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Intel Sees Communications As Company's Next Frontier
WSJdpatton writes "Intel is mounting a long-term campaign to turn personal computers into more reliable tools for calling and conferencing. Intel business-client architecture director Steve Grobman argues that instead of exploiting the Internet to lower communications costs, the next phase is about adding new features. Among the benefits for business: broader access to online meetings with advanced features such as TiVo-style playback, instant captioning of conversations — or even translation into multiple languages. 'That technology could be a foundation for companies to add improvements such as the ability to identify the current speaker during a conference call ... He eventually expects advanced features -- such as automatic transcription or translation of conferences. Intel has used deals to advance its plans. A February 2006 partnership with Skype included joint development to tailor the service for Intel's dual-core chips, and free PC-based conferencing for as many as 10 participants.'"
Now tell us, how do you really feel?
As much as I'd love to see One-laptop-per-child get off the ground... they've had their chance. It's been too freaking long! Face it, it's vaporware. Intel's offering is also likely vaporware. It's a fight between one vaporware vs another vaporware!
What makes one vaporware more `noble' than another vaporware? Just 'cause one has `child' in the name... I guess.
I personally would be happy to get a cheap-durable-light-small laptop from any manufacturer. All I need is bash (& all unix utils), vim, perl, gcc. It doesn't even have to have a GUI (just a gnu screen in text mode).
"If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy