Intel touts NFC Ultrabooks at CES 2012

The Gadget Show  Tuesday 10 January 2012

Intel as used CES 2012 to talk about the second wave of Ultrabooks that the company hopes will ship with a ‘must-have’ list of features, including bigger screens, more varied designs but most importantly, NFC, gesture-controls and other hands-free ways of using your laptop.

Intel doesn’t want you to buy any old laptop, it wants you to think about Ultrabooks, which it’s spending a great deal of time, and money, promoting – largely as the company coined the name in the first place!

So it is with CES 2012 with Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel’s PC group, citing that this year we’ll seen drastically improved versions of the platform hitting the stands. To highlight his point, he demoed an Ultrabook with gesture-controlled support that also uses built-in tilt sensors to offer something closer akin to a tablet in user experience.

Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra Ultrabooks at CES 2012

There was even time to show off the idea of a touch-free credit card reader, which is powered by NFC (Near Field Communication). We’re already starting to see the wireless technology being used in smartphones, but notebooks is something new. The technology means you’ll be able to pay for goods and services without the need to dip into your pocket to pay.

Mooly Eden also predicts that touchscreen displays will be dominant in the next generation of Ultrabooks, which is the first step to offering a full touch-free, gesture controlled notebook.

With CES 2012 set to see some 75 Ultrabook designs of a more conventional nature, the ideas Intel is touting are still some way down the line but it looks like the company has got serious ambitions about keeping the platform alive.

What do you think, do you want to see such features in your next laptop, or does it sound too much like a tablet with a keyboard? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments below.

Top 5 Trends emerging at CES 2012