Hasta La Gadget!

Tempting though it may be, shipments of HP and Compaq (another HP brand) laptops sent to various US state governments have been sent either back to the manufacturer or to local investigators with nary even a game of Spider Solitaire in its account logs. As it turns out, the packages of three to five machines sent to each state — West Virginia, Vermont, Wyoming, and Washington — were never ordered, and in at least three of the cases were purchased with fraudulent credit cards of unknown origin. Even with the shipments apparently coming from HP directly, officials are playing it safe and working under the guise of the machines possibly having malicious code running through its circuitry. You know who the biggest victim in all this is? That guy in Human Resources who legitimately bought a Mini 1000 and had it shipped to the state’s office for pickup. Worst. Timing. Ever.

Filed under: Laptops

Unsolicited laptops sent to state governments never get used, now under investigation originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If looks were all that mattered, HP’s Mini 5101 would’ve been a 10. But alas, bumpy QuickTime video playback and a just-OK battery life knocked the Mini 5101 to a 6 in our ratings. Here’s a snippet from our review:

We love the matte, full-sized keyboard — soft on the fingertips, but just firm enough for precision typing. The glossy trackpad is comfy, too, although it collects smudges quickly.

Performance for the Mini 5101 is solid. The machine cranked out roughly the same benchmark results as the Asus 1000HE, the fastest netbook we’ve tested this year. But the Mini 5101 fell behind Asus when it came to battery performance: four hours in our tests compared to the 1000HE’s impressive five-hour stamina. (Both netbooks ship with a six-cell battery.)

Speaking of video playback, the Mini 5101 comes equipped with the new Intel Atom N280 processor — a 1.66-GHz chip designed to deliver smoother video playback. That improvement is evident in Flash videos, but QuickTime files and YouTube clips played with more chop than an afternoon with Paul Bunyan.

Visit Wired.com/reviews to get our full take on HP’s sexy but imperfect netbook, among other new gadgets.

See Also:

• Toshiba Mini NB205 Netbook
• Separated at Birth? $500 A2 Netbook and MacBook Air
• Asus Eee PC T91 “Touch”
• Dell Mini 10 Netbook
• Samsung NC20

Image: HP

Naturally, until proven otherwise this just sounds like an excuse for a computer company to charge more for Dre-branded semi-music-related products, but according to CNET there’s a bit more meat to a new deal between HP and Dr. Dre to create a line of “Beats by Dr. Dre” laptops, headphones and software. Apparently Dre, Interscope’s Jimmy lovine and HP hope to foster a new “digital music ecosystem,” which would boost audio quality the whole way down the chain. Sounds great if they can pull it off, and it’s not like they’re going it alone: they welcome Apple and other CE companies to join forces. But if anything, we’re just glad to see Dre and lovine expand their gear collaboration efforts outside of Monster Cable.

[Via BusinessWeek]

Filed under: Portable Audio

HP teaming with Dr. Dre for new ‘Beats’ line, music ecosystem in the works originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a presumed effort to shake up the Japanese wireless industry and provide consumers with 3G-equipped PCs that aren’t tied to multi-year contracts, Hewlett-Packard has quietly announced a deal with Japan Communications that will allow its machines to be sold with SIM cards that can be used on a pay-as-you-go basis. For those unaware, JCI leases network space from NTT DoCoMo, and as part of the agreement, HP will not only get to choose which devices can connect, but it’ll get to keep a nice slice of the mobile data revenue as well. Here’s the crazy part: the initial wave of netbooks will be sold for between $50 and $100 sans contract. That’s about what users pay in America now for subsidized WWAN-ready netbooks, but there’s a two-year contract tagging along. If all goes well, we could even see full-sized laptops, smartphones and digital cameras hop on the same bandwagon, but for now, we’ll be keenly watching how brisk sales are when things kick off next month.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablet PCs, Wireless, Internet

HP to sell contract-free, WWAN-equipped PCs in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For all intents and purposes, HP’s Compaq Presario CQ60 is a pretty unremarkable laptop — but slap a $300 price tag on it like Walmart has done, a price comparable to most netbooks on the market, and that reframes the entire conversation. Computer Shopper has gotten some hands-on time with the machine, and while not spectacular, it seems to outperform Intel Atom-based machines. You’re still not gonna be able to do much more than check your email and browse the web, though, and the tradeoff for having a 15.6-inch display and DVD burner is a bulkier, less travel-friendly form factor. Still, this seems to do an apt job at filling in that gap between netbook and laptop, and we’re sure someone out there will appreciate or feeling nostalgic over that modem jack.

Filed under: Laptops

HP Compaq’s $300 laptop reviewed, makes strong case to bypass netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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