How about a cool slideout on which you choose keyboard/screen or thin tablet mode? Or maybe a traditional notebook… but with the palm rest/touchpad being transparent on which you get notifications on W8 from your email and RSS feeds? This area can be interacted with only you don’t have to open your notebook to do it! So, no smart phone needed for that. The Intel Nikisi prototype.

                                            (image credit The Verge)

Unfortunately, no video yet on Neowin, but you can follow it here:

http://www.neowin.net/news/intel-shows-off-windows-8-on-new-form-factors-tablets

and catch ta quick vid here:  http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/9/2694171/Intel-Nikiski-hands-on-pictures-video

Another surprise: Vizio is branching out from TV’s to laptops  (24” and 27” desktops later this year) which Vizio touts as Apple design like only a lot cheaper. You can catch that story here:

http://gizmodo.com/5874294/the-new-vizio-pcs-and-notebooks-are-worthy-of-apple

Catch the glimpses on the vid… look clean and slick. Performance? To follow. Interestingly it has MS folks talking about it, too.

Lots of stuff to keep up with, and I’ll try to bring you daily round-ups of the stuff I see being important and cool…