Arrgh me hearties, a year it has been since there was speculation about the possibility of Voodoo PC (a subsidiary of HP) coming out with a (luxury?) mobile phone. HP’s CTO of their HP/Voodoo Business Unit, Rahul Sood, has just mentioned in a Twitter tweet that it bugs him that he’s using an Apple iPhone instead of a “Voodoo phone”
The message seems pretty cryptic as nothing else, no other details, are mentioned. Is a new Voodoo Phone (vPhone?) in the works? Is there already one (or a few) prototype models in existance? What’s it gonna have, design and feature wise? Well only time will tell.
Oh, while we’re talking about phones and such, dear HP, while/if you’re probably hard at work developing a vPhone, can you please do something about the iPAQ line while you’re at it, and bring iPAQ devices back up to their former state of glory? Thanks – HP Fansite on the behalf of many iPAQ fans out there =)
Remember two weeks ago when there were whispers about the Envy series going global/outside of North America? Well, turns out there’s a HIGH possibility that might be true. The new HP Envy 13 just came out ahead of its Tuesday announcement. The new notebook features an ultra-thin profile, 13 inch screen, chiclet-style keyboard, huge trackpad (possibly multi-touch) and will most likely make it to computer stores around the world (unlike its Voodoo PC counterpart, the Envy 133). As for port selection, pictures show 2 USB ports, HDMI port and a combined audio in/out jack. Stay glued in your seats people, I predict a slew of new HP things coming real soon.
I’ve just heard news that HP may be taking Voodoo PC’s Envy ultra-slim notebook on a ‘trip’ to some places around the world – there seem to be whispers around the web that HP might make the Voodoo Envy notebook ‘officially available’ in several countries by the end of this year. Currently, Voodoo PC’s products are exclusively available in North America only.
If this actually happens, then it’s fantastic news for those living in Europe, Asia and elsewhere around the globe. Think about it, you probably could scrap your plans to order the Envy 133 via your Uncle Bob living in Texas and buy it from a local HP store instead. I said IF it happens because the news hasn’t been confirmed yet.
With the HP Firebird 802 feat. Voodoo DNA pre-production models, prototyp-ing and testing all in the rage over the past few days, I couldn’t help but notice HP seems to be shipping their Firebird 802 units (again, let me remind you, pre-production) with the exact same keyboard as their Touchsmart PCs. And oh, a mouse which looks eeriely identical as well. The ONLY difference is that the Firebird 802 comes with a small, flash-drive sized USB wireless receiver for the mouse and keyboard, while the Touchsmart’s wireless receiver for both seems to be built-in… hmm strange
There are both good and bad sides to the external receiver. Bad news first, many people would expect the receiver to be built into that fancy chassis, which by right should have enough space for such a tiny device. The good side to this is… I suppose most buyers of the HP Firebird 802 will be gamers, who usually tend to have different “tastes” when it comes to keyboard and mice. So if this same keyboard and mouse is bundled with the retail version, I still doubt many real gamers would roll with them instead of using their own keyboard/mouse. Also, the keyboard and mouse here aren’t exactly meant for gaming you see… (see below)
Well, in terms of ergonomics and usability, the Touchsmart’s (and for now, pre-prod Firebird’s) keyboard and mouse are more suited for casual use. The mouse is a three-button one with a scroll wheel, no DPI adjustment, side buttons or any fancy gaming features here, folks! The keyboard, especially, is more for typing and office use rather than gaming. Will we see HP including the same “Touchsmart mouse and keyboard” boxed with finalized, retail Firebird 802′s? Only time will tell… and we’ll find out once retail Firebirds start shipping…
Is Voodoo PC working on bringing out their own phone/smartphone? Information right now is very scarce and it still remains a mystery IF there will be a such thing (Since Voodoo PC so far has been strictly a (gaming) computer company). The last time someone brought up the topic of a Voodoo phone would be Rob Enderle in his article published in September 2008. Recently, there have been some little, little things which hint a Voodoo phone again.
Today Mark Soloman made a post entitled “Voodoo Design Secrets” on HP/Voodoo’s The Next Bench blog. Of course, there were no product roadmaps, no concept products, not many revelations at all. Not many revelations. The first picture certainly looks very interesting (see the screenshot above) – it appears to be one of those product design kind of thing in its planning stage where the designers need to list out the components they need to pack into the final product. The right half of the whiteboard writings highlight some very interesting components (to me, at least) such as “speaker holes”, “button finish”, “multicolor LEDs” and of course, a “proximity sensor”.
Why would a computer (desktop or notebook) need a proximity sensor? Who counts the number of speaker holes on their notebook PC and their size? What about “button finish”? All these unanswered questions… the “multicolor LEDs” list “BT” and “W”. Assuming these stand for Bluetooth and WiFi respectively, when was the last time you saw a recent HP… bah, or any modern computer with separate indicators for Bluetooth and WiFi? On the other hand, some old Pocket PCs and HP iPAQs have those kind of LED indicators….
Nah, maybe Voodoo is working on a computer that turns itself on when you approach it (And off, when you walk away from it) which has flush leather buttons and back-to-the-future style separate LED indicators for Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. Plausible, huh?
