Computer companies need to step up their game. Temkin Group set out to rate the customer experience of 206 large companies across 18 industries, and computer companies didn't exactly impress. Collectively, they fell to the bottom of the pack, receiving the fourth-lowest average, edging ahead of health plans, Internet service providers, and TV service providers.
We've seen workstations before, and we've seen plenty of all-in-one (AIO) PCs, but according to Hewlett-Packard, there has never been a 27-inch AIO that qualified as a workstation. Until now. HP claims its Z1 Workstation is the world's first to combine both types of systems into a 27-inch form factor, and what's more, the OEM says it's a snap to swap out parts without using any tools, a feature that's few and far between in the AIO sector, but critical if it's to be taken seriously as a workstation.
Some interesting revelations are coming out of the court battle between Hewlett-Packard and Oracle. At issue is Oracle's decision to stop supporting Intel's Itanium platform based on claims the processors are nearing end-of-life (EOL) status, the timing of which is suspect. Oracle made the decision to ditch Itanium after hiring former HP CEO Mark Hurd, which itself prompted a legal battle and subsequent settlement. Not long after, Oracle said it was ditching Itanium, HP cried foul, and a big legal mess ensued. Some of it was resolved last night.
Break out the Apple cider if you live in/near Cupertino, California, and toast your hometown PC representatives for dethroning Hewlett-Packard as the worldwide client PC vendor in the fourth quarter of 2011, but only if you're willing to include tablet shipments in the overall tally. If you are, then congrats, Apple's iPad put your home team over the top and was three times more responsible for the achievement than Macs.
Hewlett-Packard has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $425,000 to settle allegations that it knowingly failed to report to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) that certain lithium-ion battery packs contained a defect or otherwise created an unreasonable risk or serious injury or death, the CPSC announced this week. The battery packs in question are prone to overheating and pose a fire and burn hazard.
Hewlett-Packard isn't quite ready to turn its back on the netbook sector the way some OEMs have done, but apparently it's content to relegate these once uber popular PCs to education and business markets. HP's new Mini 1104 is a 10.1-inch netbook that looks like any other, only it's rocking a an Intel Atom N2600 dual-core processor (1.6GHz) inside.
Even though the form factor is new, throw everything you know about Intel's Ultrabook concept out the window. Well, almost everything. Hewlett-Packard just unveiled its Envy 14 Spectre, a premium consumer Ultrabook coated with Gorilla Glass on the lid, display, palmrest, and HP ImagePad, and infused with a white glove treatment that includes a concierge service. Seriously.
Most vendors are using the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as a launchpad for new products, but a select few are tipping their hand ahead of the convention. Hewlett-Packard is one of them, presumably because it's saving CES for its big 
From what we've been seeing and hearing so far, this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is going to serve a heavy dose of Ultrabooks to attendees and could emerge as the prevailing theme, much in the same way 3D dominated last year's show. Hewlett-Packard is getting a head start and has released a short teaser video of its upcoming Spectre Ultrabook, presenting it as if it's going to be the Holy Grail of laptops.
Somewhere out there, perhaps in an alternate timeline or in another universe millions of light years away, Hewlett-Packard's TouchPad tablet is the one to beat after living up to its potential as an iPad killer. But in this timeline and in this universe, the TouchPad is an obsolete relic that was pulled from the market almost as quickly as it appeared, and the future of webOS lies in the hands of open source developers. Could things have worked out any differently?
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