Intel Fleshes Out CE Push with Apps Store, Smart TV Announcements

SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel announced Tuesday near-term moves from apps partnerships with big CE players to smart TV technology. “Consumer electronics is really an exciting space for Intel,” said Vice President Doug Davis, general manager of the company’s embedded and communications group.

Best Buy, Dixons and Tata’s Indian CE chain, Croma are putting Intel’s AppUp center, a netbook application store launched Tuesday out of beta, on the netbooks they sell, said Senior Vice President Renee James, general manager of the company’s software and services group. The financial arrangements weren’t released. Best Buy started enabling downloads the same day, she said. Best Buy and Dixons executives featured in a video during her presentation emphasized the attractiveness of the store’s 24-hour try-before-you-buy offer for paid applications.

Barnes & Noble will offer a Nook PC app this fall through the store, James said. Samsung will start installing the center software in netbooks during the season, she said. Sega will start including its “premier IP” in the store soon, Aspyr games are expected in the fall, and the Unity 3.0 software developer kit is being optimized for the purpose, James said.

Samsung, Technicolor, Sagemcom and ADB plan to build set-top boxes based on Intel’s new version of its Atom system-on-a-chip for consumer electronics, the CE4200, which had been code-named Groveland. The processor includes an integrated high-definition H.264 HD video encoder to enable uses such as videoconferencing, streaming within home networks and flexible connectivity with mobile devices, Intel said. Power-management capabilities will help makers meet energy-consumption regulations, Davis said.

Intel is “leading” in “smart TV,” Davis said. He described the technology as combining “traditional TV programming” with the “full Internet experience, plus personal content. It’s interactive, supporting “a range of applications and services” including travel information, recipes, online games and TV-show libraries, Davis said. And it has intuitive interfaces and controls that down the line will use voice and gesture technologies in addition to more conventional remotes, he said.

Viewers will receive smart TV through set-top and “companion” boxes, Blu-ray players and connected sets, Davis said. Each category will include products using Atom, as the Sony Internet TV and the new Boxee Box from D-Link and Boxee do, he said.

Acer and Asus prototypes of smart TV set-tops to ship in 2011 were shown by Barb Edson, Microsoft senior director for Windows Embedded devices. They're based on Windows Embedded Standard 7, she said. “We allow OEMs to do uniquely branded experiences,” beginning with the start menu, Edson said. Microsoft’s technology supports access to broadcast TV in many countries, allowing broad international hardware launches, she said. The company’s programming partners include Fox, PBS, BSkyB, Canal+ and Netflix, Edson said. Personal content can be moved from PCs using DLNA or Windows technology, she said. Microsoft has a “deep collaboration” with Intel in TV, Edson said.

Amino -- Intel’s first partner in using for TV Intel’s MeeGo operating system for Atom -- has shipped 50,000 units of its Freedom device allowing viewers to manage apps, Web and user content and TV programming from a unified interface, said CEO Andrew Burke. Actions are fast and smooth, and the pictures from encrypted HD are of high quality using the software, developed in six weeks, he said during a demo.

The first tablet computer using MeeGo will be released next week in Germany, said Stephan Odorfer of the maker, 4tiitoo. Dave Zavelson of Dell’s ultramobile products division showed the Dell Inspiron Duo, a tablet that opens to reveal a 10-inch netbook. “Tablets are great for entertainment but they're not so conducive to productivity,” Zavelson said, explaining the dual product, which he said will be available “later this year.” He called it the “world’s most powerful Windows tablet” and said it will support WiMAX.