Intel pays between $100 and $150 million for Basis, a smartwatch manufacturer

Back at CES 2014, CEO Brian Krzanich announced that Intel is determined to enter the market of wearables by releasing a smartwatch and a smart bracelet later this year. Well, it seems that the company is pretty serious about this, as it just acquired Basis, a smartwatch manufacturer. Reportedly, Intel paid between $100 and $150 million.

Basis is mostly popular for the Basis B1 Health Tracker smartwatch, a health-centric wearable gadget. It comes with lots of sensors that monitor various body functions of the user, such as the heart rate, the temperature of the skin, the sweat perspiration, and even the sleep patterns. The Basis B1 Health Tracker wearable is touted as being one of the most accurate fitness-oriented wearables when it comes to collecting data.

Intel's own wearable is currently being developed and its release date is yet unknown. Still, Brian Krzanich showed a prototype of Intel's homebrewed smartwatch at CES earlier this year. Intel's wearable will have its own connectivity and users won't need to tether it to a smartphone. In addition, the upcoming smartwatch will support geofencing (location-based notifications). Intel's smartwatch will most likely borrow some features from the Basis B1.

As we already told you, rumor has it that Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Samsung were also interested in purchasing Basis.

You can read our full review of the Basis Health Tracker wearable here.

source: Wearable World News via AppleInsider Share: Discuss0 Tweet

View the Original article

Intel Beats Q4 Revenue Forecasts With Top Line Of $13.8B, Misses On Profit With EPS Of $0.51

Today Intel reported its fourth-quarter earnings, including revenue of $13.83 billion and earnings per share of $0.51. Investors had expected Intel to earn $0.52 per share on revenue of $13.72 billion.

In regular trading, Intel eased under a percent. In after hours trading following its mixed earnings Intel is down several percent. In the quarter preceding, Intel beat expectations by 9 percent. The sharp decline in its share price in after-hours trading could indicate that investors had somewhat bearish takes on its quarter, and to have Intel fail to best that low threshold came as a surprise.

For the full year, Intel had revenue of $52.7 billion and net income of $9.6 billion.

Earlier this morning Best Buy reported weak sales, causing its share price to fall dramatically. It cast a pall over the consumer electronics market, a part of the economy that Intel competes in dramatically.

Early reads of Intel’s first-quarter projections have them in line with investor expectations.

The company noted “signs of stabilization in the PC” market in its note to investors. After a historically bad year for personal computers, market analysts are expecting a more mild decline in this calendar year, and a stabilization over the 300 million yearly unit mark. Provided that intel can carve out a growing niche in non-traditional devices, the PC market’s decline could be almost a rear-view issue for its revenue in coming years.

It’s important to note that Intel’s mostly in-line earnings could indicate a somewhat solid quarter for other PC market participants, such as HP and Microsoft. If Intel sold lots of chips, others might have sold lots of boxes. Its $110 million revenue beat could be viewed optimistically in that regard. However, it’s still too soon to tell how the larger consumer electronics market fared in the final quarter of 2013.

Top Image Credit: Flickr

View the Original article

Intel dives into wearables with new smartwatch and headset devices

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich

(Credit:James Martin/CNET) Intel wants to prove that it's not just a PC company anymore.

As the world has shifted to devices for people on the go, the company is trying to make sure it keeps apace with the market. Chief Executive Brian Krzanich on Monday introduced a bevy of wearable related technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

One of the new wearables he showed off is a headset nicknamed Jarvis that can integrate with a personal assistant app on a phone without even touching it. Krzanich said it will work with an assistant that Intel is developing but will also work with an existing assistant. (Siri, anyone?). The other is a set of earbuds with biometric capabilities and gets power from a phone's headphone jack.

Oh, and he also mentioned a smart onesie for babies. It transmits the baby's breathing and other information to a connected coffee cup, which reflects the condition on a little digital display. The product line is made possible by the Intel Edison, a newly announced computing system inside an SD card that has WiFi and bluetooth connectivity, with an Intel processor and multicontroller core.

The company also introduced a smartwatch that has smart "geo-fencing" which, Krzanich says, has the capability to monitor the person who's wearing it from afar. One use case: in case of an emergency and a person steps out of the geo-fence, the watch can send out an alert. "You can imagine all kinds of applications," said Krzanich. Still, some consumers may have privacy concerns.

Related postsIntel kills off McAfee Security brandWearables are white-hot at CES 2014. So they're doomed, right?Hardware firm swaps in 8-core Intel CPU on Mac Pro; speed jumps And to try to keep the "wear" in wearable, the company has partnered with brands like Barney's New York and the Council of the Fashion Designers of America to collaborate on bringing future wearables to market.

The chipmaker is a Silicon Valley stalwart but hasn't always been on the cutting edge of innovation. Krzanich tried to change some of that perception during his keynote. The company has been working on what it calls "perceptual computing," which aims to help a computer sense what's going on around it by using methods like facial recognition, gestures and voice recognition.

The company has also shown a serious interest in Android, indicating that it wants to turn it into an operating system used more for just mobile screens, but devices like PCs, much like Windows is used. On Monday, Krzanich announced a dual Windows and Android processor. Users will be able to switch between the two operating systems with the switch of a button.

Earlier in the day, the company unveiled its first manifestation of perceptual computing: a 3D camera, part of a product line called Real Sense. The slim camera -- about the size of an index finger -- can do things like replace a subject's background during conference calling like a green screen would, or read gesturing to navigate through screens. At the keynote, Krzanich talked up a scanner that would be able to do a 3D scan of a physical object into a tablet.

Closing the keynote, Krzanich also announced that every Intel device is now "conflict free," no longer sourcing materials from war-torn regions like the Democratic Republic of the Congo to build chips for its processors.

Tags: Brian Krzanich, Intel, CES 2014, wearables

View the Original article

Intel kills off McAfee Security brand

Intel takes branding ownership of McAfee's computer security suite and severs founder John McAfee's name from the security software that has borne it for more than 20 years.

View the Original article

Hardware firm swaps in 8-core Intel CPU on Mac Pro; speed jumps

An upgrade outfit installed an Intel 8-core CPU in the new Mac Pro, confirming that it's CPU upgradeable.

(Credit:CNET)

A Mac upgrade outfit swapped in an 8-core processor on the new Mac Pro, confirming that upgrades are possible.

Other World Computing (OWC), a company that specializes in hardware and Mac upgrades, said Friday that it installed an Intel 8-core E5-2667 V2 in place of the stock 6-core E5-1650 V2.

The company cited up to a 30 percent boost in multicore performance on Geekbench scores.

The Mac Pro's upgradeability jibes with iFixit's teardown of the Pro earlier this week.

"The CPU is...clinging to the side of the heat sink via a thin smear of thermal paste.After teasing it away with a spudger...a CPU upgrade appears entirely possible -- and well worth it," iFixit said, citing cost savings by doing it yourself.

View the Original article

Intel wants to make Barcelona one of the world’s most technologically advanced football clubs

IntelFollow Intelwww.intel.com/Microprocessor Developer… More about Intel

 Founded: 1968

Santa Clara,United States

 NASDAQ:INTC

Show CommentsDiscussion More like this article

View the Original article

Intel-based Windows 8 tablets to cost more than the iPad?

Nearly every tablet not named “Kindle Fire” has had a rough time getting any significant market share next to the iPad. Microsoft, however, is betting big on Windows 8. The Kindle Fire has succeeded by undercutting the iPad’s price, but Microsoft will try to succeed by bringing a touch-friendly version of the world’s most famous desktop software to tablets. That doesn’t, however, mean that price won’t be important.

If a recent report is any indication, there may be some challenges involved in pricing Intel-based Windows 8 tablets to sell. They will reportedly retail for a minimum of $599: a full $100 more than the cheapest iPad.

It would be tempting to mock Microsoft and Intel for slapping ridiculous prices onto their unproven devices, but the companies are actually in a bit of a pickle. They could probably sell the “Wintel” tablets for cheaper — and gain market share — but that would likely lower the overall pricing in the PC market and hurt the companies’ overall margins.

But the alternative, hocking tablets that cost more than the iPad, hardly sounds like a sound strategy. It brings back memories of the market debut of Android tablets, like the original Galaxy Tab and Xoom (both cost $700-800 off contract at launch). Windows 8 could have an appeal to tablet shoppers that Android doesn’t share — based on its prestige in the desktop space — but that’s far from being a sure thing.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that all Windows 8 tablets will be priced at $600 and up. AMD-based Windows tablets may be the big winners here, as their lower prices will give them a chance to gain greater adoption with both consumers and manufacturers.

This all, of course, hinges on the assumption that people will want Windows 8 tablets. As attractive as the previews of the platform have been, many Windows users are already in love with their iPads, and the similarly-designed Windows Phone 7 has yet to gain any significant market share in the smartphone market.

via DigiTimes