HP

Hewlett-Packard will launch a 4-pound "ultralight" business notebook line based on Intel's Centrino 2 silicon this month.

The 12.1-inch HP-Compaq 2230s series packs Centrino 2 processors and Intel's newest GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics, which HP lists as "Microsoft DirectX 10 capable."

The weight is listed as starting at 4.07 pounds. By comparison, the Via processor-based HP 2133 Mini-Note (8.9-inch screen) is listed at 2.63 pounds.

Models start at $999 with a T5670 (1.80GHz) Core 2 Duo processor and range up to $1,649 for a model with a … Read more

Hey, remember when Nvidia issued that business update saying it was expecting to lose money repairing or replacing flawed graphics cards, but then declined to state which cards were affected and which manufacturers bought them?

Well, this week, both Dell and HP finally came out with a list of laptops that included the defective cards. Check your laptops, people, or you too may be treated to "multiple images, random characters on the screen, lines on the screen, no video" or even a "notebook (that) does not start."

Moving on, analyst group Gartner says the $100 laptop is a pipe dream, but the $200-$500 laptop is going strong. This week saw Intel's Classmate PC primed for a third-generation release; the MSI Wind started shipping with a 6-cell battery (though that bumps the price to $550); and Asus reportedly prepared an Eee PC 701 powered by Intel Atom chips.

That last item is apparently part of Asus' plan to cook up a total of 23 varieties of Eee PC over the coming months (or years, the timeline isn't clear). It's enough to make me wonder if Asus will continue to manufacture any non-Eee PC computers in the next few years. Or will we soon be receiving a press release announcing that Asus is changing the company name to Eee?

Meanwhile, memory maker Buffalo gets our carpe diem award for recognizing the market opportunity in DIY solid-state drives for the Eee PC. First runner-up is Samsung, which finally recognized business users as a prime market for the UMPC and added a few enterprise features to its Q1 Ultra. … Read more

Last month we reviewed the Canon Selphy CP760, a cute little dye-sublimation printer that won us over with its simple menu, quick prints, and most importantly, its small-ish price tag; $100 is a fairly easy price to swallow for a single function printer, especially when we've got so many inkjet printers that can not only print out similar quality photos, but can also print out text on standard 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch paper! In either case, we were impressed by this little guy's ability to churn out excellent quality prints in a short amount of … Read more

Nobody knows exactly when Hewlett-Packard's $13.9 billion acquisition of EDS will close, but it may already be too late for the tech giant to take a run at IBM's leadership in global technology services.

Eight years ago, then-CEO Carly Fiorina looked into acquiring PricewaterhouseCoopers to expand HP's services business, but it ultimately balked at the deal. IBM scooped up the consulting firm for $3.5 billion just two years later, a move that accelerated its famously successful repositioning as a services company.

Now HP Chief Executive Mark Hurd is trying to do what Fiorina failed to do eight long years ago--eons in today's ultrafast-pace technology world.… Read more

This post was updated at 10 a.m. PDT to include further comments from the companies.

Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and Yahoo announced Tuesday that they've teamed up to create a "test bed" project for research in cloud computing, the umbrella term for outsourcing hardware and software capabilities rather than handling them locally.

With the rather dry name of The HP, Intel, and Yahoo Cloud Computing Test Bed, the open-source project will consist of data centers around the globe "to promote open collaboration among industry, academia, and governments by removing the financial and logistical barriers to research in … Read more

Hewlett-Packard lists 24 laptop model variations affected by a widely reported Nvidia graphics chip defect. HP said the flaw has been a warranty issue since November of last year.

Dell made a statement Friday regarding the same graphics chip issue. Nvidia published a "Business Update" on July 2 that addressed the problem. The Nvidia defect is centered on a "weak die/packaging material" in certain versions of Nvidia graphics silicon used in laptops. The die refers to the chip itself and the packaging is what encases the chip.

HP has published a list of potentially affected … Read more

A proposed acquisition by Hewlett-Packard of computer services company EDS has won approval from the European Commission.

In May, HP announced it would buy EDS for $25 per share, or $13.9 billion. Under the deal, EDS will operate as a new business unit (called EDS) and will continue to be led by Ronald A. Rittenmeyer, its current chief executive officer. The EDS buy will pit HP squarely against IBM and make it second only to Big Blue in the realm of outsourced computer services.

But the enormity of the merged companies and culture differences between the two groups will … Read more

You may have seen an article in The New York Times this weekend (registration required) on the subject of a new trend in small, cheap laptops and desktops. The story deals with the pressure PC makers face to make low-end, low-margin computers after the success of the Asus Eee PC mini laptop (or "Netbook" as they're called).

We can certainly see why laptop divisions of those companies might feel nervous. Traditionally, owning a laptop meant sacrificing power for portability and we'd wager that many people still hold to that notion (advances in gaming laptops notwithstanding). If … Read more

AMD thriving in Intel Centrino 2 notebooks? At Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest PC maker, the answer is "yes."

Although consumer notebooks get most of the press, business notebooks get most of the sales. "The prime purchaser of notebooks still remains, as a segment, business," Intel CEO Paul Otellini said during the Intel earnings conference call earlier this week.

Among Hewlett-Packard's slew of upcoming business notebooks (HP Compaq 6730s, 6830s, 6530b, 6930b) with Centrino 2 processors, Advanced Micro Devices' ATI graphics chips figure prominently. And notebooks such as the HP Compaq 6830s and EliteBook 6930p … Read more