HP on Wednesday began selling its most direct competitor to the MacBook Air, the Envy 14 Spectre. The pseudo-ultrabook starts at a relatively steep $1,400 with a 14-inch, 1366x768 display, a 1.6GHz low-voltage Core i5, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB solid-state drive. Options can take it to a 1.8GHz Core i7 and a 256GB SSD.
PC maker HP has agreed to pay a civil fine of $425,000, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) revealed. The fine is a result of HP failing to immediately report a possible defect of its lithium-ion batteries, as required by federal law. The flaw, like with most batteries, could result in a fire.
We had an opportunity to try the HP Envy 14 Spectre this evening. The ultrabook is HP's most advanced and bears an uncanny similarity to a cross between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro through its attention to design. Is it a replacement for a Mac, though, or a try at riding Apple's coattails? Read on for our take.
HP has teased the Envy Spectre for the second time ahead of CES 2012. The new notebook looks as though it will be the first Envy notebook to fall into Intel’s new ultrabook category. As the photo (and the video below) shows, the new device appears to be quite thin as well as sport the look of the recent HP Envy 15.
HP has teased that it might have more at CES than it has told the media in a teaser slipped out Monday. Called just the Spectre in the video (below) seeded to Engadget and multiple other sites, and believed to be part of the Envy line, it looks to be an extremely thin notebook with a flat lid. Very little else is shown other than patterns that infer the very thin design.
HP will release an updated version of its Envy 14 notebooks, if a recent FCC filing is any indication. Called the Envy 14 Spectre, it has dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi. Other specs aren't yet available, though the product's technical drawings show new vents and labels.
HP contractor Moving Brands has proposed a remake of the company's signature logo that would be as much a change of philosophy as image. Its remake would go to four angled lines that imply the logo and would be more modern than the current design, which is still closer to the icon from the company's early days. The angle would not only dictate the theme of promo material but even integrate into products, such as the capacity on inkjet printers.
HP reported dour results for its third quarter of the year that showed the weight both of its own indecision and pressure on its core PC business. Its revenue was down three percent to $32.1 billion, but its profit dropped a steep 91 percent, down to just $200 million. Gains in its services and software were more than offset by drops in the PC and printer businesses, each of which saw their own revenue drop two and 10 percent respectively.
HP in one of its more surprising unveilings Wednesday night completely remade its Envy 15 and 17 notebooks. The new versions take more of their visual cues from the MacBook Pro, adopting its silver-colored metal, but put an even heavier emphasis on Beats audio processing than they did in the past. Each has six speakers and a subwoofer, even going so far as to have an oversized thumb dial for volume that both gives it finer volume control and a more iconic look.
HP's PC division faced more repercussions from recent months on Monday as its Personal Systems Group's CTO Phil McKinney said he would be retiring from HP. He planned an active retirement and would be an advisor to others without conflicts of interest or other "corporate restrictions," he said. The exit from HP was on friendly terms, but he wanted to "help innovators get better at innovating."
HP kicked off the week with a slew of notebook upgrades, headed up unusually by its netbooks. The Mini 210 has been given its first real redesign with a more minimalist, colorful look. It's also HP's smallest system to get Beats audio processing and should have unusually good sound quality for the 10-inch size.
HP’s revamped notebook range with Intel Sandy Bridge processors are now available for purchase. LogicBuy has made three models available to customers for immediate delivery. Among them are the HP Pavilion dv6 Quad Edition, the HP Pavilion dv7 Quad Edition and the HP ENVY 17.
Voodoo PC founder, former HP CTO and now Microsoft Xbox GM Rahul Sood has offered both criticism and advice to HP both on Facebook and on Twitter in the past day. He argued that HP hadn't put enough faith in the Voodoo PC team and had dissolved it before really had a change to compete with Apple in industrial design. The high-end PC division had just needed a "few years of patience, and investment in our tooling/process" but was folded in quickly, with its most unique product the Envy notebooks designed to match the build quality and attention to detail of the MacBook Pro.
HP signaled potential problems with its home business both in its past quarter and in the near future. The Personal Systems Group, which covers its PCs and mobile devices, saw its winter revenue dip one percent year over year in a market where others were growing. It specifically singled out the home as sales of regular PCs, like the Pavilion line, plunged 12 percent.
HP said late Friday that it had phased out the Envy 13. The ultraportable notebook has now been officially discontinued following its recent price slash. It phased out as the Envy 14 "basically replaced" the design, CNET was told.
HP kicked off its CES plans with speed upgrades to three of its highest-end notebooks. Both the Envy 17 and the Pavilion dv6 and dv7 now use Intel's Sandy Bridge-based Core processors and AMD's newer Radeon HD 6000M graphics. Systems can use up to the quad Core i7 and, on the Envy 17, AMD's completely new Radeon HD 6850M with graphics switching to save power by using Intel video.
HP is now offering an instant discount for its Envy 13 ultrathin laptop, bringing the price to $999. For that price, customers get an aluminum chassis notebook with an Intel 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 3GB RAM, a 250GB, 5400RPM hard drive, and AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4330 graphics with 512MB of dedicated memory. An external 8X DVD burner also comes in the box.
Rahul Sood, the founder of Voodoo PC and the CTO of Global Gaming at HP, announced on his blog on Monday that he will leave his post at HP effective December 2. In the lengthy letter, Sood reflects upon his time at HP and starting the Voodoo brand out of high school, but does little to explain his hard-fought decision to leave HP. Sood does take the time to thank all those involved in helping him along his career path, however, including fans, partners at AMD, ATI, Intel and NVIDIA.
The HP Envy 17 3D notebook introduced at the start of September will begin shipping from HP on November 5. The base system starts at $1,600, and for that money, buyers get 3D active shutter glasses, a quad 1.6GHz Core i7 CPU, a dual-layer Blu-ray writer and 6GB of RAM. The GPU is a 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 with HDMI output.
Acer is well on its way to becoming the world’s largest PC manufacturer. And it has done that by capitalizing on the success of Windows. But now the company is taking aim at Apple, and it's becoming evident that it's the latest victim of a bipolar behavior in the tech industry whenever Apple is a competitor.
HP's notebook updates today included a pair of special versions of its Envy notebooks. Topping the mix is the Envy 17 3D; as HP's first real 3D notebook, it has a 120Hz, 1080p display that works with bundled active shutter glasses to produce a stereoscopic 3D image. It's seen as a movie-focused system and comes with both a Blu-ray drive and a new version of its MediaSmart app that will play 3D movies.
HP has begun shipping its flagship Envy 17 notebook, along with several new Pavilion models. The 17-inch Envy 17 starts at $1,400 for the 2.26GHz Core i5-based configuration with 4GB of RAM, a 320GB HDD and Radion HD 5850 graphics.
HP tonight doubled the size of its Envy line with two new notebooks. Together, the Envy 14 and Envy 17 gun after the MacBook Pro in design but address a common criticism of the 13 and 15: both have slot-loading optical drives and can be used as full desktop replacements for more users. HP told Electronista that optical drives are considered less important but that buyers had been pressing to have DVD and Blu-ray back in the line.
Intel late Thursday tried to downplay the Core i5 MacBook Pro e-mail it had sent out to its Retail Edge program partners. The company now says the prize promo, which was sent out fully translated in multiple languages, was just a "communications problem" with Intel's marketing agency and was allegedly a mistake. A new copy of the e-mail has been sent out that replaces the Apple notebook in the giveaway with an HP Envy 15.
HP today claimed a pioneering role in the PC business as one of the first to ship a computer with native USB 3.0 ports. Certain trim levels of the Envy 15 quad-core notebook will carry the technology and support much faster transfers of up to 5Gbps. USB 3.0 is already being used for hard drives from LaCie and Western Digital and should be particularly useful for SSDs that are often bottlenecked by USB 2.0.
A recently spotted Excel document on HP's website reveals the computer maker will soon release two new Envy-series notebooks, the previously leaked Envy 14 and a larger Envy 17. While the leak only shows the model names, HP's traditional naming convention indicates the former will have a 14-inch screen while the latter will sport a 17-inch display. It's also more than likely that the Envy 17 will have a 1920x1080-pixel display, with the Envy 14 using a 1600x900 panel.
HP this afternoon provided fuller details of its special-run Envy 15 Beats (link active soon) notebook. It expands on the reference version by bundling a pair of Beats over-ear headphones as well as bundling Traktor LE for live DJing. Cosmetically, the model comes in the same glossy black and red as most Beats earphones.
HP this morning revived its sleeping Envy label for two new systems targeted at the same slim but high-speed designs as the MacBook Pro. The Envy 13 and 15 are both housed in aluminum-and-black shells and drop the usual optical drive to shed weight and thickness: the 13-inch model is relatively light at just over 3.7 pounds and is 0.8 inches thick, while even the larger 15-inch system is slightly over 5.1 pounds and under an inch. Both also draw on Monster's Beats PC audio to produce better built-in audio than most notebooks, get color accurate displays, and have a MacBook-like trackpad nicknamed the "clickpad" that hides the main button underneath the surface.
A leak of a 45W power adapter on Wednesday has revealed key details of Dell's Adamo notebook ahead of its official debut. Since changed to anonymize the description, the entry has previously described the power brick as designed specifically for the "Adamo Thirteen," confirming that at least one Adamo model will carry a 13-inch display and that the future system won't use any processor more demanding than the low-voltage Core 2 Duo chips used in Apple's MacBook Air, Lenovo's ThinkPad X301 or similar systems.
HP on Tuesday announced it is shipping the Voodoo Envy 133 notebook, while Voodoo co-founder Rahul Sood alludes to a mystery product on the company's blog. CNET reveals that the MacBook Air and Lenovo X300 competitor saw an exclusive rollout event in Germany, easing concerns that HP would roll the Voodoo line into its consumer products. The Envy offers users a sleek computing experience, reminiscent of Dell's Alienware line of computers.
Users should expect multi-touch displays in notebooks well before the release of official operating system updates like Windows 7, Hewlett-Packard's consumer notebook general manager Kevin Frost says. The feature won't officially appear in Microsoft's software until 2010 but should be available "long before" then in shipping products, according to the executive. Technical marketing head Kevin Wentzel supports the notion and mentions that the advancement is more a question developing software than any limits in current hardware.
HP's performance label Voodoo PC today launched a complete overhaul of tis designs with systems that directly challenge the design aesthetics of the MacBook Air and the Mac Pro. The Envy 133 notebook joins both the Air and the ThinkPad X300 in the newer class of ultra-thin but still fast portables: the use of an LED-backlit screen and a carbon fiber chassis help the Envy measure 0.7 inches thick at every point while weighing under 3.4 pounds. A new generation of Intel's notebook platform helps reach these dimensions while still supplying speed, the company says. Voodoo's design is also the third after those from Apple and ASUS to sport a multi-touch trackpad with support for pinching and scrolling.
