HP TouchPad is now up for pre-order!
There’s exactly a week till the HP TouchPad tablet hits the market for real on July 1st. There’s still time to pre-order HP’s first ever consumer touch tablet, but so far HP is keeping quiet on how pre-orders are going and what kind of sales they expect from the TouchPad.
In other touch tablet related news, I noticed the HP TouchSmart tm2 convertible laptop/tablet has disappeared from HP’s website. Could this be a hint of something to come?
Intel's new ULV processors good reason for a TouchSmart tm2 update?
Two months ago I talked about how HP could potentially stuff “Sandy Bridge 1.5″ in their TouchSmart tm2, seeing how their consumer-level tablet model is the only model at the moment that hasn’t received the Intel 2011 Sandy Bridge update treatment. Today, Intel ushered out of its doors, three new ultra-low voltage Sandy Bridge chips… ripe and ready to be used in a potential TouchSmart tm2 update, if I may add?
With all of them carrying TDP ratings of 17W, two cores (and four threads) worth of processing power and Intel’s Sandy Bridge generation HD3000 integrated graphics, they are the upper-tier 1.8 GHz Core i7-2677M (Turbo Boost up to 2.9 GHz), midrange 1.7 GHz Core i7-2637M (Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz) and an affordable 1.7 GHz Core i5-2557M (Turbo Boost up to 2.7 GHz). What differentiates the two Core i7 chips from the lonely Core i5 one, is that the i7′s come with 4MB of Level 3 cache, while the i5 chip has just 3MB of L3 cache.
While Apple fans will be the main ones cheering, since these Sandy Bridge processors are likely to make their way to the latest MacBook Air models during the late summer/fall refresh, people looking for something more flexible with a touchscreen, more affordable price tag and more beefy graphics power should be delighted too… since this could mean an updated TouchSmart tm2 might just be in the pipeline.
And in the event that the TouchSmart tm2 does get updated, expect something like the AMD Radeon 6470M stuffed under the hood (see why here) with Intel Sandy Bridge too. And perhaps with a cosmetic dose of glossy black paint too.
HP TouchPad is now up for pre-order!
It’s the day you’ve all been waiting for: The HP TouchPad tablet, the direct competitor and HP’s answer to the Apple iPad 2, is finally up and available for pre-order on HP’s website.
So far, only the ‘WiFi version’ is available on HP’s preorder page, at $499 for the 16 GB model and $599 for the 32 GB variant, though we did hear HP sneak in a little statement about a ‘connected’ version from AT&T planned for ‘later this summer‘, so expect that one to retail for much less, at the cost of binding you with a 2 year contract from AT&T. We can’t help but wonder if HP will later expand that to T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint, or make the ‘connected version’ available worldwide… but we certainly hope we won’t have to wait for the HP TouchPad 2 for that to happen!
The HP TouchPad is expected to start shipping on July 1, so there’s plenty of time between now and then to decide if you want to pre-order the 16 GB or 32 GB variant (or maybe wait for a potential tidbit or two on the connected version of the TouchPad to pop out)
And I wish I even had a car in the first place… here comes someone who made a huge typo on a HP Wireless Mouse’s price tag: the little critter is listed for a cool $34,072 on Amazon, just a couple of bucks short of the base price for an entry-level BMW 3 series sedan! And then there’s more good news and bad news… [sarcasm alert!] Good news is that it comes with free shipping, which should be expected for the price of this mouse; but the bad news is this mouse, that will complement your “I Am Rich” app on your smartphone perfectly, is temporarily out of stock.
Japanese publication The Nikkei is reporting this morning that HP plans to move part of its notebook production to Japan, from China, over the next couple of months. The report mentions that equivalent labor costs in Japan is about four times that of China, but there will be efficiency gains as a result along with that respectable ‘Made in Japan’ underneath your notebook and delivery times slashed from 10 down to 5 business days. According to The Nikkei, HP also plans to keep prices the same by using existing production lines and its global purchase network.
No word on exact dates of this move or official confirmation from HP so far, neither is there any information at the moment on which notebook models exactly will be made in Japan*.
*Though we’re guessing, if this report turns out to be correct, that since this move will take a couple of months, that 2012′s upper-tier notebooks (perhaps the 2012 EliteBook Mobile Workstation series, like 8470w, 8570w and 8770w? And 2012 HP Envy models…) are likely candidates… that, and we can’t imagine HP pumping out Mini netbooks and sub-$500 g-series notebooks from Japan.
