a touchscreen. But there’s another view…

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Written on the Acer W510.

Intel CloverTrail is a truly ground-breaking PC platform and the Acer W510 appears, in my 48hrs with it, to offer great ways to enjoy the new features of the platform along with amazing value. At least it does in Europe where the tablet and docking station can be had for €499 inclusive tax. I have the €599 version here which includes 64GB of storage.

I’ve been extremely impressed so far. It’s light enough to use in portrait mode using thumb input, it has battery life that will last you a full 24hrs in consumption scenarios or you can get creative and plug the dock in and work, like I am now, for a good 8hrs non-stop. This is not an ARM-based Windows RT device, this is  PC. ‘Post-PC’ needs to be re-thought because the dynamic range of this PC takes it into more scenarios than any computing product before.

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We’ve got a few more details on the Nokia Lumia 920 for you including more specs on the camera which is an F2.0 device that can take in “five times more light” than competing smartphones. Impressive!

The floating lens is effectively a camera unit (not lens) mounted on springs which we assume dampened in some way. Update: This is an active system driven from data obtained by a gyroscope.

Here’s a demo that Nokia was showing at the press event. The images are designed to show the difference between the image you’ll get from a standard smartphone and the image you’ll get from a Nokia Lumia 920 with PureView and the floating lens.

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Samsung have released more details about the Samsung Galaxy Camera, one of the first ‘next generation’ smart cameras. The optic specifications almost match those of the Samsung SMART Camera WB850F which would make sense. The body shape is similar too so it may have been the pattern for the new camera but there’s no real confirmation of that yet.

Key features of the optics, sensor and image processor that you won’t find in any cameraphone are…

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Acer have launched the S3 Ultrabook in Hong Kong along with detailed specifications and recommended pricing. 3 models have been announced with the two lower-cost options using hybrid SSD/HDD options to offer storage space along with the speed required for quick resume times.

The S3-951-2464G34 comes with a Core i5-2467UM at 1.6Ghz with Turbo to 2.2Ghz, Windows 7 Home Premium and 4GB DDR3 RAM. The disk offers 320GB of storage to the user and 20GB used internally for fast-boot and resume.

The mid-range S3-951-2634G34 offers the same specification as above but improves on the CPU to offer the Core i7-2637UM which boosts up to 2.8Ghz

At the top-end, you’ll be sacrificing some CPU to get a 240GB SSD. The S3-951-2464G24 comes with the Core i5 seen in the base model.

It’s clear that an Ultrabook is more than just a ultra-low voltage CPU and a thin chassis but how tight are the specs laid down by Intel? Are there any laid down by Intel?  Ultrabook is a trademark and therefore likely to be more than just an internal spec-sheet but with no guidance from Intel on what is, and what isn’t, we’ll just have to guess because this slide is pretty much all we have to go on right now.

Anandtech have made a good attempt at a definition though and you can see that here. It includes some extra information that they’ve gleened from PR, interviews and the Computex keynote.

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You might come to Carrypad for news on the latest and greatest devices in the MID segment, but if you haven’t taken a moment to familiarize yourself with our Product Database (hosted on our sister-site, UMPCPortal.com), now would be a great time to check it out. In short, we have dedicated pages for hundreds of devices (with the latest devices being added as they become known), and use these pages to collect all known info on each device as it becomes available. The Product Database can also be used to search for and compare devices to find one that is just right for you.

We frequently link to these pages when referencing devices to present you with a concise sheet of info that will enable you to quickly become familiar with a device that you may not have heard of or would like to know more about you’ll find these links in brackets following the device’s name in our articles. For instance, using the Product Database to follow a hotly anticipated and upcoming device such as the Dell Mini 5 [Product Page] will make it easy for you to stay up to date on the most important facets of the device as they develop. You’ll find everything from specifications to a handy popularity chart. There is even a hand-picked list of important articles from around the web which has its own RSS feed for easy tracking.

Also, don’t miss the top 10 chart at the top of the Product Database which shows the relative popularity of the top devices in the database. Go give it a try!

Image for this post thanks to Engadget