Hasta La Ideas

As discussed at last week’s Intel Technology Summit, the name granted to the new category of laptops–the Mama Bear, as it were, to the Papa Bear regular laptop and Baby Bear netbook–is “ultrathin.” The chief distinction is size, in that netbooks generally have up to 10-inch screens whereas ultrathins will have 13.3- to 15.6-inch screens.

Another distinction will be in the industrial design itself:

“You can’t sell a keyboard and a screen,” [Intel manager Mooly] Eden said, describing the ideal ultrathin laptop design. “You have to sell something that somebody will desire. We need to go beyond the great CPU, great performance…to something that a normal consumer can look at say ‘I want that.'”

In addition to standout aesthetics, the more powerful ultrathins will need better cooling than a netbook; Intel knows the tech will keep shrinking, but as the temperature keeps rising, it cancels out the benefits. No one wants a portable, paper-thin way to burn your lap. Intel’s currently looking into laminar air flow technology, a system of cooling flow used in jet engines. We hope to see some successfully-integrated examples of this soon.

via cnet

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