Even though there were rumors awhile back that HP would be shutting down VoodooPC, it seems the gaming PC maker is very much so still on the roster.
In fact, HP is lowering the price tag on several VoodooPC products in an effort to really get them to move. For instance, the Envy 133, an ultra-thin notebook, used to cost $2,100, but it now will cost $1,900. And thrown into the deal is a free extra battery until the end of the month. Not too bad.
A rumor is currently going around that HP will soon be shutting down VoodooPC, which was only acquired by the company two years ago.
It seems an internal email at HP indicated some VoodooPC employees would be laid off. But, as those at the Gadget Lab note, since VoodooPC is rather small to begin with, a lay off could result in the shutting down of the entire company.
We’ve heard from our friends over at Notebooks.com that there’s a prize or four to be had, and since we know SlashGear readers love a competition (just like us, in fact) we thought we’d point you in their direction. Up for grabs is a Voodoo Envy 133, worth $2,199, and three Lenovo IdeaPad S10 netbooks. All you have to do to enter is fill in a short survey; no tie-breakers, no cryptic questions, no need to make a model of the solar system out of old hard-drive parts. Good luck!
If any SlashGear reader wins a prize, please do let us know!
While plenty has been made of the Voodoo Envy 133’s skinny dimensions, superlative performance and general aggression toward the MacBook Air, Voodoo are also rightly proud of their Splashtop implementation. A secondary Linux OS, Splashtop allows users to quickly access internet, messaging and VoIP apps without needing to go through the hassle of booting Vista. Laptop Magazine had some hands-on time with Splashtop on the 133 and came away impressed; check out the demo video and highlights after the cut.
Dell’s Latitude XT convertible tablet PC is getting a multitouch upgrade tomorrow, which will introduce fingertip control from multiple contact points to the notebook’s capacitive touchscreen. The XT was the first tablet PC to use a capacitive panel, and at launch could recognise both fingertip and multi-tipped pen contact. Now it gets iPhone-style pinch zooming and two-fingered scroll control, courtesy of a straightforward software upgrade.
Video demo of the new multitouch support after the cut
We hope you enjoyed the pilot episode of SlashGear TV week-in-review. This week, we are back with episode number 1. While we’re happy with the 25-minute clip, there’s still a lot of room for improvements. That being said, please submit your feed backs as to what you liked, didn’t like or want to see more of (within reasons of course). We’re striving to do our best to make each week entertaining as well as informative.
Talk about accurate naming. You may not be too keen on the particular paint-job this specific example of Voodoo’s Envy 133 notebook is sporting – I have to admit, insipid-orange it wouldn’t be my first choice of color – but you have to agree that it’s a slickly designed machine. The images come courtesy of The Next Bench, chief hanging-out spot of Voodoo aficionados.
Unsurprisingly the iPhone 3G has overshadowed just about all other news this week, with Steve Jobs taking to the Keynote stage at WWDC 2008 on Monday and announcing Apple’s updated cellphone. Packing 3G, GPS, improved software and more into an only slightly thicker (and curvier) chassis, the iPhone 3G is destined to make waves when it launches on July 11th, especially given the lower price of $199 (for the 8GB model). We live-blogged the Keynote and many of you were good enough to join us; check out our coverage here, and click over to iPhone Buzz for more up-to-the-minute iPhone news.
Hang on, surely this isn’t Microsoft putting a new Voodoo Envy in with Apple’s MacBook Air and expecting the two to fight like savage monkeys? I can’t imagine they’d stoop to such cruelty, so I can only think that the Air showed up to see how the new “thinnest ultraportable notebook” measures up. As you can see, it’s night and day (unless you choose the silver Envy, in which case it’s basically day and day) in terms of obvious styling.
After announcing the super-slick Envy ultraportable earlier on today, Voodoo have also unveiled their new gaming PC, the Omen. Conclusively proving that hard edges are back in style (and that minimalism never really went away), the monolithic 22-inch tall Omen was designed in-house. Based on an ASUS Striker Extreme II (NVIDIA 790i) motherboard, CPUs up to Intel’s Core 2 Extreme Quad-Core 3.20GHz QX9770 (with 12 MB of L2 cache; 1600 MHz FSB) and up to 8GB of 1600 MHz Corsair PC-14400 DDR3 SDRAM can be specified. Graphics options include the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 ULTRA with 768MB of GDDR3 SDRAM and the ATI Radeon HD3870 series.
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