Hasta La Gadget!

So here it is, after months of details coming to light an inkdrop at a time, the HP eStation all-in-one printing solution. But we’re not gonna dwell but on half of that: the 7-inch tablet skinned out by Yahoo and powered by Android 2.1. As we expected, though, the Google experience is decidedly less that you’re accustomed to: search is Yahoo only, and our attempt to find an alternate method was met with a barebones settings menu. Additionally, there is no access to Android Market, relegating your customization instead to HP’s print-heavy app store — sorry, no games, as that’s not what the company wants to focus on here, according to the rep. That also means no Gmail, much to our dismay. What Yahoo has provided is a suite of apps and widgets that actually work well in their simplicity, from weather to stocks and search.

We were reminded at numerous points that this is a prototype build, and for good reason — the responsiveness was questionably slow, especially in the browser. That said, the Nook store and e-reading app was as fluid as you’d ever need. WiFi is equipped on both the tablet and the printer for cloud-based connectivity on the go. Battery life is measured at four to six hours, and Android 2.2 is expected by holiday still sans Market, but beyond Flash (and at this point we question its performance on this hardware), there’s probably not a lot of value-add in the update. Expect this AIO to be shipping the in the next few weeks.

Continue reading HP’s Photosmart eStation Android tablet hands-on (update: video!)

Filed under: Tablet PCs

HP’s Photosmart eStation Android tablet hands-on (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP‘s just outed a new camcorder, the 1080p loving V5020u. Among its other attractions, this camcorder boasts full HD 1080p video recording at a resolution up to 1920×1080, a built-in gyroscope for image stabilization, 10x digital zoom, a 5 megapixel sensor, a motion detector, a 2-inch LCD, and an SDHC slot for extra storage capacity. This bad boy, which we think is pretty good looking, will be available in October for $159.

HP V5020u camcorder does 1080p in style originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The finest putdowns are usually the simplest. To wit, check out IBM’s Chief Executive Trashtalker, Samuel Palmisano, whose elegant use of the past tense relegates HP’s current status to that of a mere has-been innovator. Now, says Sam, HP is forced to acquire new companies just to keep up, thanks in part to Mark Hurd‘s slashing of investment in research and development. Speaking of Hurd, Palmisano also thinks HP failed its investors by handing him a fat severance package as he promptly jumped ship to Larry Ellison’s Oracle loveboat. Another reason why Palmisano isn’t worried about HP is that he sees the PC era as already over, describing IBM’s sale of its PC business to Lenovo as an act of foresight, and adding that he “couldn’t give it away today.” Clearly they don’t mince their words over at International Business Machines.

CE-Oh no he didn’t!: IBM’s Palmisano says HP ‘used to be’ an inventive company originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 21:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Got “Smart On,” “Quick Start,” “Express Gate,” “QuickWeb,” “Latitude ON” or even the plain vanilla Splashtop instant-on OS embedded in your PC? Chances are, sometime next year, you’ll be getting a MeeGo app-capable upgrade. Splashtop manufacturer DeviceVM has just promised a MeeGo-based version of Splashtop to all current OEM partners for distribution in the first half of next year, and you should be able to simply upgrade the instant-on client in your existing PC. We spoke to DeviceVM in person at IDF 2010, and were told it’s not quite as easy as it sounds — for one thing, the Splashtop MeeGo Remix, as it’s called, is still in the early stages, and it’s going to be up to the ASUS, Acers and Dells of the world to actually roll it out. HP’s committed to delivering an free, transitional version of Splashtop for its machines that will allow end-users to easily upgrade, however. What you’re looking at above on this Lenovo S10-3t is the first step in the process — MeeGo with Splashtop branding and some simple touchscreen drivers. To make up for the relative boredom, DeviceVM showed off something else moderately neat — a port of its Splashtop Remote app to MeeGo that allows a tiny HP Mini to seamlessly remote into a Windows PC. Imagine the potential for covert fun with our video after the break!

Continue reading DeviceVM unleashing MeeGo on Splashtop PCs, flexes MeeGo netbook muscle to remote control Windows machines (video)

DeviceVM unleashing MeeGo on Splashtop PCs, flexes MeeGo netbook muscle to remote control Windows machines (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rahul Sood, founder of Voodoo PC and current innovation tzar at HP, has some good and some bad news for us. On the one hand, the way he sees webOS development from the inside of the HP Palm coupling makes Rahul believe that “everyone will want in once the presentation of hardware is in front of them,” but then on the other, far less happy hand, he urges us to abandon hope of seeing that happen soon. We can’t know for sure what his definition of “soon” might be, but it does suggest webOS 2.0 will likely be a pure software drop later this year, to be followed by HPalm finally unveiling the hot new gear sometime in 2011. Although that’s basically what we were expecting anyway, we can’t help but wonder why it’s taking so long to churn out some new devices — it’s not like they’re being made out of unobtainium… or are they, Rahul?

Rahul Sood sees an awesome, but distant future for webOS devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 03:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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