This is a conversation I had with myself while watching episode four of "Dollhouse," in which one of the main characters is involved in the break-in and robbery of a vault filled with valuable works of art:
Me: Hey, I think that's the HP tx2z that guy's using.
Me: Yeah, it totally is.
Me: Wonder if he's using the multitouch to rotate his plans every time he changes direction?
Me: Doubtful. The multitouch is slow and inefficient on that thing.
Me: You wanna talk about inefficient, how 'bout that AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core ZM-86 processor it's running on?
Me: Hey now, it performed on par with a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400.
Me: All right, but what about the battery life? He's clearly using the extended eight-cell pack on that thing and it only gets about three hours work time. Would you want to be in the middle of a heist with all your plans or whatever on a laptop and have it die on you?
Me: Yeah, totally impractical...but for non-heist-related computing it's pretty fun.
Me: Oh sure, I'd give it 3.5 out of 5 stars overall.
Read the full review of the HP TouchSmart tx2z convertible Tablet PC.
Updated at 11:30 a.m. PT with pricing info.
(Credit:
LaptopMag.com)
Intel has a convertible Netbook on tap for the CES 2009 crowd assembling once again in Las Vegas next month.
Laptop magazine got a sneak peek at the newest version of the low-cost Classmate PC. It has an 8.9-inch swivel screen with touch and stylus input, a Web cam, and 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 60GB hard drive, and Windows XP, with a few Intel touches to make XP work for the convertible form factor. So far, that includes Vision Objects Pen Input, which makes anything input via the stylus editable as text, as well as a virtual keyboard.
It's manufactured by CTL, like the original Classmate PC (which Intel will continue to sell). Laptop reports that it will begin shipping in mid-January.
Intel says that the price for the convertible Classmate will be slightly more than the original Classmate. The range will likely be somewhere around $250 and $400, though the company said it can't be more specific right now.
Brooke Crothers contributed to this report.
Though beaten to the punch by the FCC, Dell introduced the world to its forthcoming all-in-one PC at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco Wednesday.
Well, it wasn't a formal introduction as much as an all-too-brief glimpse of the XPS One A2010, which resembles a wide-screen TV with separate keyboard. Chief Executive Michael Dell drew the crowd's attention to the all-in-one during his keynote when he asked Chief Technology Officer Kevin Kettler, who joined him on stage, what "that" device was. Playing along, Kettler "guessed" that it looked like a TV, since it had a remote and was playing a Blu-ray disc.
The Dell XPS One leaked on the FCC site last month.
(Credit: Dell)"It looks like an all-in-one machine. But I probably shouldn't say anymore about that," Kettler concluded, tongue firmly in cheek. He did mention that it will be announced "next week."
Though an enterprise software conference might seem an odd place to introduce a firmly consumer-oriented product, Dell certainly wasn't the only one to deviate from standard OOW content. And it didn't stop with the XPS One. While on stage, Dell took the opportunity to demonstrate its forthcoming convertible tablet PC, the Latitude XT (click here for video), which Kettler said is on track to ship in the next few months. And for good measure, Kettler briefly noted how the XPS M1330 laptop he was holding would be a great holiday gift for the whole family.
It wasn't all a consumer hardware commercial, however. Dell also talked up on-demand desktop streaming as an alternative to thin-client computing. On-demand streaming features a desktop client with its own CPU and graphics processor. Saying it had comparable security and costs to thin clients, and the performance of traditional clients, Dell said desktop streaming would allow IT departments to push software updates instantly to all stations and allow for better video playback.
And it wouldn't be a Dell keynote for the company's green initiative. Dell again challenged the industry to join his efforts in the greening of the IT industry. Citing a Gartner report predicting widespread data center brownouts several years from now, Dell called it "absolutely unacceptable."
Without revealing many details, he said that Dell will soon roll out a program called Greenprint, which allows companies to check their power efficiency and then enable them to find ways to make themselves even more "green."
He ended on the note challenging other companies to "consider the impact green technologies can have on (return on investment) and on our planet."
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