Well hello everyone, hope you had a good holiday season and happy new year 2012. CES is coming and we’ll be sure to get busy around here. I spotted something very interesting two days ago when Tobii Technology showed off a video with their new hardware for mouse-free interaction with Windows 8. This was made possible via eye-tracking, whose hardware was incorporated into a modified HP EliteBook (specifically the 14 inch EliteBook 8440p).
Custom EliteBook with eye tracking hardware
It’s an interesting concept, though practicality of everyday usage is questionable (I can certainly see this being used on public interactive displays/advertising panels, but not at home), and you can check out the full two and a half minute long video below… be warned though, I’m pretty sure chopping your EliteBook in half and piecing it back together with your Xbox Kinect cameras or future Tobii hardware will be certain to void your HP warranty!
Whew, after much confusion as to what HP was thinking and what would happen to HP Fansite if they did, and a sprinkle of hope when they swapped out CEO’s, the verdict is in this week. According to HP’s new CEO Meg Whitman, they’ve looked at the idea of spinning PSG (HP’s computer division, essentially) off, but have decided against it, saying it was the right thing to do for just about everyone (from customers to employees) if they just kept things as they were right now.
To add a little disco ball for us party-goers who are going out to celebrate not having to buy a Dell or Lenovo as their next machine (or icing on the cake if you will), HP will also be making Windows 8 PC when Microsoft’s revolutionary operating system (versus the Vista to 7 jump) debuts next year, along with the fact they’re gonna be making Windows 8 tablets to keep costs under control (yup, if you’re still hopeful about WebOS, you should really stop now).
Alright HP, now that you guys have ironed things out, how about finally launching them Ultrabooks soon after missing the initial rumored due date? And updated Pavilions and Envy’s sporting Intel’s very latest Sandy Bridge processors (those seen in the recent MacBooks and stuff)? And perhaps updating the rest of the Z-workstation line after just doing the Z210 updates earlier this year? How about an EliteBook refresh for those of us who like stepping on our notebook screens or have been using those reliable old-school models for too long?
But we’re just happy that HP has decided to make this decision, probably one of their smarter moves since making blunders with WebOS and such. Hopefully a sign of better things to come for HP indeed!
HP EliteBook spotted with BMW (Picture by BMW Blog)
Well, we’re decidedly alive and kicking once again, with HP seemingly upbeat about their computer division (PSG) by being the sponsor/partner of several popular TV shows that kicked their new seasons off earlier this month/late September. In particular, I’ve spotted quite a number of HP products (including the now-dead HP TouchPad) being used by various characters in several CWTV shows (anyone care to take a guess?) but more on that later. As long as HP shows signs that they won’t be doing bizarre things to their PSG division and make HP computers… well, not HP computers anymore, we’ll continue bringing to you the latest about HP stuff. We can hope for the best with their recently appointed new CEO right?!
But back to the topic at hand… I’m personally an avid reader of the BMW Blog (though I wish I can one day actually afford a BMW!) and one of their latest articles today talks about BMW setting up a new AppCenter in China. And what do you know, evidence that BMW and HP are still good pals (hardcore HP fans will remember BMW had a hand in the design of HP’s Z-series Workstations and HP has been a close companion in supplying servers and tech in the past). We can see an admittedly not-so-new 2009 HP EliteBook 6930p in the foreground, a HP monitor (either ZR22W or ZR24W) in the middle, and another EliteBook with its lid closed towards the background.
And speaking of EliteBooks and HP laptops, will we see HP come up with new models of laptops and desktops soon? Like before the holiday season/year end for the consumer line? And/or after CES and the new year in 2012?!
Since the folks at HP’s public relations representative firm cite a limited of review units for laptops (Hmm… and not enough to get even one to us apparently), there’s not much of a choice but to let you readers somehow know how those latest Pavilions and EliteBooks perform… by linking to user reviews. I choose to handpick user reviews because they provide a lot more concise and in-depth (as well as honest and knowledgeable) look at things than the usual “editor at the desk writing a laptop review for a big publication because it’s his desk job”.
In this case, one of our readers, Tomas Hlatky has managed to get his hands on an HP EliteBook 8560w Mobile Workstation with dual core Intel Core i5 processor and AMD FirePro M5950 workstation-class graphics from the kind folks of HP Europe. He’s posted his extremely in-depth review on hardware website PC.sk (they’re something like the DPReview of computer hardware in Slovakia), which spans a total of 14 pages and contains a ton of pictures and extensive testing! And if you aren’t keeping up in those Slovak language classes, at least Google does a very nice translated version so you can appreciate his well written review.
I’m not a fan of spoilers, so I’ll just mention a one line summary of how things turned out: the HP EliteBook 8560w looks to be a good all-rounder but is not without fault and has quite a bit of bulk and ‘bling’ factor for a business notebook. I encourage to check out Tomas’ review (or the aforementioned Google translated version) to read all about it.
Note: You might also want to note the lack of a CFast slot on the production model, though it is interesting that space has been made internally for one.
There’s something about the EliteBook 2530p’s keyboard which makes it an absolutely lovely dream to type on. I’m a fan of ‘keyboard sans number pad’ designs for distraction and clutter-free typing (that’s just me) and somehow the laptop’s built-in keyboard caters to that so well. The keyboard is also nice and firm (unlike other external, dedicated keyboards which rattle as I type at blazing speeds or other laptop keyboards which feel ‘squishy’ and ruins the whole typing experience for me… the EliteBook 8740w’s keyboard is somewhat guilty of doing that).
So along with my recently acquired used HP ZR24w display, I have decided I would fold my EliteBook’s screen back like the good old days with a consumer Dell display I had (which I recently sold) and use this lovely ‘keyboard’ with the big screen like you see in the picture above. That’s how I roll! I definitely wished all laptops had the same build-quality and typing experience as this one, because that’s the one of the reasons I’m holding back from getting a newer ultra-portable notebook (with build quality of the laptop, 16:10 display of the 2530p and lack of dough to finance a new business ultra-portable being the other three reasons)
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