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RATING THE HP SLATE

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:18:15 +0000

Hewlett Packard released a video hyping their HP Slate. They didn’t present any specifications for the slate, but they did give us their concept and ideas on the device. In the video questions are asked by an HP spokesperson and then answered by HP’s chief technical officer, Phil McKinney.
The realm of the video revolves around McKinney’s concepts. He had this to say about their soon to hit the market HP Slate. Flogger of Expensive Printer Ink, gave them a rating for buzz words.
“2010 is the year of the Slate because of a “perfect storm of innovation.”
Score for buzzwords and phrases …+2
“It’s around the fact that there’s now this convergence of low cost, low power processors, Win 7.0 with an operating system that is touch aware, the ability to create these kinds of platforms with new kinds of touch technology that hit that price point.”
Score for buzzwords and phrases…+5
McKinney also said that the idea behind the research and development, by its Labs team in Bristol, was to take e-readers on to the next stage. Regarding Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader, McKinney said they’re “optimised for black and white text and don’t offer multi-media rich platforms.”
Score for buzzwords and phrases…+7
Not a bad score, I think their phrases and buzzwords were very impressive and innovating. Looking forward to when HP finally releases more specs and buzz.

MICROSOFT DEFINITION AND HISTORY

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:51:25 +0000

Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates in 1975. Microsoft’s current CEO is Steve Ballmer. Their headquarters are in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft is a worldwide Computer Software Giant. They are the provider for Microsoft Windows, office, developer tools, expression, business software, video game consoles (XBox 360), Windows Live, Windows Mobile, Zune, and Bing.
They are a multinational computer technology cooperation that develops, licenses, manufactures, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. Their most popular products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office Suite software. They employ over 93,000 in over 100 countries. Their website is Microsoft.com.
Their motto and original mission was “a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software.”
1981- The DOS (Disk Operating System) was their first real success.
1983- The company released the Microsoft Mouse, as well as a new publishing division called Microsoft Press.
1985- Microsoft partnered with IBM in the development of a new operating system called OS/2. Also released their first retail verson of Microsoft Windows a graphical extension for its MS-DOS.
1986- Microsoft went public with an initial public offering (IPO) with the initial price of $21.00 a share. The first day of trading it went to $28.00 per share. It is estimated the stock has made 4 billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires.
1987- Microsoft released their first version of OS/2 to OEMs.
1989- Microsoft introduced its flagship office suite, as Microsoft Office, a separate office for productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.
1990- Microsoft launched Windows 3.0, the new version of Microsoft’s operating system. It sold over 100,000 copies in two weeks.
In 1993, Microsoft released Windows NT 3.1, a business operating system.
In 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95, a new version which featured a new user interface. Over a million copies of Microsoft Windows 95 were sold in the first four days after its release. They also released their web browser, Internet Explorer. They also launched a major online service, MSN Network.
1996- Partnered with NBC to create a new cable news station, MSNBC. They also entered the personal digital assistant (PDA) market.
1998-Bill Gates stepped down and appointed Steve Ballmer as President of Microsoft. They released Windows 98, an update to Windows 95.
1999- Microsoft introduced MSN Messenger, an instant messaging client, to compete with the popular AOL Instant Messenger. Along with Windows Vista, MSN Messenger became Windows Live Messenger.
2001- Microsoft released WindowsXp, a new graphical user interface. They also released the Xbox and entered the multi-billion dollar game console market.
2007–They released Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007.
2008- Bill Gates retired but remained the company’s chairman, head of the Board of Directors and acts as an advisor on key projects. Microsoft also announced that they would share information about their products and technology to help developers create software that works with their products.
2009- Citing the recession and slow economic activity, they laid off up to 5,000 employees. They also announced their intent to open a small chain of Microsoft-branded retail stores and the first one opened in October. They also officially released Windows 7.

Microsofts Windows operating system has produced many versions, and has been improved and enhanced from Windows 3.1, to Windows 98, to Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 the current desktop version.

THE WAR BETWEEN HP SLATE AND THE IPAD

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:44:14 +0000

Apple fans and tech geeks have ignited a war over these two devices. Seems to be that the HP Slate is ahead at this stage of the game. Neither of these devices have hit the market yet. HP is staying silent, but Apple has released the specs of what they are offering. But, neither has truly been tested by the average consumer.
Both the devices are quite similar and since these are the two leading companies we can expect some exciting and new technology from each of them.
The HP Slate is in the lead because they haven’t forgotten to add the camera to theirs. The display differs with HP’s being 0.3 inches larger than the iPad screen, and the iPad has a screen ratio of 4:3 and most video’s need a 16.9 ratio, so this could be another shaving of the score for the iPad.
But since at this point it is unknown what resolutions and specs the HP Slate has to offer, there is still time for the score to change.

HYPOTHETICAL MICROSOFT COURIER VS. APPLE ISLATE

admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:00:18 +0000

Since technically the Courier is still a mythical product, Microsoft leaves us at the same level of unknown expectations as the fictional iSlate has left us. So….we thought we would put the two of them up together and see how they pan out.
The mystical Courier and the mystical iSlate, Steve Ballmer is keeping as quiet on this one as Steve Jobs. I can see them side by side sitting in class for the course in “ALWAYS KEEP THEM GUESSING.”
The Courier is purported to be a real game changer, just as the iSlate. We are having to go on speculations, leaks and rumors. It is said to be in the late development stage. It is being referred to as “The Infinite Journal.” It includes two, multi-touch 7-inch screens that can be used for writing, flicking, and drawing with a stylus pen, or navigating with your fingers. It can collect and hold almost any kind of content, web clippings, notes, diagrams, drawings, or photos, each item gets a timestamp and geotag. The hinge doubles as a “pocket” to hold items you want to move from one page to another. Microsoft’s tablet heritage is digital ink-oriented, and this interface works with the Surface touch computer and the Zune HD. It has been reported to run on top of Windows 7. The pen is more than just the old fashioned stylus, it comes with two buttons, an eraser and different drawing modes activated by a twisting mechanism. The rear button is an undo action, while the front button is a quick-select. You can also use finger gestures to interact with the device. It has a camera mode, that uses the “Cloud” system which provides you with the web-based access to your Journal, where you can share it on line. This seems to be serious competition for the iSlate.

The iSlate is also purported to be a real game changer. Rumors, speculations and leaks are all that we have to go on with this one also. It is to have a seven-inch screen and run a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB shared L2 cache and 1066MHz system bus. It will be sold with 2GB of RAM, but will support up to 8GB. The iSlate will feature a 120GB SATA hard drive that spins at 4200rpm.” Other specs include a “built-in iSight camera and projector; multitouch display with oleophobic coating; two USB ports and an SD slot; stereo speakers with mic and optical digital output; and gigabit ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. It will run “Mac OS X Clouded Leopard v10.7.” This one seems to be serious competition for the Courier.
Well, now you have it, which one truly exists, which one will be declared the winner, will either or both of them actually ever leave the gate? Questions..Questions…Questions

MICROSOFT TO FINALLY MAKE PC’S: THE COURIER, OXYGEN, ZINC, ARGON, AND COBALT

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:35:52 +0000

Microsoft is getting as bad as Apple with their no tell policies. If they just told us something, we wouldn’t have to sneak around so much.

LATEST NEWS ON THE COURIER
The Microsoft Courier is looking to be a real game changer in the tablet/slate field. Just as with the iPad, we are having to go on rumors, speculations and leaks. Microsoft is keeping this project top secret. The current leak was reported by Gizmodo, they were the first to have pictures and details.
The Courier is said to be in the late development stages, still working on the design and functions. It is being referred to as “The Infinite Journal.” It includes two, multi-touch 7-inch screens that can be used for writing, flicking, and drawing with a stylus pen, or navigating with your fingers. It can collect and hold almost any kind of content, web clippings, notes, diagrams, drawings, or photos, each item gets a timestamp and geotag. The hinge doubles as a “pocket” to hold items you want to move from one page to another. Microsoft’s tablet heritage is digital ink-oriented, and this interface works with the Surface touch computer and the Zune HD. It has been reported to run on top of Windows 7.
Looks as if the left screen is used for web-browing and the right for record keeping. It has a Smart Agenda that can keep your important items visible at a glance. The library is your main file browser and organizes everything by type. The left side holds your favorites tray, where you can paste your most important projects or apps.
The pen is more than just the old fashioned stylus, it comes with two buttons, an eraser and different drawing modes activated by a twisting mechanism. The rear button is an undo action, while the front button is a quick-select. You can also use finger gestures to interact with the device.
It has a camera mode, that uses the “Cloud” system which provides you with the web-based access to your Journal, where you can share it on line. This seems to be serious competition for the iPad.

The OXYGEN, ZINC, ARGON, AND COBALT
Ammunition Design Group is a product design group based in San Francisco, CA led by Robert Brunner, Matt Rolandson,and Brett Wickens, as a break-off of Pentagram Design. This company designs computers and hardware, and other devices for many companies. This group is now reportedly working on designing computers specifically for Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system.
Hence…the projects that are being speculated to be underway.

The Microsoft Oxygen Project- the concept is a desktop system that converts from typical use mode, to media viewing, to pen input.

The Microsoft Zinc Project- a concept intended for countertop use.

The Microsoft Argon Project- a concept of an entertainment biases all-in-one PC.

The Microsoft Cobalt Project- A convertible notebook/tablet system.

THE HP TOUCHSMART TM2T

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:21:57 +0000

HP released their TouchSmart TM2T convertible tablet notebook, on January 16, 2010. It is the first multi-touch consumer tablet PC to be launched.
This smart new notebook has a 12.1-inch LED-backlight touchscreen display, weighs 4.72lbs, has an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300//SU9600 CULV processor, 8GB of DDR3 RAM and features up to 500GB hard drive 7200rpm, 8X DVD SuperMulti burner, built-in Altec Lansing stereo speakers, webcam, a 5-in-1 card reader, HDMI 1.3b port, optional fingerprint scanner, a full-size island-style keyboard, and Wi-Fi support. Other features include Radeion HP TouchSmart TM2T ATI Mobility HD4550 with 512MB VRAM graphics card, 12.1 inch LED backlit capacitive touch screen [1280 × 800 resolution], and 8x DVD SuperMulti drive.
The TM2T TouchSmart has a brushed aluminum finish, flush with silver, and the price is $949.99.

PROJECT NATAL…HANDS DOWN THE MOST INCREDIBLE PRODUCT BY MICROSOFT OR ANYONE ELSE

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:44:32 +0000

This has my vote hands down for the absolute most breath-taking, astounding, heart stopping, futuristic experience of my lifetime. This project is definitely the next step into the future. The technology that Microsoft has put into this device is definitely light years away. I wouldn’t have expected something even close to this for another 50 years or so. The video of what this baby can do is mind boggeling and far out does any futuristic Sci Fi I have ever seen, and believe me, being a Trekkie, I have seen them all.
Project Natal was shown off at CES this year. It is the attachment for Microsoft’s XBox 360 Video Game System. It uses no controllers, it is unbelievably voice and camera recogniton only. This device is so amazing you will be speechless after watching the video. If you want to go into the future for a few minutes for an absolutely unbelievable out of body experience, watch this video, and be transported completely out of your mind.
Amazingly, Steve Ballmer actually says we can have this in our homes this year. Cannot even grasp that concept. I would try to explain what Natal can do, but there just aren’t enough words, you have to see it, to believe in.

MICROSOFT AND HEWLETT PACKARD TOGETHER

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:26:07 +0000

Amazingly Hewlett Packard and Microsoft have a massive arsenal of high tech weapons on the market and a long list of innovative concepts for future products. Microsoft has been meeting the demands for products with great releases of up to date devices. Now together with Hewlett Packard they are continuing research and development of up to date innovated creations to blast onto the market this year. This is a compiled list of products they have released and products yet to be seen.

EARLY PRODUCTS RELEASED:
HP Touchsmart IQ770 Crossfire – released Jan 2007, first mass market touchscreen desktop PC. Also known as the “Crossfire”, features a 19 -inch touchscreen, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600. It has a wide array of ports, including Ethernet, two FireWire, six USB 2.0 ports, one with HP printer power Y-cable connector, 5.1 + digital audio out, IR out, mini-VGA, FM coax, TV coax, ATSC, and two S-Video.
HP TouchSmart 2 IQ500 – released June 2008, this series features a 22-inch widescreen touchscreen display, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a 500GB disk, 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300 M HS HD graphics, and 802.11n WiFi, along with an Energy Star qualification. The new Touchsmart features a sleeker 2-inch profile in a piano-black finish.
HP TouchSmart 2 IQ800 – released in 2008. Features a larger 25.5-inch touchscreen. Other features include a TV tuner with remote, integrated webcam, Bluetooth, HP Pocket Media drive bay, and an ambient light to illuminate your keyboard.
HP TouchSmart 2 IQ816 – released September 2008, it features a 2.10GHz T8100 Core 2 Duo on a 800MHz bus with a 3MB cache, Blu-ray drive / dual-layer burner, and a GeForce 9600M GS chip. There is a choice between the 640GB or 1TB hard drives.
HP TouchSmart 2 300 – released October 2009. The biggest drawback to an all-in-one PC like the TouchSmart is that you can’t do much to add to its capabilities. Fortunately, HP included just about every feature you could want in this one: There’s an integrated TV tuner, 4GB of DDR3 memory, and both Bluetooth and an 802.11b/g/n adapter for wireless networking. If you manage to fill the 640GB hard drive, you can add external storage via one of the USB ports.
HP Touchsmart 2 600 – released October 2009. This has Power Energy star, CPU Intel Core 2 Duo T7450 (2.13 GHz), Storage capacity 750 GB, Memory 4GB DDR3, Display 23″, plus a camera.
HP Touchsmart 9100 – released November 2009. It is a business orientated all-in-one PC that bears a strong resemblance to the HP Touchsmart 600. It has a 23-inch one-piece PC display which has a resolution of Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixels and is capable of recognizing multiple touches simultaneously.
HP Touchsmart tx2z – released December 2008, the Touchsmart tx2 is the first consumer notebook and tablet PC with on-screen multi-touch control. The Touchsmart tx2 replaces the older HP Pavilion tx2500z.
HP Touchsmart tm2t – released Jan 2010, it has a 12.1-inch swivel touchscreen laptop. It is powered by Intel Core 2 Duo processors and makes use of ATI Mobility Radeon graphics. The multi-touch screen is usable by both fingers and pens, and it comes with a multi-gesture touchpad that has no buttons other than the pad itself. It is energy efficient and can last for nine hours on a six cell battery. The HP TouchSmart tm2 comes loaded with software, including a product by Netflix, finger friendly Coral Paint, an interactive dolphin screensaver and the BumpTop 3D desktop.
HP EliteBook 2730p – released in 2008. It is defined by HP as a business product, perfect for traveling. Being a business computer also suggests that the 2730p can be used for common desktop applications such as Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Web applications. There is nothing out of the ordinary, except that it is very thin. Also included the Core Duo 1.86Ghz CPU (low-voltage), 3GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm HDD (Toshiba 1.8″), and WiFi-N, Bluetooth.
HP Compaq TC4200 – released March 2005. The HP Compaq Tablet PC tc4200 is HP’s first Tablet PC convertible. Dark charcoal gray magnesium.
HP Compaq TC4400 – released May 2006 is everything the tc4200 was, but more advanced. Uses a 2GHz Core Duo T2500, 667MHz DDR2 RAM and the 945GM chipset.
HP Compaq 2710p – released July 2007. This is an ultralight Tablet PC, weighs 3.6 pounds and has a 1280 x 800 pixel, 12.1-inch widescreen active digitizer display, an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor, 100GB hard drive, up to 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11 a/b/g/draft-n, optional EV-DO or HSDPA module, and an ExpressCard/54 slot. OS options include Vista, XP, and FreeDOS.
HP Pavilion TX1000 Series Tablet PC’s – released February 2007. This was a series of notebook computers from Hewlett Packard. These notebooks were designed for Windows Vista, they use the AMD Turion 64 X2 processors, they have 12.1-inch touch screens, a DVD+RW. All models came with a NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 graphics system, which features 128mb integrated graphics and extra shared graphics memory of up to 916mb.
HP Pavilion TX2000 Series – released September 2008. The Pavilion tx2000 is a full-featured convertible notebook, with a 12.1-inch display that rotates and folds flat. The display is touch sensitive, which is useful for controlling media applications while in tablet mode. A battery-less digitizer is included for writing and drawing on the screen. When the digitizer is placed near the display to write, the touch-screen functionaity is automatically disabled. Like the tx1000 series, the tx2000 series is powered by AMD processors. Users will be abe to choose from several AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core processors. Graphics are provided by an integrated NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 graphics card that shares up to 128MB of RAM.
HP Pavilion tx2500z – released June 2008. This is a Pavilion tx2500z Puma-based tablet PC. This “echo” inlaid-design ultraportable has a 12.1-inch 1280 x 800 swivel touch screen with handwriting capture, AMD Turion Dual-Core processor, ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics chipset, and WiFi. Other features include a fingerprint reader, webcam, 5-in-1 media card reader, and 3 USB ports.
HP Compaq TC1100/TR1105 – released on October 2003. This HP Compaq Tablet PC tc1100 runs on the 1.10 GHz Intel® Pentium® M Processor with 512 or 256 MB of SDRAM upgradeable to 2 GB. The device has a 10.4-Inch TFT XGA color display. Graphic card is NVIDIA GeForce 4 Go 420. The tc1100 has integrated 16-bit Sound Blaster Pro-compatible stereo audio and two stereo speakers and microphone. Users can connect on the Internet with Internal MDC 56K modem or with Wireless LAN. The HP tablet TC1100 supports a range of secure, integrated wireless LAN options featuring support for the latest industry standards. Integrated Bluetooth is also an option and can be combined with any one of the supported wireless LAN options. It has Integrated Bluetooth™ on select models and IR (Infrared) on every model. HP Security Lock Slot is additional feature. This Tablet PC supports 32-bit CardBus and 16-bit PCMCIA Cards. It comes with DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive.

This is a list of products that are in the designing stages or soon to be released:

Hp Slate – release estimated late 2010, it was introduced by Steve Ballmer at the CES show January 7th, 2010, this is a touchscreen device that will run on Windows 7 and will come with a browser and a NYT application. This is the device that will be in direct competition with the iPad that was recently unveiled by Apple.
Microsoft Courier – Is the codename for the rumoured upcoming Booklet PC from Microsoft. The unit will contain two multi-touch screens that face each other in a book form factor, and will utilize a stylus and finger touch for input. The device is hinged like mea book, with the seven-inch screens facing each other when the “book” is closed. A 3-gapixel digital camera with 4x zoom is integrated into the prototype system
Microsoft Oxygen all-in-one PC design – Ammunition Group was also in a competition to design computers specifically for Windows. Among these computers are the Microsoft Oxygen, an all-in-one similar to the iMac, the Microsoft Zinc countertop PC, the Microsoft Carbon compact PC similar to the Mac Mini, the Microsoft Argon concept entertainment based all-in-one PC, Not a Concept has been shown off in uk.
Microsoft Zinc – concept intended for countertop use.
Microsoft Argon – concept entertainment biased all-in-one PC.
Microsoft Cobalt – convertible notebook/tablet system.

Microsoft and Hewlett Packard in 2010 will be offering Tablet PC’s using Windows 7 and touch-screen capabilities. Their technology advances on to intertwine laptops, e-readers and media players into a portable netbook tablet.

THE HP SLATE

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:12:00 +0000

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer introduced his new touch-screen, tablet-style computer from Hewlett-Packard. This is what Steve Ballmer had to say about his HP Slate. “We’re talking about something that is almost as portable as a phone and as powerful as a PC running Windows 7.” “The emerging category of PCs really should take advantage of the touch and mobility and capabilities of Windows 7, and are perfect, perfect for reading, for surfing the Web, and for taking entertainment on the go.”
A Hewlett-Packard spokesperson confirmed that the unnamed ’slate’ PC demonstrated by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, “was not a current entry in the TouchSmart series being demonstrated to consumers by HP at the show this week. Rather, it’s a completely new product that will likely have a new brand and a special campaign, and its availability is only being slated for “this year.”
Microsoft also has said it has a new search distribution deal with HP that will make the Bing search site and MSN.com content portal the default search engine and Web home page on new HP computers sold in 42 countries.
The Hp Slate is a one-piece portable computer without a keyboard, this device seemed to be singled out by Steve Ballmer in his display of Microsoft’s new products hitting the market this year.
A product announcement could be coming as soon as August of this year. At this point no official specs or graphics have been displayed, no idea on the price either. All that is known at this point is that this device will be in direct competition with the iPad that was announced and displayed January 27th, this will give Microsoft the time to fill in the gaps with their HP Slate, that the iPad / iSlate might be missing.

ADAM TO BE MAKING HIS DEBUT SOON

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:40:02 +0000

Notion Ink is getting ready to release Adam, he is expected to be released in June of this year. Can’t wait to finally meet him. He seems to be packed full of all sorts of goodies. At last we heard they are still working to extend his battery life. But I am sure for his debut to the world he will be in top form and ready to go to work for us.