Laptop Thoughts: Intel Adds $300 Million to Ultrabook Fund

"My desktop isn't the only computer I plan to replace in the next few months. I need a new laptop too, and my goal is simple: to find a 13" MacBook Air that isn't made by Apple. It turns out that I'm not the only one wanting this mythical non-Apple MacBook Air. Intel wants them too—it calls them Ultrabooks. The chip company has been kicking the Ultrabook idea around for a few months now, and it has grand ambitions: by the end of next year, it wants 40 percent of PC laptops to be Ultrabooks."

Intel has grown increasingly frustrated with the inability of PC OEMs to build a laptop that can seriously compete with Apple's MacBook Air, so they've created an Ultrabook fund with a cool $300 million to start. Money aside, the author then goes on a bit of a rant about how Apple can't seem to get some of their hardware right - in his estimation. To summarize: keyboards stink, a trackpoint is needed (a la ThinkPad), Bootcamp is lazy and driver support is lacking. I'd agree that the Apple keyboard could use PG UP and PG DN keys, like Apple's full-sized keyboard, but a trackpoint screams 1995 to me. As for Bootcamp, it meets my rather simple needs for Windows. With all the new ultrabooks coming out, I'd say that there are already some serious competitors in the Windows space.