HP Fansite

Moving…

Hey guys, I just wanted to update you guys on why I haven’t been covering much news lately in the ever interesting world of HP (Especially the unfolding of recent events). I’ve been busy packing and packing and packing… and tomorrow I’ll be moving to California for at least the next two years of my life (but the nearer to HP Palo Alto, the better, right? as one reader wrote in an email to me =) . So, look forward to updates next week and things to return back to ‘business as usual’ status by the end of this month. Again, I’m so sorry for the lack of updates (but I’ll be back!)

-Brad

2 GB Nvidia Quadro FX5000M card announced; coming to Elitebook 8740w

Nvidia has just announced their first bunch of “Fermi” Quadro workstation class graphics card that supports DirectX 11 for both desktops and notebooks. The Nvidia Quadro FX5000M not only has 2 GB of memory (which we already knew about from ’service parts’ for the Elitebook 8740w that have been posted on HP’s website for months now), but is superior to the current (and now, former) top of the line Quadro FX3800M in almost every way imaginable, at least on paper.

Aside from having double the memory, the Quadro FX5000M is also Nvidia’s first, and currently only, mobile Quadro card supporting the latest iterations of DirectX (DX11), OpenGL (Open GL 4.0) and shader model (5.0). Compared to the Quadro FX3800M, the FX5000M has more than double the number of cores (320 vs 128 cores), 20% more bandwidth (76.8 vs 64 GB/sec) and of course, again, has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory (vs the FX3800M topping out at 1 GB; GDDR3). There’s even an unseen “improvement” in terms of heat/power consumption, since the Quadro FX5000M still has a TDP of 100W, so theoretically it should perform much better than older flagship Quadro cards, while consuming similar amounts of energy.

The best part of all this is that the Quadro FX5000M will be available for the Elitebook 8740w in the future, though at an unspecified date and price. If you’ve already gotten an Elitebook 8740w, fear not for there’s always the ability to swap parts like people have been doing for ages… You’d better start studying that 8740w service manual now!

HP no longer in the Windows Phone 7 release gang, going the WebOS route

In an interesting (and heartbreaking, for some) report by CNBC, it has been confirmed that HP will not be coming up with any Windows Phone 7 devices (which invalidates the info provided during the Windows Phone 7 launch event, which was before HP bought over Palm). Instead, they’ll be focusing on getting WebOS phones (and tablets, duh) out… in fact, we did mention mid this week that WebOS 2.0 will be coming by the end of this year, presumably with at least one device running the operating system (PalmPad anyone?!).

And what will happen to the iPAQ brand? Well, I hope HP addresses and answers that next…

HP: Slate for enterprise users… which implies PalmPad for regular Joe consumers?

Looks like there’s plenty going on lately at Hewlett Packard; with the spotlights being on Palm and the HP Slate. HP has recently mentioned that the HP Slate (which runs Windows 7) will not be targeting the mass market but more on the corporate/enterprise sector instead. Essentially, you could say the HP Slate is going to be aimed at companies wanting a “super-lite” keyboard-less, Intel Atom-ized version of the pricey Elitebook 2740p. But then what of regular consumers? Is HP gonna just let them run off to Apple stores to buy iPads?

Well, that’s the thing. HP has been strangely quiet about their consumer version of the Slate, which will likely be a Palm WebOS powered tablet. So far, the only hints they’ve dropped are the trademark application for the PalmPad name (though I won’t  be surprised if they went for “PalmSlate” next) and to a lesser extent, talking about WebOS 2.0 being on track for an end-of-the-year (presumably before the holidays, if HP wants to capitalize on Black Friday and Christmas sales).

WebOS 2.0 and the fate of Palm’s brand

It seems that we’re hearing about Palm almost everyday lately, which is  a good sign. Fortune has just confirmed that Jon Rubinstein (Palm’s CEO, and of course Palm is now part of HP) talked about WebOS 2.0 coming later this year (2010). Hopefully it’ll be as great for productivity as it will be awesome for handheld gaming (as HP’s Rahul Sood implied in a blog post just two days ago).

In other Palm-related news, it was also mentioned today that Palm will become a sub-brand under HP (just like what happened to other companies that HP bought over, such as Rahul’s Voodoo PC gaming computer company). While this move is not unexpected, I cannot help but wonder about the fate of the iPAQ brand. Perhaps this is a sign that WebOS devices will be sold under the “HP Palm” name while they will revive the iPAQ line sometime down the road to run Windows Phone 7? Afterall, Microsoft did include HP as one of the companies during the announcement of Windows Phone 7 earlier this year…

HP Slate officially becomes HP Slate 500, appears on HP.com

Well, well, well… what’s this we have here? Just as we were discussing the HP PalmPad yesterday and talking about the potential demise of the HP Slate, with the large possibility that the PalmPad was going to take its place as competitor to Apple’s iPad. Apparently HP wants to compete on both operating system fronts when it comes to offering iPad equivalent alternatives; with a mobile, more content-consumption friendly Web OS for the PalmPad as well as full-fledged (but touch optimized) Windows 7 OS on their not-so-dead-anymore Slate. The HP Slate has appeared on HP’s official website, now officially known as the HP Slate 500 (so there’s room for both higher end and more basic ‘budget’ tablets…), which you can check out right here and here. So far, specifications haven’t changed from HP’s initial announcement of the Slate with Microsoft earlier this year, as the Slate 500 maintains the use of a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, Windows 7 OS and 8.9 inch touchscreen. Pricing remains a mystery though, as well as other specifications and a release date, but we’ll let you know whenever the news breaks. Those hoping for a Windows 7 running tablet, I can see all of you heaving a big sigh of relief….