HP Fansite

I’ve got Left4Dead 2… and it loves to crash!

Hope everyone had a marvelous Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend. I got one of 2009′s smash hit (to be) FPS titles over the weekends – Left4Dead 2 for PC. One word to sum up gameplay: Awesome! The graphics are not particularly game changing or Crysis-like, but nevertheless still mindblowing. Valve did a good job proving that Left4Dead 2 is more than just a “DLC” that could’ve been applied to the original Left4Dead. New zombie models, plenty of new weapons (including a large host of melee weapons), more graphical detail, enhanced game mechanics (the AI Director is now really sneaky, having the ability to vary certain parts of maps and paths) and new maps; complete with different kinds of weather, terrain and all. I really was shocked when I first opened the game today and played the first scene of the Dead Center campaign – and by the time I got into the first saferoom, I thought to myself – wow there’s a lot to learn and re-learn in Left4Dead 2 (despite me being a seasoned Left4Dead 1 player). There are some really challenging challenges, such as getting through the burning hotel covered in thick smoke that hinders visibility.

I might do a little review write up and bring my Left4Dead fansite back from the dead soon, but what’s stopping me now is the fact that Left4Dead 2 just LOVES to crash. No idea why, but it’s NOT my computer’s fault – definitely a glitch or two on Valve’s side. Understandably, I’m not fortunate enough to own something like a HP Z800 Workstation: In fact, I don’t even have a desktop and rely on my personal, totally UN-gaming adept laptop (and sometimes those of friends’/review units) to have a ton of gaming fun. But I feel that Left4Dead 2 actually runs SMOOTHER than the original Left4Dead 1, for some mysterious reason. I can light up tons of fires, handle hordes of a couple of dozen zombies and even stare pipe bombs in the eye as they explode… and the game still runs smoothly and doesn’t crash (L4D 1 used to crash intermittently during graphics intensive parts of campaigns). If it doesn’t crash during graphics intensive scenes, when DOES it crash?! Answer: When you do certain things. Funny thing is Left4Dead 2 consistently crashes each and every time I finish a scenario. And it gets annoying that I have to restart the game after EVERY map (grrr!!). The game also crashes when anyone kills a Witch, anytime. So I have to sneak around Witches and hope that the Survivor bots do too. Valve has acknowledged the crash issue, triggered by certain events, and I really, really, REALLY hope they come up with a solution/patch FAST!

What’s not to like about Left4Dead 2? Well, based on my 6 hours with the game so far, I have spotted a few issues. The water textures and splashes look quite unrealistic (I think Call of Duty 5: World at War did a much better job at water and liquid textures). There are some sounds and textures that have been ‘recycled’ from the original Left4Dead 1, not that I mind, but it just seems to hint that the game isn’t a complete revamp/overhaul compared to the original. The musical cues of some of the Special Infected are just too ‘close’ and similar to the background music, making it difficult to distinguish between the two. I also noticed a few other (smaller) annoyances but I don’t think they affect gameplay much, so yeah, I’ll probably talk about them once I write a review of the game (that is, once the game crash issue is fixed)

Oh, I also miss the original survivors from Left4Dead 1: Bill, Francis, Zoey and Louis. I think Coach and Nick from Left4Dead 2 are both interesting, but I’m somehow not a big fan of the other two: Rochelle and Ellis (but that’s just me). I hope they bring the original survivors back at some point in time: either via a DLC for Left4Dead 2 and/or in Left4Dead 3! Preferably both. Oh, did I mention Sonja Kinski (Zoey’s facial model) is absolutely georgeous? I think I might have a fondness for her =). Bill rocks with his lines too, and he looks like George Clooney (which reminds me of the excellent Ocean’s 11/12/13 series). There, two more reasons that I’d like to see the original Survivors BACK!

And let’s not forget about Left4Dead 1 either – I’d like to see Valve continue to release new maps and features for the game. I’m still gonna play Left4Dead 1, alongside Left4Dead 2.

HP iPAQ K3 Obsidian now official; renamed to iPAQ Glisten

Well people, it’s official. The HP iPAQ K3 Obsidian has now been officially announced by AT&T, and also renamed to become the HP iPAQ Glisten. Not as if it’s design is particularly flashy (looks much like a modernized Blackberry, in fact) or it’s features are mind-blowing… they’re not. But the iPAQ Glisten looks like a decent offering to anyone wanting an average smartphone (or Blackberry) with a touchscreen – that is, if it becomes sold unlocked in addition to the AT&T contract binding.

• Windows Mobile 6.5
• 2.5 inch touchscreen AMOLED display
• 256 MB RAM + MicroSD/microSDHC slot
• 3 megapixel camera with autofocus
• 3.5 mm standard headphone jack
• WiFi, Bluetooth, A-GPS and QWERTY keyboard

Spotted: Next-gen HP Elitebook 8440w/8540w in real life and online

Photo sent by reader Michael K; next-gen Elitebook using HP's 'round' logo

One of our readers, Michael K, recently sent in two pictures of what seems to be one of HP’s next generation Elitebook models. Clad in a dark gray, and what seems to be metal/magnesium alloy, casing – this mysterious machine seems to be either the 14 inch Elitebook 8440w model or 15 inch Elitebook 8540w (judging by the amount of real estate on the palm rest area, it’s unlikely that this is the 17 inch Elitebook 8740w). UPDATE: Fellow Tweeter and owner of 8510w/8530w notebooks, Nicholas C, notes that the picture below is indeed the 14 inch Elitebook 8440w because of its mouse buttons – the larger 15 inch Elitebook 8540w would have an additional ‘center’ mouse button like its predecessors. Thanks Nicholas! =)

This ties in with the yet-to-be-announced ‘Elitebook 8440w, 8540w and 8740w’ models, which are strangely listed on HP’s own website. There’s also some blurry-looking text inscribed on the left palmrest area but knowing several people who own Elitebook 8530w and 8730w notebooks, I’m pretty sure it says “Mobile Workstation”.

Photo sent by reader Michael K; next-gen Elitebook (pretty sure that text on the left says 'Mobile Workstation')

This Elitebook is HP’s latest – because any HP fan (such as myself) would know that HP has been using their ’round’ logo on Winter 2008-onwards models (HP started replacing their ‘square’ logo with the ’round’ one with the Mini 1000, if I’m not mistaken). All of HP’s current 2008 Elitebook models feature silver bodies and their ‘square’ logo.

HP's OLD 'square' logo on a friend's 2008 Elitebook 2530p

He also goes on to mention a few juicy details on what “standard features” to expect from HP’s next-gen, 2009 Elitebooks:

• Core i7 “will be available for all models”
• “New” Nvidia Quadro FX Mobile workstation graphics for “w”-variants
• HP DuraCase, DuraKeys, 3D Drive Guard
• 7200 RPM hard disks standard
• Single HP Night Light (no backlit keyboard)
• VGA and Display Port output ports; no HDMI
• HP Power Assistant power management software
• Same batteries from current generation Elitebook models; 2nd extended battery available

Michael also points out that the new Elitebooks will feature yet-to-be-announced Nvidia workstation-class graphics cards for notebooks.

Core i7 will be available as an option for “all models”, I wonder if that includes the 8440p/w 14 inch model? Will this year’s generation of Elitebooks feature incremental upgrades or will they be ‘category crushers’ that blow away the competition?

Screenshot of HP's official website showing Elitebook 8440w (click for larger)

In other news, another one of our readers, Dana, has just pointed out that driver and support pages along with profile pictures (!!!) for the HP Elitebook 8440w and Elitebook 8540w Mobile Workstation models are already online on HP’s OFFICIAL website! Check them out here for the Elitebook 8440w and here for the Elitebook 8540w. No news on announcement date but seeing those pages are already up on HP’s website, I would imagine that it won’t take long before they become official. I would also infer from the tip about Nvidia’s new graphics cards that HP’s announcement of their 2nd generation Elitebook models will come after or at the same time Nvidia makes their announcements, I guess?

Elitebook 8440p, 8440w, 8540p, 8540w and 8740w models listed on HP's official site (Click for larger)

Either way, I can’t wait for official news (and an official announcement date?). Do YOU know something that we all don’t? Post tips in the comments section.

Multi-touch trackpads – just a gimmick or what?!

Multi-touch trackpads – seems like every computer manufacturer nowadays has several models touting them. But having used multi-touch trackpads for several weeks now, as well as a ‘single touch’ trackpad for my own notebook, I’m wondering right now if multi-touch trackpads are just a gimmick. Seems I love single touch trackpads because I don’t have to shift my entire right hand each time I want to do something.

• Tapping and clicking – Both single and multi-touch trackpads can do these.
• Scrolling – Single-touch trackpads typically have scroll zones on the right side – having ‘average’ sized hands, I can easily reach for the scroll zone using my thumb without moving my entire hand off the keyboard. Nice when I just want to scroll down… say a Word document… and continue typing. In contrast, multi-touch trackpads need me to move my entire hand down to operate the ‘two finger scroll’ function. What an inconvenience. (Yes I have tried ‘dual thumb’ scrolling before but it’s awkward)
• Zooming – Yes, we’ve all heard about the famous ‘pinch zoom’ function of multi-touch devices ever since the iPhone made its debut in 2007… but that still needs two fingers and hand-shifting. Before multi-touch trackpads became mainstream on consumer notebooks, I believe I survived just fine (and better) using the mentioned scroll-zone for zooming, or in Firefox/IE, Ctrl+scroll-zone. By now you would have figured that the scroll zone does the exact same thing as your conventional mouse wheel (in case you didn’t know).
  Pinch zooming is certainly important on a device lacking buttons, and to conserve ‘space’ (ie, on a multi-touch display). But on a trackpad, I’d say zooming is not something that deserves its own ‘gesture’/control. It’s not like the keyboard +/- keys or existing scroll-zone didn’t do its job well enough to be replaced by multi-touch.
• Rotation – Fine, this is a multi-touch trackpad exclusive, and not available on single-touch trackpads. But then again, I didn’t know the world REALLY had to have a rotate function implemented directly into the trackpad. If I wanted to rotate a photo, I’d hit the ‘rotate left’ or ‘rotate right’ icon in Photo Viewer. If I wanted to rotate a whole bunch of photos, I’d use the batch processing feature in Photoshop.
• Chiral scrolling – Technically this is a function that only needs one finger… yet it’s strange that only ‘newer’ (multi-t0uch) trackpads can do this. Again, it doesn’t do anything that the single-touch scroll zone can’t do.

To sum things up, I really don’t think that multi-touch trackpads are a crucial feature or dealbreaker when it comes to shopping for a notebook. In fact, I’d take a single-touch trackpad over a multi-touch one anytime (apparently HP thinks that too with their business notebooks). Sure, multi-touch trackpads are nice to have and cool to show off, but they get old after a while (and it’s not like they make existing tasks like rotation or zooming any easier). A buddy of mine wanted to go back to a ‘normal’ trackpad after two weeks with the multi-touch trackpad on his new Envy 15. Another guy I know who loved talking about the ‘coolness’ of multi-touch recently changed his mind after spending time with his new Asus notebook’s multi-touch trackpad.

Where gunmetal-black/gray is the new silver

A reliable source speaks of new ‘standards’ that will be set soon. Black will be the new silver. DP will be the new HDMI. 9 cell will be the new 6 cell… likely due to some power hungry things.

Time will tell, right?