Hey, did you hear? It’s true! Now you can stop dreaming and really have your WebOS slate/tablet in the “near future”, thanks to confirmation directly from HP via a press release reporting their Q2 2010 financial results and also their Twitter feed (they have a habit of placing the most exciting things in the oddest of places, don’t they? Like listing new processors in service manuals). HP has also mentioned that we should also expect WebOS (or some sort of variation/edition) to make its way into printers (huh?!) as well – I presume these will be all-in-one printers as well as high end business printers where using a dedicated OS would come in handy the most.
Strange enough, they haven’t mentioned anything about stuffing WebOS into digital picture frames yet… I was kinda expecting that one.
HP Elitebook 8740w FINALLY makes its appearance
Don’t say we didn’t tell you something big was coming in mid-end March, because we did! And now it’s here: the HP Elitebook 8740w has just appeared on HP’s USA website – complete with a profile picture, half a dozen pre-built configurations and specifications, including ATI FirePro M7820 professional workstation class graphics appearing in its full glory. You can have one for yourself (the most basic model, of course) for a fairly affordable $1,999, while the almost-fully kitted out Core i7 quad model will cost you $3,899.
We expect prices for certain configurations to be able to hit the $5000 mark and over once more pre-built or configure to order models are released, especially with options for up to Core i7 Extreme (no word yet on whether it’ll be last year’s Intel Core i7 920XM quad core or the forthcoming Core i7 940XM quad core), backlit keyboard, Dream Color 2 and up to 16 GB of DDR3 RAM.
What puzzles me at the moment is why the seemingly high-end ATI FirePro M7820 is available only in the two lower end/cheaper configurations featuring regular Intel Core i5 processors and just 2 GB of RAM… I mean, ATI has always been affordable (versus Nvidia) in most cases, but the huge $1,000 price difference we’re seeing on the pre-built models? That’s just because you’re not getting Core i7 and loads of RAM that the Nvidia Quadro 8740w models have… and that sure makes one wonder WHY?!
And the magical question asked by people who DON’T want/need a 17 inch workstation-class laptop – will HP share some of the Core i7 Extreme and ATI FirePro love with the existing HP Elitebook 8440w and 8540w models? Quite likely.
HP Envy 15 updated: as seen on HP's retail website
HP has just updated their Envy 15 page, updating the 1/2 year old Envy with 1 GB of new ATI Mobility Radeon 5830 graphics and USB 3.0 standard with all models. The starting price has also dropped to $1299, with options for Intel’s dual core Core i5 processors for those wanting to go the affordable route.
Well, great. They just had to put ATI 5000-series graphics in this one and not in the Elitebook line?! Well, I’m not really swayed just yet because the Elitebook 8540w is more all-rounded compared to the Envy (in my opinion). Let’s just see which one ends up with a higher price after matching specifications to each other… and well, decide from there.
Right, like a lot of other HP iPAQ hw6915 users at the time, I wasn’t too happy when HP announced that they would NOT offer a Windows Mobile 6.0 upgrade for hw6915 Pocket PCs a few years ago. But now, those days have passed – I’d say HP should now leave their current Pocket PCs as they are, and start out fresh with some new devices this fall (Just remember HP has had a history of announcing new Windows Mobile devices around September/October). Phones like the iPAQ 600 and Data Messenger were already outdated at their release compared to competitors.
With the flurry of Windows Mobile 6.5 devices/upgrade announcements just starting to pour in, HP should take the opportunity and announce some solid-sounding devices (of course, prompt delivery on proposed availability dates is crucial as well). HP has been lagging behind the competition in the mobile device arena for the past two to three years and they really need to take action – how about some iPAQs with Snapdragon and Tegra processors? Larger screens, multi-touch/gestures and perhaps a “Touchsmart Mobile” UI? Oh, I mind as well mention that my iPAQ Data Messenger’s keyboard is already starting to wear out and is very unresponsive to presses nowadays; so how about better button designs (ala Nokia N97)?
One of HP’s to-be-announced Windows Mobile phones is the iPAQ K3, which looks to be the successor of the iPAQ 900. They just need to get their phone positioning and prices right this time – no more ‘mid-range’ phones for $500 please!
