Hold on to your seats, folks, it’s the last big keynote of CES, and this time, it’s going to be Intel up onstage showing off its plans for 09. What will it be? New netbook chips? Some complicated semi-conductor stuff we don’t understand? Find out, minute by minute on our live blog right here!
22:10 Wow, that really was it. Sorry about that folks. No tech breakthroughs, no products. Zilch. Click over to smallthingschallenge.com to make Intel give a bit of money to charity, and get over to the homepage for news that’s actually vaguely tangential to technology.
22:06 Shapiro is almost in tears. Wait, that’s it?
22:05 Barrett’s back. “What I hope we’ve tried to convince you today is that you can make a difference.”
22:02 You ever see that TV programme, Secret Millionaire? There’s that same sort of smugness in this. Surely if Intel was so keen on giving to charity, it would just do it, rather than hire out a huge room in Las Vegas to tell tech journalists about it.
22:00 Counting Crows guy: “I’ve come here today to speak to you on behalf of Save The Children.” He wants to save the children, I think.
21:59 The lead singer of Counting Crows is on stage now. I don’t know what his name is, so therefore he’s not famous.
21:58 This is very earnest. Now, give us a quad core chip that’ll work in MacBooks.
21:56 Levine is plugging Kiba and we’re getting a video about the challenge, with him in it.
21:55 Barrett’s just brought out the lead singer of Maroon 5, Adam Levine for a bit of chugging. You want to help the world, Levine? Stop making records.
21:54 Barrett’s just laid down the Small Things challenge. It’s a website set up by Intel, smallthingschallenge.com. Everytime you click over there, it’ll donate 5 cents to charity. And it links to charities.
21:53 Dr Goji has gone now, and I think Barrett’s about to get down to how Intel can help, “one step at a time”.
21:51 Barrett just used impact as a verb. “Impacting people’s lives for the better”. “Impacting”? AFFECTING.
21:48 That’s a bloody high resolution webcam at the other end. Where can I get one?
21:47 Whoa, Barrett’s video chatting with the Indian academic who came up with the scheme. This is almost as hi-tech as the CNN hologram.
21:46 Video about computer buses. Useful stuff when broadband connections are so rare. Barrett hasn’t actually said that Intel’s been funding them though.
21:44 Barrett is now telling us about computer laboratory buses in India. Kinda basking in someone else’s benevolent glory here, Craig.
21:41 You can’t blame him for wanting to help people since he earns millions. But what about my needs? I need a faster laptop!
21:40 We’re watching a video of how Kiba has helped farmers in Sierra Leone. Obligatory panpipe music over the top, but curiously not a Simon and Garfunkel cover.
21:38 Kiba.org has used the internet to help this by acting as a posting site to look for investing money.
21:36 He wants to help entrepreneurs in emerging markets realise their ideas. With money!
21:34 Barrett wants to “empower the global entrepreneur”. I think the gist is, electrical stuff can be used to help people, therefore Intel is good.
21:33 It’s going out to places like Kenya, Botswana and India, but there’s plans for the US too. Doubt the NHS budget will stretch to that if it won’t even cover cancer drugs.
21:31 Sorry about the lag here, dongle issues. Barrett’s now pulled out an OQO mobile device for doctors. Neat stuff, wireless access to a patient’s vital signs and medical history.
21:30 We’ve just seen a clip. AIDS is a serious issue, but what on earth was that about? That looked like a cross between GTA and Second Life.
21:28 Uh oh. Barrett is talking about video games that increase HIV awareness. Warner is making it, and it’s already out in Kenya.
21:26 Looks like a lunchbox. They’re off now and Barrett is onto healthcare. How do you bring healthcare to the rural poor?
21:24 They’ve just whipped out the third generation intel Classmate. Screen flips over like a tablet. Apparently, it’s for Kenyan farmers.
21:21 They’ve just announced a “Rewrite The Future” program spearheaded by Save The Children and Intel.
21:18 Barrett’s bringing out the CEO and CIO of charity Save The Children. Where is this going?
21:16 Portugal made a decision to provide every child in the country a laptop last year, according to Barrett. I think Portuguese children are smart enough to know how to use Bittorrent on them.
21:15 “We need to figure out how to use technology as a tool to help solve the education problem.” I’m going to go out on a limb and say there is a new netbook chip coming.
21:14 I don’t think this is going to be as off the hook as Sony’s keynote. No movie stars, just Barrett being all philanthropic and talking about the need for educating the world’s poor.
21:13 I don’t think this is going to be as off the hook as Sony’s keynote. No movie stars, just Barrett being all philanthropic and talking about the need for educating the world’s poor. Fair enough, I suppose.
21: 12 He looks like John McCain.
21:11 “There are more cell phone users in Africa than there are in the United States.” It’s a big place.
21:10 “Essentially half the world’s population have joined the free economy”. “technology is going to play a big role in those countries”. What’s he driving at?
21:07 Shapiro’s gone, that was thankfully quick. And now Barrett’s here – he obviously wants to talk about how Intel can help emerging markets.
21:03 Oh Lord, Shapiro is back again. This introduction had better be quicker than yesterday’s.
20:58 We’re in. It’s the same room that held host to Microsoft and Sony’s affairs, but somehow, I don’t think this one’s going to be quite so celeb-packed.
