HP Fansite

HP Slate and HP Android Smartbook: both official!

HP has just announced their new Slate tablet with a full color display, multimedia and reader functions. They’ve also got their new Android-based Smartbook on the table. They’re keeping mum about specifications at the moment, so I’ll keep you posted once they come out.

HP Slate: This tablet appears to be a 9 or 10 inch device that runs Windows 7, probably with some enhancements and dedicated software by HP (Touchsmart UI anyone?) to enhance the ‘touch’ experience, seeing it doesn’t have any keyboard. The 9 (or 10) inch display is a touchscreen which supports multi-touch. Functions of the HP Slate include multimedia capabilities (music and video playback), photo viewing and “reading mode”, supposedly via the Amazon Kindle app for PC. Of course, you can do all sorts of other stuff you do on your computer as it runs Windows 7.

So far, we can see the HP Slate’s power on/off button at the top and what appears to be a volume control rocker. On the right side is a wireless on/off slot and 3.5 mm headphone jack. None of HP’s videos or photos reveal what’s on the left side of the HP Slate, which may or may not be deliberately hidden by creative camera angles.

HP says prototypes of the HP Slate will start appearing later this year (huh?!). Well, they’d better hurry up if they want to start selling these BEFORE Christmas 2010!

Here’s a little 18 second promotional/mini-preview video of the HP Slate, courtesy of Hewlett Packard USA:

HP Android netbook: The HP Android smartbook (or netbook, whatever you prefer call these things) is not nearly as exciting as the HP Slate, but it appears to be a white HP Mini (looks like the Mini 110) with a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in it and it runs Google’s Android operating system. No word on pricing, availability or battery life so far.

HP Touchsmart featured in Black Eyed Peas video

The Black Eyed Peas recently featured the HP Touchsmart in their latest music video “Boom Boom Pow”. The HP Touchsmart appears three times in the music video – at the very beginning, the end and somewhere in the middle of the video. And not just ANY HP Touchsmart – it’s a HP Touchsmart with a super-sized HP logo!! (and a plus-size screen? Read on for speculation)

Compare that to this closeup taken of a ‘normal’ HP Touchsmart:

Check out the proportions of the logo and it sure makes a huge difference (no pun intended).

There are three plausible explanations:

• HP Touchsmart “product placement edition” with bigger HP logos for appearances in music videos, TV shows and movies
• HP is introducing a slight cosmetic change to normal, retail Touchsmarts this summer (because someone thought the logo was too small)… and the BEP were the first to get their hands on one
• A new HP Touchsmart all-in-one model is coming (See why below)

I put my arm/hand up to my friend’s HP Touchsmart in the same manner as in the video above and my upper arm covers almost 60-70% the length of a 25.5 inch Touchsmart. So it seems the arm/Touchsmart ratio from the Black Eyed Peas video screengrab above is larger than mine – which could either mean body part dimension variations between humans OR that Touchsmart in the video is HUGE (Possibly a 28 or 32 inch model?).

HP iPAQ Data Messenger still rocks in some ways

Sure, it may not be the best darn Pocket PC phone out there (though HP may change that with newer phones later this year), but the HP iPAQ Data Messenger still has several reasons for existing iPAQ 612 or 912 owners to drop those models for this one. Even I’ve got to admit, coming from the iPAQ h6310 and hw6515/hw6915 phones, within my first DAY of using the iPAQ 612c, I thought “the iPAQ 612 sucks compared to previous HP Pocket PCs” (but you can’t really complain much if you’re loaning a phone and don’t have to pay for it; beggars can’t be choosers). When HP announced their iPAQ Data Messenger late fall last year, it’s specifications weren’t very impressive but still, it did offer me some compelling reasons to try it out…

The Data Messenger is essentially the fusion of the hw6915′s quick typing abilities (QWERTY keyboard) and “faux music jack” (2.5 mm headphone jack, adaptable to 3.5 mm) with the 612c’s plus points; the candybar form factor, vibrate/silent mode switch and more traditional 4:3 screen (Well, versus the hw6915′s weird square screen; not good for gaming on the go).

I’ve been using the iPAQ Data Messenger for a week now (it’s a retail model) and I do not regret, at all, dumping my iPAQ 612 for this new Pocket PC. This final, retail version fixes most of the issues I had with the pre-production version I used in November; namely camera autofocus not working, the keyguard button not working and a few software incompatibilities. The only incompatibility that remains is you CAN’T use the TCPMP player with the Data Messenger… an error constantly appears when you try to start up the player (you’ll have to use Core Player instead, which offers similar functionality).

So what plus points does the iPAQ Data Messenger offer over the iPAQ 612/912 phones?

• 2.5 mm headphone jack (YEAH!) – you can use an adapter to plug in your own 3.5 mm headphones.
  Instead of the mini USB port for headphones, where you get stuck for life with those crummy in-the-box earbuds.
• Separate micro USB port; -means you can now charge/connect the phone to your PC while continuing to listen to music at the same time.
• Larger, FLUSH 2.81 inch screen (yeah, not a big deal compared to the 612′s 2.8 inch screen, but a nice difference versus the 912′s 2.6 inch screen)
• Ambient light sensor; the screen automatically adjusts its brightness based on surrounding light
• EXCELLENT outdoor/bright light screen visibility – I can actually view the display outside on a bright sunny day now (dare I say, this rivals the Apple iPhone)
• Proximity sensor – this detects when the phone is against your ear/face when making a phone call and the Data Messenger will automatically turn off the screen
• Vibrate/silent mode switch – you can activate/disable silent mode any time (versus none on the 912; on the 612, you had to turn the phone on, press the button, and turn it off)
• HP Keyguard – this isn’t the standard Windows Mobile device lock… when the phone is locked, you can turn on the screen to check for any missed calls/messages and then just stuff it back into your pocket; the phone will turn the screen back off after several seconds
• Better camera image quality – the Data Messenger is no digital SLR but the colors it produces now are much more vivid and realistic; pictures are a tad sharper too
• Louder earpiece and loudspeaker units – now I can finally be able to hear the caller when I’m in a crowded place (malls, tradeshows and conventions, etc)
• Better sound quality – with the iPAQ 612c, music and sounds were kinda “tinny” but the Data Messenger’s sound is much deeper, louder and better (one of the factors is probably the design of the battery cover over the speaker)
• QWERTY keyboard – it’s awesome, period (the 612 had none, the 912′s keyboard was tiny and slippery)
• Improved battery life – I’m loving this as well… it’s not the best out there, but for a Pocket PC phone, battery life is very good (Data Messenger lasts for 2-3 days of my standard usage, 612c only lasts for 1 day) and I tend to heavily use feature phones.
• Very stylish design – this is my personal opinion

Some of the features like the sound/music department, QWERTY keyboard and battery life of the iPAQ Data Messenger were HUGE to me… I have even tried typing a 1,000 word article using the phone’s keyboard when I was out last weekend.

The iPAQ 612 and iPAQ 912 phones were probably fluke shots by HP… but the Data Messenger goes back to the roots of HP iPAQ design and functionality (Well, sort of). For those with bad impressions or experiences with the 612/912, I would advise you to not strike HP off your “phone shopping list” forever – the new models they’re releasing, like this one, are much better already… and I can foresee more, even better things coming…

I suspect I’ll be a very happy user of the iPAQ Data Messenger for at least the next 9-12 months… until something newer and better comes along…

HP iPAQ Data Messenger Review

I recently got my hands on a retail version of HP’s iPAQ Data Messenger phone (European version).

It’s a nice, simple and stylish looking Pocket PC phone which is a tad smaller than the iPAQ 600 I have. To summarize in one sentence what the HP Data Messenger is all about, it’s actually a slightly smaller iPAQ 600 with a QWERTY keyboard and more fashion sense.

The main features of the HP iPAQ Data Messenger is a 2.8 inch QVGA (320 X 240) touchscreen, a slide-out backlit QWERTY keyboard from the side, with an optical navigation pad and touch sensitive controls on the front, 3 megapixel camera and it runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro. There’s also a 2.5 mm headphone jack for making calls/listening to music and micro USB port for charging and connectivity to your computer.

Sure, I do not doubt what people think about the iPAQ Data Messenger – even at the time of its debut, which was around October 2008, it’s specifications already looked dull, dusty and outdated compared to its competitors with similar form factors (that is, devices running WM 6.1 Pro with slide-out QWERTY keyboards). Both the Sony Xperia X1 and HTC Touch Pro offer either larger/higher resolution screens than the HP Data Messenger and come with their own Today Interface, which attempts to cover, what people brand as hideous and clunky, the Windows Mobile UI.

So what’s the point of the HP iPAQ Data Messenger, you ask? Well, it’s mainly targeted at business people who want a straight forward business Pocket PC phone (And we all know Windows and Windows Mobile mean business). It’s not meant to be a flashy or show-off phone with tons of bells and whistles. I find the Sony Xperia X1 a bit on the pricey side (which Sony product isn’t?) while the HTC Touch Pro is the true competitor of the HP Data Messenger and will probably steal quite a few sales thanks to its superior specifications.

However, what’s going for the Data Messenger, versus the Touch Pro 1, is that it has a 2.5 mm headphone jack (I can easily plug in an adapter for 3.5 mm standard headphones) and the fact that I can start out with a fresh phone and install whichever 3rd party Windows Mobile Today Interface that I want. Compared to the new Touch Pro 2 and other new phones released over the past week this month and it’s a different story; those other phones are much more appealing, sadly.

The only way HP can probably fight for now is by lowering the price of the Data Messenger so more people will go for it… and get off their butts NOW to the design room, then hopefully down the road somewhere, release more appealing and competitive iPAQs which are actually able to stand toe-to-toe against the competition!

I love HP (especially their notebooks) but I seriously think they should actually put in some effort into their Pocket PC/smart phone department!

HP Elitebook 8730w battery life numbers

Based on my extensive usage and testing of the HP Elitebook 8730w (2.53 GHz dual core, 4 GB RAM, 17 inch DreamColor screen, Windows Vista Business, Nvidia Quadro FX3700M 1GB workstation graphics) since November, I’ve come up with a list of battery life numbers that can be achieved using this Mobile Workstation notebook PC. Using the included primary battery:

• Gaming – 1 hour (Display at the brightest setting, high performance mode)
• Graphics rendering – 1 hour 30 minutes
• Adobe Photoshop CS4 continuous use – 1 hour 40 minutes
• High-definition movie playback – 1 hour 40 minutes (Display at the brightest setting)
• Documents, excel and casual web surfing – 2 hours 30 minutes
• Combined usage (Some documents and typing, music through headphones and Photoshop CS4) – 2 hours (Display at medium brightness, balanced power mode)

These numbers were recorded when the battery ran down to 3% and Windows went into sleep mode. The battery life numbers have also been rounded down to the nearest 10 minutes.

So there you have it; now you know what to expect from the HP Elitebook 8730w when performing specific tasks. Adding on a secondary battery, that is HP’s Extended Battery option, will effectively double those numbers listed above.