hp posts

When HP bought Palm and its webOS operating system in 2010 most people assumed it would be used just for mobile phones and devices. Well in a press event today where, among other things, HP announced new webOS tablets and phones, our sister site Engadget reports that the company revealed plans to bring the webOS to PC laptops and desktops.

This is pretty huge news for the PC industry in general since HP is currently the number one seller of PCs in the world and as such could make a push for this operating system to be used by PC gamers and game developers. Specific details have yet to be announced but you can bet Microsoft is taking a look at this move very closely.

The founder of a well-know gaming PC maker has now got himself a new job. Rahul Sood, the founder of VoodooPC, announced this week on his official web site has now joined Microsoft as the general manager of "System Experience in the Interactive Entertainment Business." If you are wondering what that means, Sood doesn't give us much more saying, "I'll be working on some really....really...really cool stuff come January 2011."

Sood founded VoodooPC in 1991 and in the late 1990s and early 2000s began gaining a foothold in the gaming PC market thanks to its well designed systems. In 2006, VoodooPC was bought by HP. However the marriage between the two companies didn't seem to work with HP releasing only a few new VoodooPC products since the merger. HP no longer sells PCs with the VoodooPC label.

[Via Engadget]

First it was Dell buying Alienware and then HP decided to buy VoodooPC. So in October of 2007, OCZ Technology, who made and sold PC memory, hard drives and other hardware parts, decided to buy their own gaming PC company too. Their pick was Hypersonic PC, a company established in 1996 and had a solid reputation for building fast gaming oriented PCs.

Alas, it looks like that particular marriage didn't work out. The hardware site Techgage reports that OCZ is no longer accepting any new orders for their Hypersonic PC business as OCZ will concentrate on their core products like memory, hard drives and power supplies. Anyone who bought a Hypersonic PC will be happy to know that their warranties will still be covered by OCZ.

[Via Engadget]

3D gaming is suddenly in vogue lately. Nvidia has been really pushing its 3D Vision technology for PC games (with supported monitors) and event console gaming has been paying more attention to 3D tech lately. Now a report claims that the two big PC companies, HP and Dell, are getting ready to release 3D-enabled laptops.

The Digitimes web site claims via unnamed sources that HP and Dell have placed orders for a 3D laptop made with technology by a company called Wistron (Specifics about the deal, including the number of laptops and their cost, are not revealed) If true it's likely that HP and Dell will release the laptops with an eye towards the hardcore PC gaming market. The story also claims that Lenovo and Sony are in talks with Wistron for a similar order. The big question is whether the consumer will see 3D as a must-have feature for PC games or just an unneeded novelty.

Several years ago the gaming PC company Voodoo PC was bought by HP a few months after Dell purchase Alienware. While the Alienware brand has stayed front and center in Dell's marketing plans to PC gamers, HP's plans for the Voodoo brand haven't quite been as direct.

Today the founder of Voodoo PC, Rahul Sood, gave an update on what's going on with the Voodoo brand on his personal blog site. Unfortunately he's still being rather vague about what we can expect in the future saying only, "Voodoo has been transitioning from 'desktop & notebook' manufacturing to something beyond." While there might still be HP PCs with the Voodoo branding and/or Voodoo "DNA" inside there seems to be something else going on. What exactly we don't know.

Voodoo's last major gaming PC release was the Firebird desktop which was branded as a cheaper alternative to a very expensive gaming rig. Sood states, "For you Firebird fans out there - remember I said that was the future of desktop gaming? Well we haven't forgotten about that."

[Via Engadget]

Earlier this week we reported that VoodooPC and its parent company HP would officially launch their "cheaper" gaming-oriented PC at CES next week called the Firebird. However, both VoodooPC and HP have also been working on concepts for a gaming-oriented PC laptop. Now Laptop Magazines's web site has the exclusive first hands-on look at this concept laptop, the HP Firefly.

This massive laptop weight 13 pounds and that includes a one pound power brick. It has a 17.1 inch-screen, backlighting for the keyboard buttons and a multi-touch trackboard. It also has a 4.3 inch LCD screen below the main screen. It can act as a second screen for people who want to play World of Warcraft on the main screen but check an email or watch a YouTube video on the smaller display. It also has a night vision camera for people who want to game in the dark but still have a video chat with friends.

As VoodooPC head man Rahul Sood states in his blog entry about the HP Firefly this product is being shown at CES next week but is a concept model only and will not actually be sold to the public. However you can bet that some of the ideas in the Firefly will be put in future HP and VoodooPC laptops.

Voodoo PC founder Rahul Sood posted up a note on his personal blog about his opinion that the super-powerful and super expensive gaming PC era was coming to an end. That editorial generated a ton of spirited comments (including some here at Big Download) so Sood has now posted up a follow-up to his original post.

Sood claims a number of smaller PC makers have made some negative comments about his editorial but he stands by his statements, saying, "I do believe the high end personal desktop will change - and you will see at least one new fresh direction in the extreme high end space later this year." He added, "It's time to take a step back and look at the big picture and re-think the way performance PCs are built. I'm speaking mostly to the small companies out there who work 24/7 to stay afloat - because I do believe there is a strong need for 'boutique' companies to stay competitive in order to keep things interesting."

The whole topic of "Is PC gaming dead?" has been talked about so many times that's its not worth mentioning anymore (except to say, "No, it's not"). However is the era of the high end $5,000 gaming PC rig dead? Rahul Sood, the founder of the gaming PC maker Voodoo PC (now owned by HP) has posted up a new editorial on his personal blog site that says, "Yes."

Citing the current economic crisis as part of the cataylst for this move, Sood states, " There was a time when selling high-end hardware was easy, because we believed in it. Now we're retooling and retasking our configurations so they make sense; let's face it, high-end hardware has delivered diminishing returns in terms of value. This is why you don't see ridiculous offerings like Quad SLI and 2-kilowatt power supplies coming from our company."

Sood feels that PC game developers know they can't rely on the high-end hardware audience to buy their titles anymore. He states, "The glory days of wicked-stupid hardware requirements are pretty much gone. Game developers are in the business of making money, and thus want to distribute their games to the widest possible audience."

So, your computer has done something very, very, comprehensively, unquestionably bad. Unbootably bad. Now what? If you bought a system from HP or Dell or one of the other big players in the OEM PC market, you might be tempted to reach for the System Restore Disk (CD or DVD) that shipped with it to resurrect your moribund system.

A word of advice here: Don't.

Earlier this week rumors were flying that HP was going to shut down its Voodoo PC business, two years after the PC maker bought the boutique gaming PC creator. Today the Voodoo PC blog responded to the rumors with a message from HP's vice president and chief technology officer Phil McKinney, who stated Voodoo PC's business would be "transitioning to HP's broader infrastructure to gain better scale and efficiencies."

McKinney said such a move would include moving the marketing, engineering and manufacturing parts of Voodoo PC's Calgary based offices to HP locations. As far as layoffs he stated, "At times, there are downsizing moves in HP's business units just as there are hiring moves. We're always adjusting the work force to meet business needs and market dynamics. Is Voodoo immune from this practice? No, it is not." He did not give specifc numbers. Voodoo PC just released its Envy 133 notebook and that $7,000 Omen desktop "won't be far behind" according to McKinney. And why haven't we heard from outspoken Voodoo PC founder Rahul Sood? A picture on the blog site has the answer as Sood is shown holding an Envy notebook but also with a cast on his left arm and hand due to a biking accident.