Over at HP's Connecting Your World event, there's a lot more to see than a new color-critical display and ultrathin all-in-one PC. More specifically, the outfit has rolled out 16 new laptop models, so we'll just cut right to it. Up first is the business-centric EliteBook premium series, which now arrives in a new slate of sizes and configurations. You'll also find a new selection of Pavilion Entertainment notebooks (dv4, dv5 and dv7) with ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection, and there's even a few HP Compaq Presarios (CQ45, CQ40 and CQ50) out there with a fresh "industrial design and HP Imprint 2 surface finish." As you can imagine, there's far too many hardware specifications to cover in this space, so bury your face in the read link for more details on the whole July-bound lot.

A Little Rock, Arkansas man is taking HP to court over a faulty Compaq Presario that he says is to blame for burning his house down and causing serious injury to his daughter. The Wal-Mart-bought computer seemed perfectly fine until it suddenly burst into flames, catching his entire house on fire. His daughter had to jump out of a second story window to escape the fire, and sustained burns, physical injuries and "extreme mental anguish." As if it wasn't bad enough having a Presario in the first place. The lawsuit names unspecified monetary damages.

Shortly after loosing a slew of AMD-based desktops, HP and Compaq have now unleashed a trio of Pavilion and Presario laptops powered by Advanced Micro Devices. The 17-inch Pavilion dv9500z series offers up a nice selection of AMD Turion 64 X2 processors, Windows Vista, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M (or optional 8400M GS), WiFi / Bluetooth, a built-in webcam and microphone, an optional Verizon Wireless V740 ExpressCard, up to 500GB of HDD storage, a dual-layer DVD writer (or a HD DVD reading drive), and an eight-cell Li-ion to boot. The slightly smaller (that's 15.4-inches, for those keeping count) Pavilion dv6500z series offers up a fairly similar array of specs in a more compact chassis, while the lower-end 15.4-inch Compaq Presario V6500Z series steps down to an AMD Sempron and offers up less upgrades. All three units can be ordered right now through HP's website, and while the Compaq unit starts at $499, the dv6500z and dv9500z get going at $749.99 and $999.99, respectively.

[Via NotebookReview]

Something must be in the air this week, at least when it comes to announcements. Almost in tandem with Dell, Hewlett-Packard has entered the fray to show off its phantasmagorical selection of desktop-delights. Nothing groundbreaking here, but a decent cross section of models to choose from, including the small-form-factor Pavilion Slimline s3100n and s3120n, mid-range models a6110n, a6120n and a6130n, and two new media center Pavilions, the m8100n and m8120n. Also on offer are the Compaq Presario SR5110NX and SR5130NX, on a more budget-friendly tip. The majority of these feature the NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE integrated graphics chipset and Windows Vista Home Premium. Here's a long list of specs to sink your teeth into:

• Pavilion Slimline s3100n - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000, 1GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive
• Pavilion Slimline s3120n - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200, 2GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive, TV-tuner, FireWire
• Pavilion a6110n - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive
• Pavilion a6120n - Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive
• Pavilion a6130n - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 CPU, 3GB of RAM, 400GB hard drive
• Pavilion m8100n - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600 CPU, 3GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive, TV-tuner, remote
  
• Pavilion m8120n - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU, 3GB of RAM, 640GB hard drive, TV-tuner, remote
• Presario SR5110NX - AMD Athlon 64 3800+ CPU, 512MB of RAM, 120GB hard drive
• Presario SR5130NX - AMD Athlon 64 3800+ CPU, 1GB of RAM, 200GB hard drive
  

Clearly a little something for everyone -- as long as you're in the market for an HP desktop, that is.

Update - Due to a little Photoshopping mishap, the original image didn't give the correct impression of the size of these desktops side-by-side, but that has been corrected.

HP has more laptop love for us today, this time with some of that Compaq branding. It's nothing new in the design department, but the shiny new v6000 has a fresh model number, and accompanies the v3000 with more budget laptop goodness. It's replacing the v5000 models, but there's nothing too terribly exciting to see here. The units feature AMD Turion 64 X2 and Mobile or AMD Sempron processors, and eke by with a GeForce Go 6150 graphics card. Luckily, the v6000 shines in the little things, featuring a 5-in-1 card reader, Firewire, three USB 2.0 ports, ExpressCard/54 slot, 802.11a/b/g WiFi and Bluetooth. Unfortunately, most of those features are optional, and it sounds like the barebones version of this PC is very bare indeed. No word on price or exact availability, but at 6.6 pounds, with a 15.4-inch display and some nice new looks, it still shouldn't be a terrible option for the style-conscious consumer on a budget when it does drop.