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HP joining venture with Microsoft to launch ‘Courier’ tablet

HP will team up with Microsoft to launch a tablet this Wednesday

Hot off the press is an article by the New York Times highlighting the impending launch of the “Microsoft Courier” (or at least something based off the concept) tablet this Wednesday by Steve Ballmer (Microsoft’s CEO) at the Consumer Electronics Show. Looks like there’s gonna be quite a bit of drama as HP (as in Hewlett Packard) and Microsoft team up to launch a tablet way before Apple’s tablet even comes out of ‘vaporware speculation’ status! Go team Microsoft! This upcoming tablet will be a ‘HP device’ (although what sort of branding it will receive is still a mystery. Will it be branded with Microsoft or HP’s name?) will have multimedia functions, including a reader feature, and a touchscreen (size unknown) supporting multi-touch input.

What to expect this CES 2010

It’s Tuesday already for everyone around the world except Hawaii residents. The biggest thing we’ve been hearing on the net and in the media lately is the Consumer Electronics Show 2010 (CES) being held in Las Vegas. CES is where many electronics and technology companies come out to showcase their greatest concepts and launch their latest products. For the computing sector, I’ve got a small list here of what to expect from this year’s CES:

• Pine Trail aplenty – Lots of netbooks sporting Intel’s latest N450 Pine Trail processor. While offering roughly the same 1.66 GHz clock speed compared to its predecessor, the N280 processor, this latest Intel processor sips even less power than ever and sports a marginally better integrated graphics chipset (but no, you still can’t play Modern Warfare 2 or Need for Speed Shift on your N450 netbook).
• Tablet PCs – Expect to see a lot more computer manufacturers entering the tablet fray. CES has barely begun yet we’ve already seen Lenovo come up with a “hybrid” netbook/tablet today and an accidental information burst from an internet retailer detailing HP’s upcoming Touchsmart tablet… and of course, the ever-present, ever-discussed speculation about Apple’s tablet, the iTablet (or not).
• Core i3 and i5 for notebooks – Both Intel’s Mobile Core i3 and Mobile Core i5 will finally see the day of light in many, many full-sized notebooks this year. As proven by initial benchmarking of new Core i5 processors against last year’s Core 2 models, we’re gonna see quite a speed boost from Intel’s latest with similar/less power consumption… and while it hasn’t happened yet, this is probably going to lead to the complete replacement of Core 2 “Socket P” processors by their Mobile i3/i5 counterparts. We’re already seeing Core 2 processors being phased out.
• More graphics power – ATI made a big bang last year with the 5000-series graphics cards and their famous performance benchmark numbers and have already come out with ‘notebook’ versions of their 5000-series graphics. Nvidia recently added their new GeForce 300 series graphics cards for notebooks, which offer a supposedly large leap over their predecessors. Reliable sources have also told me that there are still yet-to-be-announced Quadro Mobile variants of their GeForce 300 series for CAD work in mobile workstation models.
• Touchscreens and High Definition everywhere – With even the most basic of digital cameras about to feature 720p HD movie recording capabilities, computer manufacturers will be touting their HD features here, there and everywhere. “HD” displays, “HD” graphics, Blu-ray drives, HD this and HD that. They’ll also be quick to offer more touchscreen devices, and touchscreens on more devices. Savvy? More touchscreen phones, touchscreen LCD displays, touchscreen all-in-one computers, touchscreen tablets, optional touchscreens on notebooks (whose extra charge I would fail to justify unless a stand for holding my arm up to the screen for prolonged periods is included)…

I would say 2010 is a terrific year to go out there and shop for new gadgets; especially notebooks. With so much new and improved stuff (as in REAL, justifyable improvements), notably Mobile Core i5 and next-generation ATI/Nvidia graphics cards, getting a notebook this year would be great, because there’ll be a big leap in performance over last year’s models. And of course, who knows what other interesting things the year may bring in the tech area. I foresee lots of exciting, shiny stuff in my crystal ball

What single-player gaming should be…

Batman: Arkham Asylum for PC (I'm enjoying it, "only" 47% done)

The date is January 2, 2010. No sign of any HP news or rumors so far… so before we get all busy with CES 2010 (Consumer Electronics Show) and the rumored new HP notebooks and stuff, I’d like to take some time today to talk about gaming.

For the last two days before the New Year, I had probably the most exciting and enjoyable single-player gaming experience of 2009. Batman: Arkham Asylum (yes it has a superhero in it, but it certainly won’t be small little children playing this game) is a game which came out in September 2009 for PC, and yes, I’m noticeably late to the party (3rd person perspective games have never been my thing, but a recent experience of Metal Gear Solid 4 on a friend’s Playstation 3 has motivated me to try out more recent 3rd person games for PC*). In terms of single-player replay ability, the Left4Dead series are easily at the top for most re-playable games recently released but in my opinion, Arkham Asylum takes the cake for single-player playing depth.

I’ve spent about 12 hours spread out over two days (New Year’s eve and the eve before the eve) and I’m only 47% through the game (see my little screenshot above). I estimate it’ll take me about 26 hours in total to complete the entire single-player of Arkham Asylum – which is excellent! Compare that to the 4.5 hours it took on the latest Call of Duty title: Modern Warfare 2… and Modern Warfare 2 pales in comparison with its overly short single-player campaign. Granted, Arkham Asylum and Modern Warfare 2 are two games of two different genres but Arkham Asylum is a great example of how single-player should be on every game.

Not only does it take several days (or longer, if you don’t spend too much time playing in one sitting) to complete the game’s single-player mode, the game also makes you feel like you’ve been playing much longer than you really have (especially with some scenarios where you have to sneak around and be stealthy, combined with several high-packed, heart pumping fights/boss fights – there’s a really nice stark contrast here). Arkham Asylum’s gameplay essentially gives you a dose of some ‘stealth’ elements along with quite a bit of action, though it won’t be replacing games dedicated to those respective genres anytime soon.

Oh, did I mention the graphics and environment are both awesome (save for the few pre-rendered cutscenes. My eyes tell me they’re pre-rendered because the details and graphics in cutscenes are much coarser and lower resolution). The “world” of the Arkham Asylum island is nicely sized, and though you have to pass through or go back to some places at times, you don’t really feel “oh no, I’ve been here before, why am I here again” because there’s always something new: be it new bad guys having come back to patrol the area or giant “beanstalk” plants bursting through the walls and floors, presenting the need to find another way around.

What single player gaming should be: Sufficiently long with a good story line (this should be one of the top priorities in my opinion) – 24+ hours of singleplayer gameplay should be good, some level of non-linearity or dynamic/changing in-game elements and/or plot twists. With that all said, I think Eidos (Arkham Asylum’s developer) has won me over and just turned me into a potential customer for the upcoming sequel, Arkham Asylum 2. *Note: I still stand by the fact that I really wish someone would make an MGS4 port for PC!!