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Touching photos with HP

Whenever people complain to manufacturers about skimping on screen size, the stock answer is usually, "Well, we wanted to make the camera small and light, but we needed to leave room for the buttons."

That's not an excuse that needs to be used with the HP R937.

HP has made room for a bigger screen on the back by eliminating most of the buttons. The R937's large 3.6-inch display, as on some of the Sony Cyber-shot compact cameras, doubles as a touch screen from which you can navigate menus and manipulate photos after they have … Read more

What's behind the security acquisition spree?

It must be buying season in the security industry, because there seems to be a new acquisition announced each day. Two recent purchases grabbed my attention. Last week, IBM bought application firewall vendor Watchfire, adding the company to its Rational Software division. Not to be outdone, Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday grabbed application vulnerability tools vendor SPI Dynamics, adding value to another recent addition, Mercury. Why all the activity in the application security space?

1. Web applications are the binary equivalent of Swiss cheese. Many are written rapidly by developers who are paid to add new business logic and meet deadlines. Security … Read more

HP acquires SPI Dynamics

HP today announced its acquisition of SPI Dynamics. The company specializes in Web application security; and SPI Dynamics' technology is already integrated with HP Quality Center software.

According to HP, the acquisition adds quality management services to its software portfolio and builds on its Business Technology Optimization (BTO) strategy.

Privately held SPI Dynamics is headquartered in Atlanta, has 140 employees, and serves more than 1,000 customers in the federal government, financial services, and health care industries. Expected to close in the third quarter of 2007, the acquisition is subject to certain closing conditions. Upon completion, SPI Dynamics will become … Read more

HP's hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD drive shows promise in an early look

HP sent us a prototype system to play with, decked out with LG's new hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD drive. We still don't know what it will cost to add the drive to an HP system (although the standalone drive will cost $1,199, according to PC World), but we can talk about how it works.

First, let's be clear that this is a prototype system. We first reported that HP would offer this drive on May 9 on its online configurator, but right now, none of its desktops has the option available.

The drive itself, LG's … Read more

Dell selling laptop as world's greenest

It may not come in a sustainably-harvested bamboo case, but if you're shopping for an eco-friendly computer, the Dell Latitude D630 is in a league of its own. This model is the first laptop on the market worldwide to win the highest, gold rating from EPEAT, which measures energy-efficiency and green design elements in electronics.

EPEAT ratings, run by the nonprofit Green Electronics Council, take into consideration low-toxic materials as well as the energy conservation and ease of recycling of computers, printers and monitors. The acronym stands for Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool. When that program launched last year, … Read more

HP looks to the future of shopping

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Despite the digitization of nearly everything else in our daily lives, the Sunday circular ad for beef and bags of baby carrots has remained. Hewlett-Packard is developing a technology to bring even the banal task of grocery shopping into the Digital Age.

At HP Labs here, researchers are developing an in-store kiosk solution called Retail Shopping Assistant (RSA) that will make shopping for food, clothes and electronics easier for buyers and make selling things easier for retailers.

The idea is this: imagine walking into a grocery store, and instead of bringing your shopping list along, simply swiping … Read more

Report: Evidence suggests HP spied on Dell

update A magazine report published Tuesday indicates that Hewlett-Packard engaged in corporate espionage and spied on at least one of its own executives prior to the company's controversial probe into a boardroom leak last year.

Citing unnamed sources, Fortune magazine reported that "evidence suggests" HP obtained the phone records of Karl Kamb Jr., a former HP vice president, who is being sued by HP for allegedly stealing company trade secrets. The magazine said it also found information that supported some of the claims Kamb made in a countersuit filed in January: the company paid a former Dell … Read more

NASA enlists HP in multibillion-dollar tech contract

HP announced Wednesday that it has been awarded a contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to provide a range of hardware for federal government agencies. This includes desktop PCs, workstations, and blade PCs enabled to run Unix and Linux operating systems; as well as printers and servers.

The contract lasts seven years and may be worth up to $5.6 billion for HP. It's known as Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement IV (SEWP IV) and aims to offer any federal agency--not just NASA--low prices, minimal surcharges, and efficient ordering procedures.

Previous SEWP contracts with NASA, the first … Read more

HP Garage gets spot on National Registry of Historic Places

The information age just got a little older, as the "birthplace of Silicon Valley" has been formally listed on the National Register of Historic Places. More specifically, this is 367 Addison Ave. in Palo Alto, California: the garage where, in 1938, two guys named Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started a company that became known as Hewlett-Packard the next year.

The new historic status is official as of Thursday. (You think it's been Zillowed?)

The house had been built circa 1905 and apparently once housed Palo Alto's first mayor; the garage, however, wasn't built until … Read more