While the hardware on the outside looks to hardly be a departure from the norm for
HP's TouchSmart line, there's some exciting stuff going on under the hood. Of course, multitouch is the big buzz this season with Windows 7 onboard and those fancy Surface apps are fine to play with, but more important is what HP is doing with its own TouchSmart application. It's added panes for Hulu, Netflix, Twitter and an HP Music Store powered by Rhapsody, which work in nicely with the rest of the touch-friendly apps onboard and a bit of underlying Microsoft technology keeping things humming -- like a nice big handwriting pane for quick Rhapsody searches. There's also a voice controlled recipe app that can capture recipes from popular recipe sites and read them out loud to you, and the photo app can hook up with a phone over Bluetooth and pull off photos. The other big new touch is the addition of HDMI and composite inputs, specifically for use with gaming consoles on the colorful 20-inch (300) and 23-inch (600) screens. What we would've really liked to see at this point would be a bit of that stylus-friendly capacitive Wacom tech, since a computer like this is dying to be turned into an easel, but this infrared camera-based stuff will have to do for now. HP had to hit these friendly $899 and $1,049 respective pricepoints somehow. Specs are nothing too special, but TV tuners, discrete graphics and Blu-ray are all in the offing. Meanwhile, HP's tossing all that fancy new software onto the
TouchSmart tx2 convertible multitouch tablet, which starts at $800, and the dv3 is also getting a touchscreen
as rumored -- thought details are slim there. The tx2 and 600 launch on October 22, while the 300 lands November 1.
posted Oct 13th 2009 12:01AM
Anyone know what kind of keyboard that is?
lol thats what i was wondering :P I like it xD
That's the HP Wireless elite keyboard, 50$
Yeah, It looks nice but its a flimsy PoS keyboard, the build/plastics quality on that whole touch smart machine is woeful
Good luck w/ that tx - I hope the thermal issues have been addressed. They run really hot, and over time the BGA loosens under the stress, taking out the wifi or video or both. It is an issue known to affect hundreds of units but HP refuses to deal w/ it as a design or manufacturing flaw. There's just not enough room in there to dissipate the heat from the turion and discrete graphics.
You may want to invest in a chill pad to help keep the laptop or your thighs cool.
Why would you ever put something like this in your lap? They're basically 20-23 inch TV's.
Dear Santa Claus,
i really wanted a Ray Gun, But now i really whant This!
no need for the accent
maybe I'll skip iMac for this. This looks promising
with the use of the composite inputs I wonder how this will effect the sales of flat panel televisions
I like the idea, sounds great for those who lack the space for a television and a computer.
THANK YOU SOMEONE FOR BUILDING A COMPUTER WITH VIDEO INPUTS THAT WORK!
Didn't Sony already do that?
I don't know if this is the first or not, but I like your comment none the less.
This type of feature should have been implemented LONG ago. I mean you wanna talk about a dorm room favorite!?!?
You could spend roughly that same amount on a TV, and granted the TV will be bigger, or you can get the HP, Put it on the back of your desk, Play games just the same in Hi-Def, and when your roommate stumbles into the room in the middle of night hammered and destroys your laptop, you have a backup computer.
Assuming it has (and I pray) at least ION under the hood...
SOLD
Article says discrete graphics, so that should definitely best ION by quite a bit.
These are no nettop PC - they're a fully fledged computer. Older models had C2D, 4GB RAM and at least a 9400GS. So yeah, these new models should be better again.
The ION platform is in a completely different market, and it would not be powerful enough for a machine like this.
MSI AE2200 already have all these + TV tuner
Wii60 is the way to go(I know not on topic but but love this Wii60 set up...except mine is an Elite..still waiting for my 50 dollar rebate guys from Microsoft). The touch smart is not bad but the sharpness of the screen gets lost on some webpages
well considering that 1 console has failed in the eyes of hardcore gamers and the other will literally fail if played too much then yeah this is the ultimate gaming set-up compared to say the losers who get gaming pc+ps3. oh and spend the $50 from rebate for xbox live gold....
And ignore the chants of pc and ps3 fanboys that paying for online on top of your internet bill is bad, besides your getting better online gaming anyways so up yours pc and ps3 fanboys!
My OCD and that Wii, precariously on the edge of that table..
Are the added features coming to the existing (500 and 800) models?
Xbox 360, now with more touchscreen.
Now are you trying to get a RROD with the 360 like that?
Gizmodo has a hands-on video with the touchsmart 600. It's looks a lot smoother that the past versions.
i see the wii is hooked up via composite, but does the the touchsmart have both component and HDMI? I'm too cheap to buy a new Xbox for HDMI.
looks like some interesting new features to the touchsmart software. I hope they offer some upgrades for the 500's and 800's
I'm a Mac fanboy, but I have to admit HP is leaving Apple in the dust when it comes to home/media computers. Processor-wise, these things are weak, but they seem very versatile for being able to watch nearly anything. Not one Apple product has a tuner built in and they got the nerve to call that slab of nearly useless plastic they sell, AppleTV.
Too bad they do not have the same compatibility (awesome GUI) with Linux OS on these computers I would skip the apple thing altogether, I do not use M$, which is why I have apple in the first place.
Is the IQ500 and 800 Series gonna be discontinued?
Does anyone know if they fixed the motherboard problems that all the original TX series CTOs had (i.e. disappearing wireless/failure due to heat issues with the graphics and warping the board)....or do they continue to produce their laptops with this issue that makes them break almost immediately after 2-3 years of use?
Engadget posted some Pics from AMD's VISION event, and included in those pics was HP's lineup, and yep, you guess the Tx2 as well.
it's categorized as a VISION Premium device, which means it'll run the same turion CPU's but now with the 45nm manufacturing process.
It'll also have a Radeon 4200HD Integrated graphic chipset, which also produces less heat, so i guess they managed that issue somewhat..
how do i know that?
Well, with those VISION pics there was a MSI machine - also premium, with the specs listed, and it was those specs that listed above...
VISION basic in the other end has a AMD neo and a radeon 3200
now i figured all that out with loads of research and clever investigation :D