e station
Latest
HP Photosmart eStation C510 printer / Android tablet now on sale
An HP Slate it isn't, but if you plop down $399.99 for the eStation C510, you'll also bring home a detachable 7-inch Android 2.1 tablet that's designed to act as a "wireless digital companion and control panel for remote printing." We'll point you to the source link if you're actually interested in the printer specs, and you can head right over here for a hands-on preview of the (admittedly lackluster) tablet. But do us a favor -- don't buy this thing for the slate alone, okay? Okay.
HP's Photosmart eStation Android tablet hands-on (update: video!)
So here it is, after months of details coming to light an inkdrop at a time, the HP eStation all-in-one printing solution. But we're not gonna dwell but on half of that: the 7-inch tablet skinned out by Yahoo and powered by Android 2.1. As we expected, though, the Google experience is decidedly less that you're accustomed to: search is Yahoo only, and our attempt to find an alternate method was met with a barebones settings menu (search via the browser page still works). Additionally, there is no access to Android Market, relegating your customization instead to HP's print-heavy app store -- sorry, no games, as that's not what the company wants to focus on here, according to the rep. That also means no native Gmail, much to our dismay. What Yahoo has provided is a suite of apps and widgets that actually work well in their simplicity, from weather to stocks and search. We were reminded at numerous points that this is a prototype build, and for good reason -- the responsiveness was questionably slow, especially in the browser. That said, the Nook store and e-reading app was as fluid as you'd ever need. WiFi is equipped on both the tablet and the printer for cloud-based connectivity on the go. Battery life is measured at four to six hours, and Android 2.2 is expected by holiday still sans Market, but beyond Flash (and at this point we question its performance on this hardware), there's probably not a lot of value-add in the update. Expect this AIO to be shipping the in the next few weeks. %Gallery-102780%
HP lists Photosmart eStation C510 printer with detachable e-reading touchscreen -- is this the Zeus? (update: yes)
Now, we don't have any confirmation that the two are one and the same, but we just caught wind of a very intriguing printer on HP's website. The Photosmart eStation C510 is listed for $399.99 and, in addition to usual ink-plastering duties, has a detachable wireless 7-inch TouchSmart control panel for browsing content, printing (of course), and "brows[ing] the latest e-book bestsellers or old favorites." It all sounds well and good, and if you ask us, it rings a very eerily similar chord as the eStation Zeen / Zeus from early August. If so, that'd make this touchscreen an Android 2.1 tablet with "significant" Nook integration for e-reading. Guess we'll just have to wait and see what's under the hood, software-wise. What say ye, HP, how about throwing us a press release yonder? Update: And just like that, the printer has disappeared off the face of the internet, without so much as a cached Google page to its name. Update 2: A trusted source tells us this printer is indeed the eStation Zeus of yore. [Thanks, Julian]
The HP eStation Zeen, the Zeus printer, and everything we know about them
We've been flooded with a deluge of tips about the HP Zeen ever since we posted those first FCC images of the tablet device this morning, and it's actually a little surprising at how perfectly everything aligns. We've now had multiple tipsters confirm that the Zeen is an e-reading-focused Android tablet with the unique ability to connect directly to an HP printer and function as its interface without the need for a computer. But that's not all -- here's everything else we know: The Zeen is a capacitive tablet running a HP skin on top of Android 2.1 -- it won't get shifted to webOS, and it's not clear if it'll get upped to Froyo before launch given the development time required. It has capacitive touch buttons, a SD card slot, video support, and at least some prototypes have cameras with a special webcam app installed. The goal is for the HP home screen and skin to be the only home screen available, but that hasn't been fully implemented yet. E-reading is a major focus, and the Zeen has "significant" integration with the Barnes & Noble Nook bookstore and ecosystem. Makes sense, as the Nook itself is based on Android, and being able to print e-books from the Zeen would be a huge differentiator -- and a great way for HP to sell more ink. The Zeen will come in two configurations: a $399 bundle with a new printer called Zeus and as a standalone unit for an unknown price. The Zeus has its own "basic" control setup, but when the Zeen is docked it provides a rich interface to the printing functions -- presumably a web-connected interface like the one HP's been moving towards with other printers. Despite the CQ model number, the Zeen is a straight HP product, with a laser-etched logo on the back. So that's what we know about this enigmatic product. It certainly adds up -- HP has long said one of the reasons it bought Palm was to use webOS as a consistent interface to other connected devices like printers, and it only makes sense that the company was working on executing that strategy with an OS like Android long before Jon Rubinstein and company joined the team. Besides, how better to sell more ink than by making it easy for consumers to hit Facebook and print pictures without having to use a computer at all? It's certainly interesting -- we're waiting patiently to see when and where the Zeen next appears.
