Hasta La Gadget!

In a bid to inject some spark into stodgy home printers, HP has introduced a new all-in-one touchscreen printer that can directly connect to the web and print coupons, maps, movie tickets, news and weather information without the need for a PC.

HP has also taken the idea of apps, popularized by smartphones such as iPhone and T-Mobile G1, and extended it to its product. That means the company’s latest printer will come preloaded with HP applications that can be accessed via the touchscreen panel. HP will also allow users to create and download apps from their site later this year.

“By giving people access to the content they want at the touch of a finger, the ability to customize their printing experience and create their own apps, we are driving a significant shift in how people will be printing in the future,” says Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, imaging and printing group, HP.

That means picture yourself just turning on this printer going to Fandango and printing movie tickets or accessing Coupons.com for the latest grocery deals, or printing directions right off the device.

The new printer comes with a rather clunky name–the HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web, and a hefty price tag.  It will be available starting fall for $400.

The printer will have a 4.3-inch LCD touchscreen and can print, fax, copy and scan. It can also print directly from Wi-Fi-enabled PCs, Bluetooth-enabled devices,  iPhone and the iPod touch.

The device’s user interface seems fairly easy to use and it will have the ability to browse the web, though it is not likely to be a complete browser. Among the early HP app partners will be USA Today, Google including mpas and calendar, Fandango, Coupons.com and Web Sudoku. The printer will also connect directly to a user’s Snapfish account to view, print and upload photos.

Bringing maps, news and coupons functionality to a printer makes it more likely that the average user will get more value from their printer. But unless HP can bring that $400 price tag down significantly, this could end up as a niche product.

Photo: HP Photosmart Premium/HP

I don’t normally look at DVD deals in this space, but there are good prices online. Amazon has the Love Boat season one, volume one, for $26.99. When I was young I liked Gopher, but now I think Captain Stubing is hilarious.

1. Today’s deals are aimed at the last-minute Father’s Day shopper. If you’re feeling generous, go for the HP G60-230US notebook. NewEgg.com has it for $449.99 after $50 mail-in rebate, and it comes with free shipping. This notebook is loaded with a 2.0GHz Intel dual-core processor, 3GB RAM, a 320GB hard drive, and a big 16-inch screen. It even includes a LightScribe drive, perfect for dads who like to burn CDs and DVDs.

2. Was that last one a little too much to spend on Dad? I hear you. How about this: NewEgg.com is selling a Microsoft Zune bundle. You get a 30GB first generation Zune plus a kit that lets Dad play his Zune’s songs over the car stereo. You can get all this for a low $99.99. Dad doesn’t need to have an iPod; he’ll be cool with this.

3. What? That was still too much? You say you’d like a gift that looks expensive and techie but is actually way cheap? Got it. Buy.com is selling the iRobot Looj gutter cleaning robot for $39.99 and it comes with free shipping. Even better, if you pay using PayPayl you get $10 off instantly, making the price $29.99. For that Dad gets a cool robot tool and the illusion that you paid a lot of money.

I just want to promise the readers that I would never make a joke about one of Sarah Palin’s daughters. Unless I thought of a really good one.

1. Here’s a way to get even more out of an already good deal. Dell is selling the Olympus SP-565 UZ for $90 off, bringing the total to $229.99. That’s a good price, since the 10 megapixel camera offers a 20x wide-angle zoom, anti-blur technology, and face tracking that works with up to 16 faces. But wait, if you enter the code FMSZTHZ7$1QFBT at checkout, you’ll get $30 more off, dropping the price to $199.99. That promotional code expires on June 17, so get moving.

2. Bargain laptops typically offer smaller screens, but here’s a good deal on a 15.6-inch notebook. Office Max is selling the Acer Aspire AS5735-6694 (catchy name, Acer) for $479.99, a $200 savings off the list price. It comes with a 2.0GHz Intel Core2 Duo processor, Windows Vista Home Premium, 4GB DDR2 RAM, and a 250GB hard drive.

3. There are great deals to be found with refurbished computers. Consider the HP Pavilion a6707c desktop. Buy.com has it for $394.99, with free shipping. It’s tricked out with a 2.4GHz Pentium E2220 processor, 4GB RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and Windows Vista Home Premium. You’ll even get a keyboard and mouse.

Need some serious portable processing power? HP’s not-quite-netbook, the dv2z, is now configurable with dual-core versions of AMD’s not-quite-netbook processors, the Athlon Neo (with 512K of L2 cache) and Turion Neo (with 1 Mb of L2 cache). The super-thin laptop, the single core version of which hardware analyst Cisco Cheng reviewed in April, maintains a claimed 5 hours of battery life despite the dual-core’s battery load.

Other potential options when configuring your machine include an 4 Gb of RAM, an ATI Mobility Radeon HD3410 discrete graphics chipset for moderate 3D gaming and smooth video and a built in 3G modem capable of connecting to multiple cell networks. In HP’s recommended configuration, this travel-worthy notebook will cost you $755.

HP’s just kicked out a slew of updates to its laptop lines, and thankfully the biggest news is that they’ve gotten cheaper. The HP dv2z brings the low end of the 12.1-inch AMD Neo ultraportable down to $599, while the larger Intel-based dv3t is now $649. The dv6 gets two new editions, including the pictured $949 dv6z Artist Edition 2 preloaded with a bunch of Corel art software and a $649 dv6t base model that thankfully loses the awful lid artwork. Seriously, we know HP had to use the design after it won the HP / MTV Notebook Design Contest, but we just don’t think too many people want to rock the”surfing peacock” look. There are also a bunch of new eco-friendly printers if you’re into that sort of thing — hit the read link for the lowdown.

Filed under: Laptops

HP introduces cheaper dv2, dv3, and dv6 laptops, fantastically ugly dv6 Artist Edition originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments