HP Fansite

Super HP belated Valentine’s day rumors roundup

Okay, fine, so this may have little to do with Valentine’s day… but let’s spread some love for the several HP notebooks that have been and continue to stay elusive.

Elitebook 8740w: So it seems a lot of people have a couple of grand lying around and are all set to drop it on this long-awaited Mobile Workstation on the precise millisecond it comes out. Question is WHEN?! There was a gap of roughly one month between when the Elitebook 6930p and 8530/8730w series were announced back in 2008. It’s been over a month since the Elitebook 8440 and 8540 models were announced at CES 2010, so where is the 8740w?! (And oh, before I forget 8740w, where are your smaller friends as well?). I suspect the Elitebook 8740w’s elusiveness has something to do with ATI launching FirePro mobile, HP launching DreamColor 2 displays or both. Most likely DreamColor 2 is the culprit. You see, DreamColor displays are a wonderful technology that you don’t see on notebooks everyday… so what a great party/bash it would be for HP to launch the flagship Elitebook 8740w FEATURING DreamColor 2?! It’s very, very, very likely that the 8740w and DreamColor 2 will debut hand-in-hand, at least that’s the way speculation seems to be pointing…

Envy 14 and Envy 17: Cooler than ever. Not that the Envy 13 and 15 aren’t cool enough, in the cool dude sense of the word, because they look awesome. Word is the Envy 14 and Envy 17 will not only LOOK awesome, but stay cool as well… as in, not burn up your palms and thighs as you work on an Office 2010 document or play Crysis 2 at high settings in the future.

Envy 17′s first sale?! Everyone rush out and check your local consumer electronics store(s) now! An enthusiastic reader claims (multiple times) that he’s bought an Envy 17 less than a week ago, from some place that he would’ve never gone to buy a computer from (he doesn’t mention where) and that he got a good deal on it. In another of his comments, he emphasizes that it has a “number pad”, though little else is mentioned. False alarm? Or could someone else really hit the jackpot and find a store selling the Envy 17? Pictures or it didn’t happen!

Shifting things around: If anyone has noticed, HP has shifted their new 8440 and 8540 forwards on their Elitebook page, and relegated the 6930p, 8530p and 8540w to the back seat (or right edge of the page). Perhaps this is a sign of the Elitebook 8740w to come? Or is this just HP doing some website spring cleaning, again?

Okay, I’m done shifting through rumors and whatnot for the day. Back to putting on the finishing touches to my Envy 15 + ATI Mobility Radeon 5830 review…

HP’s Phil McKinney talks more about the HP Slate

Hey, remember when Microsoft and HP showed off the new HP Slate during CES 2010 earlier this month/year? HP has just posted a video featuring Phil McKinney and the HP Slate… and they couldn’t have picked a better time, less than 48 hours before Apple’s “launch event” for 2010 (supposedly the Apple tablet is debut during then). I’m getting kinda sick of Apple tablet rumors; I usually click off/close windows when I see “Apple tablet rumors” being posted – normally it’s the same old speculation recycled over and over again to generate hype. But after checking out the (mostly positive) reaction across the net today towards the HP Slate, I think this is gonna be a very appealing, very competitive offering against the currently-vaporware competitor from Apple (and also other tablet form-factor devices). I mean, a full fledged Windows 7 in a relatively compact and slim design… and HP’s usual touch-optimized, Touchsmart-like user friendly add-on user interface – bring it on!

Here’s the YouTube video courtesy of HP (You can watch it in HD if you like)

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.

HP Pavilion dv4i appears on HP official site; starts at $799

HP Pavilion dv4i as seen on HP's official site

During one of my obsessive visits to HP’s notebook pages, I have just spotted that they’ve just added the Intel Core i5 boasting Pavilion dv4i to their consumer product line. Strange, because there wasn’t any official announcement made during yesterday’s flood of CES product announcements by HP. Anyway, here it is – the appearance of the dv4i from $799 on HP.com (the official website) squashes earlier internet rumors of a “gold” colored dv4i and $949 retail price.

The Pavilion dv4i gives you a choice of Intel’s Core i5 520M (2.4 GHz) or 540M (2.53 GHz) dual core processors, whose Turbo Boost feature can speed them up to 2.93 GHz and 3.06 GHz respectively. Other improvements versus the previous Pavilion dv4 include DDR3 RAM (up to 8 GB), hard disk options up to 500 GB (with 7200 RPM standard) and a 512 MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4550 graphics card, which replaces the Nvidia GeForce G105M on the old model (hurrah??). Cosmetically, nothing has changed on the Pavilion dv4i, right down to the all-black glossy case with circular-spiral patterns on the lid and palmrest.

HP Pavilion dv4i main features:

• Intel Core i5 Mobile
• 2 DDR3 RAM slots
• Hard disk bay (up to 500 GB), 7200 RPM is standard
• ATI Mobility 4550 graphics (512 MB)
• 14 inch glossy display (1280 x 800)
• Optical drive (Optional Blu-ray)
• 2 headphone output jacks; 1 microphone jack
• 3 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI out, VGA and LAN ports
• Expansion Port 3 for optional dock