Hewlett-Packard

Intel showed off the latest hybrid ultrabook concept at company confab this week. But it's been preaching this best-of-both-worlds religion for a while now.

Intel's new PC business chief, Kirk Skaugen, is making the case for hybrids this week in Beijing at an Intel conference. But CEO Paul Otellini has been proselytizing the hybrid experience since last fall and other Intel executives, like Erik Reid, have been chiming in at every opportunity too.

Here's the pitch: in "consumption" mode, it's a tablet (see photos) and in productivity mode it's a standard laptop. And throw in the fact that hybrids use the latest high-performance Intel Ivy Bridge processors and run the Windows 8 Metro interface. … Read more

For ultrabooks to succeed, the display needs to approach an iPad's quality or least match that of a MacBook--which uses higher-end displays.

A lower quality display can be a deal breaker for consumers in the age of the iPad, which boasts a high-quality, high-resolution in-plane switching (IPS) display.

IPS and high-quality TN displays offer viewing angles and contrast typically better than those used on most ultrabooks today.

This shortcoming has become apparent in more than a few reviews of the Dell XPS 13 ultrabook, which in almost every other respect is generally considered an excellent design. (Another review here … Read more

Hewlett-Packard has Windows 8 tablets and hybrid devices in the works, sources told CNET. This follows comments this week by CEO Meg Whitman, who signaled that HP is readying a bevy of Windows 8 products for the fourth quarter.

Those tablets, which are either being considered or being readied for commercial release, include two designs based on Intel's next-generation Atom processor and one using a Qualcomm ARM processor, said an industry source familiar with the designs.

HP's enthusiasm around Windows 8 products is no secret. CEO Meg Whitman made it amply clear this week during the company's … Read more

Hewlett-Packard has a line of products ready to go for Windows 8, CEO Meg Whitman said today during the company's earnings conference call.

"We have a product line lined up in PSG (Personal Systems Group) on Windows on X86. We believe we're going to be well-positioned for holiday on Windows 8 X86," she said. X86 refers to the chip design that Intel and Advanced Micro Devices use.

Whitman made no mention of ARM, the other chip technology that Windows 8 will run on.

"The better Windows 8 is, the better off we are," she … Read more

Apple is out-shipping traditional PC vendors by a wide margin on the back of strong iPad sales, a marketing research firm has found.

In the fourth quarter, Apple became the leading worldwide client PC vendor by shipping more than 15 million iPads and 5 million Macs, representing 17 percent of the total 120 million client PCs shipped globally in the fourth quarter, according to Canalys.

Hewlett-Packard was a distant No. 2 with about 12.7 percent.

"We're going through the biggest shift the PC industry has seen in 20 years. It's very difficult to grow in the … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Hewlett-Packard's Spectre high-end ultrabook--which debuted publicly for the first time Monday night--could be a leading indicator of where Apple is going with larger ultrathin MacBooks.

While Apple is expected to bring out larger, thinner MacBooks in the spirit of the MacBook Air, HP is leading the way here and now.

I had plenty of opportunity to handle the 20mm-thin Envy 14 Spectre Monday night and my initial impression is that this is a very high-quality ultrabook, albeit pricey at $1,399. That said, that's the same price range that Apple's larger MacBooks fall into. … Read more

Ultrabooks are available for the first time this holiday season. That calls for a quick survey of pricing since models have debuted at unexpectedly low prices.

As a refresher, ultrabooks are skinny (typically under 0.8 inches thick), lightweight (three pounds or less) laptops that offer mainstream mobile performance.

In short, they attempt to approximate the portability of a tablet while offering more horsepower via Intel processors. And, of course, they run full-blown Windows--not a minor point.

Pricing runs the gamut but the most-recently-released ultrabooks all fall below the $1,000 mark at retailers like Best Buy. That's important … Read more

Hewlett-Packard is slated to officially put its discontinued TouchPad tablet up for sale one last time today for $99 and $149.

Update: Some readers are claiming that the unit has sold out already and that the eBay server has been responding slowly.

HP is putting its short-lived TouchPad tablet up for sale on eBay at $99 and $149 for the 16GB and 32GB versions, respectively, according to an HP internal memo first published by TechCrunch.

As CNET reported earlier, there will be a few catches, however. Probably the most significant is that the offer will go exclusively to HP employees … Read more

HP's first ultrabook is now available--and for a limited time below the list price of $899.

The 3.3-pound, 0.7-inch thick Folio 13 was announced on November 15 and has just become available today.

It packs decent hardware for a model that retails for $899, sans coupon code (see graphic). The Folio has a Core i5-2467M processor (not a lower-performance Core i3 like other ultrabooks), 4GB of RAM, a 128GB solid-state drive, a backlit keyboard, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. … Read more