The Israeli Defense Forces is asking civilians not to tweet or Instagram photos or description of bombed sites, according to blog Yid with Lid, for fear that Hamas military officials may be able to locate sensitive IDF zones in the meta data.

In today’s connected world, social media is prevalent during any sort of conflict. It played a significant role in the Arab Spring uprisings, it helped coordinate recent riots in London, and it even let one “witness” provide an account of the killing of Osama Bin Laden — though the man didn’t know what he was tweeting about at the time.  But now, the IDF is reportedly asking bloggers not to report in real time (or anything resembling it) on where rockets land before traditional Israeli media has that information.

The IDF is concerned that the Hamas military will be able to better calculate where bombs could land if it knows how far off the bombs were from their intended targets. Hamas could do this by looking at the GPS information for that image or social post, which is often readily available. Look at a Facebook status. Often underneath the message it will say, “X minutes ago in Palm Beach, FL,” or wherever the status was shared.

IDF has done its own bit of social media, however, through its blog. The blog has received criticism in the last few days for “gamification” features that sends a reader up in the “IDF ranks” through Foursquare-like badges. A reader rises through these ranks by performing different interactions with the site, such as visiting it a certain number of times or tweeting and sharing posts socially.

The IDF responded to the claims today, according to ReadWrite. It explained the badges feature was added to the blog four months ago when the content wasn’t solely about the conflict (called Operation Pillar of Defense) but also included soldier profiles, and other stories about life in the IDF. The spokesperson specifically said it is not a “war blog.”

“During Operation Pillar of Defense we provide our readers with news updates and operational information regarding IDF actions,” an IDF spokesperson told ReadWrite. “In other times, though, the blog has hosted varying content, from reports about routine activities to more lighthearted personal stories. It is this content that ‘IDF Ranks’ was meant to promote.”

hat tip Fast Company; image via IDF Facebook

Where political discord exists, Anonymous will be there. The hacktivist group went after Israeli websites last night after the Israeli Defense Forces began live-blogging and tweeting its attack on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Anonymous, which often makes its point by taking down websites, aimed distributed denial of service attacks what it claimed to be 40 Israeli websites, according to the New York Times. A DDOS attack knocks a website offline by sending a rush of traffic to the site’s servers, eventually causing it to overload and collapse. The group posted about its efforts on Pastebin, where Anonymous often announces and updates the public on its attacks, in a post called “OpIsrael.”

“Anonymous does not support violence by the IDF or by Palestinian Resistance/Hamas,” the group said in the announcement. “Our concern is the for the children of Israel and Palestinian Territories and the rights of the people in Gaza to maintain open lines of communication with the outside world.”

The New York Times notes that while Anonymous claims to have taken down up to 40 websites, it was likely only successful in taking down a few.

The Anonymous action might have also stemmed from IDF’s use of social media during its attacks. Yesterday, the defense force used its blog to post videos and photos of the attacks, including a video that reportedly shows a car carrying Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari being blown up. IDF later tweeted a photo of Jabari with the word, “eliminated” superimposed over him.

Today, IDF added a Foursquare-like badge system to its blog, supplying “IDF ranks” for different levels of interaction a visitor has with the site.

Anonymous image via Shutterstock

Intel showed off a few cool gaming demos at the Intel Developer Forum today in San Francisco. You can see the neat racing game demo above, complete with a cockpit, steering wheel, and pedals.

The company’s revelation about “perceptual computing” has plenty of implications for games as well. Coming in the next year or so, computers will come equipped with touchscreens, mice, and keyboards as well as Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system. And that includes voice, face, and 10-finger-gesture recognition.

SoftKinetic will provide the latter using a 3D depth camera, which sits above a laptop and captures finger and body movements anywhere from six inches to three feet away. Dadi Perlmutter, executive vice president of Intel, showed off the technology in his keynote speech. He demonstrated how he could launch a catapult at a castle target using only his fingers without touching the computer.

Check out some of the other demos in our photo gallery.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Unless you count the Coke vending machine (pictured below) with an Intel chip in it, I found it hard to get excited about the first day of the Intel Developer Forum. That’s particularly true in the context that Apple will show off its new products Wednesday a half a block away. For Apple, it won’t be hard to steal the press and attention away from Intel. It is lamentable for Intel, and the larger PC ecosystem that it represents, that Intel didn’t deliver something more impressive.

At IDF, Intel banged the drumbeat on the Ultrabook, which are cool laptops that are razor thin and as powerful as some recent desktop computers. And yep, Apple has been there, done that, with its MacBook Air. Ultrabooks haven’t quite lived up to the hype in the eyes of consumers, who appear to be waiting for Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system coming Oct. 26. Intel began spending heavily to market the Ultrabook earlier this year, but it reported last week that sales for the third quarter will fall a billion dollars short of expectations because of poor consumer and enterprise demand.

“What did Intel say that was new today?” asked Danielle Levitas, an analyst at IDC. “This is about mindshare, and they don’t have it.”

The PC has taken a hit because of the popularity of Apple’s iPad tablet. By 2015, tablet shipments are expected to exceed PC shipments, according to NPD.

One way the PC has survived so long is that it has gobbled up the functions of devices that competed with it. It can play games, and so you don’t need a dedicated game console. And so on. Intel is laboring hard to pack a lot of new technologies into PCs of the next year or so.

PC makers are showing a bunch of “convertible” machines that are laptops you can convert into tablets. But Kevin Krewell, a senior analyst at The Lynley Group, said he wasn’t too impressed with such machines. They make for cool demos, but they’ll carry extra costs that users won’t want to pay for.

In some ways, Apple and Intel are brethren, as Intel chips are in every Mac computer. In other ways, Apple and Intel compete directly. Apple makes its own ARM-based chips for the iPad and iPhone, and it shows no sign of being interested in Intel’s latest low-power phone and tablet chips. Intel says that 20 Intel-based Windows 8 tablets are under design, but that doesn’t mean much. So far, the quality of Apple’s offerings has put to shame the larger quantity of rival tablets. This is one reason why Apple’s market capitalization is about six times larger than Intel’s these days.

Intel showed off five Intel-based phones from customers such as Lenovo and Orange. But Levitas said she was stunned that Intel didn’t have any new customers to announce for its phone chips, even though it has been selling the chips for much of the year.

To be fair, Intel showed a lot of things that could be cool in the next year or so, like its “perceptual computing” project that will combine finger recognition, voice controls, face recognition, and touchscreens for controlling laptops of the future. And Intel showed off a working version of a low-power fourth-generation Core chip code-named Haswell. The chip will arrive in the next generation of Ultrabooks next year, and it will have an interesting 10-watt version for new kinds of devices. And there is always the chance that Microsoft will show off more cool gear for the PC when Windows 8 ships.

“Intel hasn’t shown anything yet that will steal the limelight from Apple today,” said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy. “But with Intel’s perceptual computing, they could do it in the future.  Apple will own the day tomorrow, which is why Intel rolled out Haswell and perceptual computing today.  ”

Perhaps the only way that Apple could lose the PR war with Intel is if it has equally boring products tomorrow. Martin Reynolds, vice president at Gartner, said that the iPhone and iPad were transformational products, but he believes that future products may be “incremental.”

“It’s not clear what we’re going to see that is exciting from Apple,” he said.

We’ll find out tomorrow. It’s Apple’s game to lose at this point.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

SAN FRANCISCO — Intel showed off a new kind of all-in-one desktop computer that is a lot more mobile than desktops have ever been.

Kirk Skaugen, the head of the PC client business at Intel, said at the company’s Intel Developer Forum today that the “adaptive all-in-one” computers coming this fall can be detached from their stands and used as 20-inch (or larger) tablets. You can also take them to another part of the house and plug them into another stand, or just run them on battery power.

“The lines between the categories are disappearing,” Skaugen said.

A number of computer makers will introduce those big all-in-one computers in the not-so-distant future, Skaugen said.

Skaugen said that Sony is calling the concept the “desktap,” and it will have a version called the Sony Vaio Tap 20 (pictured left) adaptive all-in-one computer. All-in-one computers are becoming increasingly popular as replacements for traditional desktop computers because they save space and have fewer wires and components.

Skaugen showed off a demo of the Sony computer (pictured at top) that he unplugged and carried around. He laid it flat and began using it as an artist’s canvas, painting the screen with his fingers. The machine runs the touch-oriented Windows 8 operating system from Microsoft.  Skaugen said the screens will likely have their own batteries and the intelligence in the system will be built into the screens, not the stands.

Kevin Krewell, senior analyst at The Lynley Group, said, “Not all innovation succeeds. They’re experimenting with things. You learn from doing that. The market will decide if it’s successful or not.”

And Martin Reynolds, a vice president at Gartner, said, “That’s a large thing to haul around, kind of like a portable tv set. But how often did you move around your portable TV set?.”

SAN FRANCISCO — I have seen the future of Coca-Cola, and it has Intel inside.

Intel today showed off a futuristic Coca-Cola vending machine that has a fancy PC-like microprocessor inside. The vending machine has an Intel Core i7 microprocessor — the kind that appears in high-end computers — to run its various functions like dispensing a bottle of Coke, playing videos on a large touchscreen, and even taking a picture of the person buying the drink (presumably with permission). Intel executive vice president Dadi Perlmutter showed off the machine at his keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

Perlmutter said the 46-inch video screen has full 1080p high-definition playback and a microphone. It has a Wi-Fi wireless network, a QR Code reader, and an old-fashioned money slot and dispenser. In case you want to watch a movie on the Coke machine, it’s entirely possible.

Perlmutter said that the machine can use its technology to collect demographic information about who is buying Coke bottles in various locations.

The machine is already in use in markets such as South America, Perlmutter said. I don’t suppose this is Intel’s secret weapon against Apple’s iPad.

It’s amusing, if nothing else. One wag on Twitter joked, “FINALLY! I’m tired of NOT watching movies while I wait the unbearably boring 2 seconds for my coke to dispense.”

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Intel chief executive is taking a break this year. But the world’s biggest chip maker will show off some cool new computers and technologies next week at its Intel Developer Conference.

Dadi Perlmutter, executive vice president and chief product officer at Intel, plans to discuss the evolution of computing technology and he will introduce the idea of “perceptual computing,” which will focus on computer controls beyond touchscreens and keyboards. Intel is pouring a lot of investment into technologies that will debut this year and next, including voice processing and the “interactive space between you and the screen,” said an Intel spokesman.

The technologies include gesture recognition, face recognition, cameras and sensors, and other ways to make your intentions known to a computer. Perlmutter will also talk about the latest trend in computer designs, such as the “hybrid” or “convertible” devices like the Lenovo Yoga, pictured above. These devices have flip screens or sliding cases that allow you to use them as touch-enabled laptops or touchscreen tablets. Those machines are “starting to act like an iPad but function like a full-fledged PC,” the Intel spokesman said. Computer makers working on the hybrids include Asus, Lenovo, Dell, Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba.

Intel will show off a number of Windows 8 tablets based on the Clover Trail chip, a new member of the Atom low-power microprocessor family. Otellini previously said that 20 such Windows 8 tablets were under design, and the Intel spokesman said that Clover Trail third-generation Core chips will be shipping to computer makers very soon.

Perlmutter will also likely give a preview on Intel’s fourth-generation Core microprocessor, code-named Haswell, which will officially ship in the second half of 2013. The Haswell chip will cut power consumption significantly, and Intel is expected to include a family of low-power chips that dissipate about 10 watts, or significantly less than most laptops in the past. The Haswell chips are the first ones designed to be part of an Ultrabook — a thin and powerful laptop similar to Apple’s MacBook Air — from the ground up.

Intel’s other speakers include Kirk Skaugen, vice president of the PC Client Group, who will show off new laptops; Diane Bryant, head of the Datacenter and Connected Systems Group; Renee James, head of software and services; Mike DeCesare, co-president of McAfee; and Justin Rattner, chief technology officer, who will talk about the future of wireless on Thursday.

IDF runs from Monday Sept. 10 to Thursday Sept. 13 at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco.

We’re back with another episode of VentureBeat’s (still nameless) weekly show. I sat down with VentureBeat executive editor Dylan Tweney to talk about this week’s absolute conference mayhem.

Four shows happened to fall on the same three days this week: Microsoft Build, the Intel Developer Forum, TechCrunch Disrupt 2011 and VentureBeat’s own Demo Fall 2011 conference. We split up the VentureBeat team to bring you coverage of everything all at once.

The biggest news this week was Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system, which features a stylized tablet interface called Metro. The company announced the new operating system, which also runs on tablet computers, at Microsoft Build. But Microsoft didn’t call it a tablet — rather, it’s now calling all machines that run the operating system PCs.

TechCrunch Disrupt had its own share of news, with editor Michael Arrington leaving the company to start an early-stage $20 million investment fund called the CrunchFund. But the show was still about the startups that participated in the Startup Battlefield.

Be sure to check in next week for another episode of our weekly report — which, if all goes well, will finally have a name.

Leave your suggestions for a show name in the comments.

Speaking at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Otellini said that Intel has a trio of chips coming this fall through 2013 that will cut the power consumption and increase the computing power of Ultrabooks, which are MacBook Air-like laptop computers with super-thin profiles and all-day battery life.

These devices are just one of many and will be driven by the unending growth of the internet. Otellini noted that 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Users are tweeting 200 million times per day, and they’re uploading 7.5 billion photos a month to Facebook. The world now has 4 billion connected devices, and that is driving $455 billion in spending on data technology every year.

The devices will be part of a computer continuum, or a number of devices that users will embrace, but won’t use exclusively, to get to their personal data on the internet. Intel has been touting the idea of the Ultrabook since this summer, and now the first products based on the idea are coming out.

Next year, Intel’s code-named Ivy Bridge microprocessor will make Ultrabooks even more power efficient, and the code-named Haswell chip will take that even further when it debuts in 2013. These products are part of Intel’s plan to make sure the PC remains relevant in an age of smartphones and tablets, but future Intel chips will likely target those segments as well.

“Any device that extends the use across the continuum of computing is important here,” Otellini said. “The idea is to have them seamlessly interact together. There is no single device at the center. The user is at the sweet spot wherever he or she goes.”

Otellini also showed off an entirely experimental solar-powered computer, running on solar cells. Many of the demos were based on devices running the Google’s Android operating system.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Intel and China’s mega-popular internet portal service Tencent announced today that they are launching a joint Innovation Center for MeeGo (the open-source mobile operating system pushed by Nokia and Intel that Nokia has since abandoned for Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7) in Shanghai. The announcement came at the IDF Beijing 2011 conference and was almost overlooked among the numerous other announcements coming out of the event. But it’s actually a very interesting maneuver.

The partnership between the two companies isn’t brand spanking new, as they announced their official courtship back in April 2010. However, now they’re solidifying it with this commitment to build an innovation center and grow it from 60 engineers to 100 by year’s end. What are they planning on doing in this center? Well, bringing apps to all forms of MeeGo devices, but first on their list is games for MeeGo tablets featuring Intel’s Oak Trail processors.

Game hardware maker Razer announced on day two of the IDF Beijing conference that it is bringing the Switchblade, an Oak Trail Gaming device to the Chinese market first. Who do you think is going to be providing the games for this platform? Why, Tencent, of course! On day one of the conference, it announced it has plans to build games leveraging the power of Oak Trail using MeeGo, and on day two it announced a partnership with the hottest Oak Trail device currently coming to market.

Razer and Tencent are bring four immensely popular online games with roughly 600 million monthly gamers to mobile. Razer is going to focus optimization of the Switchblade on League of Legends as well as Dungeon & Fighter, Crossfire and QQ Speed. Tencent sees 130 million active monthly users between the four games and views Oak Trail as the mobile computing platform able to deliver a powerful gaming experience. Though the Switchblade is currently running Windows 7, both Tencent and Razer concluded that they were interesting in the possibility of delivering MeeGo on the device.

It’s not every day that Intel announces a partner that will declare on stage in a press event that “Android is a mess” and then praise MeeGo’s openness. Intel is going to need many more partners like Tencent if MeeGo is going to stand a chance against Google’s Android mobile operating system. In an ecosystem full of distain for Android because of a lack of marketplace support Intel has found a sympathetic shoulder after being abandoned so harshly by Nokia. This is not enough to revive its struggling OS, but for now, it’s a sign that there is still life in MeeGo yet.

The web-based video conference was shown live on stage at the Intel Developer Forum during the keynote speech of Paul Otellini. The event is for Intel’s developers, and it is being held this week in San Francisco. Doing video conferences is fairly easy now on computers, but doing it with a high level of encryption is more difficult.

Otellini said improved security such as that demonstrated in the video conference is one of the reasons Intel agreed to buy antivirus software vendor McAfee for $7.6 billion a few weeks ago. Intel and McAfee are working to build more protection for users into the silicon of Intel’s chips.

Otellini mentioned that it is becoming common in security circles to move protection from the basis of known bad threats to known good sites. If you can verify that a site is approved and complies with security standards, it is easier to give that site a green light for users than it is to keep track of all of the constantly evolving threats. That strategy will help prevent “zero day” attacks, or those that happen for the first time against previously unknown bugs in systems.

Otellini’s demo was aimed at showing the evolving capabilities of the PC. He said Intel plans to make chips for the whole continuum of personal computing, from smartphones to smart TVs to PCs and tablets. Intel’s goal is to create devices with seamless connectivity, so you can look at your Facebook page on any display you want. He said the three pillars of computing include energy-efficient performance, Internet connectivity and security. The encrypted video conference demonstrated the latter.

During the video conference, Intel representatives also said that WiDi, or Intel Wireless Display, will now work on tablet computers as well as laptops. Introduced in January and shipping in just a few laptop models now, WiDi will be expanded to target broader audiences soon. It basically lets you wirelessly display your laptop’s screen on a big TV.

As for the demo of the encrypted video conference, Intel used video conference software from Vidyo for a three-way video chat. The video conference used 256-bit encryption on a live video stream — which is technically tough to do. It used a next-generation Intel Xeon processor platform, dubbed Romley, to achieve a 10-fold improvement in encryption and decryption performance. The Romley platform has special instructions built into the hardware for better performance.