CinemaNow and Intel have worked together to make sure that any computer running on a second generation (Sandy Bridge) Core i3, i5 or i7 processor has the processing power, video playback capacity, as well as integrated security features to support HD movies watching. In the past, much of the 1080p HD content had not been available for download to a personal computer due, mostly, because the content owners had concerns about content piracy and security. The new Intel CPUs bring hardware-based protection technology which has put to rest these fears.

Until now, CinemaNow closed deals with Warner Bros and Fox for several hundred titles, all in HD. This comes in addition to the fact that over 15,000 movies and TV episodes are already available for access through CinemaNow.

The new facility will be a first-class one and the team members will find there an invigorating atmosphere, as Brad Anderson, senior vice president at Dell Enterprise Solutions Group, said. He added that new and vital talent would be attracted to create industry-leading solutions to be delivered to Dells’ customers. As Silicon Valley is a well-known center of technological innovation, Dell intends to bring there very talented specialists.

By the end of this year’s summer or early fall, Dell will bring its new facility online. Initially, the workforce will count 700 employees by the end of the year. A phased expansion will move several teams in the site of 240,000 square feet during the next two years.

Intel is hoping for its new processor to help stimulate further development of the netbook platform, which was once the fastest rising new device category. Things have changed since the release of Apple’s iPad; some new Android 3.0-running tablets, which have just started to hit the market, also represent a threat.

New netbook designs, based on Atom’s architecture are currently being developed by ASUS, Lenovo and Samsung. The companies use CeBIT to show netbooks based on the recent dual-core Atom for netbooks.

Indications about Light Peak’s timing may have been released from Intel itself. It had pushed back the launch to 2012 several times, but recently hinted to have moved it up for some reasons. David Perlmutter, architecture lead, has claimed that the technology is ready to be used, but with copper instead of fiber optic pipes, in order to attain the desired speed. There were suspicions that Apple had helped to accelerate the technology, since it was providing input on this standard by itself.

It is known the Light Speed is twice as fast as USB 3.0 and also has multiple possible functions. It is expected that most implementations use it to internal interconnections sharing input from different connection types like USB and FireWire, by means of a simple cable. Intel hopes to get a dedicated port and use it for faster single connections or share multiple outside devices on a single link. Light Peak could be used by Apple to get rid of internal bottlenecks, but an external port could be provided for specialty purposes like the attachment of an external breakout box for ports.

These assertions have not yet been commented by Intel, but if tied to the MacBook Pro they may be made public even next week.

The new factory will serve to support the chip production capacity of Intel in the United States and will complement the existing facilities in Chandler, Arizona. The new facility, named Fab 42, will concentrate on 14-nanometer chips as well as upcoming technology, also handled at the Fab D1X unit, which will be constructed in Oregon.

The construction of the new plant Fab 42 will begin soon, while operations are expected to commence in 2013.

According to sources talking to CNET, a longer battery life is also expected for the new version of MacBok but it is not know by how much. The battery life of current 13-inch MacBooks reaches ten hours. The Air however normally run on a lower-power chip and therefore do not need to run longer than the current five hours. An all-SSD storage range is believed to improve the overall responsiveness, even for the basic model of MacBook Air.

Of course, those users who wanted a design with a Core i3, i5 or i7 would be disappointed to see an older processor in the new model, but this is the result of a legal fight between NVIDIA and Intel over licenses of the chipset. NVIDIA has been sued by Intel who claimed that the former’s license related to system chipsets does not include any processor with a built-in controller for the memory that rules out all iX processors and newer designs for Atom. In turn, NVIDIA has countersued Intel and claimed that this one has intentionally misinterpreted the contract in order to exclude a faster competitor.

Apple’s new system is meant to be an important element in the company’s strategy. It is intended to boost the already soaring market share and equally to define the role of Mac in relation to the iPad. It is notorious that Macs dominate the premium market for notebooks. They have seen a widening gap between the cheapest model at $999 and decreasing average prices for most of the other models. The decline of the netbooks is obvious, but ultraportables with sizes of 11 and 13 inches using Intel’s Consumer Ultra Low Voltage chips (CULV) have contributed to bridge the gap thanks to keeping a small profile and costing only a little more than netbooks or full-size notebooks with basic features.

In Intel’s view, Apple was not a destroyer but a catalyst. The company does not plan to make truly long-lived and thin tablets until next year, but expects to be competitive with Android, Windows and MeeGo tablets. It stated that any inactivity in 2010 would soon generate sharp competition from makers of ARM-based tablets like Apple.

The company said that tablets were exciting devices and it welcomed their appearance. It also added that Apple had to be praised for its wonderful initiative of reinventing this category.

Intel said that it would be great to have the best computing architecture and complete global scale. These statements were contradicted by many Atom-based tablets having half the battery life of what the iPad has or even less. They are also slower due to their slower Intel graphics and too many resources demanded by Windows 7.

Intel said during the call that while Atom was down, notebook processor sales were up. Sales have mainly decreased in the United States and countries of Western Europe, both territories being known as bases of iPad sales, but it was not very obvious how much the effect of Apple had influenced them. Analysts of the NPD Group have shown that about 13 percent of computer sales may have gone to iPad buyers.

As an illustration, Best Buy reported that netbook sales were dropping by up to half in those stores where there were iPads on sales.

Apple was known as establishing the most of the connections as its “do not call” list was initiated in 2006 and contained Google, Adobe and Pixar as having reciprocal deals. Similar arrangements have been made in the past by Google with Intel and Intuit.

Leaked information from the negotiations reveals that companies were motivating that they have needed such arrangements in order to work on projects safely and without needing to worry about losing their key employees. Before beginning to fight over Android, Apple and Google worked closely on services like YouTube in desktop applications (for example iMovie) or on iPhone features. On the other hand, Pixar did not work directly with Apple, but the company has been run by Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs for a long period and he is still present on its board.

The officials of the Department of Justice rejected such arguments as hurting employees. They said that the option of being directly recruited leads to salary competition and also has as a result better chances at a successful carrier. They also claimed that many of these deals were too broad to cover only specific projects or periods of time and were extended beyond cooperation. Financial penalties were not mentioned as part of the negotiated settlement.

Some firms have claimed they have not totally stopped hiring between each other, but only tried to prevent unsolicited attempts. In other cases, like Microsoft and IBM, the companies have gone on record as being excluded from such an investigation. These firms are unofficially believed to have basic deals with other companies that would require anti-poaching deals. The companies left were supposed to go beyond safe limits.

The companies more resistant to the aspects of a deal have said that they needed guarantees of employee security to be able to work together on projects. Technology companies working together on projects has been a San Francisco Bay Area staple. Until now, anti-poaching practices have not been subject to important examination by the United States government.

The Department of Justice claimed that armistices between companies could hurt employees by preventing them from changing their jobs by choosing a better job or a higher-paying one. To recruit directly is important even in the case the employee does not leave, as a worker can make usage of a job offer to bargain a higher pay or better conditions for working in an existing position.

Reasons for armistices were diverse. For instance, Google and Apple deal is known to come from the early cooperation they had on services for Apple’s iPhone. The birth of Android has created a big rift between the two companies. However, the policy is believed to having carried on in order to avoid further tensions.

It is estimated that the accuracy of the person-identifying system is between 60 and 90 percent, but also that this technology could be used to custom modify advertisements or block certain channels or content from children. There is no clue yet on when or if this new technology could see store shelves.