Intel first started working on its "Bonnell" microarchitecture in 2004. The Bonnell design team was assigned the task of creating a small, low-power core that could be used in a variety of applications, such as in a many-core CPU or a low-powered Internet device. The team's focus was narrowed in 2005: aim for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and smartphones. MIDs first, with smartphones as an evolution.

Seven years later, Intel's Medfield platform built around the Atom Z2460 system-on-a-chip has scored Intel's first smartphone design wins, with Lenovo shipping a handset to the Chinese market within the next few months and Motorola Mobility shipping smartphones and tablets in the second half of the year.

Samsung’s Consumer Electronics Show gadget announcements consisted of several small things this year: a refreshed Series 9 notebook, the Series 5 Ultra ultrabook, a refreshed Galaxy Tab 7.7 with LTE, and the Galaxy Note is coming to the US.

We tracked all four of these down in Samsung’s cavernous booth on the show floor, and while the Series 9 is impressive (and expensive), the others were much less so.

Peripherals that use Thunderbolt, the high-speed interconnect developed by Intel and heartily embraced by Apple, have taken their sweet time coming to market. The options so far include a high-end professional RAID from Promise, an expensive portable RAID from LaCie, a pricey display from Apple, and a $50 cable necessary to connect them all. However, a number of companies in attendance at CES had some interesting products to show us, most of which will hit the market this year. Though Apple launched Thunderbolt in full force across most of its products in 2011, 2012 may finally see the standard gaining traction across the industry.

We got to see several products that have been announced but not yet released to the public, including Blackmagic's Intensity Shuttle video device, Belkin's long-promised Thunderbolt Express dock, and LaCie's 2Big Thunderbolt drives.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation announced this week that its $35 Linux computer has entered the manufacturing stage. The system, which is an open board with a 700MHz ARM11 CPU and 256MB of RAM, could be available for sale within a matter of weeks.

The foundation, which is located in the UK, was originally founded in 2009 with the aim of developing an affordable computer that children could use to learn computer programming. The organization produced two batches of sample boards last year for testing purposes prior to the recent transition to full-scale manufacturing.

Raspberry Pi intends to offer two separate models with different hardware specifications. The initial manufacturing run is focused on the "B" model, which is the higher-end $35 configuration. They will follow it up with an "A" model for $25 that will have half as much memory and lack hardware features like an ethernet controller.

The Raspberry Pi computers have RCA and HDMI outputs that allow them to be plugged into a television. Input devices, such as mouse and keyboard, can be plugged in via a USB port.

The foundation discussed its manufacturing plans in a statement published on its official blog. The organization had originally hoped to have all of the manufacturing done within the UK, but eventually decided to rely on foreign manufacturers for reasons of cost and timeliness. It hasn't decided yet whether it will wait for the initial 10,000 unit manufacturing run to complete before beginning sales.

Chip makers like TI have offered relatively inexpensive ARM systems for hobbyists over the years, such as the popular BeagleBoard. Raspberry Pi has gone further by developing an even more affordable board that is priced to be accessible to a larger audience.

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At CES on January 10, I was able to lay hands on the Hewlett-Packard Ultrabook given its first public showing by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during his bizarre conference keynote the day before—the HP Envy 14 Spectre. Targeted at the consumer market as a "premium" Ultrabook, the Spectre is big on flashy design and entertainment features. But it also has a number of features that make it business friendly—even if the amount of glass in its design makes it a little unnerving to carry around.

AT&T is planning to launch a store for mobile Web applications that run in the browser. The company has released a set of JavaScript APIs and a software development kit (SDK) that provide Web developers with access to certain mobile network features.

Platform fragmentation has long been a major concern for AT&T. The company has repeatedly expressed frustration with the difficulty of making applications that work across the full spectrum of poplar mobile operating systems. Previous development frameworks that had the potential to unify the mobile application landscape, such as Java ME, largely fell short of expectations. AT&T is hopeful that standards-based Web technologies will finally solve the problem and provide a ubiquitous target for third-party application developers.

The new APIs introduced by AT&T focus on exposing network service functionality. The API feature set is currently a bit thin, but it includes access to SMS capabilities and carrier-based billing. The latter will allow developers to support in-app purchases and add the cost of the transaction to the user's monthly mobile service bill.

AT&T's HTML5 SDK is built around Sencha Touch and Ext JS. Sencha Touch is a powerful user interface framework developed by Sencha Labs that is used for building touchscreen-friendly mobile Web applications. One of the strengths of Sencha Touch is that it offers a standard widget set that allows developers to create mobile Web experiences that feel like native applications.

Sencha's framework is very demanding and works best in a top-notch HTML renderer with robust support for modern standards. Android's built-in Web browser isn't quite up to the task yet and struggles with some of the framework's advanced features such as animation.

The lack of consistency between mobile HTML renderers could initially prove problematic for AT&T as it pursues a cross-platform development strategy. In the long run, however, HTML seems like a compelling choice. HTML rendering implementations are improving all the time and frameworks like Sencha Touch are getting better at abstracting away the differences.

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Apple has indeed purchased flash memory design firm Anobit, the company said on Wednesday. Speaking to Bloomberg, Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling confirmed the widespread reports that began in December, but declined to comment further. "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," Dowling said.

News of the Anobit acquisition initially came via Israeli newspaper Calcalist last month, which reported that Apple's head of research and development visited Anobit's headquarters. The company reportedly told its staff of the acquisition soon thereafter. Apple allegedly purchased the firm for $500 million—its most expensive acquisition since Apple acquired NeXT in 1996—showing Apple's commitment to solid-state flash storage.

Apple was already using Anobit-designed DSP chips in its iPhones, iPads, and MacBook Air in order to extend the life of the devices' NAND flash chips, which is Anobit's specialty. (Chris Foresman discussed why the acquisition makes sense last month; check it out for more detail.) When speaking to Bloomberg, Dowling did not confirm the supposed $500 million purchase price, nor did he confirm whether Apple was building an R&D center in Israel. Still, with Anobit under its wings, Apple is clearly preparing to move forward with its flash-based device designs in 2012 and beyond.

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How much do you worry about your credit card information falling into the wrong hands, either due to online security breaches or a lost or stolen card? Dynamics Inc. is a company that claims to have the solution: a credit card that generates a one-time use code every time it is used, both for online and physical transactions. The company showed off a number of credit card options here at CES, including the ability to keep a single card for multiple accounts. The secret lies in the company's innovative magnetic strip, which can be programmed in real time, and—more importantly—wiped clean just as quickly.