July 8 - 9:40am EDT   Microsoft has returned to its ad campaign with the first ad in its "Laptop Hunters" campaign in weeks. The TV spot sees couple Matt and Olivia tasked with finding a system at Best Buy with a large screen, long battery life and good support for pictures at $700. They dismiss a 13-inch plastic MacBook as "too small" and too expensive at $1,000, eventually settling on an HP Pavilion dv7 exactly matching their target price. In comparing the Mac and Windows lines, Microsoft is direct and emphasizes absolute price over features. [full story]

June 10 - 12:05pm EDT   HP today acted on two of its planned system updates by launching them through its online store, including an unannounced processor. The new dv2z costs slightly more than promised at $625 but now has a white color trim option and starts with a single-core 1.6GHz Athlon Neo, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive with Radeon X1250 integrated video. Adding a dual-core 1.6GHz processor costs $25; in a surprise, an option now exists for a 1.6GHz Turion Neo that likely boosts performance still for an additional $75. [full story]

June 9 - 7:45am EDT   HP this morning rolled out a trio of notebook refreshes it's gearing towards students, particularly in price but also in design. The Pavilion dv6 is being given a headlining dv6z Artist Edition 2; the 16-inch notebook has special lid artwork that won a recent MTV design contest and also comes with relatively high specifications for an AMD-based system, including a 2.3GHz Turion X2 Ultra, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive and a Mobility Radeon HD 4650 for its video. It also gets a bundle of three Corel audiovisual editing apps and will launch on June 10th for $950. [full story]

June 4 - 4:25pm EDT   AMD this afternoon confirmed that its new dual-core Athlon Neo should show in a new version of HP's Pavilion dv2 ultraportable next week. The upgraded system is due on June 10th and, according to CNET, should have the same power use as the present-day single-core model but run much faster in multi-threaded tasks. Integrated graphics will also get a lift through the Radeon HD 3200 chipset, though HP's notebook currently uses dedicated Radeon HD 3450 video. [full story]

May 27 - 12:20pm EDT   HP's first ultraportables to use Intel's Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) processors will at first just conversions of existing models, those building the notebooks in Taiwan said on Wednesday. They claim to DigiTimes that the first models will actually use existing case designs and that a true redesign to take advantage of the platform won't be ready until the fall. The makeshift change is reportedly triggered by pressure to chase after the Acer Timeline as well as reducing the costs of the systems themselves. [full story]

May 14 - 5:10pm EDT   HP today issued a US-wide recall through the Consumer Product Safety Commission for 70,000 notebook batteries. The recall affects most Compaq and HP home models sold from August 2007 through March 2008 and is prompted by HP's fears that the lithium-ion pack could overheat, catching fire and potentially burning owners. It cites two incidents in which the battery burst due to internal pressure and caused minor area damage but no injuries. [full story]

April 28 - 3:30pm EDT   HP may overlooking widespread instances of NVIDIA's known graphics defect on systems that fall outside of the official recall list. Users on the company's support forums explain that many dv9000-series notebooks with GeForce 8M-series graphics chipsets are exhibiting the same problems as those covered under a warranty extension and eventually fail with a blank or visually corrupted display. The failure usually happens within 1 to 1.5 years and in many cases falls outside of the warranty. [full story]

April 22 - 10:40am EDT   HP this morning formally unveiled a mild redesign of the Pavilion dv3t. The 13.3-inch notebook is HP's lightest Intel home notebook at 4.9 pounds but is positioned as both fast and longer-lasting. It can use up to a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo and has options for 8GB of RAM and dedicated GeForce 105M G video, but will run for up to 4.25 hours (with wireless off) on the stock battery and up to 7 hours on an extended 9-cell pack, both thanks in part to an LED-backlit display. [full story]

March 25 - 8:35am EDT   HP this morning stepped up the performance of its higher-end, mainstream towers with the launch of the Pavilion Elite m9600t. The system is built on Core i7 processors and takes advantage of the triple-channel memory bus; it also has unusually fast video for the class with a 768MB GeForce 9600 GS. A base model at $950 comes with a 2.66GHz Core i7, 3GB of RAM, and 500GB of disk space while further options add Blu-ray drives, 12GB of memory, Blu-ray burning and Radeon HD 4850 graphics. [full story]

December 15 - 3:45pm EST   A leak posted today by retailer J&R has unintentionally revealed a new 16-inch media center notebook from HP. The Pavilion dv6 would have a similar 16:9 ratio display to the earlier HDX16t but would have the chromed look of the current dv line and slightly lower performance to drop the price. A base model would start at just $800 and would carry a 2GHz Core 2 Duo and basic GMA 4500MHD video. The system would nonetheless have 4GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive and 802.11n Wi-Fi as standard. [full story]

October 31 - 8:05am EDT   Sony on Friday said it would back a voluntary recall begun by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission that asks customers to replace over 35,000 lithium-ion notebook batteries included in US systems from Dell, HP and Toshiba, as well as 65,000 worldwide. The Japanese PC builder believes that batteries using 2.15Ah cells made during a production transition between October 2004 and June 2005, as well as some with a change in raw material, carry the risk of overheating and catching fire. At least 40 incidents involving the batteries have surfaced, a small portion of which have resulted in burns and property damage. [full story]

October 29 - 11:35am EDT   HP's dv3500t has already but inexplicably disappeared from the company's online store. The 13.3-inch notebook surfaces in a search of the company's site but results in a dead product link, leaving only the 12-inch tx2500z tablet and the 14-inch dv4 series as HP's smallest mainstream notebooks. The company had only revealed the system on October 1st. [full story]

October 16 - 5:35pm EDT   Apple's new MacBook may be the first to take the system upscale, but the system is ultimately entering an increasingly crowded marketplace of high-end, 13.3-inch notebooks that all carry features normally left out of small systems for the sake of a low price. With that in mind, Electronista looks at the MacBook and three of its most obvious rivals in the marketplace -- Dell's XPS M1330, HP's dv3500t and Sony's VAIO SR -- to see whether any one notebook has a clear advantage and whether stereotypes of Macs as more expensive hold true. [full story]

October 14 - 10:30am EDT   The increasingly widening scope of NVIDIA graphics failures now includes certain Apple and HP desktop systems, according to a pair of reports. Officially, HP now says that several variants of its Pavilion Slimline mini-tower using certain GeForce video chipsets have had their warranties partly extended to address the same symptoms suffered by notebooks with the defective parts, including a loss of video output and occasionally a refusal to start up altogether. The PC maker is extending the warranties on these problems for an extra year or up until December 31st, 2009 and will replace the mainboards for free under the plan. [full story]

June 10 - 4:00am EDT   HP today gave virtually all its notebook line both a cosmetic and performance update, including some of the first Centrino 2-based notebooks. The Pavilion series is now said to have a subtler look with displays that are flush with the bezel, silver-on-silver insides, and a new Imprint finish on the outside. The Intel-based systems use their new notebook platform to supply both faster Core 2 processors as well as faster X4500 graphics on systems that go without dedicated video hardware, while a similar match uses the platform behind the Turion Ultra platform. Improved touch-sensitive media controls and an External SATA port are common across most systems, HP notes. ... [full story]