HP announces two new Android & Windows 8 Tablets

HP has announced the Android-powered SlateBook x2 and the Windows-powered Split x2. The SlateBook x2 is equipped with a 10.1-inch 1920 x 1200-pixel display and a new 1.8GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor. The tablet also features 2GB of RAM, up to 64GB of internal storage, a rear-camera capable of 1080p video recording, an SD card slot, HDMI-out, a USB port and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

The Split x2 is equipped with a 13.3-inch 1366 x 768-pixel display and has the option of an Intel i3 or i5 processor. The device is powered by Windows 8 and also features an 8-megapixel rear camera, 2GB of RAM, a micro SD reader, one USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port, an SD card slot, HDMI-out and up to 128GB of internal solid state storage as well as a 500GB hard disk drive.

Both devices SlateBook x2 and Split x2 include a keyboard dock with an extra battery that is similar to the ASUS Transformer series. The devices will be available in August.

HP to offer webOS mobile software to developers

Hewlett Packard Co has decided to open its webOS mobile operating system to developers and companies, potentially taking on Google Inc's free Android platform that is popular with handset makers.

HP, which acquired webOS in a $1.2 billion purchase of Palm in 2010, had been trying to figure out how to recoup its investment after a failed foray into the smartphone and tablet market.

HP Chief Executive Meg Whitman said the company looked at a number of options for webOS, including a sale and shut down of the division.

The technology giant will make webOS available under an open source licensing agreement, but it has still not hashed out the terms of the licensing deal it plans to offer.

There are a number of open source projects that can be used as examples for deciding the structure of licensing, including Android and browser Mozilla.

The company plans to solicit ideas from developers before deciding on the licensing terms, Whitman said.

Whitman also said HP may get back into the consumer tablet market in 2013 but it will not be making any more smartphones.

The future of webOS had been in limbo since August after HP killed its flagship webOS-based TouchPad tablet following poor sales.

While Google has the world's most-used mobile system with over 550,000 devices activated every day, HP's webOS could be an alternative to companies apprehensive that the Web search giant may compete with them directly in the smartphone handset market through its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility.

The webOS platform, which had been HP-only software, is widely viewed as a strong mobile platform, but has been criticized for having few applications - an important consideration while choosing a mobile device.

Most developers prefer to work on Apple Inc's iOS or Google's Android because both are on millions of devices - unlike webOS.

HP has not revealed its plans for any mobile hardware after the TouchPad was killed.

Lenovo becomes world's second largest PC maker, HP on top

Chinese computer maker Lenovo moved up a place to become the world’s second largest PC maker, according to figures released for the third quarter. Dell dropped from second to third place.

Separate figures released by research firms Gartner and IDC on Wednesday had Hewlett-Packard (HP) remaining in top spot in terms of PC market share. Gartner’s figures showed HP as having 17.7 percent share of the market in the third quarter, Lenovo 13.5 percent and Dell 11.6 percent.

Despite selling the most PCs, HP’s new CEO, Meg Whitman, said last week that a decision would be made by the end of this month on whether the company will stay in the PC business – a business which, despite healthy sales for the California-based company, isn’t proving to be a particularly big money-spinner.

A look at the overall figures for worldwide PC shipments in the third quarter shows growth of 3.6 percent on those of a year ago, said IDC, falling slightly short of the firm’s projections.

Gartner, which reported a similarly low growth rate, said that the growing popularity of devices such as tablets was a factor. The global recession also meant consumers were being more careful about how they spent their money.

However, IDC senior research analyst Jay Chou believes sales will pick up next year as updated laptop models with extra features are brought to market.

Among the top five PC vendors, both Gartner and IDC showed Beijing-based Lenovo as experiencing strong growth on the same quarter a year ago, at 25.2 percent and 36.1 percent respectively. Taiwan-based Asus, the fifth biggest PC maker, also showed strong growth. HP’s growth was less impressive, with both research firms putting it at just 5.3 percent.

Despite Acer’s poor showing, the figures demonstrate to some extent the growing strength of Chinese companies in the global electronics market. Both research firms pointed out that Lenovo’s strong figures were partly as a result of its purchase of German electronics maker Medion in June and the launch of a joint venture with Japan’s NEC in July, giving it better access to European and Japanese markets.

As for the US PC market, HP remained in top position with regards to market share for the third quarter, while Apple showed the strongest growth.

Apple becomes largest chip buyer

Driven by the success of the iPhone and iPad, Apple Inc. has become the world's largest buyer of chips for computers and phones.

Apple bought $17.5 billion worth of chips last year, surpassing computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. as the largest consumer, IHS iSuppli said. That was an increase of 80 percent from the year before, reflecting Apple's continuing sales surge.

An iPhone contains about $80 worth of chips, according to iSuppli. The chips include the central processor that acts as the brains of the device, radio chips that let it talk to cell towers and the audio chip that converts the owner's voice into a stream of data.

The finding that Apple is the No. 1 buyer cements its standing as a company that has the clout, and the cash, to buy chips and other crucial components such as touchscreens when other companies struggle because of supply constraints.

Apple said in January that it had spent $3.9 billion on long-term contracts to secure supplies for the next two years of a "very strategic" component it wouldn't name. Few other companies are able to commit that much money.

Last summer, high-tech manufacturers were scrambling to buy chips as sales started reviving after the recession and chip-makers had yet to ramp production back up. But Apple reported no chip supply problems; it blamed shortages of iPhones and iPads instead on limited assembly-line capacity.

IPhones and iPads use large amounts of expensive flash memory, accounting for much of Apple's chip consumption. Apple sold 48 million iPhones last year, up 89 percent from the previous year. Meanwhile, PC industry sales grew 14 percent, iSuppli said. IPads went on sale for the first time last year.

Samsung, Micron Technology Inc. and Intel Corp. are leading makers of flash memory.

The $17.5 billion figure means more than a third of Apple's "cost of revenue" - expenditures excluding corporate overhead - went toward chip purchases last year.

Samsung Electronics Co., which makes a wide variety of electronics, and PC maker Dell Inc. were the No. 3 and 4 chip buyers. No. 5 is Nokia Corp., the world's largest maker of phones. However, its output is dominated by cheap phones that don't use as many or as pricey chips as the iPhone.
ISuppli expects Apple to extend its lead this year by buying chips for $22.4 billion, compared with $14.8 billion at HP.

HP offers 3G Mobile Broadband Service to Business Laptops

Hewlett-Packard said it will start offering pay-as-you-go 3G mobile broadband services for its business laptops as the company looks to package more services with PCs.

HP is offering the DataPass mobile broadband service with its new 3G-enabled Elitebook business laptops, which were also announced on Monday. The service provides access to 3G data networks in the U.S., and does not require a user to sign a monthly or yearly contract with a wireless carrier.

The DataPass service can be purchased easily in blocks through the laptop, and users don't need to pay any activation fee, said Mike Hockey, an HP spokesman. With plans starting at US$5, the service is good for quick access to the Internet for different durations at places like airports or hotels, where Internet access could otherwise be expensive.

Users can buy a US$5 data plan for 75MB of data over 5 hours, $10 for 150MB of data over 3 days, $20 for 450MB of data over 14 days, or $30 for 1GB of data over 30 days.

The service is available in the U.S. only and worldwide availability is being explored. The service is 3G-only, and access to 4G networks is not yet offered through the service.

The service is available only with HP laptops, which could include optional hardware such as a modem to access 3G networks. Software on the laptop shows availability of a DataPass network at the user's location.

The company does not intend to become a telecom service provider, and the service is being provided as a convenience to customers. Users can continue using mobile broadband services from other network providers such as Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile.

The service will be available with new Elitebook business laptops announced by HP on Monday. The laptops provide longer battery life than older models and are equipped with Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors.

The Elitebook 5330m is less than 1 inch (25.4 millimeters) thick and weighs less than four pounds (1.81 kilograms). It includes a 13.3-inch screen and will be available with Intel's latest Core i5 and i3 processors. With a four-cell battery and solid-state drive storage, the laptop can provide up to 6.5 hours of battery life, according to the company. The laptop is priced starting at $799 and will become available worldwide this month.

HP also announced the Elitebook 2560p ultraportable and 2760p convertible tablets. The laptops come with Intel's latest Core i5 and i7 processors.

The 2560p weighs 3.68 pounds and comes with a 12.5-inch screen, which is the same size as the display on Lenovo's latest ThinkPad X220 tablet that is available since April. The Elitebook 2560p is priced starting at $1,099.

The 2760p is a convertible laptop with a 12.1-inch convertible screen that flips around for users to take notes using a pen input. With a six-cell battery and a hard drive, the laptop provides 8.5 hours of battery life. The laptop will become available worldwide this month starting at $1,499.

HP preparing new versions of EliteBook ultraportables

Materials available from HP’s U.S. and Japanese Web sites indicate computer maker Hewlett-Packard is preparing new versions of its EliteBook ultraportable notebooks, including power-sipping versions of Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors and USB 3.0 for fast connectivity to peripherals. Although the EliteBooks have historically been oriented at business and enterprise users, they’ve also been embraced by road warriors and travelers, who value their performance-per-ounce ratio. According to information that’s come out of HP so far, the new EliteBook models - the 2560p and 2760p convertible tablet PC will feature second-generation Intel Core processors, including the Core i5-2537M and Core i7-2617M, matching processors already available in the 15-inch EliteBook model. HP’s ultraportable EliteBooks typically have 12.1-inch displays; however, material on HP’s Japanese site suggests HP might be offering a model with a 13-inch display with up to 1,440 by 900-pixel native resolution. Reports also have the new ultraportable EliteBooks offering integrated 33G connectivity as an option; the current EliteBook 3540p offers 3G service from Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint as an option in the United States.

HP to bring a webOS tablet next month

Last month that a Fox report claimed an HP, webOS-based tablet was on its way. While HP made no such announcement at CES, an interview with Hewlett-Packard executive vice president Todd Bradley at the event gives a reason to believe an iPad competitor from the developer is coming – February 9.

In an interview with CNBC, Bradley was asked about his company’s entry into tablets. After claiming HP is “totally focused on the tablet market,” Bradley then said that on February 9 we can expect a public announcement. And when asked if an HP tablet could hold its own against Apple, Bradley responded, “You and I will talk about that on the ninth.”

So why didn’t HP choose CES for its introduction? Over-saturation. It sounds like HP wants a little more focus on this launch, and that a tablet will only be a piece of the “ecosystem” the company wants to create. This seems reminiscent of the Microsoft keynote at CES; the long-awaited Microsoft tablet announcement turned out to be more of an introduction of various tablet-PC devices.

While he didn’t give up many other specifics in the interview, Bradley did admit that HP bought webOS last summer with the intention of tablet development in mind.

HP reveals Fusion Netbook with LTE

Hewlett-Packard has announced a netbook with some cutting-edge mobile broadband and graphics technologies that could make it the most powerful netbook yet.

The lightweight Pavilion DM1 netbook comes with an 11.6-inch screen, and runs on Advanced Micro Devices' new Fusion processor, which bundles a graphics chip and CPU into a single piece of silicon.

"It's got the portability of a netbook, but it's got the performance of a notebook all wrapped up into one," said Cara Baez, concept product marketing manager at HP.

AMD's Fusion chip, which was also announced on Tuesday, will enable users to view full 1080p high-definition video, a capability not readily available in netbook-sized laptops. HP already offers netbooks with 1080p video capabilities, but they use a separate high-definition decoder, which drains battery life.

In Fusion chips, the graphics processor shares resources with the CPU on the same piece of silicon, which reduces the need for an extra graphics card or accelerator. The DM1 runs for a maximum of 10.5 hours with solid-state drive storage, and 9.5 hours on hard drive storage.

"If you are running a lot of high-definition applications, that is going to eat down battery life," Baez said. "If you start at ten-and-a-half hours, even if you eat down a couple of hours off of that, you're still looking at substantially long battery life."

This laptop will also connect to LTE (long-term evolution) mobile broadband networks, which offer faster data transfers than current 3G networks.

HP declined to name the LTE provider, but Verizon Wireless in early December rolled out its LTE network across 38 cities in the U.S. HP said it would announce more details about the LTE capabilities on January 6.

The laptop offers up to 750GB of hard drive storage and includes other components such as a webcam. It will be available worldwide on January 9, with prices starting at US$449 depending on configuration.

HP also upgraded the Envy 17 and Pavilion DV6 and DV7 laptops to include Intel’s next-generation Core chips based on the Sandy Bridge architecture. There is a "performance bump" for the new laptops compared to their predecessors based on the previous generation of Core chips, Baez said.

The Intel chips integrate a graphics processor and CPU on a single piece of silicon, but the laptops will come with optional AMD Radeon 6000 graphics cards for more intense graphics tasks.

The DV6 and DV7 will be priced starting at $899.99 and $999.99 respectively. Pricing for the Envy 17 price was not immediately available.

NASA Signs $2.5 Billion Contract With HP

NASA has signed a huge contract with Hewlett-Packard for IT goods and services. The $2.5 billion, 10-year deal includes computer networks, hardware, software, peripherals and "everything that's plugged into the wall," said Michael Sweigart, as NASA spokesperson.

HP is taking over many services currently provided by Lockheed Martin. Hewlett-Packard has had an interesting year, one perhaps most significantly marked by a CEO-shakeup saga. In early August, HP ousted then-CEO Mark Hurd following sexual harassment claims. Shortly after Hurd's firing, he was hired as Oracle's new co-president.

Still, while the company's leadership saw some big changes, it finished the year strongly, reporting decent fourth-quarter revenue growth. We're sure a hefty contract from NASA will help the company's financials as well as help direct attention away from CEO issues and toward what looks to be a promising new year.

Apple Inc buys HP land to accommodate growth

Apple Inc is expanding the size of its Cupertino, California, home base, acquiring nearby facilities from computer pioneer and competitor Hewlett Packard Co.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said, “The offices will give the maker of the iPhone more room for its employees as the company continues to grow”.

"We now occupy 57 buildings in Cupertino and our campus is bursting at the seams," he said.

Apple's real estate transaction was first reported by The San Jose Mercury News earlier this week, which said the deal would give Apple an additional 98 acres of land, roughly doubling the size of the company's home base in Cupertino.

Apple, which had 46,600 full-time employees worldwide at the end of September, did not disclose the price it paid for the HP real estate.

HP terms Slate 500 a Business Tablet

HP had surprised the tech world with it announcement of immediate retail availability of its Windows 7 Slate 500 tablet computer. Although the iPhone revolution has all but erased the distinction between consumer and business when it comes to mobile devices, the marketing strategy for the Slate 500 tablet seems to be to target it as a "business tablet".

That strategy automatically implies two things. First, that HP does not wish to compete with the iPad so it wants to draw a distinction between its target audience and Apple tablet. Second, that HP is suggesting that the Apple iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab are not capable of filling the role of business tablets.

Several features of HP SLATE 500 differentiate it from the iPad. The HP tablet has front and rear-facing cameras. It has a USB port and an SD memory card slot. But, then again so does virtually every other tablet that isn't the iPad, and most of those missing features are expected to show up in the iPad 2.0 sometime in early 2011.

The specs on the HP Slate 500 are impressive for a tablet. The HP tablet exceeds the minimum Windows 7 system requirements of 1 GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage capacity.

Like the iPhone before it, the iPad has defied attempts to box it with labels. It has already been widely embraced as a mobile business tool, and there are numerous apps designed to extend that functionality. Even for unique cases like those HP is targeting, tools like Array Networks DesktopDirect--which has both an iPhone and an iPad app--enable users to seamlessly work with their Windows desktop remotely and access those customized and proprietary applications.

In both form and function, it is difficult to clearly discriminate a business tablet from a consumer tablet. It does seem that the iPad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and the Dell Streak are aimed at consumers, while the HP Slate 500, the BlackBerry PlayBook, and the Cisco Cius all have a more business angle in terms of marketing—but no clear difference could be identified.

HP unveils 799 dollar tablet

Hewlett-Packard Co unveiled its first product for the fast-growing tablet market, a $799 device that runs on Microsoft Windows 7. The tablet will be based on the webOS software that HP acquired when it bought smartphone maker Palm earlier this year for $1.2 billion.

HP's offering has an Intel Atom processor, 8.9-inch multi-touch-enabled screen, weighs 1.5 pounds and comes with 64 gigabytes (GB) of storage and a digital stylus pen. It gets five hours of battery life. It is also equipped with Wi-Fi access. The device is also equipped with cameras in the front and back, enabling video conferencing, and a USB port. It comes with a case and a docking station.

HP's Slate 500 looks to replicate the PC experience in a tablet form by providing a contrast to rivals who have brought more of a smartphone feel to their devices. It will likely be a more media-rich and consumer-friendly offering.The tablet has a bigger price tag than competing products such as Apple's iPad, which kick-started the tablet craze when it debuted earlier this year.

Carol Hess-Nickels, director of business notebook marketing at HP, said "It's really like a full-function PC. It runs Windows; it will run your office applications, it just so happens to be in a slate form factor."

HP launches digital music venture in Europe

Hewlett-Packard Co. is partnering with U.K. mobile music startup Omnifone Ltd. to launch a subscription music service on its personal computers in Europe, moving into a market dominated by Apple Inc.'s iTunes.

Under the partnership, HP will offer a digital music service - called HP MusicStation - on about 16 of its new PC models across 10 European countries. Users of new HP PCs in nations including the UK, France, and Germany could use the service to legitimately download and share millions of music tracks on their computer.

The service comes with a monthly subscription fee of 8.99 pounds ($14.50) in the UK, or euro9.99 in other parts of Europe. A subscription enables users to have unlimited access to over 6.5 million tracks from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music and Warner Music International.

The subscription-based service contrasts with iTunes, which sells songs to users by track or album.

MusicStation is pre-installed in a range of new HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario and Envy models, Omnifone said.

"Starting today, HP PC users in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland can try MusicStation for free for up to 14 days, get access to millions of tracks, keep their favorite tracks permanently and share music and playlists with other MusicStation users," said HP Europe, Middle East and Africa's Charl Snyman.

HP is the world's No. 1 seller of personal computers.

HP announces notebook with 24 hour battery power

HP has announced the release of a laptop with outstanding battery power that can run for 24 hours at a stretch on a single battery charge. Reportedly, the notebook will be a special configuration of the 6930p, part of HP’s EliteBook line. The notebook will run on a 12-cell Ultra-Capacity additional Battery, which costs US$189.

HP EliteBook 6930p sports an Intel Core2 Duo 9000/8000, mobile 45 chipset and is only 2.1 kilogrammes in weight, including the 14.1-inch diagonal widescreen display. The box features a shock-resistant hard drive, spill-resistant keyboard and is tough enough to meet MIL-STD 810F military-standard tests of temperatures of over 60 degrees Celsius and below -29C, apparently.

However,the limitation is that the laptop has to run only on Microsoft’s Windows XP. The other windows operating system named ‘Vista‘ is not ideal for this laptop as this particular operating system contains some power-draining features.

The power saving quality of the battery is further assured by HP’s Illumi-Lite LED display instead of a atraditional LCD screen, and an Intel SSD or Solid state drive that ensures powersaving through its NAND flash memory instead of a rotating magnetic disk.The company is yet to list the price of the high-capacity battery configuration, although HP lists the current version of the 6930p as starting at $1,199 on its website.