LONDON, 26th January, 2005: Last night, Intel and SpeedDater gave 15 single girls from London’s media industry the chance to flirt with hunky surfers from Devon, Manchester’s mad-for-it footballers and adventurous skiers from Edinburgh all in the same night in a bid to find pre-Valentine’s Day love.

The girls and guys used laptops based on Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology*, Web cams and wireless internet hotspots in trendy bars in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and North Devon to speed date. The event was the first of its kind, using technology to give city girls, fed up with meeting the same guys in work or in bars, the chance to meet potential partners with similar interests, no matter where they might be in the country.

The singletons had the chance to record short introductory videos, and the online flirting over Web cams and wireless internet hotspots then began. The night was observed by Peter Collett, well-renowned social psychologist and consultant to Channel 4’s Big Brother for four years, to study the way people used technology to interact. The night’s most compatible couple are currently being matched up and will each win a Samsung laptop based on Intel Centrino mobile technology so they can keep in touch – in numerous wireless access points throughout the UK!

“The hi-tech speed dating night is a great example of how mobile technology touches many different aspects of people’s lives, connecting them in ways never possible before,” said Rick Skett, UK and Ireland Country Manager, Intel. “Now, communications have developed to open up a whole range of exciting opportunities, with the latest generation of Intel Centrino mobile technology enabling greater graphics, music and video for laptop users in smaller, lighter designs.”

“Speed dating is perfectly suited to the fast pace of modern society, where individuals have less time to interact and to go through the dating rigmarole, especially as humans readily form impressions of each other in less than three seconds,” said Peter Collett, social psychologist. “Using Intel’s expertise in mobile computing to connect people who would otherwise have been strangers in an interactive multimedia fashion is a natural extension of this modern trend. The participants in the ‘speed dating with a difference’ event showed how wireless technology can help us all to surmount the age-old barriers of distance and opportunity.”
“New technology like this opens up exciting possibilities for dating,” said Simon Prockter, co-founder of SpeedDater. “We’re sure people will want to carry on meeting face-to-face at our speed dating events but Internet dating, where currently people just look at still images and exchange messages, will be revolutionised over the next couple of years by this kind of technology.”

Roxio’s VideoWave 7 Pro assisted with the making of the videos at this ‘speed dating with a difference’ event, which coincides with the introduction of the latest generation of Intel Centrino mobile technology’s latest platform for notebook PCs; a breakthrough for consumers with great graphics, video and audio. Hi-tech speed dating is just one way that consumers can use Intel-based laptops with integrated wireless LAN capability, high mobile performance and enabling great battery life in thin and light designs to take full advantage of the mobile computing revolution.

“It’s great to use technology to speed date the guys we wouldn’t usually meet, as you can relate to the way you use computers at work but it’s something completely different,” said one of the night’s female participants. “Being mobile was also handy as we could move the laptops round as we were speed dating.”