Video: Autonomy’s augmented reality technology in action

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

CES Unveiled is the traditional curtain raiser for CES, allowing a limited number of companies access to journalists for three hours on the Sunday evening before the show starts proper. Autonomy, the company that reportedly cost HP a cool $11.7 billion back in August 2011, was one such company, and we caught a demo of its augmented reality technology.

The video is streamed directly to the app once it recognises the image, and then saved locally so that it can be viewed without eating up your data on subsequent occasions. For people like me, who can’t recognise faces almost a minute after I’ve been introduced to someone, the business card application looks particularly interesting.

HP Envy 14 Spectre review: first-look

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

HP isn’t the first name you think of when it comes to good looking laptops. It’s probably not even the fifth or sixth. But the HP Envy 14 Spectre Ultrabook might just alter that perception.

We were given a hands-on demonstration of the Spectre at CES today, and it’s one of the most immediately impressive Windows laptops we’ve ever smeared fingerprints over. HP’s product group director had to keep a cloth close to hand, because this 13.3in laptop is pure glass on top, with a grippy rubberised base. With the HP logo glowing through the lid, it’s a visually striking and very smart looking laptop. The wrist rest is also a slab of glass, giving a smooth, cool-to-touch surface from which to type on. The touchpad, meanwhile, offers multitouch gesture support that’s as slick as anything we’ve seen outside of Apple’s laptops.

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What businesses can learn from the TouchPad fiasco

Friday, September 9th, 2011

I wonder what Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard would have made of the TouchPad fiasco? One of the fundamental tenets of successful business is to start with a good product – the problem with HP’s defunct tablet is that this was also where it ended.

I was lucky. Using a barrage of open browser windows I managed to order one of the £89 bargains via Best Buy. I didn’t fully believe I’d succeeded until it turned up on my doorstep two days later.

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Why HP is giving up PCs, in picture form

Friday, August 19th, 2011

There are surely a host of reasons behind HP’s decision to ditch making consumer products (aside from printers) in favour of business services and software. However, I’m not going to pretend to be in Leo Apotheker’s mind — he’s German, after all (don’t get offended; my mother’s German, and I don’t get her sometimes either).

The decision took many by surprise, not least because HP is the biggest maker of PCs in the world: if it can’t survive in the computer market, where does that leave other companies? Is this the death of the PC? (Personally, I don’t think so, but working for the UK’s finest PC magazine probably means I’m a little bit biased.)

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HP Pavilion dv6 and Pavilion dv7 review: first look

Monday, May 16th, 2011

It’s not often we get too excited about mid-range laptops, but HP’s makeover of its Pavilion dv6 and dv7 series laptops has just made our hearts skip a beat. With its all-new brushed aluminium chassis and a selection of Sandy Bridge processors, the Pavilion takes more than a little inspiration from HP’s Envy series.

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HP Veer review: first look

Monday, February 14th, 2011

Following the heady excitement of LG’s 3D extravaganza, moving on to HP’s tiny Veer might seem a bit of a comedown, but far from it. Of the three devices HP showed-off this morning, it’s the one that had the biggest “oooh” factor.

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HP TouchPad review: first look

Monday, February 14th, 2011

After its announcement last week, this is the first opportunity we’ve had for a hands-on with HP’s WebOS-equipped TouchPad. If you haven’t had the chance to check out the news story covering the announcement, the core details are pretty straightforward.

The TouchPad is a 10in tablet, with a resolution of 1,024 x 768, running a tablet-optimised version of webOS, the mobile operating system HP inherited when it acquired Palm. Under the hood is a meaty dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm 8060 processor, there’s a 1.3-megapixel webcam on the front for making video calls with (but no camera on the rear), and HP will be selling the device in 16GB and 32GB versions. Initially only the Wi-Fi version will be available, but 3G-enabled versions will follow soon after.

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The worst tech decisions of 2010

Friday, December 31st, 2010

There have been some stunningly good tech decisions in 2010: Amazon’s shrewd Kindle price cut and Microsoft’s (long overdue) decision to bash the nails into Windows Mobile’s coffin, to name but two.

But we’re not here to champion the champions, or lavish praise on the sensible: if you can’t wage bitter recriminations during the festive period, when can you? So, here we present the worst tech decisions of 2010.

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First look: HP Envy 14 Beats edition

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

We’ve been waiting to get our hands on HP’s Envy laptops for what seems like an eternity, and now HP, ever the tease, has allowed us a brief fling with its latest addition, the Envy 14 Beats Edition.

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What next for HP?

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

The IT industry and Wall Street were both rocked this week by the resignation of HP CEO Mark Hurd after he was caught fiddling his expenses and concealing a relationship with a female contractor.

The criticisms levelled at Hurd over his tenure as CEO include that of stifling innovation in favour of making money. However, since he took the reins in 2005, HP’s market value has more than doubled to roughly $100bn, so those are some big shoes to fill. To quote Motley Fool analyst Rick Munarriz: “Outside of Steve Jobs at Apple, it’s hard to imagine a CEO that is more important to his company than Mark Hurd to Hewlett Packard. He did a massive turnaround job.”

Like me, you’ve probably read the coverage with interest. However, the real talking point now is where does HP go from here?

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