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HP on laptop design similarities with Apple's: it's a struggle as we drive to simplicity
HP's spent the afternoon here in Shanghai to share some details about its latest products and strategy, and to our delight, there was one session dedicated to "Style Meets Function," during which Vice President of Industrial Design Stacy Wolff talked about his design philosophy and design goals for the current market. Most notably, we learned that some of HP's latest laptop designs were based on the work of its research centers from 11 different cities, and the company isn't afraid of admitting that it used consultants for an outside perspective as well. Despite Stacy's upbeat presentation and interesting stats (apparently these days men have a boring color preference, from first to fourth favorite: black, gray, blue and white), the inevitable question popped up: One lady expressed her concern that the brand-spanking-new Envy Spectre XT reminded her of the MacBook Air a lot, so she wondered if HP's ever worried that Apple might sue. Stacy kept his initial reply pretty brief: "I would go back to the TC1000 [Tablet PC] from about 10 years, and that's a tablet. I think if you look at the new Spectre XT, there are similarities in a way, not due to Apple but due to the way technologies developed. Apple may like to think that they own silver, but they don't. In no way did HP try to mimic Apple. In life there are a lot of similarities." As always, we wanted more from the horse's mouth, so we grabbed hold of Stacy right after the session and had a little chat over this topic -- you can see the full and surprisingly candid interview after the break.
HP Spectre teaser video: fantastically thin laptop, shrouded in mystery
Why, what's this? Funny you ask -- we're wondering the same thing. A source at HP just dropped us a mysterious teaser video of a so-called Spectre laptop, a heretofore unannounced lappie that looks to be the company's next Ultrabook. In our wildest dreams, this rig has a dual-LCD setup -- similar to Toshiba's Libretto W100 and Acer's Iconia-6120 -- but perhaps the creators here were just coincidentally interested in showing us lots of glass panes. We'll be digging for more details (we're told that an official produce portal should surface tomorrow), but for now, lose your mind in the video just past the break. Update: If we had to guess, we'd say it's the Envy Spectre -- a machine that passed through the FCC's database around a week ago. %Gallery-142760%
HP Envy Spectre arrives at FCC, next year's model probably called HP Envy SMERSH
Even in the FCC's secret Washington bunker, our boys in lab-coats like to spread a little festive cheer. When this new HP Envy 14 Spectre was released into the streets, we found it wrapped in tinsel. We'll expect to learn more about this dual-band Wireless-N packing laptop in January, where we figure it'll be the last model to carry Intel's Sandy Bridge, since successor Ivy Bridge isn't due to arrive at OEMs for another couple of months. We're not sure about naming your laptop after a James Bond villain organization, but it wouldn't be the first questionable decision to come from the House of Meg this year, would it?
