Product Central
Dispatches from the Reviews Editor's desk
Thursday 3 July 2008, 11:34 AM
Coming Soon: Dialogue Box Series 4
Believe it or not (and we have trouble believing it ourselves) Dialogue Box has been recommissioned for a fourth series — and we didn't have to resort to Alan Partridge-style babbling about 'Monkey tennis' to get the nod!
We filmed the first episode yesterday, and without giving too much away, I can reveal that we shed (rather bright and exciting) new light on a subject we covered in the first series last year. Check the site on Monday for the results, once our video chaps have worked their post-production magic.
What else is in store? Again, keeping the cards suitably close to the chest, we'll be looking at wireless networking, the latest mobile technology and remote system management, among other things — all with the usual DB mixture of tech savvy, dodgy humour and references to going down the pub.
Thursday 12 June 2008, 1:59 PM
HP's 'colour-critical' LCD
One of the key products introduced at HP's 'Connecting Your World' event in Berlin earlier this week was the 24in. DreamColor LP2480zx, a 30-bit (10 bits per primary colour channel) LED-backlit monitor featuring HP's DreamColor Engine technology (first seen in a number of printers last year).
HP's 24in. DreamColor 2480zx sells for 2,299 euros and is shipping now.
The DreamColor brand is designed for graphics professionals, who require accurate and consistent colour across a range of devices. HP has a close relationship with DreamWorks Animation, which clearly has a pressing need to ensure that the artistry of its animators — most recently seen in Kung Fu Panda (premiered at Cannes and released in the UK on 4 July) — is reproduced faithfully through the production chain, from graphics workstation to movie theatre or living room. According to HP, technical types at DreamWorks had been reduced to scouring eBay for old high-end CRT monitors, such was the expense of existing 'colour-critical' LCDs.
The Dreamcolour 2480zx offers blacker blacks, programmable white and a range of preset colour spaces: an optional calibration kit (colorimeter and software) is also available.
With its billion-colour gamut, CRT-class black, programmable white and six factory-calibrated colour spaces plus one user-programmable space, the 2,299-euro DreamColor LP2480zx does the job for about a quarter the price of previous solutions, according to HP.
Tuesday 10 June 2008, 2:59 PM
Coming soon: HP's EliteBook
I'm in Berlin with HP for its 'Connecting Your World' shindig, the sun is shining, HP's top brass are keynoting and new products are appearing at an impressive rate.
Among the highlights is the HP EliteBook 6930p, the first of a new range of business notebooks combining military-standard (MIL-STD 810F) build quality with attractive industrial design. Claiming inspiration from the aircraft industry, the 14.1in., 2.1kg EliteBook has a magnesium chassis featuring a honeycomb pattern that's thermally bonded to a scratch-resistant anodised aluminium shell, giving a combination of strength and lightness. It's a Centrino 2 system, with a maximum battery life of 15 hours if you use the optional second battery.
HP's EliteBook 6930p looks elegant, but is also built to withstand significant levels of vibration, humidity, temperature, altitude and dust.
Other key features include QuickLook2 software that gives button-touch (but currently read-only) access to email and PIM information even if the notebook is off or in hibernation, and a military-grade file shredder. Another innovation is Sparekey, which lets you circumvent a forgotten password or malfunctioning fingerprint reader by anwering three predetermined questions. There's a new Qualcomm Gobi-based mobile broadband chipset, the HP un2400, that supports seamless roaming between EVDO and HSDPA networks, which should make international travellers' lives easier.
The EliteBook will ship in mid-August starting at £967 (ex. VAT). More product info and pictures when the vagaries of HP's non-stop schedule and press room/hotel connectivity allow.
Wednesday 21 May 2008, 10:26 AM
OLPC The Second
Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child project has been hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons recently, but that hasn't stopped OLPC from unveiling the successor to its XO notebook.
When we say 'unveil', what was actually revealed at yesterday's MIT Media Lab event was a concept design — the finished product isn't due to appear until 2010. The XO-2's standout features are its small size (about half that of the original XO) and dual touch-screens: it can function as a portrait-format e-book, as a tablet with a single continuous screen, or in clamshell mode with a virtual keyboard (see above).
The display technology will come from Pixel Qi, which was founded earlier this year by former OLPC chief technology officer Mary Lou Jepsen.
According to Negroponte, the target price for the XO-2 is $75 and the target power consumption is 1 watt. The original XO currently clocks in at $188 and 6W.
Wednesday 14 May 2008, 10:50 AM
Tablet trouble
We've had Dell's Latitude XT convertible tablet at ZDNet Towers for a couple of days, and been impressed with its sleek brushed aluminium finish, near-ThinkPad-quality keyboard, integrated HSPDA, diminutive AC adapter and capacitative touchscreen.
About the touchscreen. We don't have a lot of luck with touchscreens, and now the XT has fallen victim to The Curse of ZDNet Reviews. The very morning we were planning to do a video review of the unit, it woke up looking like this:
The machine has suffered no more than the average London-Bedford commuter at this time of year (jostling, overheating, general sense of ennui).
As soon as Dell has got to the bottom of the fault, or provided another sample, we'll bring you the review!
UPDATE:
Having sat and thought about it all morning, the Latitude XT has decided to show half a Vista desktop. Not the most useful half, mind you, but it's some sort of progress. Maybe by home time it'll all come back...
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