Hasta La Gadget!

The market for 30-inch monitors is growing, but that’s not the same as saying that your options are plentiful. You’ll have a far easier time finding high-res 24- and 27-inch screens to toss together, but if you’ve got your mind set on a single LCD workspace, HP’s ZR30w has to be on the short list. Coming in at an altogether respectable $1,299, this panel offers oodles of pixels (2,560 x 1,600) and top-shelf image quality. Critics over at Hot Hardware were thoroughly pleased with the results, keeping in mind that this was designed for the creative professional. They did knock the lack of ports (only a DisplayPort and DVI connector are included), but the lack of inputs was just about all they could kvetch about. Performance was deemed “exceptional,” color reproduction was said to be “superb” and it even managed to hold its own while gaming. You may not be a big fan of the plain styling, but those source links are definitely worth a look if you’ve been teetering on this here fence.

HP’s 30-inch ZR30w IPS LCD monitor reviewed: exceptional performance, reasonable price originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Once upon a time in 2007, there was a little-known game called Shadowrun, that let gamers on both Xbox 360 and PC destroy one another for sport. Such is the environment that Microsoft facilitated, but alas, it wasn’t for long, as the moment Shadowrun flopped the cross-platform feature was dropped, though it resurfaced once or twice in third-party titles as the years shot by. Outspoken HP exec Rahul Sood (of Voodoo fame) spins a slightly more complex yarn, however: he says Microsoft killed the project when it found that “mediocre” PC gamers could wipe the floors with the very best players on Xbox. Now, we’re not confirming his story, and there are plenty of other possible explanations if you follow the money, of course, but we can’t help but feel a hint of admiration for the longevity of gaming mouse and keyboard. Here’s hoping we can all leave our predilections at the door as developers pit Android vs. iPhone.

HP’s Rahul Sood says Microsoft killed Xbox vs PC online gaming due to keyboard-mouse superiority originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No big surprise here, but HP Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley just flat-out confirmed to CNBC that HP will not be making any Windows Phone 7 devices, preferring instead to focus on the newly-acquired webOS for its line of smartphones. Here’s the entire exchange:

Q: Can you make webOS successful with developers when you’re selling Windows Phone 7, maybe Android or Linux at the same time?

A: We continue to be Microsoft’s biggest customer, and we continue to believe we will drive innovation with Microsoft. At the same time, I think it’s clear to say, that we’re very focused on the customer, and giving the customer the experience that’s important to them. We won’t do — will not do a Linux / Android phone. We won’t do a Microsoft phone.

Q: So no Windows Phone 7?

A: We will continue to more broadly deliver the webOS-based phones that are in the market today, and Jon and his team have driven a strong roadmap for the future.

Q: So does that mean you’re going webOS only for phones?

A: For smartphones it does. Our intent is to focus those resources and really make webOS the best OS it can be.

That’s a big ouch for Microsoft — it has to sting when your biggest customer turns its back on your fledgling mobile efforts — but we can’t exactly see HP spending a billion dollars on Palm only to turn around and support multiple platforms. There is a small silver lining for Microsoft, though — Bradley also reiterated that HP’s tablet plans aren’t so locked in, and once again hinted that the Windows 7-based HP Slate has become an enterprise product, which is at least better than being killed off entirely. Lose some, lose some slightly less, we suppose. Full video after the break — the good bit starts around 5:20.

Continue reading HP not making Windows Phone 7 devices, focusing on webOS instead

HP not making Windows Phone 7 devices, focusing on webOS instead originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 04:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve sensed that something‘s been up with the HP Slate for a while now, and it looks like we’ve finally gotten the first solid confirmation that the Windows 7 tablet as unveiled by Steve Ballmer at CES in January won’t hit the consumer market as planned — speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, HP Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley just said that the Slate will be “more customer-specific than broadly deployed,” and that it would launch the Microsoft-based tablet “for the enterprise” in the fall. That fits right in with HP telling us the other day that it was in “customer evaluations” as it prepared for the “next steps,” and based on followup comments from Bradley and Palm head Jon Rubinstein, it certainly sounded like the company will focus Windows tablets at the enterprise and develop a variety of webOS devices for the consumer market. Of course, there’s no official announcement yet, so we’ll see what happens — the only thing that we can confidently say is that the HP Slate has definitely succeeded the iPad as the tech industry’s favorite vaporware tablet.

HP Slate no longer a consumer product, will arrive for enterprise this fall originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Secunia ranks Apple first in software insecurity, Safari said to have AutoFill vulnerability originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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