HP Fansite

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?).

New HP Probooks launched

HP just launched their new line of low-end business notebooks today (with your choice of 14, 15.6 or 17.3 inch models), giving them the new sub-brand of HP Probooks. The new line of HP Probooks today come under their s-series, which is the entry-level part of HP’s business notebook line (there’s s, b, p and w which stand for standard, business, professional and workstation respectively). Well, there’s really nothing groundbreaking about today’s new releases, besides their price tags which are surprisingly low for business notebooks. There’s the usual feature-trickle from higher-end Elitebook models such as Quick Look 2, HP Spare Key and File Sanitizer, HDMI port, docking station compatibility and the availability of optional dedicated graphics. The BIGGEST (most prominent, rather) change is the new HP Probooks have chiclet keyboards, in-line with the rumor posted three weeks ago… well, what did I tell yeh?!

Can your netbook survive an 8 foot fall?

Because my Mini Note 2133 just did last weekend (ouch, almost broke my heart when it toppled over by accident and crashed eight feet down to the ground) but thankfully, it still works – hard disk, screen, internals are all well… only the casing seam came loose and now there’s a small gap between the front/back parts. But that doesn’t matter anyway, I’m just glad my data is safe and the machine still works.

Still, I can’t help but I wonder, what would have happened if it was one of those plasticky Dell Minis or Acer Aspire Ones…

External display problems with HP Mini’s?… yea right…

I just read one of the trashiest news stories I’ve ever seen this morning – about lack of VGA adapters for the HP Mini 1000 and secondary display output problems from the HP Mini 2140; which implied that both problems were ever so serious and at large… this is coming from one of Apple’s biggest fansites disguised as a normal tech site. Mini 2140 secondary display output problems? Yea right… nothing wrong here, I can even connect an external 1920 x 1200 resolution monitor… and it works… connections to projectors is almost a weekly/monthly thing for me… and it works every time.

I’m pretty sure the HP Mini 1000′s port for external display is also the same thing as found on Sony’s Vaio P netbook, and not some proprietary port. So even if HP or Sony didn’t officially sell/lacks stock for those VGA adapters, why not head on to your nearest electronics store or eBay to find a 3rd party version?

Seems like the guys over there who wrote such a post are trying to down HP’s image and reliability. It’s as if Apple’s Mini Display Port (the REAL proprietary, Apple-exclusive port) doesn’t have its fair share of problems either…

To be honest, I’m quite sick of websites which claim themselves as “tech blogs” despite them being apparently and obviously biased towards a certain brand… and that brand only. I’ll save my rant in full for another day, but the summary of today is: if you’re singing praises about Apple products on an almost daily basis, why not call yourself “The Apple Fansite” instead of a “general tech website”? You don’t exactly have to create false issues or blow up a tiny problem of other brands either, do you?

USBs, where more is better

I think one of the most crucial factors of deciding on a notebook is the design of it. Now, I’m not talking about how visually appealing a notebook looks – many people come about their shopping decisions based on how “pretty” it looks. Unless it’s a small form factor netbook/sub-notebook device, of course; where what most people are looking for is a small and usable ‘typewriter’ for documents and some web surfing, with hours and hours of battery life.

I think people should really try out and have a look at a notebook in-person, and look at its exterior design (and I mean the arrangement of ports, practicality and such), before saying “this is definitely for me”. Despite looking like someone who’s in the market for “colorful, trendy” or “stylish thin” notebook, looks can definitely be deceiving. Loud, rainbow, shiny, or super-thin notebooks simply won’t cut it for me, if they have just one USB port with a proprietary display connector or if they have 10 USB ports stacked side-by-side with no spacing in between – I don’t care how beautiful the notebook looks.

Yesterday I met with two proud new owners of Brand “F” notebooks (both people bought the same model) and I managed to have a look at the notebook’s design. 3 USB ports on paper, but in my opinion, only 1 or 2 are usable in real-life (Depends on device). There was one USB port on the left – no problem – but turn to the right, and I found 2 other USB ports there, stacked right on top of each other, slightly recessed AND sitting directly next to the optical drive. Now you tell me – assuming I’ve already used the left port – how I’m supposed to plug 2 USB devices (one flash media, another can be a cellphone/camera cable) at the same time into both ports? What if I want to load in a DVD? Is Brand F telling me that I have to unplug both devices, load in my DVD and plug the USB devices back in?

I’ve seen many, many notebooks of all brands, and really, I think HP has one of the more practical designs. In most of HP’s notebooks (however, “most” does not imply “all”), mainly business notebooks but there are some good consumer ones too, it seems that someone actually sat down and used the notebook for a few days before sending the design plans to the production lines and factories.

The USB ports are one such example – since they play a large role in a PC, besides the display/modem ports. It’s always good to have more of them on your notebook PC… but it is also equally crucial that there’s sufficient space between them and other ports, so you can plug in several devices at one go. Shown in the picture above is the HP Compaq 6510b business notebook (it’s current, direct successor is the 6530b), which features 2 nicely spaced USB ports on EACH side. Yup, it’s quite rare that you see a 14 inch screen-class notebook with four USB ports. Can I utilize all four simultaneously? Absolutely… again, there’s quite a bit of room between them.

Heck I could even plug a bunch of SanDisk Cruzer flash drives (Which happen to be quite wide) and all of them would fit, without blocking one another or other ports. Now THAT is practical.