Hardware Geeks

HP was so excited about this new Compaq 2330s that they announced it a whole 14 days ahead of schedule. It was originally set to be announced on the 19th but better early than late I guess.

The 2330s is a budget notebook PC for small business, it weighs only 4 pounds and has a nice little look to it. Kind of reminded me of the look the old ThinkPads had, a lot of people thought that look was ugly but I actually like that old look.

I received the HP’s DV5 on Friday but yesterday I finally opened it.  I was excited when I received it because I didn’t know they were sending it to me, but I’m glad because I fell in lust w/ it last week.  This computer is soooo aesthetically pleasing.  Whoever designed it must’ve had the ‘conscious consumer’ in mind because why else would you put a mirror on the laptop.  The keyboard is silver and the touch pad is a mirror. 

Mike has told me 1000+ times about how he almost got blinded by it, and although I agree that it could cause some disruption if the light hits it at a wrong angle the computer looks great.  This computer is great for people who don’t like having chapped lips, food in between their teeth, or messy hair days...I’m kidding, but in all honesty, I was able to put my lipstick on and I did a great job I just hope the surface stays as clear as it is, I wonder how it’ll be a couple of months from now....

It felt like my birthday today.  I woke up to the FedEx guy dropping off three packages before 10 am.  The biggest one of course was the one I was the most eager to see—mainly because the box was huge, heavy and bright yellow.  I couldn’t resist, it was like an enlarged Starburst.  I received it this morning but had to go to work, and ran around all day until I got home at about 2 am.  I then unboxed it.

I got home so late because I was desk hunting specifically for this PC, but unfortunately had no luck.  The desk I wanted was out of stock, so you’ll have to deal w/ it being on one of my nightstands – sorry.  I couldn’t wait til tomorrow, so its now about 3 am in the morning and I’m not sure what time I’ll be going to sleep because this thing is the bomb.  I was fortunate enough to have my bestfriend at my apartment, so she took plenty of pics to show you all…

Last week Microsoft released a patch or some have called it a service pack of sorts for Windows Home Server. The patch fixed a corruption bug and added 64-bit support and some other things to help improve the stability of the OS.

HP also released their version of the patch and then some. HP has basically added two new add-ons to their homeserver (McAfee Total Protection Service and PacketVideo’s PVConnect Media Server) which are giving a lot of people issues. Rafael from withinwindows.com is having major issues.

I have pinged HP for comment, and will let you know what they say. But from my experience and as I told Rafael, I would suspect that Mcafee paid HP to add their trial and Packet video was paid by HP to be included in the update.

Everyone has some form of digital media—be it music, pictures or video.  We all have some form of it and if you don’t then you’re stuck in 1995.

With all our digital media, many of us have had a desire to bring that media to our televisions, so we make it happen by burning DVD’s and CD’s and now we’re stuck with stacks of DVD’s.  This can get expensive considering a pack of 20 blank DVD’s will run you about 25 dollars USD at Staples.

Well HP has brought us the HP MediaSmart Connect a device that will help us bring that Media to our Television, easily and with little to no hassle.

Intended for the educational market, the HP mini-note is a sleek looking tiny notebook pc built to withstand the day to day bump and grind of the public school system, but it’s appearance and form factor appeal to the masses, as I have spotted it in Starbucks and Airports around the county being used by young professionals to executives.

Weighing in at 3 pounds 4 ounces with its extended battery (6 Cell about 4.5 hours of battery life in our test), the Mini note 2133 is very light weight, and while it is not as thin as the HP Voodoo Envy it’s has one of the smallest form factors around.

Rahul Sood stunned Apple users when he posted pictures of himself using a MacBook Air to cut his Birthday cake on his blog, and since then some speculated that something big from Voodoo and HP was on the Horizon.

Then the Voodoo website went up in flames. So we knew something was cooking, just in-time for HP’s Connected World 2008 in Berlin. But no one really knew what it was. (I did just couldn’t tell ya)

I have reviewed a lot of notebooks, and have used many more and because of that experience I can honestly say that the HP dv6000 is one of the most stable systems out there and I recommend it to all. I do however tell them to avoid the AMD based ones because of some bad experiences I myself and friends have had with those.

So the dv6885se is a great machine, it does what you want and it does it the way it is supposed too. You can’t ask for much more than that from a laptop. Or can you?

The HP dv6000 Special Edition which is only available at Best Buy, delivers the power you expect from the notebook but, also a sophisticated stylish look.

HP today announced the MediaSmart connect, a device that will turn your television into a central location to view pictures and videos stored on your home network.

The MediaSmart connect which goes connected to your HD Television (also works with standard definition tv’s) also is connects to your wireless or wired network, it then searches for pictures, videos and music and gives you easy access to those files from your television. The MediaSmart connect will also work as a Microsoft Windows MediaCenter extender. You can also download movies from CinemaNow or Upload pictures to Snapfish via the MediaSmart Interface on your Television.