HP Touchsmart tm2 tablet full specifications; 16:10 multitouch, available for order

I’ve been waiting days for this and it’s finally here – the HP Touchsmart tm2 is available for (pre?) order on HP’s official website. But more importantly, the full list of available options and specifications are there as well. Processor options max out at Intel’s 1.6 Ghz dual core, low voltage processor with ATI Mobility 4550 graphics. Good news for “movie widescreen” haters too, the Touchsmart tm2 has a 16:10 multitouch widescreen with 1280 x 800 resolution – that’s a tinsy bit lower res than you’d find with a 16:9 widescreen (1366 x 768) but gives you 32 extra pixels of vertical resolution to work with.

The Touchsmart tm2 won’t have a built-in optical drive (though an external one is available separately) and currently lacks any option for backlit keyboard keys or 9 cell battery. However, 7200 RPM hard disks are standard and the notebook/tablet is merely an inch thick at its thinnest point.

Voodoo phone mentioned by Rahul Sood

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 =)

HP Elitebook 2740p tablet to be manufactured in “Spring 2010″

Elitebook 2740p mentioned on a high school website

An anonymous person has just tipped us off about the “manufacturing date” of the upcoming HP Elitebook 2740p posted on a Michigan high school’s website. Mercy High School mentions in an announcement about their Student Computing Package that the HP Elitebook 2740p is set to be manufactured in Spring 2010 (which probably means anywhere between now and March-April?). They go on to mention that the Elitebook 2740p tablet is a “non-consumer professional model” which I’m sure many of us do know already.

If the Elitebook 2740p is set to be manufactured this spring as they say, then an official announcement might just be around the corner. Hmmm. HP might be releasing it real soon to capitalize on the new semester for students, co-inciding with some “February” whispers and the fact they’re splitting new product announcements into two parts (one was CES 2010, the other upcoming).

As for specifications, well, it’s gonna be a great surprise… we’ve already seen what HP did with their consumer Touchsmart tablet. Anyone wanna throw in a few words about what they might do with their business/professional Elitebook one?

Thanks for the Left4Dead 2 update, Valve!

Playing as the happy chainsaw-wielding Coach in Left4Dead 2

In some other news related to gaming, I’ve just updated Left4Dead 2 to the latest version (I think) after a long while of not playing the game due to crash issues, which some may remember, I posted about more than a month ago. Well after keeping myself busy with other games, relaxing during the Christmas/New Year holidays and more recently, covering HP-related CES news, I’ve finally had the time to start up Left4Dead 2 and pull in some new updates. And guess what? I just finished the first campaign, Dead Center, on singleplayer and it worked the whole way through without a single crash/lag situation happening! Yes, we bumped into the Wandering Witch several times, the bots AKA computer-controlled characters disturbed her and had to take her down (one of the biggest causes of Left4Dead 2 crashes which even Valve themselves acknowledged)… did that a few times without crashing at all.

I’m off to get myself something to eat before I test out the other campaigns, then later today, I’m planning to celebrate this occasion (yes, hurrah for games with LAN support!) by bringing my Pavilion dv4 over to a small L4D2 gathering/LAN party with some other L4D2/gamers I know. Once again, I’m overjoyed that Left4Dead 2 seems to work very smoothly after being updated… that’s another PC game with decent multiplayer and LAN support, for the win! I’m glad I got this game – initially for its singleplayer/multiplayer replay value and multiplayer features (yes, like LAN support and dedicated servers which should be standard in the PC world), and now, good support by the developers for the game. In fact, in my books, any game with either a long, in-depth singleplayer mode (ie Metal Gear Solid 4 and Arkham Asylum) and/or replayable singleplayer/multiplayer (ie Left4Dead) is a kazillion times better than this certain game with overly short, fairly linear singleplayer, apparent disregard by developers for the PC version and poor, extremely crippled multiplayer.

Update: It works!!! It works!! All the Left4Dead 2 campaigns played smoothly for me without any crashes I experienced when I initially got the game. Gamer review of Left4Dead 2 to follow soon…

P.S. I’m in the process of trying to acquire the new ATI Mobility 5830 totting HP Envy 15 for testing… so in case you’re curious about benchmarks and such for the new Envy 15, now you know that’s on my “to-do” list this spring. Have a great weekend everyone.

Envy 15 receives ATI Mobility 5830 graphics, USB 3.0 ports and Core i5 options

HP Envy 15 updated: as seen on HP's retail website

HP has just updated their Envy 15 page, updating the 1/2 year old Envy with 1 GB of new ATI Mobility Radeon 5830 graphics and USB 3.0 standard with all models. The starting price has also dropped to $1299, with options for Intel’s dual core Core i5 processors for those wanting to go the affordable route.

Well, great. They just had to put ATI 5000-series graphics in this one and not in the Elitebook line?! Well, I’m not really swayed just yet because the Elitebook 8540w is more all-rounded compared to the Envy (in my opinion). Let’s just see which one ends up with a higher price after matching specifications to each other… and well, decide from there.

HP’s undercover gaming laptop – the Elitebook 8540w

It’s a weekend and I’ve been busy with spring cleaning, vacuuming the place and sorting things out, tossing out unused junk… and I’ve also been eying Assassin’s Creed 2 for PC, which is coming out in March 2010! Alienware (by Dell) recently came out with a very interesting 11 inch ‘gaming’ notebook this CES and I’ve been visiting their site to check out their M11x and M15x notebooks (not that I’m considering either, I’m just curious to learn more about various manufacturer offerings).

Okay, while I was on Alienware’s website looking at their M15x gaming notebook, I couldn’t help but to compare it to the recently launched Elitebook 8540w! No, don’t go “what the…??” just because the Alienware M15x is a dedicated gaming notebook and the Elitebook 8540w is a professional mobile workstation. I kinda figured that the HP Elitebook 8540w, despite being a business notebook and looking nothing like one suited for hardcore gaming, can in fact double as a pretty powerful and potent gaming notebook (and to a certain extent, and can put up a fight against Dell/Alienware’s heavy weight performer. Here’s why…

• The Alienware M15x has various Intel Core i7 Quad and Core i5 Dual core processor options. The Elitebook 8540w does too (except the i7 Extreme option, at the moment).
• The Alienware M15x can be fitted with a full HD 1080p widescreen display. Well, so can the Elitebook 8540w (with points for having a matte display; reviews of the M15x mention it has a glossy one).
• The Alienware M15x has two DDR3 RAM (1333 MHz) slots so you can have up to 8 GB of memory… the Elitebook 8540w has a whopping four DDR3 RAM (also 1333 MHz) slots for double the memory: 16 GB max.
• Both notebooks have 7200 RPM hard disks standard (up to 500 GB), and optional solid state drives (up to 256 GB)
• Both notebooks have optical drives with optional Blu-ray. The Elitebook 8540w has an advantage here of being able to swap out the optical drive for a second 500 GB 7200 RPM hard disk.

The Alienware M15x and Elitebook 8540w also have the exact same variety of ports (except USB). The Elitebook 8540w’s five USB ports (three USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0) beats three USB 2.0 ports that the Alienware has. But the Alienware M15x is a better entertainment notebook with two headphone jacks (versus one on the Elitebook).

The Elitebook 8540w comes with an 8-cell battery standard, with the option to add on a secondary 8 or 12 cell battery via the secondary battery connector on the notebook’s underside. On team Alienware, the M15x comes standard with a 6 cell battery, with the option to go for a 9 cell battery option (this battery sits in place of the 6 cell, and is not an add on battery). In theory, if one was to “game on the go”, you could swap batteries on the Elitebook more easily without having to power off/hibernate the notebook at all.

Sure, the advantages that the Alienware M15x has include: better built-in speakers, extremely customizable AlienFX keyboard backlight/overall lighting system, system/cooling designed specifically for gaming, gaming-specific Nvidia GeForce graphics and a striking exterior design that’s bound to intimidate your opponents at a LAN party. I mean, how’s an innocent looking Elitebook gonna have any psychological effect on the other team at a gaming tournament/gathering, at all? Well, you gotta know the Alienware M15x is also 50% heavier, 50% thicker and slightly wider/longer than the Elitebook 8540w as well!

The Alienware M15x’s current graphics card options are: the 512 MB Nvidia GeForce GT240M and 1 GB Nvidia GeForce GTX260M. Granted the Elitebook 8540w is NOT a dedicated gaming notebook and comes with workstation-class graphics, its 1 GB Nvidia Quadro FX880M and 1 GB Nvidia Quadro FX1800M graphics offerings (equivalent to Nvidia’s new GeForce GT330M and GT335M cards, I think) still hold up pretty well… you could still use them for gaming.

There’s also the HP Night Light on the Elitebook 8540w… and while it won’t hold a candle against Alienware’s advanced Alien FX lighting system, at least it still does its job of providing keyboard illumination while you’re gaming or working in the dark!

If the Elitebook was a Wall Street guy in a business suit and tie, the Alienware would probably be Arnold Schwarzenegger during his bodybuilder days. As I mentioned, the Alienware M15x and Elitebook 8540w are two completely different animals, that nobody would even think of comparing. Yet somehow, my creative mind has come up with this fairly fair and square comparison of the two. No, I don’t expect gamers to be switching over to CAD workstations used by professionals anytime soon, or vice versa… but today’s comparison does bring up an interesting revelation: the Elitebook 8540w has more ‘gaming genes’ under its hood than one would probably expect. While it wasn’t built from the ground up for gaming, I think the Elitebook 8540w packs quite a punch for a business notebook; enough to allow graphic designers, CAD professionals, students, etc (whatever you plan to use it for) to unwind with a game of Need for Speed Shift or Crysis 2 (almost) maxed out in full HD after a day’s work.

*Note to self: I should really make a video of ‘gaming and gameplay using an Elitebook’, bet that’ll be interesting…