Hewlett-Packard is announcing an entertainment-oriented refresh to its notebook computer line today–and the most notable addition comes with its own 3D glasses.
The HP Envy 17 3D’s glasses automatically turn on when the user is watching a 3D Blu-ray DVD on the machine and then turn off again, giving the glasses a projected year of battery life.
In a test, I found the background shapes to have distracting shadows, but HP said it is tweaking the technology and will ship before the winter holidays at $1,600 or more.At the other extreme, HP’s Mini 210 goes on sale today for $330 with plenty of bright colors and matching carrying cases that look like purses. A tablet computer running the Windows Phone 7 operating system is coming later this fall, while one using Palm’s WebOS 2.0 will come after that, sometime next year.
A further bet on the entertainment market is the unimaginatively titled and box-like Wireless TV Connect, which relays PC content to living room television screens0–if the PC has its own HDMI port. That will ship next month for $200.
For those who are really concerned with energy consumption, or just don’t like their laps overheating, the top PC maker is also offering an extra-ventilated Pavilion dm3. An interface resembling the dashboard of a Prius allows users to twiddle the settings for maximum performance, maximum coolness, or points in between.
We don’t exactly how exactly Apple will update its iPod, iTunes and other wares at an annual press event later today. But we’re pretty sure it won’t include that.
