The Skyroom technology for video conferencing.

New product releases.

K.V. Kurmanath Recently in Beijing

Living spaces are getting smaller but consumers want more gadgets — and more colour, function and personalisation from their gadgets.

Looking to fill this gap was computer maker Hewlett-Packard, at its ‘Touch the Future. Now’ event held recently in Beijing.

The company unveiled a slew of products and concepts that look to offer the consumer an aesthetically and environmentally pleasing bargain.

Computers are not something that are relegated to a corner of a home. They are an important component of a modern digital home and, hence, they should be made attractive so that they ideally fit in to the drawing room, says See Chin Teik, Senior Vice-President (Personal Systems group) of HP Asia-Pacific and Japan.

He also argues that digital devices are not just converging. It is a continuum of devices. And the company’s new products — smart notebooks, an all-inclusive personal computer, SkyRoom technology and a power-packed thin client — reflect this.

HP’s new products also appeared to keep in mind the depressing conditions that force companies and organisations to cut down on conferences that require ferrying people from different locations. Yet, they cannot postpone important meetings to discuss designs and products.

The centre of attraction at the event was the Mini 110 series notebooks. With attractive colours and designs, these one-kilo, one-inch thick notebooks drew the eye irresistibly.

With a 10.1-inch LED screen display and 160-gb hard drive, the notebook comes with a built-in webcam and microphone.

Available for sale in the next few weeks, the notebooks offer an “Internet-centric experience” to consumers. They come with a pre-loaded Syncables solution that offers automatic synchronisation of files with a primary notebook or desktop PC.

One of the technologies displayed at the Beijing conference was SkyRoom. “It offers high-definition video conferencing and real time multimedia content sharing and leverages the computing power of an HP platform,” says Sundara Ramalingam N, Product Marketing Manager (Workstations) of HP Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. It also ensures that there are no pilferages in the content. Only image is transferred, while keeping the data secure, says Dennis Mark, Vice-President and General Manager (Desktop Systems Unit, Personal Systems Group) of HP Asia Pacific and Japan.

“It offers the capability of showing graphics-rich content to locations that are far away from one another, while enabling face-to-face collaboration among four users in different locations,” Sundara Ramalingam explains.

Any type of multimedia file can be shared in real time without compromising on image resolution and multimedia file dynamics. Like in Google chat, the technology displays the names of all the people who are online. “One can start interaction with those in the buddy list,” he says.

HP recommends at least a Dual Core 2.3 GHz processor and 2 GB RAM as the minimum requirement for running SkyRoom.

Another interesting product is the All-in-One (AiO) desktop PC that doesn’t need one to plug in many cords. Just one cable connects this AiO. A couple of inches thick, the AiO PC is stacked with all the harddisk and other stuff, demanding less space. The AiO ranges begin from $399.

The company is betting big on this model as consumers prefer to have a simple and converged computing experience, according to Dennis Mark.

HP’s new releases include a dx2810 Special Edition PC, targeted at small and medium businesses, with 85 per cent energy-efficient power supply and 90 per cent recyclable. The energy-efficient multi-core processor would help small and medium businesses to increase productivity, says the company.

kurmanath@thehindu.co.in

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