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HP buys Palm: the liveblog
Well, we can't say we were expecting HP to step up and be the one to buy Palm, but here we are, getting ready to liveblog the conference call. The deal is worth some $1.2b, and we've heard that HP is "doubling down" on webOS, so we're eager to find out what's in store -- and, quite frankly, we're excited to repeatedly hear that it's really, really true. It's about to start at 5PM EST, keep it locked right here.
HP takes chisel in hand, mulls over Android and Linux slates
Feelings about the leaked HP Slate notwithstanding, the company's already considering its tablet PC successors -- and if The New York Times' sources are right, they may be of Android and Linux varieties. Where the forthcoming HP Slate is, erm, slated to run Windows 7, The Grey Lady reported last week that a six-inch Android tablet was also on the way. Now, a prominent magazine editor reportedly tells the paper a Linux version may also be in development. For its part, HP isn't denying the claims. "I'm certain that we will be announcing new Slates in the future as they are a very interesting area for us," said media relations director Marlene Somsak, whose only added caveat was that HP isn't currently announcing an Android slate.
HP's Designjet 3D series start shipping to wealthy European prototypers
Just three months after HP bought itself into the 3D printer market by making a partnership with established player Stratasys, the company's first Designjet 3D models are now shipping in Europe, set to start churning out bits and bobs soon. HP is offering two models, the plain Designjet 3D and the Designjet Color 3D which, wait for it, prints in color. We don't know what the multi-hue model will set you back, but the base model clocks in at €13,000 -- about $17,500. That's roughly $2,500 more than a low-end, non-HP Stratasys additive fabrication printer will cost you, and we're not sure what else you're getting for that premium beyond the little chrome HP badge stuck on the top. Expensive? Sure, but we remember a time when color laser printers cost more than cars and now look at 'em, selling for less than $200 shipped. Funny how their toner cartridges aren't any cheaper...
HP touts memristor development, bleak future for transistors
Silicon transistors are the stuff all our dreams of android sheep are made of, but there will ultimately be a limit to how many of them you can squish together inside a processing chip. The progressive avoidance of physical limitations by moving to yet more minuscule dimensions is admirable, but some folks at HP seem to believe the answer lies in a whole different technology. The company has been talking to the New York Times about its memristor (memory resistor) development, which promises to perform both data processing and storage tasks (even without an electrical charge), while also being capable of stacking in a three-dimensional array that would allow for vast scaling potential down the line. Promises for the future include a three nanometer memristor that can switch on and off in a nanosecond, as well as a 20GB per square centimeter memory density that we might expect to arrive within three years. If we believe the dudes in the white coats, that is. The important thing is that memristor-based storage has already been tested to successfully perform "hundreds of thousands" of read and write operations without failing, so the potential is indeed there. Now we just need a bit of luck and a smidgen of patience.
HP Slate to cost $549, have 1.6GHz Atom Z530, 5 hour battery?
Well, well -- what's this? We just got our hands on what looks like an internal HP Slate presentation given to cool down some of the iPad hype amongst HP employees, and it just happens to have specs and pricing details on the elusive Windows 7 tablet. As we'd heard, the Slate will run $549 in its base configuration, which has a 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 capacitive multitouch display, a 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor with UMA graphics and an accelerator for 1080p video playback (we're assuming it's a Broadcom Crystal HD chip), 32GB of flash storage and 1GB of non-upgradeable RAM. There's also a $599 version with 64GB of storage, and both models will have a five-hour battery, an SDHC slot, two camera, a USB port, a SIM card slot for the optional 3G modem, and a dock connector for power, audio, and HDMI out. Of course, what this spec list doesn't cover is software, and we still haven't seen much of how HP plans to make Windows 7 on a full slate device with netbook-class internals perform as smoothly or as intuitively as its demo videos. That's not a small challenge, especially since the iPad is out now and setting some pretty high expectations for how this new breed of tablets should work. We've got our fingers crossed -- show us something good, HP.
HP Slate reappears for 30 seconds, shows off camera, custom interface... and iTunes
We just had a feeling that HP wasn't going to be able to keep quiet about the Slate while the iPad hogged the limelight this weekend, and like clockwork it's released another rendered teaser video of its Windows 7-based tablet. Unfortunately, the clip reveals nothing about pricing or availability (though we have heard rumors of June), but there are some exciting quick demos of the Slate's cam and video conferencing skills. Take that, iPad! We actually happen to be most interested in the brief glimpse you get at the touch UI -- the icon-based interface looks similar to past TouchSmart software and seems to hide Windows 7 quite well, but it's so obviously mocked up we can't get a real sense of how it'll work. It looks like you will be able to hook it up to a HDTV with some sort of dock and expand the storage space through an SD card slot, all of which makes sense given that it's running Windows. Unfortunately, that's really all you get, but see it all for yourself in the 30 second video after the break. P.S.- Interestingly, the USB cable shown looks like it's from Apple, and it's being plugged into a Slate running iTunes, presumably to demonstrate that it can sync with iPod and iPhones. But now we're obviously just wondering what would happen if you synced an iPad with the Slate -- explosion? Confusion? Confusion explosion? We'll find out soon enough.
HP opens wind-cooled, rain-collecting data center
You know, as much as we love our complex high-minded gadgets, we've always had a soft spot for simple, low-tech solutions to the problems posed by modernity. To wit, check out HP's latest data center, which is strategically located in a blustery part of northeast England and avoids costly and energy-sapping cooling systems in favor of good old wind cooling. Equipped with eight 2.1-meter (just under seven feet) intake fans and a bank of contaminant filters, the Wynyard facility is purpose-built for the circulation of cold external air through and around the servers within. It's said to be HP's most efficient data center yet, and its natural cooling solution is estimated to save a healthy £2.6 million ($4.07 million) in annual energy bills. A couple other optimizations bear mentioning too -- such as the rainwater collection which is used to humidify the air if it's too dry, and the choice of lighter-colored servers racks, which saves on lighting costs inside. Hit the source link to learn more.
HP launching tablets and notebooks with integrated pico projectors this year?
The details are few at this time, but DigiTimes is reporting that Hewlett-Packard is working on busting out some pico projector support in its laptops and tablets in 2010. Currently the wee beamers haven't found much of a home in the pockets of consumers, but integrating them into these devices might just make sense. There they could serve as additional displays without adding the bulk of some of the other solutions we've seen in the past. HP's VP of Personal Computing Systems Monty Wong indicated that the projectors would be placed on top of the screens on notebooks, where a webcam would traditionally be found -- though presumably pointed the other way 'round. It remains to be seen what kind of bulk this would add to a traditional laptop lid and what kind of a cost premium, but we're at least vaguely intrigued by the idea.
HP dv4i leaks out: it's a $799 dv4 with a Core i5
Not sure why HP didn't announce this Core i5-powered dv4i with the rest of its CES laptops, but hey -- we didn't get an official announce of that slate last night either, so maybe HP just hates interesting things. Anyway, it's a dv4 with a Core i5, 2GB of DD3 RAM, ATI Mobility 4550 graphics powering a 1280x800 14-inch display, and an optional Blu-ray drive for $799, so yeah, we'd really want one if it didn't have the same terrible chrome trackpad as the rest of the dv line. Swing and a miss. [Thanks, Billy]
Ballmer reveals some 'slate' PCs, but does not thrill
There was quite a bit of anticipation that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer would upstage Apple with an exciting new tablet design at his CES keynote last night, but it pretty much turned out to be a dud. After more than an hour of bobbing and weaving through several topics, and quickly skipping over Windows Mobile, Ballmer showed a prototype tablet from Hewlett-Packard and two other suppliers. They were running Windows 7 and looked a lot like other touchscreen prototypes we've seen, but none of them seemed to do anything special. You can see the tablet presentation over on YouTube. What we really saw was Ballmer trying a pre-emptive strike against the probable appearance of an Apple tablet later this month. He even referred to 'slate' PCs, a bit of a swipe against the oft-reported Apple-owned iSlate name. I suppose this is better than Ballmer's 2007 interview where he dissed the iPhone when it launched. He's trying to get ahead of the curve, but his keynote got pretty ho-hum reviews and Microsoft really didn't show anything of interest. There was a buzz that Microsoft might show the Courier device it hinted at in September, but it didn't appear yesterday. We don't know if Apple will reveal a tablet, although it seems pretty likely. Do you think Apple can trump Microsoft with a tablet and dominate the market as they have with the iPhone against Windows Mobile phones? Or has Microsoft learned their lessons by trying to be a little more pre-emptive with a tablet release?
HP debuts a clutch of new, eco-friendly displays
Companies love to fly their "green" flags, regardless of whether or not manufacturing (or, indeed, operating) consumer electronics can ever truly be eco-friendly. That said, HP is quick to remind us that "white is the new green," in this case the low power, mercury-free, solid state White LEDs featured in the HP Compaq LA22f (22-inch) and HP Compaq LE19f (19-inch). Otherwise, the HP ZR22w (21.5-inch) and HP ZR24w (24-inch) are LCD displays with integrated 4-port USB hubs. All of these bad boys feature HDCP compliant DVI inputs, VGA, and optional USB graphics adapter for up to six simultaneous displays. Pretty sweet, right? No word on a price or release date, but you'll know as soon as we do -- promise. PR after the break. %Gallery-81607%
Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: Desktops
Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! The team here is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. Below is today's bevy of hand curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season. Let's face it, not everyone needs (or wants) to carry their computer around on the daily routine. Sacrificing portability can have its advantages -- and while nettops and all-in-one PCs have become a much more dominant force this year, the traditional, highly upgradeable desktop tower is still the reigning bang-for-the-buck champ. Just make sure your certain special someone has enough desk real estate for whatever potentially-enormous chassis you decide to take home and wrap. %Gallery-80501%
HP Envy 15 review
There are laptops and then there are laptops. The Envy 15 has fallen into that second category ever since we got our hands-on: it's the first PC we've seen that really equals the MacBook Pro's unibody design and it packs a scorching-fast Intel Core i7 processor, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850 graphics and Beats speakers. On paper, this is easily the hottest laptop we've seen in some time, but has HP really managed to deliver on that promise? We spent a few days with this $1,800 monster, so read on to see if it lives up to the hype. %Gallery-80038%
HP dm3t review
We're really into the new influx of inexpensive CULV-based laptops that's arrived with Windows 7, and just like the ASUS UL80Vt, we knew we had to check out the starts-at-$599 HP dm3t the second we saw the first leak. In many ways, it's the perfect throw-it-in-a-bag-and-go portable on paper, with a sleek and rigid case design, a 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo processor, and a 13.3-inch screen, but there's a big difference between loving a machine's spec sheets and reviews and loving it in real life, so we spent a couple days playing with a spec'd-up $819 model -- read on for our impressions.
HP Create Amazing ad tilt-shifts our hearts
Okay, so we're total suckers for tilt-shift perspective manipulation, and since we've run a fair number of snippy attack ads lately, we thought we'd try and clear the air with this impressive new spot from HP. Part of the relatively-new "Create Amazing" campaign, it's a miniaturized international tour through Shanghai, New York, Santorini, London, Istanbul, and some custom office sets built in L.A., and, well, we're in love. Watch the video below, maybe have a second glance at Michael Gartenberg's Entelligence column on gadget-fan unity from yesterday, and let's all agree to agree for once in this crazy world. Update: Sadly, the filmmaker got in touch with us and requested that we pull the video until he can clear it with HP -- we'll let you know.
HP Pavilion dv3 with multitouch screen spotted in the wild, we go hands-on
Our curious British fingers managed to stumble upon a European HP Pavilion dv3 blessed with Windows 7 and multitouch on both the screen and the trackpad. The keyboard was great to type on with negligible flex, but the trackpad suffers from the same glossy issues on other recent HPs -- although it responded to our multitouch gestures better than the capacitive screen did. Our major annoyance came from the attempts to rotate pictures on the screen: we learned the hard way that the laptop (or Windows 7 itself) seemed to prefer more exaggerated rotation gestures than the MacBooks -- perhaps one would get used to it over time. The hinge is fairly solid, but we still preferred holding the screen while touching it. On a brighter note we totally dig the inclusion of an HDMI port and an eSATA port, plus you'll get up to seven hours of sweet battery juice from this 2.24kg (4.94 pounds) machine. Read on for our hands-on video and photo gallery. %Gallery-76595%
HP Envy, dv8 Quad, Mini 311, and numerous other Windows 7 machines now available to order
Since today really needs a good heap of news to somewhat balance out yesterday's glut, HP has updated its online store to give it an abundance of new and revised Windows 7 machines, including the Envy series (Beats edition and all), Pavilion dm3 with AMD Neo or Intel CULV chips, Core i7-packing dv6t/ dv7t / dv8t Quad editions, and the not-so-netbook CQ61. We're still not seeing the previously-leaked dm1 ultraportable anywhere, but the Mini 311 and a slightly updated Mini 110 are, with the option to jump from Windows XP to 7 for a cool $50 / $30 respectively. Most everything in the store, desktops and laptops, has been updated to at least include Windows 7 as the standard shipping OS, and while all claim free 2-day shipping, estimated shipping dates begin sometime the week after 7's Oct 22nd launch -- no early chances here, folks. Browse the read links and keep an eye on the shiny red "new" icons (no flashing GIFs, we're afraid) for the entire revised lineup. Update: As a number of you have pointed, the Envy product page is a bit, well, sloppy. Typos and missing commas notwithstanding, it seems to biggest laugh is the cost of customization, i.e. $800 more to downgrade from a 500GB HDD to 320GB or 250GB (same price), or $900 more to downgrade from 6GB or 4GB of DDR3 memory. Yeah, it might be best to hold off on that one until HP get the kinks worked out. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!] Read - Desktop lineup Read - Laptop lineup Read - Envy series lineup
Acer fulfills prophecy, overtakes Dell as number two PC maker worldwide (update)
As if on cue, here's some new data research firm Gartner lending credence to Lanci's boasting. Looks like Acer has leapfrogged over Dell for the number two spot in global market share for the third quarter of 2009, from 12.5 to 15.4 percent of the Big Pie Chart™. Meanwhile Dell is just below at 12.8 percent, and HP is sitting happily atop with a 19.9 percent ownership. Update: Let us adjust our glasses a bit. According to the charts, Acer is number two in worldwide PC sales, not in US as this previously reported. Stateside, the company is sitting at number three at 13.9 percent, behind HP (25.7 percent) and Dell (26.2 percent). Apologies for the confusion, the person responsible for eyesight has been subsequently sacked, the person responsible for the sacking has been sacked, etc.
HP dv8 specs page goes live, confirms Core i7 processor
We've already seen plenty of leaked info about HP's upcoming Core i7-based dv8, but nothing beats an official specs page on a company's own server for proof, does it? Looks like this 18.4-inch monster will pack a 1.6GHz Core i7 processor (we're guessing that's the baseline speed, as Intel's Turbo tech will boost the max speed of a single core far higher), 4GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT230 graphics, and a LightScribe Blu-ray burner. Oh, and it'll weigh nearly nine pounds -- but that's a small price to pay, right? [Thanks, Alexi]
HP Envy 15 FCC filing reveals magnesium casing, Linux options
Okay, so here's a big way the HP's new Envy 15 isn't like the MacBook Pro: its case is made of magnesium, not aluminum. Take that, haters. Of course, there's still the note-perfect reproduction of the MBP's unibody looks, that buttonless glass multitouch trackpad, and the overall sense that HP's designers did their homework in an Apple store to deal with, but hey, at least you're getting a Core i7 processor when this thing launches on October 18th, right? Oh, and in case you're not into Windows 7, you're in luck -- there are quite a few references to Linux scattered about, so we'd expect a penguin-friendly configuration to be announced at some point. [Warning: PDF read link] [Via Wireless Goodness]
