One of the most notable new products arriving for the summer is the Envy 14 TouchSmart Ultrabook, which comes with a 14-inch display at 1366×768 by default, but can be immediately upgraded to a more feasible 1600×900. Furthermore, though, you’ll be able to upgrade to a whopping 3200×1800 resolution sometime this summer, all of which is touchscreen-equipped.

The laptop has a modest starting price of $699, but that won’t get you the high-resolution display sadly — you’ll most likely have to hand over more cash in order to enjoy the 3200×1800 resolution. There’s no word on what hardware the new laptop is running, but we’re guessing Intel’s new Haswell architecture is tucked neatly inside, waiting for an official unveil next month during Computex.

The New Envy 14 TouchSmart looks to take on Google’s Chromebook Pixel and Apple’s MacBook Pro Retina-equipped laptops. However, Samsung is also in the running, as they recently announced a laptop of their own that packs a 3200×1800 display. What we once thought was insanely high-res, is now playing catch-up with HP and Samsung. Who would’ve thought?

HP also showed off their other refreshed laptops, such as 15-inch and 17-inch variants of the Envy line, as well as new Pavilion 11-, 14-, 15-, and 17-inch laptops that include a mixture of Intel and AMD processors, as well as NVIDIA mobile graphics. Furthermore, the company added on five new desktops that pack Intel’s new Haswell chips. You can grab one for as low as $289 for the HP 110, although you’ll have to cough up more for a robust machine.

VIA: Engadget

The display comes in the form of an IPS LED panel offering a resolution of 1600 x 900 with 10-point touch, and audio is courtesy of integrated Beats Audio. Under the hood, the HP ENVY Rove 20 runs 4th generation Intel Core processors and Intel HD graphics. The AiO PC has an adjustable kickstand on the back for propping the device up. As far as software goes, HP preloads the ginormous slate with some games, including Monopoly.

HP’s Consumer PCs and Solutions Senior VP and General Counsel Ron Coughlin said: “Customers are looking for mobility and flexibility in their computing devices to give families new ways to bring generations together. HP is evolving to meet our customers’ needs by designing next-generation form factors, like the Rove mobile All-in-One PC, which will enable people to connect, share and create in ways they never imagined.”

In addition to the ENVY Rove 20, HP also announced a couple other devices, including the HP Pavilion 20 TouchSmart and Pavilion 23 TouchSmart All-in-One PCs, the HP Pavilion 11 TouchSmart Notebook, and the HP Pavilion 14 TouchSmart Sleekbook. Obviously, all four PCs offer touch panel displays, allowing users to take advantage of Windows 8′s touch-based design.

And finally, rounding out the announcement are two new compact printers, the HP ENVY 4500 All-in-One and the HP 5530 e-All-in-One. Both are color printers offering HP ePrint and HP wireless direct. With this functionality, consumers can print from a mobile device, such as an iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.

All the PCs will be launched in June, with the exception of the HP ENVY Rove 20, which will be released in July for a yet-unspecified price. The Pavilion 20 TouchSmart AiO will be priced at $620, the Pavilion 23 TouchSmart AiO will be priced at $750, the Pavilion 11 TouchSmart Notebook at $400, and the Pavilion 14 TouchSmart Sleekbook at $480. All prices are the base rate, and will increase depending on user customizations.

The ENVY 4500 (launch in June) printer will start at $99, and the ENVY 5530 eAiO (launch in July) at $130.

SOURCE: HP

Like many recent Android tablets, this doubles as a netbook as HP has a dedicated keyboard dock to transform this into a full laptop-like experience. Add in the NVIDIA Tegra 4 power, and you’ve got quite the device on your lap. All the details on the Slatebook can be found from our announcement post, and you’ll want to check out the images if you’re interested.

With a 10.1-inch HD display, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and the quad-core Tegra 4 processor under the hood the device should be pretty darn fast, stable, and powerful. Add in 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and the keyboard dock and you’ll have most the essentials for an Android slate. You’ll also get a micro-SD slot, hdmi-out, and much more.

Today at CTIA NVIDIA was nice enough to give us a quick glance at the new portable they’ll be powering, and even tossed up a demo showing just how fast it is. Compared to the impressive Google and Samsung Nexus 10, the HP Slatebook blew past some browser benchmarks with NVIDIA’s Tegra 4. This is just one test, but it nearly doubles the performance. Take a peek below.

In addition to having a 1920 x 1200 full HD display, the dedicated keyboard dock gives you additional juice with a separate battery for longer usage. As well as another SD slot, this time full SD, for even more storage options. While we only had a limited amount of time with the new slate, it gave us a pretty good first impression. We didn’t like the flat power and volume buttons in the press photos, but found them easy to locate and use in real life. This kept the slate sleek and we liked the design language.

So far our only complaint would be a little dip and recessed area on bottom that fits into the keyboard dock, which wasn’t extremely comfortable for regular tablet usage. However, that same area also houses front facing speakers, something we wish all tablets had on board. We’ll need more time with the slate but we came away with two thoughts. One being that HP is looking to dive head first into the Android tablet game. And second being the Tegra 4 is one impressive quad-core chip. Stay tuned for more from CTIA 2013.

With the HP Split x2, consumers get a 13.3-inch high-definition touchscreen display that can be detached from the base, which contains an extra optional hard drive for additional storage on top of the storage in the detachable unit. As with the dual hard drives, there are dual batteries for “ultramobility,” all of it wrapped up in a soft-coated shell to keep fingerprints to a minimum.

Under the hood, users will find a 3rd-generation Intel Core processor (Core i3 and Core i5 options) and up to 8GB of RAM, while audio is provided via Beats Audio and HP Connected Music. There’s a multi-finger ClickPad trackpad, as well as a 2-megapixel HP TrueVision Full HD integrated webcam for video chatting. Storage can be expanded via an SD card slot in the base and a microSD card slot in the slate. You can see the device in action in the video above.

There are the various software trimmings you’d expect, such as support tools and other similar resources, as well as various warranty options for protection against accidents. The HP Split x2 is slated to hit shelves in the United State this upcoming August, and will have a starting price of $799.99.

Said HP’s Senior VP of Consumer PCs Ron Coughlin: “Customers want to access and share content anywhere, anytime, on any internet connected device-and they expect those connections to be seamless. The HP SlateBook x2 and the HP Split x2 are next-generation devices and the latest examples of our continued commitment to evolving the computing experience by providing the flexibility necessary for customers to be productive at home, at the office or on the go.”

Inside this device you’ve got 16GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot that allows you to expand memory by 32GB, and 2GB of RAM. You’ll also be able to work with full-sized SD cards in a slot separate from the smaller cards. Inside both the slate itself and the keyboard dock you’ll find batteries ready to bring on a rather massive amount of up-time.

Sound will be handled by HP’s implementation of DTS Sound+, which sounds nice, but this device’s speakers continue to suffer from the dreaded back-facing syndrome that continues to plague the tablet universe. Until they head to the front, you’ll continue to get a bounced-sound experience.

The display on this machine is a 1920 x 1200 resolution IPS panel with some impressive viewing angles and 400 nit brightness. Through this you’ll be breaking out high-definition graphics at 224.17 PPI – not the densest panel in the world by any means, but certainly ready to compete with the rest of the 10.1-inch competitors on the market today.

This system is officially licensed by Google, meaning you’ll have access to the Google Play system for media – apps, movies, music, books, and the like. Android is a nearly-vanilla iteration with 4.2.2 Jelly Bean ready right out of the box. It’s not yet clear whether HP will be handling updates for the system itself in the future, or if Google will be able to send updates directly: once the final software build is shown, we’ll know for sure.

Above you’ll get a peek at an extended chat we had with NVIDIA’s Technical Marketing Director Nick Stam earlier this year about the NVIDIA Tegra 4 mobile processor. This processor is being delivered in the HP SlateBook x2, the first transformable machine to deliver it and one of the first devices in general to deliver it as well. Another high-powered example: NVIDIA’s SHIELD.

The HP SlateBook x2 will be available starting in August in the United States for $479.99 USD, while international sales have not yet been confirmed. This device will be released alongside a similar machine working with Windows going by the name HP Split x2 – have a peek at that machine and the rest of HP’s ever-expanding line of devices in SlashGear’s HP tag portal right this minute!

While each of the units being presented in the HP ProBook 400 notebook PC series is a significant amount thinner than its predecessor, the line also brings up to 18% lighter weight points as well. Like HP is want to do with their notebook lineup across the board, the company is pushing a “115,000 hours of reliability testing” point here with the 400 series. They’ve also suggested that this line has gone through “extensive platform qualification” as well.

The HP ProBook 430 G1 will be released alongside the HP ProBook 440 G0 while the HP ProBook 445 G1 will be offered along side the ProBook 455 G1 and the ProBook 470 G0 as well, all of them starting to hit shelves this month starting at $499 USD. You’ll be able to have a peek at this lineup this month right alongside the HP 200 Series Notebook as well, this lineup made for small businesses from start to finish.

With the HP 200 Series Notebook, HP has created a business machine made for content creation and consumption in a rather stock-ready sense. Both the HP ProBook 400 notebook PC line and the HP 200 Series Notebook line work with HP 3D DriveGuard for hardware protection of your data – that’s for real bumps and sudden movements making with the otherwise deadly crashes on your machine.

NOTE: While it’s mentioned here that the HP 200 Series Notebook will be aiming to take on the rising Chromebook market, it will not be working with Google’s Chrome operating system. Instead users will be working with Microsoft’s Windows OS.

The HP 200 Series Notebook line works with a durable casing that comes in any color just so long as it’s black, and you’ll have the choice of picking this machine up in two iterations. There’s the HP 250 Notebook and the HP 255 Notebook, the line starting at $249 USD, looking ready to take on the inexpensive Chromebook segment head-on.

HP didn’t say anything about the date change either way, and April has progressed without any changes – until today, that is. The tablet is now available as HP promised, coming in just a handful of days shy of May and in the timeline that HP both originally and revisionally supplied. Users can order it from HP’s website for $169.99.

The HP Slate 7, as its name suggests, features a 7-inch display with multitouch support and a resolution of 1024 x 600. Inside, users will find an ARM Cortext A9 dual-core 1.6GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, as well as 8GB of internal storage and a microSD slot for bumping that number upwards by another 32GB. Connectivity is standard 802.11b/g/n/ wifi and Bluetooth 2.1.

The onboard cameras leave a bit to be desired, with the front camera offering VGA resolution and the rear camera offering 3-megapixels. The battery has a 3500mAh capacity, and the entire device weighs in at just a touch over 13 ounces. The most notable feature on HP’s soft-backed tablet is the inclusion of Beats Audio, which HP says makes it one of the best sounding tablets around.

[via HP]

This is undoubtedly the most advanced graphing calculator we’ve seen, especially since most of the top-of-the-lines ones are still made of plastic and don’t even have a touchscreen display. The HP Prime comes with a suite of graphing apps that will get you through your tedious high school and college math courses, and the multitouch screen looks to make it easier to plot out points on a plain.

The brushed aluminum body is also something we don’t see very often on a graphing calculator, but honestly, this is what a graphic calculator should be in the first place, especially if you’re paying a couple hundred dollars for it. However, pricing hasn’t been announced for the HP Prime yet, nor is the company saying anything about availability.

The collection of apps allow you to easily insert formulas, much like an Excel spreadsheet, which is extremely handy and way easier than any of those older Texas Instruments graphing calculators. Uses will also be able to connect the Prime to their PC to create apps and programs on, and then send them to the calculator. However, it’s not said what the Prime will do as far as gaming is concerned, but we’re guessing that there will be plenty of that.

[via Chip Chick]

Originally, the tablet was said to be delayed into June, but HP eventually updated its product page again and noted that the tablet would release sometime this month. However, it looks like the company will just barely miss that time frame, as the UK will get the tablet just one day after the end of April.

On HP’s UK listing of the Slate 7, it mentions an availability date of May 1, but it looks like you can pre-order the tablet right now As for a release date in the US, there’s no word on when that’ll happen (except for a vague April 2013 window), but you can expect to pay $170 for the tablet, which undercuts Google’s famed Nexus 7 by a whole $30.

The HP Slate 7 comes with a 1024×600 7-inch display and it runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box. Under the hood there’s an ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processor clocked at 1.6 GHz with 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage. Overall, not a bad product for what you’ll be paying, but the small 8GB storage may turn away some users.

[via Engadget]

You’ll find that with Leap Motion aboard, HP will become one of the most unique options for PCs in the near future. The models HP and Leap Motion are speaking about thus far will come with Airspace right out of the box. Airspace is Leap Motion’s application store where a wide range of bits and pieces can be found – gaming, education, art, music, productivity, and a whole lot more!

At the moment, HP and Leap Motion have shown their intent to include the Leap Motion Controller itself in a range of products, but have not named any specific desktops or notebooks (or anything in-between) that will be working with this deal. We’re expecting specific models to be named in the near future. Stay tuned to the HP tag portal and click out a search for Leap Motion to see which hardware comes up first!

Outside of this HP deal, you’ll be seeing the Leap Motion Controller available for $79.99 USD very, very soon. This piece of hardware is available for pre-order now for that same price and we’ll be taking additional peeks at it soon! Take a peek at the timeline below for more information on Leap Motion!

As this most recent IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker report shows, the first quarter of 2013 was not extremely kind to the likes of HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer, ASUS, and the rest of the bunch. With a total average drop in PC shipments of 13.9%, it’s not appearing too positive for the near future in next-level PC production. That 13.9% drop is compared to the fourth quarter of 2012, while year-on-year the decline was a rather similar -12.7%.

“At this point, unfortunately, it seems clear that the Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market.” – Bob O’Donnell, IDC Program Vice President, Clients and Displays

You’ll find that Lenovo – good ol’ Lenovo – was the only vendor to have stayed flat from the quarter before this one to the one we’ve just completed. Their market share also went up a couple of percentage points while each of the other top-5 groups decreased by at least .2 points of a percentage – that’s Dell hanging in there as well. HP remains on top of the stack with a 15.7% share of the market but was hit hard with a 23.7% drop over the past year.

“While some consumers appreciate the new form factors and touch capabilities of Windows 8, the radical changes to the UI, removal of the familiar Start button, and the costs associated with touch have made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices. Microsoft will have to make some very tough decisions moving forward if it wants to help reinvigorate the PC market.” – Bob O’Donnell, IDC Program Vice President, Clients and Displays

According to the top 5 vendors chart of United States PC Shipments, Apple reaches in for a piece of the pie – as does Toshiba. Here we’ve still got HP up on top, Dell not far behind, and Apple butting heads with Toshiba and Lenovo. Here you’ll find Lenovo once again the only brand of the top five to not have lost market share over the past year with a 13% gain from Q1 of 2012 to Q1 of 2013.

Of course when you average the collection of the top 5 vendors of PCs in the United States, you still get a cool 11% drop this quarter compared to 2012′s Q1. Apple on its own also lost 7.5 points year-on-year in this market, still running strong with an estimated 1,418 units shipped in Q1 2013.

Have a peek at the timeline below for other recent IDC reports to see how the mobile and desktop PC universes are making their time here as we roll into the spring of 2013.

[via IDC]

In non-Google news, Intel has announced the next generation Thunderbolt with 4k support and 20Gbps throughput, and has also started shipping its next generation Haswell chips. Word has it Facebook Home will be rolling out in Canada just a couple weeks after being launched in the United States, and the HTC One (check out the review here) will be arriving at T-Mobile on April 19. Businesses are being urged by Microsoft to upgrade from Windows XP, and rumor has it the company’s next Xbox console (rumored for May 21 unveiling] will require a constant Internet connection.

The USPTO has backtracked on its iPad mini trademark issue, Ebay is shelling out your data to marketers, Defiance is the first TV show to get its own video game, and a Formula One pit crew just achieved the fastest pit stop ever. Do you enjoy free comic books? Marvel brought back its free comic book promo, and on a completely unrelated note, HP has launched the Moonshot cloud server system.

In other car news, Toyota has rolled out an endurance racecar Prius, and California has banned the use of hands-on GPS while driving. It wasn’t such a good day for AppGratis, which Apple removed from the App Store. Ericsson purchased Mediaroom from Microsoft, and HTC saw its poorest quarter ever in light of One delays. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of the night folks!

The company mentioned last week that they would be announcing the next generation in Moonshot hardware, and as expected, they’re starting out the week on a high note with the new line of servers. HP mentions that with the growing needs of internet users, cloud data storage will grow exponentially, to the point where larger and larger facilities will have to be built in order to meet the demand of storage needs.

However, HP says that Moonshot will dissolve the need for bigger and bigger data centers, saying that the new Moonshot servers can take up 80% less space, as well as use up to 89% less energy and be 77% less costly than traditional servers. HP even went as far as saying that the new Moonshot systems are comparable to the move from Unix to x86 servers, as well as the innovation of blade servers.

The new Moonshot systems are available today in the US and Canada, while availability in Europe, Asia, and Latin America will start next month. Pricing begins at a whopping $61,875 for the enclosure, 45 HP ProLiant Moonshot servers, and an integrated switch, but clients will be able to customize their setup to fit their own needs.

Tesla cancelled plans for a cheaper,smaller battery version of its Model S vehicle, but later on it announced a revolutionary financing product to help make its Model S vehicles affordable to customers. Apple’s next two iPhones were said to be in production while Steve Jobs was still alive, and in related news, Apple issued an apology to China over its “unfair” warranty policies. The Pirate Bay also took the crown as the world’s largest file-sharing website.

Verizon and AT&T are reportedly placing a joint bid for Vodafone. Apple’s iPhone 5S is said to be currently in production, and AT&T, along with other carriers, states that the HTC One will begin shipping on April 19th. Windows Blue will reportedly be Windows 8.1 and be released within a few months, and Samsung’s new phablet will reportedly be called the Samsung Galaxy Mega and will have a 6.3-inch display. The 2nd-gen Nexus 7 is rumored to be released in July, and Samsung and Mozilla are working together on a new web browser engine. The USPTO invalidated Apple’s Bounce-Back patent once again, and Activision laid off 40 full-time employees after they finished development for its Deadpool game.

Facebook’s Event kicked off on April 4th, where it announced its new Android product, Facebook Home, which will be released on April 12th for multiple devices. It will have many features, like Chat Heads messaging and a Cover Feed lockscreen. It will be embedded on the AT&T’s exclusive HTC First, but you can easily disable the software with this guide. Be sure to check out SlashGear’s hands-on guide with both Facebook Home and the HTC First. Samsung is expected to launch “Experience Shops” in 1400 Best Buys to rival Apple’s mini-shops.

The full SXSW Google Glass demonstration video is now available for viewing. Images for the BlackBerry R10 leaked showing a low-end QWERTY Blackberry 10 device. An ITC Judge stated in a preliminary ruling that Samsung infringed on Apple’s text-selection patent, and a German court invalidated Apple’s slide-to-unlock patent. A Skype trojan has been reported to be going around globally, turning PCs into Bitcoin miners, and HP chairman Raymond Lane has decided to step down from his position. That’s all for today’s Weekend Wrap-up! Be sure to check out the Evening Wrap-Up tag portal for more in-depth news for each day of this week.

Taking over his position, at least temporarily, will be Ralph Whitworth, Founder of Relational Investors LLC. His firm owns $800 million worth of HP’s stock, and he says that his interests “are completely aligned with those of our shareholders”. He will act as interim chairman until HP can find a new, permanent chairman to replace him. As part of his duties as interim Chairman, Whitworth will seek out a “world-class chairman to take my place as soon as possible.” He also states that he will recruit at least 2 “outstanding” directors before the year ends.

Whitworth needs to find at least two new directors because directors G. Kennedy Thompson and John Hammergren have both also decided to step down from their positions. Hammergren and Thompson were both re-elected, but by very narrow margins. They received 54% and 55% of the votes respectively. They will continue to act as directors to HP until the board meeting held in May.

Thompson and Whitworth received a lot of backlash from shareholders due to a series of “HP missteps” that many shareholders felt they were responsible for. The most recent “misstep” would be HP’s acquisition of Autonomy in 2011, which resulted in a write down of a few billion dollars after HP discovered that the company was involved in a series of accounting fraud. CEO Meg Whitman released a statement about the changes. She stated,

“Ray, John, and Ken have invested a part of themselves in HP. A commitment reflected in the early success we’ve had turning the company around.”

[via Forbes]

The only other information regarding this new product is that it will be “a new platform that was designed for the data center and built for the planet,” according to HP. That doesn’t really narrow it down too much, but it seems it’ll be enterprise-related, and will most likely not be a consumer product. Or it could very well be a consumer product, but with enterprise-esque features.

HP CEO Meg Whitman will obviously be there to make the big announcement, as well as Dave Donatelli, who is HP’s executive vice president and general manager of Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking for the Enterprise Business. That means that this announcement will definitely be based around something that’s enterprise-related

However, that’s all we have for the time being, but April 8 is just around the corner, so it’ll only be a matter of time before we get to see what HP has been working on. The company is focusing more and more on tablets these days, and we’ve already seen some of their work on that front, but it seems we haven’t seen everything just yet. Stay tuned!

Originally, HP said that its new Slate 7 tablet would be available sometime next month, but the company has pushed back the release to June, giving eager buyers a couple more months to mull over their decision. However, we’re not exactly sure why the tablet is delayed. It went through the FCC without any problems, so perhaps HP simply wanted to make some slight last-minute changes.

As for the Xperia Tablet Z, the tablet released on March 22 in Japan, but it has yet to see the light of day in other parts of the world. It was also originally set for a release sometime next month, but it has been pushed back to May. As with the HP Slate 7, there’s no word on exactly what’s causing the delay, but again, it’ll give more time to those eager shoppers to think about whether or not go for it.

The Xperia Tablet Z was one of the more nicer tablets that we saw at Mobile World Congress last month. It’s got a 10-inch 1080p HD display and it runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box. When it eventually does make its way to the states, it’ll cost $499 for the 16GB model — right on par with Apple’s entry-level iPad.

Update: HP has updated its Slate 7 product page, and the release date is now listed as “April 2013.”

UPDATE:: As noted by Sony, the Xperia Tablet Z remains on-track for a May release in some regions, and availability will vary based on region as well – can’t wait!

The history of Palm, as Holwerda tells it, begins before the company was created. Back when one of the several co-founders Jeff Hawkins learned about handwriting recognition and studied it well before the birth of the first Palm Pilot. He even goes back to the 1960s to see the RAND Corporation’s showing of the GRAIL Project and the creation of the RAND tablet. Have a peek at a demonstration video of the Rand tablet with Alan Kay from back in those fabulously exciting times here:

From there – and from several other sources, of course – handwriting recognition was born into the public conscious. From there, 6,000 words later, Holwerda begins what ends up speaking one of several times about the reader. It’s interesting how – since this text is based online in a blog-centric environment – Holwerda makes it clear that the article is long. Extremely, massively long. He makes guide points throughout the body of the text to make sure the reader understands where they are – what a world we live in!

Holwerda goes on to speak on how the Palm V came to be, how the hardware in the Palm collection came to influence the smartphone world and how Palm’s webOS mobile operating system was eventually pushed to the Smartphone. It becomes clear how Palm went down a road where they could have been great – a chart included above shows what his view was and is on how Palm’s approach with mobile could have taken on iOS and Apple in the sweet spot between too few features and too many features – Android going down that tunnel, too.

And There’s the death of Palm and webOS, complete with the “wallowing” promised in the title of the piece. Truly astounding is the read that’ll have you either gripping your kneecaps in anticipation of a new page or crashing and falling asleep at every turn. Do you want to know everything there is to know about Palm? You’re in luck – it’s just been written.

[via OSnews]

Pichette stated that Google’s relationship with Samsung is terrific, and that its success is mutually beneficial for both companies. He says that Google welcomes all of its Android partners to continue to innovate, and that its objective is to make sure that all of its partners benefit from the Android open-source platform. To the reports about Google’s strained relationship with Samsung, Pichette says, “I just think journalists love big headlines that sell newspapers.”

The reports stated that Google was scared that Samsung might use its leverage in the Android mobile market to negotiate a new ad-revenue sharing deal with Google. The sources stated that Samsung would demand a greater share of ad-revenue from Google, even more than the 10% that it is already receiving from the tech-industry juggernaut. Samsung’s argument would be that the 215 million+ handsets it sold last year provided Google a huge boost in ad-revenue and that because of it, it deserves a bigger share.

Google’s CFO could be right, and the entire Samsung and Google relationship status could have been blown out of proportion, but it could be the company trying to divert prying eyes to potential problems. The other sources still confirm, however, that Google and Samsung will put aside their “troubles” while battling their common enemy, Apple. Google and its Motorola division are also planning on releasing the “X Phone” which should give both iPhone and Samsung a run for their money.

[via ZDNet]

HP’s CEO, Meg Whitman, stated at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, that, “We’re shifting resources from PCs to tablets. The market moved very fast to tablets and smartphones, and we’ve got to now manage that transition.” HP did try to get into the tablet market with its HP Touchpad, but unfortunately the tablet did not achieve the success that HP wanted. Its original price tag of $499 and $599 deterred many users from buying the tablet and sent them straight to the similarly priced Android tablets and iPads. Thus began the $99 HP Touchpad firesale that benefited a lot of people (myself included).

Seeing how many people wanted affordable tablets, and how many HP Touchpad owners quickly installed CyanogenMod’s ROM as soon as it was available, HP most likely figured out that their next move should be an affordable, Android tablet. HP’s main focus isn’t just budget tablets however, they do plan on releasing high-end Android tablets, and even Windows 8 tablets in the future.

HP may have a good chance at making a comeback with tablets. Not only just with its budget HP Slate 7, but also with its possible high-end tablets. If they do make a Windows 8 tablet, or an Android tablet with a NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor, they have a shot at being a major competitor in the tablet market. That is, if they’re able to competitively price their tablets this time around. Are you excited to see what tablets HP will have to offer?

[via CNET]

The CtW Investment Group is affiliated with the labor group, Change to Win, and is an adviser to union pension funds that total around $200 billion in assets. There are 5.5 million members in the Change to Win labor group, and they all represent workers in various sectors like health care, hotels, and ports.

Pryce-Jones will attempt to get investors to vote against Thompson and Hammergren’s re-election. He also wants to stop the renewal of HP’s auditing firm, Ernest & Young. Pryce-Jones wasn’t able to discuss the reasons behind this, but he says that the CtW group has been questioning Ernst & Young’s responsibilities with HP. Aside from the Autonomy deal, CtW is also upset with HP’s acquisition of both the Electronic Data Systems Corp, as well as Palm’s WebOS, who we’ve just recently learn has been sold to LG.

The meeting today was held between HP’s Raymond Lane and 20 investors. HP stated that it regularly meets with investors before its annual shareholder meeting. They had discussions about the company’s future and the investors’ concerns. The discussions are then continued at the annual shareholder meeting, which will be held this year on March 20th in Mountain View, California. It looks like investors are getting a bit antsy with HP’s direction. Pryce-Jones stated, however, that Lane was credible on HP’s turnaround, and that Lane “laid his reputation” on it.

[via Reuters]

Word has surfaced that HP has finally sold WebOS and LG has purchased the operating system. It seems LG has no plans to use WebOS in the tablet or smartphone market, rather the company plans to use the operating system to power smart TVs. The purchase not only gets the operating system, but some engineering talent behind the scenes as well.

There is still some confusion on the deal between LG and HP. Last year HP spun off most of the remaining members of the WebOS software team to a new company called Gram. It’s unclear at this point if Gram is now owned by LG or whether it will remain part of HP.

With WebOS having failed at every turn over the years, its success as a smart TV operating system is far from guaranteed. All we know this time is that LG now owns the source code, all related documentation, engineers, and websites relating to WebOS. Only time will tell if LG’s purchase was a good idea. There’s no indication of what the deal is worth at this time.

[via Mashable]

This device is exceedingly similar to the Google Nexus 7 in both its size and its overall aesthetic choices – you’ll even see the shorter ends working with larger bezels, just like the ASUS-made slate. The bigger differences come in the non-vanilla flavoring of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a less-than-fantastic processor under the hood. Unless it turns out this device is running a magic-making dual-core A9, it simply will not be able to keep up with the Nexus 7 in terms of processing power.

That said, this slate is just 10.7 mm thin, rather light at 13.05 ounces, and looks quite nice with some smoothness on its back. The software on this device is not quite final at the moment, so you’ll not want to base judgements on what you see in the hands-on video above alone, but other than that this is what’s coming soon. This device will be appearing at a store near you this April – with a price point of MSRP $169 USD.

And yes, that is a back-facing camera you’re seeing with 3 megapixels of power. There’s also a front-facing camera that’s VGA in quality, made for video chat. Have a peek at the rest of the details in the initial HP Slate 7 announcement post for this device, and stay tuned. We’ve got more Mobile World Congress 2013 action this week coming up than you’ll be able to handle!

HP has finally entered the Android tablet market with their new HP Slate 7 tablet. The specs leave a little to be desired in this day and age, but the price should entice a few potential buyers. It’s clearly aiming for the Nexus 7 here regarding design and price, and they’ll have to compete with the just announced Galaxy Note 8.0 as well.

You’ll be working with a 7-inch 1024×600 resolution multi-touch display. Then HP went with an unknown 1.6 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 processor with 1GB of RAM, instead of the rumored Tegra 4 quad-core. Those two downfalls aside the tablet sounds decent. You’ll get 8GB of storage and micro-SD slot for expanded options, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is also on board with Google Now. They’ve added a 3 megapixel rear camera, and VGA front for Google+ Hangouts. Dimensions come in at 10.7 mm thin, 197mm x 116mm, 13.05 ounces, and HP promises 5 hours of video playback.

HP has a well rounded tablet here, but the low resolution could be the achilles heel. This will also be the first Android tablet with Beats Audio integration for superior sound. The build quality sounds top notch and the entire slate is made from stainless-steel. They’ll be offering the device in steel silver, black, as well as a red flavor. Today HP also announced their ePrint Android app for printing on the go, and we’ll be getting hands-on time with both as soon as possible.

Hopefully HP can complete in this market. They state this is the first step in offering their customers the Google experience, so we have a feeling that rumored top-tier Tegra 4 device could still be in the works. The new HP Slate 7 will be available in April for the low price of $169.

The first quarter results for 2012 had been a tad higher at $1.5 billion, showing an expected drop. The price per share then is about 11-percent lower than it was last year, although as noted, it is still better than was expected. The company had a couple bad quarters in 2012, and things were looking down, especially in light of the botched Autonomy acquisition, which caused the company grief all around.

In addition to the nice numbers, HP also managed to reduce its debt by $1 billion, something it has been steadily doing for a few quarters now. This translated into a 115-percent jump in cash flow over the same quarter last year, and as a result, shares are up in after-hours trading, coming in at $18.50 over the $17.xx they were staggering at.

HP’s CEO Meg Whitman offered this statement: “While there’s still a lot of work to do to generate the kind of growth we want to see, our turnaround is starting to gain traction as a result of the actions we took in 2012 to lay the foundation for HP’s future.” She noted that the company exceeded its non-GAAP diluted EPS outlook, citing reasons of improvement in its market, channel, and execution efforts, as well the restructuring it made public in early 2012.

[via Venture Beat]

This processor is one of the world’s most powerful mobile SoCs, having been introduced at this year’s CES convention with 4 CPU cores and 72 GPU cores. This processor takes the place of NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor, also known as the world’s first quad-core mobile SoC. Though very few products have been announced with the NVIDIA Tegra 4 for the market thus far, it wouldn’t be out of the question for a group like HP to grab hold this soon after the initial reveal.

With HP’s last several years, it’s not unlikely that this Android rumor is just that – a figment of someone’s wild imagination. We’ve seen Android HP tablet rumors in the past, and we’re sure to see them in the future as well (if this one proves to be dust, that is). HP has also revealed their first Chromebook running the Google OS Chrome just this past month, so it’s not out of the question that HP is working closer with Google than they ever have before.

The same sources speaking with Read Write Web have also tipped that HP will release Android smartphones by the end of 2013 – though previous comments from HP’s Meg Whitman, we’re not expecting it to come any time soon. With the WebOS debacle still a stinging pain in HP’s past, the company wont be jamming out any devices in any quick fashion, that’s for certain.

Hardware & Design

The 2570p is built to last, and it’s somewhat thick structure gives it some ruggedness so that it’ll withstand more than the usual beating. It has a magnesium alloy shell, which should tell you right away that this thing isn’t messing around. Plus, it’s extremely portable, even with it’s added thickness. It’s got a 12.5-inch display with a 1366×768 resolution. Certainly nothing magical in that case, but considering it’s only a 12.5-inch screen, an HD resolution is a welcomed surprise. The hinges connecting the display to the bottom portion of the laptop are made of aluminum, which means you could open and close the lid as much as you want and the hinges won’t weaken one bit, which is a big plus, especially since I’ve seen my fair share of hinges weaken over time.

However, while the palmrest and the top outer shell are made of magnesium alloy, the bottom of the laptop, as well as the screen bezel, is made of plastic. Granted, it’s a really durable plastic that’s a bit more sturdy than what you’d find on most other plastic-lined notebooks, but it’s a slight bummer that the entire laptop isn’t encased in the beautiful aluminum that we’re big fans of. Either way, the entire thing weighs about 4.6 pounds, which certainly isn’t bad at all and it makes it easy to stow away in a bag without having to use two hands. However, for a 12.5-inch laptop, 4.6 pounds definitely isn’t light, so don’t expect to be twirling it around in your hands, and while I was able to carry it around and pick it up with one hand, it definitely wasn’t a breeze to do so.

As far as hardware is concerned, the 2570p definitely isn’t messing around, but it’s also not a powerhouse machine. It sports an Intel Core i5 3210M dual-core processor clocked at 2.5GHz with 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive. This kind of performance will definitely allow you to open apps quickly and browse without a hiccup, and I’ll discuss the overall performance a bit later, but the 2570p only comes with Intel HD 4000 graphics, which will be able to play HD video depending on your player, but don’t expect to do much else graphics wise.

The keyboard is quite impressive. It’s a chiclet-style keyboard and the keys have a DuraFinish coating on them, making them resistant from long-term wear. It’s also spill-resistant, meaning that a small mug of coffee won’t do any damage, but it may leave a sticky mess. Of course, you won’t be able to dump a tall glass of liquid all over the surface, but it can withstand some minor spills if they do end up happening. The keyboard isn’t black-lit, which almost seems like a must nowadays, but the laptop does come with a retractable LED light where the webcam is. It’s not extremely bright, but it works in a pinch. To round out the keyboard, there’s a biometric fingerprint scanner on the right side of the palm rest, just in case you want added some security to your laptop — a subject that many companies are serious about.

As far as the touchpad goes, it’s extremely tiny. There’s not a lot of room to move around your finger to navigate windows and such, but there are several different options that you can choose from. First, the touchpad has top and bottom mouse buttons. Traditionally there only on the bottom of the touchpad on most laptops, but you now have the choice of having them on top, which I actually find more suitable. There’s also a mini joystick in the middle of the keyboard that you can use to navigate the mouse cursor. It takes some time to get used to and I wouldn’t say it’s any better than the touchpad, but it’s there if you want it.

As far as ports go, there’s quite a bevy of them. On the left side is the power jack, Ethernet port, optical drive, and then a smart card reader that may come in handy for a lot of business folks. On the right side, there’s an ExpressCard 34mm slot, SD card reader, dual headphone/microphone jack, DisplayPort jack, eSATA and USB 3.0 port (combined), and a docking connector towards the back. On the back of the laptop, there’s a VGA-out port, one extra USB 3.0 port and a USB 2.0 port. So in all, there’s three USB ports, which is certainly respectable, and along with all the other ports you get, we have to say there’s not a lot that HP left out. Businesses most likely won’t be disappointed by the 2570p offerings.

As far as the 2570p’s display, it’s just a normal LED screen, and there’s no IPS technology included, meaning that viewing angles are extremely limited. This probably won’t be a huge deal for most business users, but it’s at least something that’s worth keeping in mind. I personally didn’t have a problem with it since there was need to view the screen at an odd angle, but if you’re in a business meeting, for example, and need to quickly huddle around your laptop to show coworkers something, it may not be ideal.

Software

The EliteBook 2570p runs Windows 8, which from a business standpoint is a huge downside. Windows 8 has yet to prove to be a solid OS for business use. Personally, it’s an OS strictly meant for consumers, and it no way does it scream, “business.” Granted, when the laptop was first released, it came with Windows 7, but if you plan on buying any laptop anytime soon, it’ll have Windows 8 on it, no doubt. Luckily, if you buy the 2570p directly from HP, you can actually configure the laptop to include Windows 7, so not all hope is completely lost in this case.

As far as bloatware goes, there’s no shortage of it. It comes with the CyberLink Media Suite, which includes a photo organizer/manager, media player, video editor, and webcam software. There’s also an HP support app, HP Client Security (which uses the fingerprint scanner), and HP’s SoftPaq download manager. Other than that, the computer comes pre-installed with Evernote and PDF Complete, two apps that are proven business tools.

There’s definitely a lot more bloatware than what we’ve seen on past HP computers that we’ve reviewed, but for a business-oriented laptop, that’s not too surprising. My only huge complaint with the software is that it’s Windows 8. I’m not quite sure if PC manufacturers realize that Windows 7 is the business OS that we need to use, or if they’re only concerned about updating to the latest and greatest OS, no matter what. Maybe there are actually some business men and women out there that prefer Windows 8 for their business needs, but it seems that most companies aren’t jumping on the upgrade bandwagon just yet. Again, we’re glad that HP is still giving us the option to stick with Windows 7, but that won’t last forever.

Performance & Battery

As mentioned earlier, the 2570p comes with a dual-core 2.5GHz Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM, with integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics. Everyday use proved to be speedy, and while more-intensive apps tended to take a bit longer to load, other apps like Google Chrome, Mail, Calendar, etc. opened up swiftly. However, as expected, benchmarks weren’t anything to write home about, but they also weren’t bad by any means. The 2570p scored just under a 7,000 in Geekbench. Either way, the average user probably isn’t going notice a lot of hiccuping with everyday use. Plus, those business folks that’ll primarily use this type of laptop will mostly use it for documents, spreadsheets, and maybe some video conferencing, but video performance was excellent. Even viewing a 1080p YouTube video wasn’t a challenge for the laptop. It played it nearly flawlessly with little lag.

The really good news is that fan noise remains low most of the time. While streaming video would cause my MacBook to get really hot and force the fans to spin at max speed, the 2570p stayed calm the entire time, and I didn’t even notice the laptop getting too hot at any point. This was probably the most impressive facet of the performance of the laptop. I hate fan noise, and while you can still hear the fans running most of the time, they hardly ever get to the point where they start to sound like jet engines.

As for battery, you’re looking at anywhere from 4-6 hours, and this is from my own testing. Light browsing and document work doesn’t put a lot of strain on the battery, but doing more intensive tasks like video conferencing or watching movies will definitely see a hit on the battery. Of course, screen brightness plays a huge roll as well, and just lowering it down a bit added a good hour of extra battery time for me.

Wrap-Up

In the end, the EliteBook 2570p is a sturdy, well-built laptop that screams professionalism, and can prove itself out in the field. The Core i5 keeps the laptop humming along nicely, and while the integrated graphics aren’t anything too special, they prove that big things can come in small packages. As far as price, the 2570p starts at $949, which certainly isn’t cheap by any means, so what you’re paying for is ultimately the build quality of the laptop, along with all of the port options along the edges of the notebook. Sure, you could get a laptop with similar specs for slightly cheaper, but the 2570p will last you a long time, and needing a laptop that’s rugged will be well worth the investment that you put into it.

HP has officially issued a set of guidelines for its manufacturing partners to follow, and this includes Foxconn. The company will be making sure that these factories limit student labor, as well as give more freedom to these students and other temporary workers over their hours. Many factories in China have relied on young high school and vocational school students where they’re put in positions that have no relation to their studies.

From here on out, HP is requiring that interns and temporary workers only be accepted for work that is close to their field of study. Plus, they’re demanding that all work must be voluntary, and that students and temporary workers must be free “to leave work at any time upon reasonable notice without negative repercussions, and they must have access to reliable and reprisal-free grievance mechanisms.”

The company is planning to hold training sessions for suppliers starting sometime in March, as well as hosting discussion sessions for government officials, non-government organizations, and educational institutions in order to make sure that the new guidelines are meant. It seems HP is stepping up big time, and it could pressure other companies to do the same.

[via New York Times]

In their statement, HP essentially reinforces the idea that if users want to seek out alternatives, HP will be there ready at your beck and call. The company says that “with a significant debt load, Dell’s ability to invest in new products and services will be extremely limited.” Plus, the company says that leveraged buyouts “tend to leave existing customers and innovation at the curb.”

HP thinks that Dell’s customers will now be “eager to explore alternatives” after the buyout, and while HP doesn’t flat-out say that its the best choice for consumers, the company says that it “plans to take full advantage of that opportunity,” meaning that they hope to gain from Dell’s yet-to-be-determined pain from the acquisition.

Of course, HP saw struggles of their own in the recent past. Analysts didn’t believe to heavily in the company’s stock, saying that it should be worth negative $2 if anything. Plus, CEO Meg Whitman even said herself that the company will struggle for must of 2013 as the company tries to rebuild itself.

Granted, the Pavilion 14 is a little bit more expensive than what you’ll pay for other new Chromebooks, and while it doesn’t come with any hardware that’s crazy impressive, the overall design of HP’s Chromebook might be a big seller for some people. The 14-inch display has a 1366×768 resolution, and on the inside there’s an Intel Celeron 847 processor clocked at 1.1 GHz.

Other than that, there’s 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, which certainly isn’t a lot by any means, but users will get 100GB of Google Drive storage for free for the first two years. As far as ports go, there’s HDMI, three USB 2.0 ports, an SD card slot, and Ethernet. The laptop also weighs in at around four pounds, making it a bit chunkier than other models.

This marks HP‘s first go at a Google Chromebook, joining the likes of Samsung and Acer, who have more competitively-priced options at $249 and $199, respectively. If battery is a huge concern for you, HP’s Pavilion 14 comes in at four hours and 15 minutes, which isn’t too great for a Chromebook considering that Samsung has them beat, but either way, you can buy it now for $330.

Setup

Setting up the new TouchSmart machine was fairly straightforward, with only a few roadblocks along the way. First of all, the instructions are completely worthless as far as setup goes, so if you’re usually one to rely on such paperwork, there’s no need to do so this time around. The booklet mostly just discusses maintaining the computer and troubleshooting various problems that could arise. Other than, there are only a few photos meant to help you set up the new computer, most of which were confusing and offered no text to describe the images whatsoever.

In any case, I was able to get up and running in about 10 minutes. The wireless keyboard and mouse connected right away during the initial bootup — no need to pair either devices, and I was looking at the Windows 8 home page in no time. Obviously, everyone expects a smooth and easy setup experience with new products, and HP definitely made it easy for me.

Hardware and Design

This specific review unit comes packing with incredible specs. There’s an Intel Core i7 3770S quad-core processor clocked at 3.1GHz, accompanied by 12GB of DDR3 RAM and a 3TB Seagate hard drive. Graphics-wise, we’re looking at an NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M with 2GB of memory, which provides fast, middle-class performance in case you ever get caught playing any kind graphics-intensive title on your new touchscreen PC. Other than that, there’s Beats Audio integration, which provides three internal speakers along the bottom, as well as boosts performance for any speakers plugged into the audio jacks. You also have a slot-load Blu-ray drive on the right side. Of course, you also can’t forget about the 23-inch 10-point touchscreen display with a 1920×1080 full HD resolution.

As far as ports go, you have two USB 3.0 ports on the left side, along with a SD card slot and microphone and headphone jacks. On the back, there are four USB 2.0 ports, ethernet, and a nifty subwoofer-out port that allows for deeper sound out of the relatively puny speakers that are equipped with the ENVY 23 TouchSmart. Then, on the right side, there’s a lone HDMI port for connecting to an Xbox 360, PlaySation 3, or any other HDMI-capable device that can use the computer as a monitor or display.

As far as the placement of all the ports, I have to say that it’s all pretty scattered. It’s nice to have two USB ports, the SD card slot, and the audio jacks on the side for quick and easy access, but having the HDMI port all by itself on the right side doesn’t quite make sense — it seems it would make better sense if it was with all of the other connectivity options on the back. We’re also not sure why HP didn’t include more USB 3.0 ports on the back. Those with a USB 3.0 external hard drive may be disappointed by this, since you’ll be stuck with plugging it in on the side and having a USB cable stick out the whole time.

The ENVY 23 TouchSmart sits on a big base, which takes up most of the width of the computer and leaves a giant footprint on any desk. Unlike the iMac, and even one of Vizio’s latest all-in-one offerings, HP’s newest machine doesn’t have a small base in the middle. However, that’s mostly because the entire panel is supported by two beams on the sides, which then connect to the base, providing a frame-like structure to the computer. I have to say, though, that the base and the two supporting beams are fairly sturdy. While you can easily adjust the angle of the display without much effort, playing around with the touchscreen doesn’t affect the computer’s stance — it stays still extremely well, even through marathon sessions of tapping and scrolling.

The front of the display is completely covered in a single pane of glass, so when the screen is off, it looks like it’s a borderless display. However, the display has a rather thick bezel, which makes the computer look a little bulky and ancient. HP could’ve easily bumped up the screen size without making the machine any bigger, but most likely due to circumstances that are unbeknownst to me, I’m sure there was a reason why HP kept it at 23 inches with a thicker bezel. The display is pretty glossy, though, so if you plan on using the touchscreen portion (as opposed to the mouse and keyboard), expect a lot of fingerprints and smudges.

Sadly, the computer comes with a power brick attached to the power cord. It’s not too big of a deal, since most electrics come with one anyway, but all-in-one machines are supposed to be meant for saving space, so the power brick may be an unexpected surprise if you’re interested in going with this model. The end of the cord (the end that plugs into the computer) sits at a right angle, so in order to plug it in, you have to bend the cable so that it’s perpendicular to the wall, and then have it bend downwards to feed it behind your desk to be plugged into the outlet. It just make more sense if the connector was straight, or at the very least a 45-degree angle, which is actually gaining popularity with various cable manufacturers anyway.

Overall, the design of the ENVY 23 TouchSmart isn’t too bad. There are certainly things that I would change, including a slightly smaller base and a thinner bezel, but I love the sturdiness of the stand with the ability to adjust the angle of the display easily when need be. It would’ve nice to see some USB 3.0 ports on the back, instead of just on the side, but a total of six USB ports isn’t anything to complain about. The speaker quality was fairly good, and while it did sound a little tinny, it’s definitely an upgrade from what you would get with regular laptop speakers. There’s a lot more bass in these speakers, and if you pair them up with an external subwoofer, it’ll make for a pretty decent system for personal listening.

Software

As far as software goes, there’s actually not a lot of bloatware. There’s obviously a few HP-specific apps — some you may find useful, and others just an annoyance. The company pre-installed their “Connected” Photos and Music apps, both of which are HP’s own version of a photo manager and music player, respectively. Connected Photos is powered by Snapfish, and it not only lets you manage and organize your photo collection, but it also integrates with Facebook and you can easily push your smartphone photos to the app as well. The music player is HP’s own version of iTunes of sorts. You can manage and play your music, as well as browse popular music and even buy tracks right from the app. We’re not sure that most users would utilize these two apps, since there are far superior options out there, but the choice is there nonetheless.

HP also included their own backup app, similar to Time Machine on Mac, and they also have what’s called HP MyRoom, which is a video-conferencing app that resembles most other apps like it, such as Skype (which is also pre-installed interestingly enough). HP even has its own app store called HP+, where you can download games, entertainment apps, software, etc. Sadly, though, it’s lacking in content and doesn’t have a lot of options — you’re better off sticking with the Windows Store.

Other than that, HP included some non-HP apps into the bloatware mix, including Kindle, eBay, Netflix, Norton Antivirus, and Skype. Surprisingly enough, the computer arrives clean of most bloatware, and what’s already there shouldn’t bother the user at all, except for maybe Norton, which pesters you every now and then to activate or update the software. Besides that, though, the HP apps don’t get in the way too much, and if they do, you can simply move around the app tiles to hide the apps and make the homescreen how you want.

Performance

The computer comes with top-tier specs all around, so most users won’t have a problem with performance — the 3TB hard drive will hold plenty family photos and videos, as well as all the music you can think of. The processor is fast enough that apps open quickly, and nothing lags behind, which is great for those older folks that can’t stand anything slower than the Millenium Falcon at light speed. Benchmark scores from Geekbench were actually really decent, and it scored better than most of the newer all-in-ones that we’ve reviewed in the recent past, including Acer’s Aspire 7600U, which has a higher price tag, and it even beat out Apple’s newest iMac, although just barely. The ENVY 23 TouchSmart even kept right up with HP’s Z1 Workstation, which carries a hefty price tag of $2,700.

As far as everyday use, the TouchSmart boots up in about 25 seconds from the time the power button is pressed to the time when the desktop is ready to use. That’s certainly respectable, but considering that HP stuffed a 3TB hard drive inside, we can’t help but feel that the company could have also slipped in a solid state drive as well, just to boost the performance even more. As for the display, it’s a 10-point touchscreen, meaning it will register all ten fingers if need be. In brief, it’s basically feels like a 23-inch upright tablet, and it’s extremely responsive and smooth. It takes little effort to scroll through home screens and websites, and multi-point touch capability is pretty fantastic — pinch-to-zoom works well, and playing around in the painting app with multiple fingers was both fun and impressive.

Wrap-Up

In the end, the HP ENVY 23 TouchSmart can do pretty much anything you throw at it, and it can certainly handle the demanding needs of an entire family, from the little kids all the way up to the impatient grandparents. It comes with most of the features that you would want on a high-end all-in-one desktop — it’s got the large 1080p touchscreen display, a huge hard drive, gobs of RAM, and a super-fast processor. While there are definitely things that I could nitpick about, such as the large base, no USB 3.0 on the back, and a less-than-decent keyboard and mouse combo, I can’t really see how this computer wouldn’t cater to the everyday man or woman. And while the $1,700 may not look too great, the company’s 20-inch models start at around $1,000 if you’re looking for a smaller build. It’s certainly not a desktop that’s aimed towards a specific group of users, so if you’re looking for an all-around Windows 8 machine for the entire family, the ENVY all-in-one series meets the mark.

The specifications for this Chromebook from HP show it to be a 14-inch display-toting HP-looking beast, that meaning it’ll at first appear very much to be a high powered Pavilion by all outward appearances. Once you’re inside you’ll find that its size and weight foretell its abilities – 3.96
lb (1.8 kg) and you’ll wonder how powerful it could possibly be. Inside you’ve got SSD storage and connectivity to Google Drive for cloud storage, and of course the software is mostly web-based so your processing power is mostly surrounding what you’ll be able to do in your Chrome web browser.

The power you do get is an Intel Celeron Processor 847 clocked at 1.1GHz. That’s not a misprint, this machine literally has what appears to be a processor with less power than your smartphone. That’s alright though, and you can chill, because with 2GB DDR3 SDRAM and support for up to 4GB, you’ll be rolling out hard with whatever you’ll need to do in the Chrome OS without a doubt. The display is an LED-backlit unit with BrightView technology and 1366 x 768 pixel resolution as well, so videos you’ll be watching via Google Play will be as high definition as they get.

NOTE: All of the info you see here comes from a Product PDF straight from HP’s shopping center. At the moment it appears that the “ad embargo date” is set for the 17th of February, 2013, so you can expect it to hit shelves soon!

This machine at the moment is spec’d to work with wifi only, but we’re expecting a mobile version in the future as well. This Chromebook has 3 USB 2.0 ports as well as 1HDMI out, 2 Rj-45 port (LAN), and a headphone/microphone combo port. The unit itself is just 0.83 inches thick at its thickest point, 13.66 inches wide, 9.37 inches deep, and will be coming in at 4 hours and 15 minutes battery time in this first iteration. Sound like the winner you’re looking for? We’ll be seeing official confirmation of this machine soon – and we’ll likely see it in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress 2013 as well!

However, while the growth of Lenovo seems significant, outpacing everyone else in the PC industry, it still wasn’t a good as the growth the company had earlier in 2012. Q3 saw Lenovo’s shipment growth up a whopping 30%. According to IDC, that didn’t give Lenovo quite enough momentum to pass HP, which held a slim third quarter lead, holding 15.9% of the PC market, while Lenovo held 15.7%.

However, if Lenovo keeps up the effort, they could easily see themselves blasting past HP before long. It seems many are questioning HP’s commitment to the PC business in the first place. After deciding to stay in the PC business after announcing that they would possibly sell it off, many potential customers remained skeptical.

Finishing out the top five PC makers on the list, according to IDC, include third-place Dell, whose shipments declined by 20.8% in the fourth quarter compared to a year earlier, Acer, whose PC shipments declined by 28.2% in the fourth quarter, and ASUS, whose shipments grew by 5.6%, making them the only company besides Lenovo to see a gain in sales.

[via Computerworld]

This machine is made to stream unencrypted content to up to five mobile devices at the same time – so says HP. This machine streams movies, music, TV shows, and photos, everything you like. And it’s just a tiny stick – it’s utterly simple in its presentation, surprising in its connectivity abilities. It works with apps, too, starting with a free one-month subscription to PlayLater – record media such as Hulu or Netflix shows and movies and play them later for free on your many multiple devices.

This machine is able to hold up to 16 full-length movies, 7,600 songs or 10,000 photos, though how much storage that actually is, HP isn’t quite letting go of quite yet. You’ll be able to connect to and play to most Wi-fi capable devices including those running Android, Windows Phone, and iOS. This device will be popping up in the United States in February 15th for $129 USD – grab a few!

Meanwhile take a peek at the rest of our CES 2013 coverage and make with the connections to HP’s own collection of devices, computers, and everything in-between. You’ll find that HP’s bringing the heat in the desktop, notebook, and all-in-one universe, not to mention monitors galore.

The brand new HP TouchSmart Sleekbook is their best, most affordable touch notebook to date according to Kevin Wentzel, Technical Marketing Manager at HP. With the new Touchsmart they look to easily expand beyond the traditional keyboard and mouse for a truly emmersive touch experience provided by Windows 8.

Both new Pavilion Sleekbooks offer a full HD 15.6-inch display, and the TouchSmart is fully touch sensitive from edge-to-edge. It will feature full multi-touch gesturing, easy navigation, and much much more. Being 15.6-inches HP’s managed to still equip these new notebooks with numeric keyboards, user replaceable batteries, and excellent portability.

HP’s goal was to offer a friendly priced full touch notebook for Windows 8 users that delivers affordable reliability, outstanding durability and performance in a thin and light form factor. The all new HP Pavilion Sleekbook and TouchSmart Sleekbook provide exactly that. We’ll learn more of the full specs, details, pricing, and release date soon so stay tuned for hands-on pictures while we’re here live at CES 2013.

We’ll jump right in as they’ve just announced 5 different monitors this afternoon. The biggest of the bunch coming in at 27-inches is the new HP Envy 27 Monitor. This features a beautiful and vivid 27-inch IPS LCD panel with their thin blade bezel design. It’s also protected in edge-to-edge hardened glass for extra gloss and protection. It features built-in Beats Audio stereo speakers, and a full 1920 x 1080p HD resolution. The new 27-inch IPS Envy 27 hits the streets February 3rd for around $499.

Next since we’re talking about IPS displays is their new HP Pavilion 20xi-27xi IPS monitors. While not covered in hardened glass like the model above, the xi series features a similar edge-to-edge bezel free design with their blade technology. They’ll come in 4 sizes: 22xi, 23xi, 25xi, and 27xi and all have 1920×1080 Full HD resolution options. You’ll then get support via VGA, DVI-D and HDMI connectivity, while a smaller 20xi offers 1600 X 900 resolution with VGA. The IPS panels ensure 178-degree viewing angles and excellent colors. The new Pavilion xi monitors start at $129 and go to $339 for the 27xi. All available around the end of January.

Then for those on the go HP’s announced their new HP U160 15.6-inch LED Backlit Monitor. This unique display features a built in stand that doubles as a carry case, and is ideal for those on the go needing a portable monitor. Weighing in around 3.4 lbs and measuring only 1.02 inches thin, this should be a great choice for many. It’s expected to be available in January starting at $179 USD.

Next up is the HP x2401 24-inch LED Backlit Monitor (pictured below and also at the head of this article). This is another high end Beats Audio powered monitor, only it is 24-inches and comes with an LED display instead of IPS — so won’t be priced as high as the 27-inch monitor above. The X2401 features an MVA panel, not IPS, but still gives excellent 178 degree viewing angles and extremely inky black colors. This monitor also rocks a full 1920 x 1080p HD resolution 5000:1 contract ratio, and comes in a brushed aluminum finish. Oddly HP states it won’t be available until November, but will be priced at $249.

Then last but certainly not least is the new HP ProDisplay LED backlit line. These are more traditional monitors, and come in 18.5, 20, and 21.5-inch inch models. Respective names are P191 18.5-inch, P201 20-inch, P201m 20-inch, and P221 21.5-inch LED Backlit Monitors. These offer 250 nits brightness, 1000:1 contract, 3M:1 DCR, 5ms response time, and 170/160 viewing angles, so not quite IPS quality. These have the always welcomed 35-degrees of tilt adjustability and 90-degree pivot modes for multiple uses. I’d probably snag two P221′s and put them side by side. The new ProDisplay line will be priced at $129-179 based on size.

Surely we can expect big things from HP here at CES, and we’ll be running around trying to get pictures and videos of all their latest and greatest. Stay tuned for plenty more from CES 2013.

Hardware

This machine measures in at 13.3 x 9.09 x 0.75 in (33.8 x 23.1 x 1.89 cm) and works with a lovely 14-inch LED-backlit HD anti-glare 1366 x 768 pixel resolution display and is cased in mostly hard and soft plastic. While the bulk of this machine is metal, its ever-so-slightly soft along the top and the bottom while a ridge of almost rubbery soft plastic runs along the head – above the display, the area that you’ll use to pull the notebook open – very well placed. This notebook is 3.6 pounds – not the lightest Ultrabook in the universe – and is 0.74-inches thick.

Along the sides you’ve got more ports than you’re going to know what to do with, including 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 3.0 (charging), DisplayPort 1.1a, VGA, AC power, headphone/mic jack, RJ-45, and a single SD/MMC card slot. You’ve also got an ethernet port so you can hard-wire to the web if you’re not all about wi-fi connectivity. You’ve also got a Kensington lock slot so you can keep the machine secure if you’re at a trade show or in a particularly nefarious office setting.

Note also that HP has made a point of assuring the public that their Elite line of products is hardcore – have a peek at our HP Making of Elite Tour Roundup to see our adventures all those months ago – smashing inside!

Also important if you want to keep your machine secure is the built-in HP Fingerprint Sensor which appears on the right side of your palm rest – make sure you’re not eating too much cake before you try to get read. Up to the right above your keyboard you’ve got dedicated on/off switches for both wi-fi and sound (muting, basically), and up and to the left you’ve got your power button – heavy metal!

The model we’ve got here works with a 3rd Gen (Ivy Bridge) Intel Core i5-3427U (2.80/1.80 GHz, 3 MB L3 cache, 2 cores) and has a Mobile Intel QM77 Express chipset. You’ll be able to see some standard performance results in the benchmark listing we’ve got below, but know this: this machine is performing at a 2013 level. It’s swift and powerful, more than ready to take on your standard business needs.

Software

The security and business-friendly options you’ve got on this machine are just what your manager’s been looking for, including HP’s ProtecTools suite with so many tools to keep people out of your computer that you’ll forget why they wanted to get in in the first place – pre-boot authentication and a password vault included! You’ve also got SpareKey for when you forget your own password. And of course, a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) built-in.

You also get a tossing of apps that HP’s decided to add-in above what Microsoft’s Windows 7 or 8 gives you, including such gems as PowerDVD and PDF Complete. You do get Evernote right out of the box though, a good incentive to keep taking notes on your smartphone as well as your laptop. You get the option of working with Windows 7 Pro, Windows 7 Home Premium, or the version of Microsoft’s OS that we’re working with here, Windows 8.

If you do choose Windows 8, you’ll need some time to get used to the gestures you’ll be needing to make your own in order to get friendly with your everyday average apps. If you’ve got no touchscreen (this device does not have one, mind you), you’ll be dragging two fingers to the right or the left to navigate your Live Tiles. If you don’t know what that means, we suggest you pick this machine up with Windows 7, without a doubt.

The display on this machine is decent, but not spectacular. The same can be said about the speaker system. HP didn’t put as much effort into this machine’s entertainment abilities as it has with some of its more eye and ear-pleasing machines like the HP ENVY Spectre XT Ultrabook. This Folio machine is, on the other hand, one of the more well-put-together business-minded machines we’ve seen through the past 12 months.

Have a peek below at our standard benchmark test results for this machine and remember that it’s not an entertainment machine, and certainly isn’t made for gaming. Instead you’ve got a bit of a worker her made for a worker, inside and out.

Battery Life / Options

On the bottom of this machine you’ve got both a docking connector and a secondary battery connector. HP doesn’t mess around when it comes to a strong accessories ecosystem and will certainly have your back when you look to expand with extra long-life-loving batteries and/or if you want to dock this beast up at your house when you get home from the cube. That said, the battery life on this machine is rated by HP for “up to 9 hours and 30 minutes” with its HP Long Life 4-cell (52 WHr) Li-Ion unit, and we’ve seen it bringing on easily 5-6 hours of up-time while using it for medium-to-heavy lifting on an average day.

Lifting, in this case, consists of editing enough video and photos for a full day of work on SlashGear, browsing massive amounts of content on the web, and items as simple as editing text documents (plus lots, lots more, of course). If you’re all about document editing and basic reading, you’ll have no trouble reaching up further for the beastly time HP suggests.

Wrap-up

With the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m Ultrabook you’re getting one of the nicest business-minded computers on the market today. Priced at $1,349.00 USD straight from HP, you’re going to get what you paid for. This is a machine you’re going to be able to use for years to come, and with the hardware this Ultrabook comes with right out of the box, it’s unlikely you’ll need to update your innards any time soon.

The issue picked up speed fast, with HP getting slapped by a lawsuit via its shareholders. Both the auditing firms – Deloitte and KPMG – were listed as defendants for failing to notice red flags hinting at Autonomy’s skewed accounting. Also listed was HP’s executives, officers, and board of directors for negligence and breach of duty.

Rumors that Autonomy was up to no good were circling before HP acquired the company, and according to inside sources, HP wanted out of the deal. The company failed to find any evidence of fraud on Autonomy’s part, however, giving it no legitimate excuse to back out. HP is said to have been aware of the allegations about Autonomy’s “creative accounting” methods.

As for the DOJ investigation, HP both confirmed it and stated that it would fully cooperate. Meanwhile, Autonomy’s founder Mike Lynch has created a website where he counters HP’s claims, stating that HP has failed to substantiate its allegations, among other things. Lynch has also stated that Autonomy would cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation.

One Latitude 10 buyer, originally promised a mid-December ship date for the 10-inch tablet when he ordered in late November, was subsequently told that his tablet now wasn’t due until the new year. The current listing for the Latitude 10 on Dell’s site suggests a January 22nd ship date is the earliest the slate will be available; previously, December 12th had been the estimated ship time.

In fact, some Dell customer services agents are apparently telling customers that – contrary to what the site indicates – the Latitude 10 is still in pre-order stage. “Dell Latitude 10 is not officially launched” one Dell rep said. “As soon as it will be launched it will be sent to you.”

Meanwhile, HP has pushed back availability of its Envy x2 convertible, now listing a January 9th ship date; HP had previously indicated a November release for the twisting touchscreen notebook.

According to the tipsters, the hold up is down to Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) testing process, or more specifically the apparent inability of Intel to get its Clover Trail drivers approved by that process. Windows PCs can’t legally be sold, according to the terms of Microsoft’s licensing of the OS, until all of the components are WHQL approved.

Exactly when Dell and the other OEMs can expect to have approval to sell their tablets is unclear; we’re waiting on an official comment from Dell.

The EliteBook Revolve offers an 11.6-inch HD display, and weighs in at a svelte 3lbs. Users can grab either a Windows 7 Pro or Windows 8 Pro version, although given the touchscreen, it’s probably best used in conjunction with Windows 8. The Revolve is constructed to be durable, and includes Gorilla Glass 2 cornering and a chassis made from magnesium.

As far as hardware goes, the EliteBook Revolve runs on an Intel processor, and features USB 3.0 and DisplayPort, a 256GB SSD, and a camera that can record in up to 720p HD. There’s a dual-microphone for high-quality audio, as well as DTS Studio Sound. There’s NFC tossed into the mix, and Intel Rapid Start, which allows the notebook to conserve battery life.

Vice President and General Manager for HP’s Commercial Managed IT Segment Dan Forlenza offered this statement. “Employees want computing devices that work the way they do – flexibly and able to adapt to any situation. HP is committed to ensuring its Elite portfolio of tablet solutions will provide customers the features their employees need for maximum productivity, with a design they’ll be proud to carry everywhere they go, all without sacrificing the enterprise services and protection that take the headache away from IT.”