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Speaker 1: slash tech Stuff. Hello again, everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: My name is Chris Poulette and I am an editor
Speaker 1: at how stuff Works dot com. Sitting across from me
Speaker 1: as usual using a pretty typical looking corporate laptop, is
Speaker 1: senior writer Jonathan Strickland. It was a wrong number that
Speaker 1: started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead
Speaker 1: of night, and the voice on the other end asking
Speaker 1: for someone. He was not all right then, yea, so today,
Speaker 1: thank you? Yes, Well, I don't know why I'm thanking you.
Speaker 1: It's a quote that I did not write, so I
Speaker 1: just just quoted. Um, we are today talking about ultra
Speaker 1: books and what the heck are they? And do you
Speaker 1: want one? Um? I figured it was a a computer
Speaker 1: that it wore a silver suit with a flashing light
Speaker 1: on its chest, that took on big rubbery monsters. No, no,
Speaker 1: sadly not. Uh. I'm still waiting for the gigante or
Speaker 1: a computer that it can only be controlled by a
Speaker 1: little child. But they know that the ultrabook is a
Speaker 1: new class of notebook style computers marketing. But no, it
Speaker 1: really is. It's just like just like how netbooks were marketing.
Speaker 1: That was a thing, right, And in a way you
Speaker 1: could say that the ultrabook is sort of reaction to
Speaker 1: two things. One is the netbook movement, which kind of
Speaker 1: got took a hit when tablets started to get popular
Speaker 1: because people were saying, well, I could get a tablet
Speaker 1: device which is a really cool form factor and has
Speaker 1: a fun touchscreen interface, or for around the same price,
Speaker 1: I could get a netbook, which is essentially an underpowered computer.
Speaker 1: Uh And and there were a lot of people who said, well,
Speaker 1: if between those two choices, I will go with the tablets.
Speaker 1: So the netbook sales with netbooks were a big thing.
Speaker 1: Just a couple of years ago, netbook sales started to
Speaker 1: take a little bit of a of a depth, and
Speaker 1: so computer manufacturers started to look around and a well,
Speaker 1: what can we do about this? Do we keep pushing
Speaker 1: netbooks or do we get into a different market. The
Speaker 1: other thing that really really I think launched the ultrabook
Speaker 1: movement was Apple with the MacBook Air. Now, the MacBook
Speaker 1: Air is a super slim MacBook, right, and it's it
Speaker 1: gets that slim form factor through um lots of different ways.
Speaker 1: One thing is, you know you remove the optical drive. Yes,
Speaker 1: so there's there's there's no DVD drive in it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So once you remove the optical drive, you now conserve
Speaker 1: a lot of space and use a solid state hard
Speaker 1: drive so you don't have to have platters in there
Speaker 1: or anything like that. So the MacBook Air is this
Speaker 1: really thin, beautiful computer, like it's you know, it's aesthetically
Speaker 1: it's very pleasing. Uh. And it's also a fairly powerful computer,
Speaker 1: you know, for its for its form factor. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so also it's a premium computer. It's you know, you're
Speaker 1: paying a premium price, partly because it's Apple, and partly
Speaker 1: because of the design of the computer itself. So, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: the the the MacBook Air um sort of got a
Speaker 1: lot of attention just because of the way it looks
Speaker 1: and because it has that solid state drive, which you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're naturally more expensive than the platter hard drives. Now, um,
Speaker 1: if you look at the specs, uh, simply looking at
Speaker 1: a a you know, Apple computers, if you put a
Speaker 1: MacBook versus a MacBook Air, you'll notice that the the
Speaker 1: processors generally a little slower, and the drive is smaller
Speaker 1: because it's a um solid state hard drive, and it's
Speaker 1: you know, sort of more expensive for what you're getting. Uh.
Speaker 1: It may be less expensive than the MacBook, but then
Speaker 1: you go, well, but you know, for a couple hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: So you have to decide what you want. But for
Speaker 1: for some people, for a set of people who wanted
Speaker 1: UM an Apple laptop, they said, you know what, I
Speaker 1: really like the fact that it's lighter, it's smaller, UM,
Speaker 1: and you know, look how sleek it is. I remember
Speaker 1: Steve Jobs unveiling the thing and you pulled it out
Speaker 1: of Manila envelope, which which got a pretty big reaction.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, before that, you just didn't see
Speaker 1: computers at that that were thin enough to be able
Speaker 1: to do that. Now, UM, other manufacturers started making thinner laptops.
Speaker 1: I remember Sony came out with a couple of of
Speaker 1: the bio laptops that were really slender. UM. Samsung came
Speaker 1: out with its Series nine in particular, with a great
Speaker 1: thin one. And that's one of the lines that will
Speaker 1: probably talk about in this podcast. But the idea of
Speaker 1: the Ultra book really really comes from Intel. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because Intel has actually set forth some standards they UM,
Speaker 1: they announced standards for what would become the Ultra Book,
Speaker 1: and they actually named it the Ultra Book, and they said,
Speaker 1: if you're going to make an ultra book, whatever that is,
Speaker 1: this is what it. Yeah, you have to meet these
Speaker 1: bare minimum standards like, for example, it can be no
Speaker 1: thicker than twenty one millimeters which is point eight three
Speaker 1: inches thick. If it's thicker than that, then technically it
Speaker 1: should not be called an ultrabook. UH. It also should
Speaker 1: have a very fast startup UH and should in fact
Speaker 1: go from sleep mode to full interaction within seven seconds.
Speaker 1: Seven seconds is the maximum amount of time it should
Speaker 1: take to go from sleep mode too ready to go,
Speaker 1: which is that's that's pretty fast, especially if you've ever
Speaker 1: had like an older computer and older notebook computer and
Speaker 1: had to go into sleep mode and then try to
Speaker 1: wake it up. Sometimes you're you know, you start the
Speaker 1: wake up process and you think, all right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go make some coffee, maybe make a couple of phone
Speaker 1: calls before I get back. Part of that, I think
Speaker 1: is the information being fragmented on the hard drive and
Speaker 1: all the stuff that you install on the computer and
Speaker 1: you haven't running, and you know, it's not like it's
Speaker 1: brand new. I think that's what they're saying. The seven
Speaker 1: seconds is you know, when you get it from the manufacturer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: other things that it needs to do. It needs to
Speaker 1: have at least between five and eight hours of battery life. Um,
Speaker 1: it needs to have features in it that protect consumers
Speaker 1: against theft. So a lot of these devices have have
Speaker 1: have software and hardware in it that can help consumers
Speaker 1: track down where the computer is should it ever be stolen.
Speaker 1: It's very useful. And then ultimately, while it's Intel, so
Speaker 1: an ultrabook has to have an Intel Core processor. If
Speaker 1: it doesn't have an Intel Core processor, technically it is
Speaker 1: not an ultrabook, at least according to Intel. Now, ultra
Speaker 1: book I think will end up becoming shorthand for very sleek,
Speaker 1: fast computers. I don't know that they will necessarily remain
Speaker 1: the domain of Intel. Mean, even if Intel trademarks that,
Speaker 1: I imagine that that terms is going to be used
Speaker 1: pretty loosely. I've heard people talk about the MacBook Air
Speaker 1: as an ultrabook, although definition it's not. Um Yeah. So
Speaker 1: they also usually have a solid state drive because that
Speaker 1: does conserve space, uh, physical space, not not digital space,
Speaker 1: but physical space. And they often won't have things like
Speaker 1: optical drives. You'll have to use digital downloads to get
Speaker 1: access to software. And of course the price point under
Speaker 1: a thousand dollars well supposed to be. Yeah. You a
Speaker 1: lot of the ultra books that I saw. I recently
Speaker 1: went to If you've listened to our episode about my
Speaker 1: consumer electronic show Visit Cees, Visit of UM, you probably
Speaker 1: heard about me talk about some of these these ultra
Speaker 1: books will find out because we haven't actually recorded it yet,
Speaker 1: but it's going to publish before this one. It's like
Speaker 1: a time travel thing. Uh. Anyway, Yeah, there's several computers
Speaker 1: that were falling under the Ultra book name that topped
Speaker 1: a thousand dollars. It's sort of this is looser than
Speaker 1: the other definition, right, Like like the Samsung Series nine
Speaker 1: computer that I mentioned that's technically book if you if
Speaker 1: you want to go with the price, and it's not.
Speaker 1: It's because it's but it's point six four inches thick,
Speaker 1: which means it's one point six centimeters and it meets
Speaker 1: the the minimum requirement for thickness. It's absolutely gorgeous designed,
Speaker 1: by the way, it was very pretty. I liked it
Speaker 1: a lot. But yeah, it's that's one that was often
Speaker 1: being lumped in with the other Ultra books. Other ones
Speaker 1: included the hp n V fourteen Specter, Yes, which that
Speaker 1: was uncoming that was on the thick side for ultrabooks.
Speaker 1: It was still a very thin computer, but it was
Speaker 1: thicker than most of the other Ultra books are on display.
Speaker 1: The interesting thing to me about the HP n V
Speaker 1: was that it has um gorilla glass on the computer itself,
Speaker 1: So the back of the computer is coated in gorilla glass,
Speaker 1: and the the base of the keyboard where the touch
Speaker 1: pad is, that whole section is coated in gorilla glass,
Speaker 1: which helps it protected from scratches things like that. Also
Speaker 1: has a near field communication technology built into it. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you know, if you want to go and, uh, say,
Speaker 1: by a drink from a soda machine, you can hold
Speaker 1: up your laptop and pay for it with that. Tom
Speaker 1: Meriti of Tech News Today made the same point, and
Speaker 1: I think that that misses the applications you can put.
Speaker 1: You can use n FC par Okay, let's let's take
Speaker 1: the opportunity to clear that up, because I I can
Speaker 1: understand that being the first reaction saying, why would you
Speaker 1: put NFC in a laptop? If NFC is what you're
Speaker 1: using to use your cell phone to purchase stuff at
Speaker 1: a vendor, why would you put in a laptop. Okay,
Speaker 1: NFC is a communications protocol, so it's bluetooth, so you
Speaker 1: don't it's not necessarily payment. Let's say that you pull
Speaker 1: up some information on your laptop computer and you want
Speaker 1: to transfer it to your phone. NFC might enable that
Speaker 1: to happen. So, for example, let's say that you're typing
Speaker 1: in a map thing on your computer and then you think, oh,
Speaker 1: I should put that in my phone so that way
Speaker 1: I can navigate to wherever it is I'm going. NFC
Speaker 1: could allow you to transfer that very seamlessly, right. You
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to go into your phone and also pull
Speaker 1: it up. It would just come up on your phone.
Speaker 1: Or let's even say that you are shopping, but you're
Speaker 1: shopping online and you already have all your credit card
Speaker 1: information programmed into your smartphone with whatever service you're using,
Speaker 1: like Google Wallet. Let's say, and then you have an
Speaker 1: NFC chip in your laptop and you just wave your
Speaker 1: smartphone to your laptop, the transaction goes through. You don't
Speaker 1: have to type in your credit card number or anything
Speaker 1: like that, and it's all taken care of for you.
Speaker 1: That Those are applications for NFC technology. It's not just
Speaker 1: waving your laptop at a cashier, although I guess you
Speaker 1: could do that. These are thin enough, by the way,
Speaker 1: weight is not a requirement for these things, or they
Speaker 1: can weigh everything. I just blew your mind. But no.
Speaker 1: I actually talked with an Intel non executive and Intel
Speaker 1: representative and mentioned I said, also, is there a weight
Speaker 1: limit to these two like does it have to be
Speaker 1: under five pounds for example? And she said no, So
Speaker 1: you can make one out of uranium and it'd be
Speaker 1: nice and heavy, also radioactive. Don't recommend it. But at
Speaker 1: any rate, weight is not not a factor when it
Speaker 1: comes to what determines an ultra book now available the
Speaker 1: HP isotope uh and and at c S. Intel mentioned
Speaker 1: that there was I think sixty five ultra books and
Speaker 1: development with sixty five different ultrabooks from various manufacturers, you know,
Speaker 1: including Intel. Had one that was a little weird, the Nikishi.
Speaker 1: Did you read about the Nikishi? No, that doesn't answer
Speaker 1: my question. Okay, so this was a particularly interesting design,
Speaker 1: and I use interesting in the most vague way possible. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I go back and forth on this.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a neat idea, but kind of weird too.
Speaker 1: The so, if you look at your your typical notebook computer,
Speaker 1: at the base of the keyboard, the bottom section of
Speaker 1: the keyboard. It's where your track pad is right and
Speaker 1: you know, a place where you usually rest your wrists
Speaker 1: or whatever while you're typing on the keyboard. Well, in
Speaker 1: the Nikishi, there's a section just below that that's completely clear,
Speaker 1: so you know it's this it's like a clear window
Speaker 1: at the base of the keyboard, so you know it's
Speaker 1: like you can see the desk beneath your computer. Well,
Speaker 1: why would you do that. That's because when you fold
Speaker 1: the computer down there within that clear window, there is
Speaker 1: an interface you can use even when the computer itself
Speaker 1: is in sleep out. There's a and it's like a
Speaker 1: Windows eight style that's the Metro operating system. So you've
Speaker 1: got this little touch based operating system that you can
Speaker 1: use to do things like checking email message or other
Speaker 1: small apps while the computer itself is still closed. So
Speaker 1: it sort of puts in a little bit of tablet
Speaker 1: functionality into a notebook form factor without it actually being
Speaker 1: a hybrid. Yeah, and it was a completely it was
Speaker 1: a concept model. It's just a prototype. It's not something
Speaker 1: that's necessarily ever going to go to the market. In fact,
Speaker 1: that would be shocked to see it go to the market.
Speaker 1: It was interesting, but but odd, Like I personally, I
Speaker 1: was thinking, well, that's kind of a weird take. But
Speaker 1: then really what it shows as the potential for an
Speaker 1: ultra book. And another one that did the potential for
Speaker 1: an ultra book was the Lenovo Yoga. Did you see
Speaker 1: this that? Actually I was about to ask you about that.
Speaker 1: Did you actually get your hands on one of I
Speaker 1: didn't get my hands on one, but I did see
Speaker 1: it in person. Yeah, Now this is this is an
Speaker 1: ultrabook that I guess it's called the Yoga because the
Speaker 1: the it can flip in a in a way that
Speaker 1: actually turns it into a tablet. It's bendy bindy, you
Speaker 1: know how a market term. You can bend the screen back,
Speaker 1: and once the screen hits about a hundred degrees, the
Speaker 1: keyboard shuts off, so you don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: accidentally typing something on the keyboard while you're converting it
Speaker 1: into its other form factor. So yeah, you you you
Speaker 1: fold the screen back, and you can fold it so
Speaker 1: that it is a stand so in other words, it's
Speaker 1: it makes a triangle with whatever surface you've put it
Speaker 1: on and it becomes like a touch screen interface. Or
Speaker 1: you can fold it all the way back and it
Speaker 1: becomes a tablet, and then you can use it, you know,
Speaker 1: as a tablet, So the screen would be on the
Speaker 1: outside of one side, and then keyboards. Yeah, but again
Speaker 1: the keyboard shuts down after you hit a hundred eighty
Speaker 1: degree So even though you've got a keyboard on the
Speaker 1: back of this tablet, it's not like you're gonna be,
Speaker 1: you know, actidentally typing and gibberish while you're trying to
Speaker 1: navigate angry birds. However, I would uh suggest not putting
Speaker 1: it down on that the cafe table and then spilling
Speaker 1: your coffee on the table, because then it would get
Speaker 1: in the keyboard. I never recommend spilling your coffee on
Speaker 1: the cafe table, whether you've got technology on it or not. Well,
Speaker 1: that's true, because then he can't drink it. I mean,
Speaker 1: well I have been known till never mind that's there's
Speaker 1: certain coffee shops in Atlanta I am no longer allowed into.
Speaker 1: Let's just say that, right, Hey, you know what, sometimes
Speaker 1: you've got to have that cup of coffee. So yeah,
Speaker 1: there's but they're they're literally dozens of different ultra books
Speaker 1: that are in development. I mean, like I said, sixty
Speaker 1: five and alone, I think seventy and um what they
Speaker 1: show that. Uh, Different manufacturers have a different take on
Speaker 1: the concept, right, I mean there's something I saw that
Speaker 1: are going to be priced as low as around eight
Speaker 1: hundred eight or fifty dollars, which is, you know, it's
Speaker 1: pretty competitive for something that's on the cutting edge of
Speaker 1: form factors, if not the actual guts of the device itself. Um. Again,
Speaker 1: you know it's gonna have to have an Intel Core
Speaker 1: processor for it to be called an ultrabook. So there's
Speaker 1: a certain level of speed that you're going to expect
Speaker 1: from any ultrabook. But some of them are, of course,
Speaker 1: are gonna have like the most advanced chip set that
Speaker 1: that you can possibly get in that form factor. Like again,
Speaker 1: like Samsung Series nine. That's a good example because there
Speaker 1: are three different series that kind of fit in the
Speaker 1: ultrabook uh category, from Samsung Series five, Series seven, Series nine.
Speaker 1: The higher you get, the more luxurious the device. Right.
Speaker 1: So the nine is a sleeker design, has more powerful
Speaker 1: components and a higher price point than the fives. Now
Speaker 1: I understand there's a new chip set coming from Intel.
Speaker 1: Uh code name has well yes, Uh, the so we
Speaker 1: had Sandy Bridge, right, So Sandy Bridge was the big
Speaker 1: development last year, and then we have ivy Bridge that's
Speaker 1: just coming out now. So though that's gonna be in
Speaker 1: of at least in the first half, probably the first
Speaker 1: probably the first three quarters, we're gonna have lots of
Speaker 1: devices running on ivy Bridge processors. But the one after
Speaker 1: that is as you said, so we're gonna that'll be
Speaker 1: the next big development. And again this is showing improvements
Speaker 1: and speed and size. Yeah. Yeah, Well they call it
Speaker 1: a system on a chip to which would work better
Speaker 1: in this kind of form factor, I would imagine because
Speaker 1: you've got all the components there where you don't have
Speaker 1: to include separate other pieces to the the operating puzzle UM,
Speaker 1: and I would to assume that that would take up
Speaker 1: a lot less space. Now, I don't know if you
Speaker 1: would sacrifice performance, um, you know, as a result of that,
Speaker 1: But it's still um, you know, still in the ways
Speaker 1: uh you know coming. But that's the way the tablets
Speaker 1: handle it to UM, like the iPad and and the
Speaker 1: Android tablets. So but all of these these intelmachines, now
Speaker 1: do they necessarily have to use Windows because I didn't
Speaker 1: see anything that said specifically, Now, all of these machines
Speaker 1: we've been talking about use Windows specifically Windows eight too,
Speaker 1: because that that allows them to use that tablet functionality.
Speaker 1: But I've been wondering if, uh, there's a possibility that
Speaker 1: you could run something like Android on an Ultra book.
Speaker 1: There's nothing in Intel's lineup of requirements that says that
Speaker 1: it has to use a particular operating system versus another interesting,
Speaker 1: but I think the trend is to go to Windows mainly.
Speaker 1: I think, I think mostly it's an image thing. The
Speaker 1: idea of these are these devices are devices designed to
Speaker 1: compete with the MacBook Air, and there's a perception within
Speaker 1: the general consumer market that Windows and Apple are the
Speaker 1: two operating systems. You know, and we all know there
Speaker 1: are other operating systems besides Windows and mac os, but
Speaker 1: the general to the general consumer, that's what an operating
Speaker 1: system is. And so I think that if you're trying
Speaker 1: to create a luxury product and you want to make
Speaker 1: as many sales as possible, you're gonna go with a
Speaker 1: an operating system that most people are familiar with. UM
Speaker 1: maybe some of these will have options where you can
Speaker 1: choose to get a model that runs uh, say a
Speaker 1: Linux based operating system as opposed to Microsoft. But but
Speaker 1: I that will be the exception to the rule. They
Speaker 1: tried that with netbooks, right. That was one of the
Speaker 1: things about netbooks was that you actually had the option
Speaker 1: with some of the providers, some of the manufacturers, to
Speaker 1: get a model that ran Linux operating system as opposed
Speaker 1: to Windows, and uh, it got kind of a negative
Speaker 1: reaction amongst the general consumer market. I mean, at first,
Speaker 1: you had a lot of people adopting it because they
Speaker 1: were cheaper, so you didn't have to pay the licensing
Speaker 1: fee to Microsoft for the operating system, and that reduced
Speaker 1: the cost of the device overall. So then you're like, well,
Speaker 1: there's two different versions of this one netbook. I like
Speaker 1: one of them is hundred and fifty dollars cheaper than
Speaker 1: the other, so clearly I'm going to go with that one.
Speaker 1: Then you get at home and you realize, I don't
Speaker 1: know what this operating system is. I'm not familiar with it.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if all of my software is
Speaker 1: going to run it. I'm gonna have to learn this
Speaker 1: new thing. I'm irritated. I'm returning this thing. And so
Speaker 1: you had a lot of stories about the return rate
Speaker 1: on netbooks because people were unhappy with either the performance
Speaker 1: of the machine or more specifically, the operating system. So
Speaker 1: I think that would probably mean that we're going to
Speaker 1: see fewer instances of that with Ultra books. Not necessarily
Speaker 1: a complete absence, but I think that the majority of
Speaker 1: them are going to be Windows based machines, especially with
Speaker 1: the push for Windows eight. In the combination of the
Speaker 1: new machines coming out, in the new operating system coming out,
Speaker 1: I think is gonna be you know, that's gonna be
Speaker 1: the focus for uh. Now that being said, would I
Speaker 1: buy an Ultra book? I'll tell you this. I tried
Speaker 1: to win one. Is that the Intel booth tried to
Speaker 1: win one on two different occasions. Uh. To be fair,
Speaker 1: At the time, my work computer had gone caput. Yes,
Speaker 1: and so I was thinking this will be a way
Speaker 1: where I can write stuff because I can get another computer.
Speaker 1: That did not work out for me. It turns out
Speaker 1: my dance moves they aren't as a fly as I
Speaker 1: had anticipated. What you just used to fly as well,
Speaker 1: I I am not as fly as I had hoped.
Speaker 1: All right, then, so yeah, it turns out if you
Speaker 1: do have the opportunity to win an ultrabook from Intel,
Speaker 1: doing the robot not necessarily going to win you anything, right, Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I should have popped and locked. Well, it'll be interesting,
Speaker 1: I think, to see how far this goes. The concept
Speaker 1: of the concept behind it, I think is sound. I
Speaker 1: think people want a lighter, thinner machine just because it's
Speaker 1: lighter and thinner. Um. Well, at the idea behind ultra
Speaker 1: book is a a name. I don't know if that
Speaker 1: will have the lasting power, but I think they also
Speaker 1: want if they want something that's going to be in
Speaker 1: a computer form factor, they want something that's going to
Speaker 1: be more powerful than a tablet. So if you look
Speaker 1: at a netbook versus a tablet and you think that
Speaker 1: their performance is about the same, again, I think most
Speaker 1: people sort of lean towards the tablet mode just because
Speaker 1: it's kind of a cooler form factor. Um, if you
Speaker 1: go with the ultra book, then one of the marketing
Speaker 1: things you can say is that, hey, this device is
Speaker 1: far faster and has far more memory and etcetera, etcetera
Speaker 1: than the tablets do. Therefore, if you're in the market
Speaker 1: for a computer, this is the way you should go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's ultra portable and ultra powerful, and I guess is
Speaker 1: what you could say an ultra Bookie and ultra Bookie
Speaker 1: ultra book is so um. But this I also think
Speaker 1: is an indication that people are more comfortable using the
Speaker 1: cloud for uh, for storage and for other applications because um,
Speaker 1: you know, without an optical drive, as most of these
Speaker 1: machines are, you know, that's uh, it gives you a a
Speaker 1: fewer options for installing new software. I think people are
Speaker 1: becoming more comfortable purchasing and downloading software from the Internet,
Speaker 1: and we're seeing more app stores. Intel has its own
Speaker 1: app store, so just as Apple has the Mac app
Speaker 1: Store for Mac computers, Intel's gout its own app store
Speaker 1: up now, which allows you to to shop for various
Speaker 1: kinds of apps and software directly from Intel and buy
Speaker 1: them that way and then downloaded and a new gut
Speaker 1: on your machine. Yeah. The really interesting thing to me
Speaker 1: is that the the evolution of the personal computer, as
Speaker 1: seen it at shows like c e S suggests that
Speaker 1: if you don't have a broadband connection, you're getting left out. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know. Back in you know, five years go, you
Speaker 1: didn't have to have a broadband connection to have a
Speaker 1: good computer and a good suite of software, because you
Speaker 1: could go out and buy a hard copy of whatever
Speaker 1: piece of software you wanted, You get it on desk,
Speaker 1: you load it into your computer, and you were good
Speaker 1: to go. But now that we're getting to a point
Speaker 1: where the optical drive is starting to disappear, if you
Speaker 1: don't have that broadband connection, then you you were cut
Speaker 1: off from the content, you're cut off from the software.
Speaker 1: So in a way, and it's kind of silly to
Speaker 1: say this, but in a way, Cees really paints a
Speaker 1: picture of winding the digital divide because you're talking about
Speaker 1: a class of customers who have to have a bare
Speaker 1: minimum access of technology in order to take advantage of
Speaker 1: the products you're launching. If you don't have that, then
Speaker 1: you're stuck. Now, you know, five years ago that was electricity,
Speaker 1: Now it's broadband. And I think it's pretty safe to
Speaker 1: say that electricity penetration is greater than broadband penetration. Um.
Speaker 1: And of course there's still there's still companies out there
Speaker 1: that are marketing devices that are meant for consumers who
Speaker 1: don't have broadband access. But that's you know, it's almost
Speaker 1: that's a specialty product now, it's not like the general
Speaker 1: product that hits the store shelves. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: an interesting trend as well. Um, we'll have to see
Speaker 1: how this plays out. I imagine that ultra books will
Speaker 1: do fairly well, um, because it's it's competing in a
Speaker 1: different space than than netbooks were. Uh. Some people would
Speaker 1: argue that ultra books really should just be called notebooks
Speaker 1: just they're just particularly sleep notebooks. Um. And also I
Speaker 1: guess we should mention we we talked about the thickness
Speaker 1: and everything. Typically these ultra books have a screen size
Speaker 1: between thirteen and fourteen inches. That's that's your typical ultra book.
Speaker 1: There are outliers, but that's they're larger than your netbooks are.
Speaker 1: And that was another point was that people we're saying
Speaker 1: ultra books are going to be preferable to netbooks because
Speaker 1: you won't have the same cramped keyboards that you had
Speaker 1: in the netbook form factor, and that there were several
Speaker 1: netbooks that came out that definitely had small keyboards that
Speaker 1: were a little uncomfortable to type on if you had
Speaker 1: you know, man hands, or you know, if you were
Speaker 1: larger than a child. I just get the sense that
Speaker 1: people are that the average person is not going to
Speaker 1: see ultra books as a thing. I think this is
Speaker 1: more as a you know, from the manufacturers. But I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think the general public is going to think
Speaker 1: of ultra books necessarily as a separate thing. Um. That said,
Speaker 1: I think it will have another effect too, is you know,
Speaker 1: pushing the plane old laptop and towards the lower end
Speaker 1: of the scale in terms of price. Wells now that
Speaker 1: they could they could charge more for an ultrabook because
Speaker 1: it's it's sleek and efficient and and and cool look
Speaker 1: and um and oh well you can have this uh
Speaker 1: brick top um for four or you can buy an
Speaker 1: ultrabook for well. Yeah, I think ultra books will It'll
Speaker 1: all depend on the marketing. And you know, if these
Speaker 1: companies all come out and start using ultrabook as a
Speaker 1: marketing term, then maybe the general consumer will have like
Speaker 1: they'll think of ultra books as being its own specific category. Um. Frankly,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen any of the advertising materials, but you know,
Speaker 1: just based upon the press releases I saw at CS
Speaker 1: the term was yeah, I was one of the big
Speaker 1: themes of CS. This here, but I think I think this, uh,
Speaker 1: this move is really showing that they the manufacturers have
Speaker 1: moved on from the concept of netbooks. Um, and that
Speaker 1: you know, between tablets and ultra books, there's there's really
Speaker 1: no uh, not much of a market saying I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say no, not much of a market segment for the
Speaker 1: netbook anymore. Right, Well, yeah, and I think, um, I
Speaker 1: think that pretty much sums it up. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's what we have so far. Whether or not this
Speaker 1: will become a successful category in consumer electronics remains to
Speaker 1: be seen. Uh, it's if it fails, it's certainly not
Speaker 1: because it lacks support on the manufacturer something. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: there's a lot of enthusiasm, let me tell you. And uh,
Speaker 1: and what if you haven't seen these devices, you really
Speaker 1: need to get a chance to take a look at them,
Speaker 1: either online or if you can go to a store,
Speaker 1: just to get a look at the form factors, because
Speaker 1: even if you're not in the market for a new computer,
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting to see the move to this
Speaker 1: this design where everything is is water thin. Alright, So
Speaker 1: that wraps up our discussion on ultra books. If you
Speaker 1: guys have any topics you would like us to cover,
Speaker 1: you can let us know on Facebook or Twitter or
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Speaker 1: us at our brand new email address, tech stuff at
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