Remember the time when it was first rumored earlier this year that HP was working on more HP Mini netbooks for 2009? Good news, apparently the reported Mini with a 11.6 inch display as well as another Mini with a 10.1 inch display (probably the direct successor to the consumer Mini 1000) are on track for August and late-September announcements respectively, so says a report by Digitimes. No news about any HP Mini ‘Tablet’ though.
There are also 13.3 and 14 inch business notebooks in the works as well as upcoming 15.6 inch and 17.3 inch models (most probably consumer notebooks).
HP iPAQ K3, the picture that's been floating around the net for the past 24 hours
Remember when details about the HP iPAQ K3 ‘Obsidian’ first came out precisely two months ago? Well, apparently someone got their hands on an ACTUAL iPAQ K3 with AT&T branding (instead of the computer-rendered images we first saw) and now pictures, like the one you see above, are flying around the net like crazy. Ignore the old details in the post in May, and check out the latest details over here – it’s now clearer that the iPAQ K3 will succeed the old iPAQ 900 Business Messenger, with the main changes being a swap from a touchscreen LCD to a new OLED touchscreen on the K3 (though the 2.46 inch diagonal still remains), upgrade to a 528 MHz processor, two separate ports for micro USB and 3.5 mm headphone jack respectively (replaces the yucky, old combo mini USB port) and of course, it’ll be HP’s first iPAQ to feature Windows Mobile 6.5. The iPAQ K3 will also feature a new, classier design, which looks like a gazillion times better than the all-gloss black plastic design of the old iPAQ 900.
In other areas, the iPAQ K3 will have WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, a microSD expansion slot, 3.2 megapixel camera – things you’d expect in a typical business-oriented Pocket PC device. It’ll also have 256 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM, but strangely, there’s no mention of HP’s own ‘Windows Mobile interface’… maybe later as K3′s release in November approaches.
What’s about as thin as a HP iPAQ, has the surface area of a text book yet still can play modern games and 1080p HD movies? More stuff on the HP Pavilion dv2 coming soon…
Upcoming iPAQ K3, is this the new 'Touchsmart UI' for iPAQs?
The current iPAQ Data Messenger is a decent Pocket PC device (though not the best, obviously, which is why HP needs to do better) – flush screen, 2.5 mm headphone jack, QWERTY keyboard – but one of the things that people were complaining about when it was first announced was the lack of a ‘custom’ Windows Mobile skin. Well, you know, things like TouchFLO 3D by HTC and Samsung’s Touch Wiz UI’s… I’ve recently been told (And found out from reading ‘late’ reviews on the net) that HP now includes a new ‘HP Menu’ interface on later iPAQ Data Messenger units.
The implementation isn’t as elaborate as the UI’s from HTC or Samsung as it only makes the Today screen more finger-friendly among a few other screens – while HTC, for example, have gone all the way to make almost the whole Windows Mobile OS more ‘thumb-able’). Nevertheless, that’s pretty good for starters (after all, this is HP’s first attempt at including a Windows Mobile ‘skin’ with their mobile devices). I’ve SEEN the interface, but haven’t tried it yet because as one of the early adopters of the iPAQ Data Messenger, mine obviously didn’t come with the ‘HP Menu’. I’m also perfectly content with the TouchFlo 3D-esque Throttle Launcher I installed on my iPAQ and updating the device’s ROM is a pain as it resets everything.
HP's existing Touchsmart PC; note the design cues and UI
Right. So what does all this have to do with TouchSmart UI? The next piece of the puzzle comes in the form of a product design image – specifically, the upcoming iPAQ K3 (which the whole world knows about). I’ve seen the user interface in the iPAQ’s screen before (see the picture above) – almost one and a half years ago when the bunch of rumored ‘Windows Mobile 7′ screenshots supposedly came out. I remember the big debate that followed; whether it was ‘for real’ or just a custom skin. It still remains to be confirmed at this point in time what Windows Mobile 7 really looks like, Microsoft has remained mum thus far as they concentrate on marketing Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows 7. The screenshot above looks suspiciously like the rumored WM7 interface (though it could just be a skin), save for the color scheme. Microsoft has a thing for the color blue, while the HP Touchsmart UI has a black color scheme – again, just like the screenshot above. There’s also a 3 x 4 grid of large icons there and the clock at the top of the screen uses a font which is surprisingly consistent with the one HP uses on their Touchsmart PCs. It all looks too un-Microsoft and more ‘Touchsmart’ than ever…
Is HP about to bring their Touchsmart UI to upcoming iPAQs? I have reason to believe so. First it was the all-in-one desktop Touchsmart, then late last year, HP brought out their first Touchsmart notebook (tablet form-factor)… so logically, the next step would be to create a ‘Touchsmart handheld’. I guess we’ll find out this fall, around September-October (aka iPAQ Season), which is when HP usually announces new handheld/mobile devices.
If you’re like me and happen to be in the market for an ultra-portable notebook PC which packs some power, HP has quietly added an option to upgrade to Intel’s latest Low Voltage SL9600 processor (introduced earlier this year) for its Elitebook 2530p notebook and 2730p tablet PC’s.
The new SL9600 is clocked at 2.13 GHz which is a decent step up from 1.83 GHz on the SL9400 processor. Like its predecessor, the SL9600 also packs a nice 6 MB of L2 cache and 1066 MHz FSB. If the performance of last year’s SL9400 is any indication (it performed well, sometimes behaving like it had even more power than its stated clock speed), then this latest processor should be even nicer, and snappier.
