Once upon a time, the PC had no rivals. Back in the era before smart phones, tablets, Internet-savvy HDTVs and other gadgets-come-lately, it was the most important technology product in the world, and therefore inherently exciting.
Like people, companies are also capable of improving themselves, as long as they’re self-aware enough to understand their own weaknesses. With that in mind–and with New Year’s Day almost upon us–I’d like to politely suggest a few resolutions that would make great tech companies even better. (Judging from the behavior of some pretty big outfits in 2011, they could use the advice.)
The HP TouchSmart 320 makes for a great value thanks to the impressive AMD Vision chipset, easy setup, spacious hard drive and excellent display. It holds up pretty well as a standard all-in-one, and the addition of the touchscreen makes it even more compelling.
WebOS, the software behind HP’s failed TouchPad tablet and Palm’s failed Pre smartphones, is getting another shot at life as an open source operating system.
–Research firm Canalys, which today announced it’s expecting Apple to overtake HP and become the leading global PC vendor before the second half of 2012 (PCs meaning “personal computers” and thus including tablets). Also: Canalys says it expects 2011 global PC shipments (again, counting tablets) to reach 415 million, a 15% increase it attributes to a [...]
The days of typing “Facebook.com” into your browser’s address bar? Gone! Bookmarks? Pah! Shortcuts? Those require double clicks. Two clicks? Did we lose a war?! There’s got to be a better way! HP might have the answer with its new X7000 Wi-Fi Touch Mouse.
I’ve been thinking of the “Ultrabook” category of laptops–devised and named by Intel–as being pretty much synonymous with “MacBook Air lookalikes that run Windows.” But HP’s new Folio is an Ultrabook that isn’t that Air-like. It aspires to be practical and portable, not super-sleek and sexy.
