Interesting times
Moving on to the other headline-grabber from the Latitude Z launch, we asked what demand Dell sees for wireless charging. "Our focus groups revealed many pain-points regarding mobility and boot times," said Bohar.
"The issue with docking systems is the number of wires. We wanted to create a true wireless ecosystem using wireless charging and Ultra Wideband - a short range and very high bandwidth solution for connecting to peripherals, including the monitor."
So this is actually a lot more than just wireless charging, it's wireless everything. We discovered that the laptop communicates over Ultra Wideband with a hub, into which the wires of all the peripherals, networking equipment, etc are plugged.
If this really does deliver what it claims - to instantly turn your laptop into a desktop when you dock it, then it deserves to be a very successful piece of kit.
To conclude, we asked Bohar if there was any other technology he wanted to make HEXUS readers aware of. "Behind the webcam we have software doing some pretty cool stuff for scanning business cards and documents," he said. "We also have face recognition so the PC locks itself when the user steps away from it."
Dell has potentially established to major precedents with this launch. By enabling rivals Intel and ARM to co-exist in the same system it has provided an alternative to the looming netbook vs. smartbook war, albeit an expensive one.
With its wireless docking station it might have hammered the final nail into the coffin of the mainstream desktop. Why would you have a separate desktop now when you can create the same user experience with your laptop with zero hassle?
Interesting times.
