Looks like HP and Adobe are turning out to be pretty good friends… unlike Adobe’s…sour… relationship with a certain fruit company. HP feat. Adobe have recently put on a new video about the HP Slate and its support for flash (among other things). Perfect timing eh? Just as the first Apple iPad ad made its appearance at the Oscars earlier today…
Here’s HP + Adobe’s 5 minute 26 second video on the HP Slate!
Okay, I bet most of us are happy that an ATI Mobility Radeon 5000-series based FirePro M5800 is coming to the Elitebook 8540w, an even better FirePro M7820 is on its way to the upcoming Elitebook 8740w and that the Elitebook 8740w jigsaw has been (mostly) pieced together… But are you sitting down?! Rumors of the new DreamColor 2 display (first discovered about a month ago in an Elitebook 8540w service manual and leaked by HP themselves) have recently surfaced. Wow, with so many rumors and things pouring out recently, we can speculate that something must be brewing… HP? ATI?
The DreamColor display by HP, launched in 2008 with DreamWorks (yes, must be the people who made Shrek and Over The Hedge), has been renowned for showing off ‘true colors’ without breaking the bank (much). This latest iteration (DC2) is rumored to have higher native color bit (10 bits versus 8 bits of DreamColor 1), IPS technology (just like the current 24 inch DreamColor monitor) and ‘improved’ backlighting, among other things…and, based on past news, will be making its way into -at least- the 8540w and 8740w.
For those asleep because they thought DreamColor 2 was going to just feature ‘more colors’, wake up! Because rumors seem to be pointing to something more impressive than just an ‘evolution’ of DreamColor 1.
Bye bye Nvidia workstation graphics exclusivity, first it was the FirePro M5800 leak last month and reported marriage with the HP Elitebook 8540w. Just recently, news from an anonymous party has just surfaced about a new ATI FirePro M7820 workstation class graphics card that will feature 1 GB of GDDR5 memory and DirectX 11, and based off the powerful Mobility Radeon 5870 ‘gaming class’ card. And this puppy will find its way first into the upcoming Elitebook 8740w Mobile Workstation AND… get ready your tissues to wipe off that drool… the ATI FirePro M7820 will supposedly sit a step or two higher than Nvidia’s flagship mobile workstation FX3800M graphics card! ATI’s seriously been making a big comeback for the last couple of months and it doesn’t look like they’re losing steam anytime soon. In other news, the 17 inch Elitebook 8740w is said to sport a fully backlit keyboard (partial chiclet keys with numeric pad, no less), a “first” for an HP Elitebook.
When, when, when? You ask frantically. Patience is a virtue, my friend – likely this month. Who else here has a feeling that the leaked ATI FirePro M5800 will also appear alongside its newfound big brother, the FirePro M7820 at the same time during launch?
Get this, less than five days after HP announced their new Elitebook 2540p, 2740p and new ProBooks, they made another separate announcement today! This time it’s the successor to the Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam consumer-designer netbook – introducing the HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam edition. This new designer netbook features a special Butterfly design(one of those love-hate things) on the lid and all-gold (just paint of course, not real gold) casing, and will be available for $600 in the near future. Other specifications like that Atom N450 processor, 1 RAM slot and other things are exactly the same as you would find on a regular HP Mini 210. Like butterflies and gold? Then the HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam edition is probably your dream come true (at a small price premium over a conventional Mini 210 of course!)
Say what now?! After a few years of abandoning the camera market, it seems that HP is making a come back this year with five new digital still cameras and three new camcorders. I’m surprised that none of them have HP’s old “Photosmart” moniker – they could’ve used one, instead of the confusing numbers and letters each model has right now. The five new cameras (with the confusing names: CW450, CW450t, SW450 PW460t, PW550z) are all sub-$150 entry-level offerings and will sell only though certain channels. The camcorders (with names just as confusing: V1020h, V5061u and V5560u) are sub-$200 models, two of which are able to record full HD 1080p video and have regular “camcorder” form-factors, while the cheapest (And slimmest) of the three will record 720p regular HD video.
Not sure why HP is suddenly making a come back this spring, neither is it known what their plan in the digital imaging (still and video cameras) business is for the long term. Well, HP, if there’s one place where a “comeback” (and a big, bad-ass comeback, at that) is needed from you is the handheld/mobile phone line. While I’m sure many appreciate HP toying with and testing the waters of different device markets, the iPaq line has long been in need of a nice refresh with awesome new models (something we haven’t seen in quite some time now…)
In a report today by the Wall Street Journal online, there’s news that HP plans to introduce their HP Slate at a price lower than the Apple iPad (3G connectivity version) of the same size (presumably built-in memory size, not physical size). Isn’t competition great?! Technically, the HP Slate (which I’d like to remind you, will run on full-fledge Windows 7) would still be a better deal than the iPad (which is just an oversized iPod Touch with iPhone OS plus a few additional features for the larger display), even if priced slightly higher, because of versatility of Windows 7 versus a mobile OS. But I suppose this move is even better, to prevent the dreaming ‘iSheep’ from just blindly buying the iPad because it’s “cheaper”…
Comparing the HP Slate and Apple iPad, of similar memory and price, the HP Slate is the obvious victor with Windows 7. Imagine all the things you could do with a full fledged OS (AKA the same things you currently do on your desktop/notebook, minus playing Crysis and running 3Ds MAX), compared to the mobile OS used by the iPad. Now imagine the HP Slate being even cheaper than the iPad, what a great deal that would be! For the record, the Apple iPad will sell for $629, $729 and $829 for 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB 3G-enabled versions. Oh remember to check out a comparison between the two slate form factor devices in the HP Slate vs Apple iPad article I posted last month!
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hp news | Brad | 
March 9, 2010 5:26 am | 
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