HP TouchPad updates coming
It’s been barely two weeks since the HP TouchPad got released onto market shelves and already HP is talking about improving the user experience of the TouchPad. According to this report by Information Week, which talks to HP’s Jon Rubinstein and Ari Jaaski about WebOS and the TouchPad; there are updates in the pipeline that will eventually roll out (over the air, of course!) to improve the performance and multi-tasking management of the TouchPad, along with the positive outlook that more apps will spring up on the webOS platform as time passes and the platform garners more developer interest.
Windows 8
One of our readers from Europe, Vincenzo, has just sent me this interesting article (translated version here, if you’re like me and have an Italian vocabulary that is limited to the words you picked up from Assassin’s Creed!) talking about bits of code in Windows 8 programming that mentions the Xbox 360.
It is mentioned in the article that there are several possibilities, from the next generation Xbox console running as a branch off main Windows code to native support and/or emulation of Xbox console titles on your Windows-running machine. Having been a PC gamer for as long as I can remember, I must say I am excited! I have never bought or owned a game console before, ever (though of course I haven’t been living under a rock and have used consoles belonging to friends and family, but I still find their controls clunky to use and graphics to be watered down compared to the PC version of game titles)… and what Windows 8 could potentially bring might solidify the fact I may probably never need to get a console anyway.
The folks at Windows 8 Italia also mention that their speculation is based on the fact Microsoft has already brought over their Xbox Live service on their Windows Phone platform and have Kinect SDK out (albeit in beta form) for Windows… so having Xbox Live and/or emulation on Windows would be the next logical step.
The potential demise of consoles in favor of handheld… and now, PC… gaming?! You’d better be ready for it! If you take a couple of steps back and look at the big picture, you’ll see why this all makes sense. PC gaming was quite dominant before things like the Xbox and Playstation came along, but back then, consoles were invented to cater to the mass market. And consoles made gaming accessible, cheaper (in terms of machine investment) and easier (installations and patching supposedly ‘easier’ than on PC, no graphics or resolution settings to tweak) to pick up. PC hardware has also been comparatively expensive versus buying an ‘all in one box’ like a console (though you might also realize PCs are much more versatile and do more than just ‘gaming’). But now…
- Intel is coming out with a much more powerful Ivy Bridge processor line next year along with integrated graphics. This is a good start since if Intel’s Ivy Bridge integrated graphics are powerful enough to drive most ‘real’ games (real games as in stuff like Left4Dead and Crysis 2, not Angry Birds) at low to medium settings at 720p resolution at smooth frame rates (comparable to the ‘console experience’), that simplifies shopping for hardware and picking out a ‘gaming capable’ machine for the average consumer/non-hardcore gamer.
- More and more games that were originally ‘console exclusive’ or ‘console only’ are making their way towards the PC platform. Metal Gear Solid Rising for instance, is the first game in the Metal Gear series in years to be announced for the Xbox and… wait for it… PC platforms! The folks behind LA Noire also recently announced the availability of the game for PC too. And even more recently, I came across an article about the folks at Ubisoft expressing the complexity in developing games for consoles (but who, ironically, release A list games like Assassin’s Creed 4 to 5 months later for PC, after the initial PS3/Xbox debut!)
- And once again, we’re talking about Apple. I’m a big time HP fan but I’m somehow always delighted to hear about the ‘PC gaming love’ being spread to Macs… because there are many young people out there using Macs (If you don’t believe me, go to your local public college and prepare for a surprise!) and it’s always great to give them a taste of gaming (Valve has been doing a great job at encouraging this by releasing many of their PC titles like Left4Dead and Team Fortress for Mac). Who knows? These kids might be impressed by the small sample of games they can run on their MacBook and go out there to grab a HP Pavilion desktop for a better gaming experience at home, versus sitting on their couches running their Playstation/Xbox.
- Windows 8 Interface… and this might be the biggest deal breaker of them all. If Microsoft chooses to go back to supporting PC as THE gaming platform (instead of their Xbox consoles), they might want to do things right and make games almost or just as easy to install, patch and play as on a console. Power users like you and me don’t mind hitting ‘Setup.exe’ and tweaking things like anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and graphics card clock speeds, but the ‘average Joe’ doesn’t want to, or even knows how to. Easy of use! Microsoft’s already done it on Windows Phone, let’s hope they do the same for Windows 8.
And with all that being said, it’ll be great if HP starts gearing up now and getting some high-end gaming machines out there. Some folks would like to see the Blackbird 002 back, some would like to stuff a Z800 Workstation with triple SLI gaming graphics and that AMD announcement from last night is just *hint hint*!
AMD Radeon 6990M
AMD has just announced their Radeon 6990M mobile graphics card, which they proudly tout to be the latest fastest mobile GPU in the market at the moment… yup, faster than Nvidia’s flagship GeForce GTX580M. The AMD Mobility Radeon 6990M is a DirectX 11 card that boasts HD 3D support, Eyefinity (of course!) and will come in at least a 2 GB GDDR5 256-bit flavor, with a huge bandwidth pipeline of 115.2 GB/s.
Well, as usual, we’ve all got our fingers crossed and hopes up that HP will put this monster into at least something… maybe a refreshed Envy 17, refreshed EliteBook 8760w (we all know the EliteBooks love workstation-class Quadro and FirePro cards… but pretty please?) or even a higher end Touchsmart desktop would be great… though right now in reality, the AMD 6990M will be making its way into Clevo high end laptops and the Alienware M18x: very big and thick notebooks. We like to think that at least the EliteBook 8760w’s relatively svelte but well designed chassis should be able to take the heat from running this big boy.
HP has named Stephen DeWitt, their previous head for their Americas’ Personal Systems Group and now new leader of HP’s WebOS global business unit. He replaces Jon Rubinstein, who will now take the role of Senior VP of Global Innovation for their PSG team.
It will certainly be interesting to see the direction that he takes the WebOS ecosystem after that rumored 7 inch TouchPad variant comes out next month… hopefully we’ll see a true flagship WebOS device (dual core, 4 inch and above screen) one day.
Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard on sale!
Now, you have to forgive me and my recent slight obsession with keyboards: I’ve been on the hunt for a good keyboard that rivals the experience of my EliteBook’s built-in keyboard for use at home with the HP ZR24w monitor. I somehow love the EliteBook 2530p’s keyboard so much that I’ve been using it with the monitor… but I would prefer to have a standalone keyboard if I could.
I was looking through my inbox this morning and saw that Amazon has put the Logitech K750 Wireless Solar Keyboard on sale at 47 bucks for just today! There are no taxes (which always delights me), shipping is free and well, I’m thinking of picking this one up and see how things go (though I would honestly rejoice if they made a “no numberpad” version of the keyboard… but there are just so few keyboards sans numberpads out there which are full-size). Thought I’d put this up for anyone else looking for a wireless keyboard for their tables, it is after all a one-day only affair and a whole $10 cheaper than the next lowest price! Go check it out now before the offer disappears at the end of today!
