In Intel's future we wear computers, still have to work and exercise

Intel's got a whole bunch of fancy ideas for the wearable and ultramobile computers of the future in this cute little conceptual video it pushed to the YouTubes. Thankfully Intel escaped the oh-so-tried Minority Report concepts and skipped straight to wrist-based computers and a myriad of OQO and iPhone look-alikes. Mostly it's just a ploy to promote Intel's upcoming McCaslin UMPC platform, which can do few of the actions depicted, but it's always fun to peep one manufacturer's vision of the future, no matter how unlikely or impractical its vision might be. Peep the video after the break.

[Via GigaOM; thanks Dillon]

[michael @ Apr 13th 2007 11:12PM]

"iPhone look-alikes"? This is even better than the iPhone. Man, it would be so cool if these things were possible right now. These actually look possible for once. I applaud Intel for at least making a cool video, compared to their multiply Intel ads.

[Solomon @ Apr 13th 2007 11:34PM]

There are ninety-nine things that suck about this: 99% of concepts STAY concepts.

They happed to suck just as much as the 99% of statistics that are made-up.

[Josh @ Apr 13th 2007 11:54PM]

Looks like a grand future that will probably be here by what 2030? sure why not. They could probably be implicated much faster if innovation was the keystone of electronics but lately it has lent more respect to the "why bother" concepts than those useful.

I would love to have a phone that can push/pull via wifi, but alas - no normal* phone can do this without expensive broadband services etc.

The future is so bright i have to wear sunglasses

[Chad @ Apr 14th 2007 12:16AM]

Anyone else notice that in the future we're going to be living in cement prisons with a single LCD tv and couch? Boy, I guess the super watch PC does everything except interior decorating.

[turtlesoup @ Apr 14th 2007 3:59AM]

It's because in the future, cement basements will cost $200 but people will have take out $300,000 loans to buy watches.

[Joanna Pena-Bickley @ Apr 14th 2007 1:29AM]

As an early adopter to most new mobile technologies, not just because thrive off what it says about me, but it is my business.It was a vision of the future that caused my heart to pump harder when I saw wearable mobile computers.

Thank goodness they escaped the BS Minority Report concepts, who really wants to have optic nerve damage from marketers scanning me to serve me personalized videos in retail spaces?

Check it out - http://joannapenabickley.typepad.com

[Andrew @ Apr 14th 2007 3:04AM]

Does anybody know what the name of the opening song is and who plays/sings it?

[FrannckyB @ Apr 14th 2007 4:42AM]

I'm sorry, but looking at this, I can't help but wish Microsoft would die already. Don't get me wrong, all I use is windows, but I can't begin to imagine a future like this with a company like Microsoft being the ones that dictate where we are heading computer wise. Their monopolistic ways are doing everything to prevent any competition and after 5 YEARS, the best the where able to do is that bloated crapfest called Vista (I bought it and have it installed on a dual Xeon with 4 gigs and found it slow as hell compared to XP, I'm actually returning to XP and tossing vista in a drawer somewhere).

For something like this vid to happen we would need lite, responsive applications, one designed by designers, designers with Vision... and not a “copy what’s been done” mentality.

But like I say... with the things the way they are now, it won't happen. I don't own a mac, but I can only hope the start selling like crazy, so this future can become possible.

[Jeff Lewis @ Apr 14th 2007 9:34AM]

I see the new form of Microsoft bashing starts with an obligatory 'I'm a PC user and I like PCs - but Apple is our saviour'.

I'm going to assume you've never heard of
(a) Windows Mobile or
(b) Windows XP Embedded

Windows Mobile is the most widely used PDA architecture out there now and fits into as little as 32MB ROM with 32MB RAM. It's based on Windows CE which allows the developer of these kinds of devices to pick and choose what features they want to have in their devices. It also has most of the features needed to do almost everything that's shown in the video.

If you don't like Windows, there's also various embedded Linuxen.

The ONLY company that's shown no real interest in this space so far - other than the very closed iPhone - is Apple. Pinning your hopes on them is kind of counterproductive.

In any case, it should be noted that the majority of cell phones - which are closer to the examples in the video - are running systems like Symbian 60, UIQ or proprietary OSes - ditto for music players. Even the iPod doesn't run MacOS X nor does the Zune run Windows.

The simulated devices in the video aren't running Windows - they're 'running' wholly new interfaces. Maybe they'll come from Microsoft - maybe not.

[YT @ Apr 14th 2007 5:54AM]

Japanese anime did this years ago. These concepts are outdated (which is sad, cause they haven't actualized yet) and are now just repeats. Why, in a world of voice-recognition and eye trackers, do we even need touch?

If I was gonna make a complete fantasy concept where full computers can fit in my watch, I'd want something like what those saiyan guys had in DragonBall Z or something. Except classy looking. Borgdom is the future... !

[William @ Apr 14th 2007 7:25AM]

During the Japanese part of the video, a website, "driveyourworld.com" flashes on the screen for a split-second. Its just a placeholder right now, but I'm curious what Intel is up to.

[pquistgard @ Apr 28th 2007 8:00AM]

Ahem, Chinese.

[Mike Campbell @ Apr 14th 2007 3:40PM]

That was some variant of Chinese, I believe. It definitely wasn't Japanese.

[Andrew @ Apr 14th 2007 12:14PM]

What is the opening song called? Anybody? Is it even a song or is it just a loop that Intel used?

[Andrew @ Apr 14th 2007 12:17PM]

It sounds kind of like a Coldplay song but I don't know what it is. It just sounds so familiar it's bugging the heck out of me.

[elias @ Apr 14th 2007 3:07PM]

is no one else outraged that the guy had his meeting moved from 1pm to 8 fucking am, and didn't care one bit. That's not the fucking future I want to be living in, why can't the guy whos mircaulous flight flew in 5 hours early go get a bite to eat or call home. jeeze!

[Chris @ Apr 15th 2007 5:53PM]

reminds me of the old ATT ad

[badnegro @ Apr 16th 2007 2:02PM]

@Chris

Yeah, dude. I totally loved those "...you will..." commercials with Tom Selleck's voice-over.

Video-on-demand & FrontRow on the flat panel in my living room are pretty much assuring that my kids look just like the kids in one of those awesome-as-hell commercials. They need to bring those back...

[Mike @ Apr 15th 2007 6:06PM]

Wow, more stuff to get mugged for. Its risky enough wearing white earbuds, never mind flashy bracelets that show your carring a PDA. Pretty cool though, I know most of it has been in sci-fi, as the fanboys are screaming, but Intel actually have an idea of how to make this stuff happen, instead of just producing a geeks wet dream.

[chris @ Apr 16th 2007 11:46AM]

There is the full version here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrzeiUvDZog&mode=related&search=