HP Fansite

iPAQ K3 – Good job, HP, keep working on it!

Word about the new HP iPAQ K3 “Obsidian” came out today (courtesy of AT&T) and it looks like another step towards the better, I think. On paper and pictures, the new iPAQ K3 looks like the middle child of the iPAQ 912 Business Messenger and the recent iPAQ Data Messenger. There’s the iPAQ 912′s form factor here (if you’ve never seen one, think Nokia E71) along with a QWERTY keyboard… and from the Data Messenger’s genes come a 2.8 inch (supposedly touchscreen) LCD, microSD/microSDHC support and proximity + ambient light sensor. There are the usual culprits you’d expect to find on a smartphone – WiFi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, data syncing, etc.

The two key changes here are: Windows Mobile 6.5 and a 3.5 mm headphone jack (whew, thought I’d never see it again since the days of the iPAQ h6310). Congratulations HP, that’s a step in the right direction – bring back the standard 3.5 mm headphone jack!! It seems just about every phone nowadays has one, and I’m glad HP actually listens and is not ignorant to change (the reason why Sony Ericsson/Motorola = Fail). The only not-so-good item on paper I see here is a 2 megapixel fixed focus camera (Why oh why?!).

No, I won’t be surrendering my Data Messenger for the iPAQ K3 – I’ll be holding out until HP releases a full WVGA touchscreen, Windows Mobile 6.5 phone, when someone loans it to me, whenever that may be…

HP Touchsmart featured in Black Eyed Peas video

The Black Eyed Peas recently featured the HP Touchsmart in their latest music video “Boom Boom Pow”. The HP Touchsmart appears three times in the music video – at the very beginning, the end and somewhere in the middle of the video. And not just ANY HP Touchsmart – it’s a HP Touchsmart with a super-sized HP logo!! (and a plus-size screen? Read on for speculation)

Compare that to this closeup taken of a ‘normal’ HP Touchsmart:

Check out the proportions of the logo and it sure makes a huge difference (no pun intended).

There are three plausible explanations:

• HP Touchsmart “product placement edition” with bigger HP logos for appearances in music videos, TV shows and movies
• HP is introducing a slight cosmetic change to normal, retail Touchsmarts this summer (because someone thought the logo was too small)… and the BEP were the first to get their hands on one
• A new HP Touchsmart all-in-one model is coming (See why below)

I put my arm/hand up to my friend’s HP Touchsmart in the same manner as in the video above and my upper arm covers almost 60-70% the length of a 25.5 inch Touchsmart. So it seems the arm/Touchsmart ratio from the Black Eyed Peas video screengrab above is larger than mine – which could either mean body part dimension variations between humans OR that Touchsmart in the video is HUGE (Possibly a 28 or 32 inch model?).