Elite

Hewlett-Packard's decision to keep its PC business means the world's largest PC maker is here to stay. So, what makes HP so big? To get an idea, here's a quick overview of its marquee PC lines.

HP ships a lot of PCs. More than Apple, more than Dell. It does this by having a broad line of PCs blanketing the business and consumer markets.

EliteBook: This is the high-end of HP's business laptops. Most EliteBooks are designed to meet military standards (MIL-STD-810G) for vibration, dust, humidity, altitude, and high temperature. And are typically clad in aluminum. … Read more

I admit it, most of my favorite amplifiers produce enough heat to warm up a room and consume a lot of AC power. "Green," they are not. Class D amplifier designs (the "D" does not stand for digital) are vastly more efficient, and run cool to the touch.

For example, my Bel Canto REF500S power amp ($2,495) puts out 250 watts per channel, and it's a bona fide audiophile quality design. Bel Canto doesn't specifically refer to the REF500S as a Class D amp, but its low-heat, ultraefficient, heavily regulated switch-mode power supply … Read more

Hewlett-Packard has a Rolodex of business PC customers that rivals would kill to have.

Fortunately, Tuesday's news that HP may not spin off its PC business means cooler, wiser heads are prevailing.

HP executives must know the obvious. That Dell, Lenovo, and increasingly Apple are happy to pick off its high-value Fortune 500 customers in the midst of uncertainty. Those are the customers who buy the pricier HP business PCs (EliteBooks, ProBooks etc.) and often purchase the even pricier servers that the PCs are tethered to.

And HP's fast fact page makes the nexus between business PCs and … Read more

The winner of the 2011 HDTV shootout put on by Value Electronics last weekend was the Sharp Elite, an LED-based LCD TV with a full-array local dimming backlight that sells for around $5500.

According to the event scorecard (PDF, shown below), the Elite handily won two of the four picture quality categories: contrast ratio and black level. It fared the worst of the six contenders in color accuracy and was second-best in a category called "moving resolution (sharpness)."

The annual shootout--which I did not attend and which is not affiliated with CNET in any way--is the brainchild of Value Electronics proprietor Robert Zohn, whose high-end Scarsdale, N.Y., home theater retail store hosts the event.

Scores were derived based on votes from members of the shootout audience, which consisted of executives and senior engineers from CBS, ABC, and THX, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the National Association of TV Broadcasters (NAB), and manufacturers including Sharp LG, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony, as well as "serious a/vphiles and leading members of their respected user forums," according to Value Electronics. The shootout and voting took place over a period of two days, and attendees with obvious vested interests (like TV makers) were not allowed to vote.

All six of the participating TVs were calibrated by well-regarded HDTV experts, namely Ed Johnson, Dewayne Davis (known on AVS Forum and HighDefJunkies as D-Nice), and Kevin Miller, former TV reviewer for CNET and founder of TweakTV.… Read more

UK-based PC Gamer has a cheeky post up today regarding a for-now-UK-only Pavilion Elite Phoenix gaming desktop from HP. PC Gamer points out the rebirth metaphor in the name as it relates to the goings-on with HP's Personal Systems Group. We might also note the significance of the name as it relates to HP's previously stagnant gaming PC efforts since the departure of Rahul Sood, former head of HP Global Gaming, and founder of the HP-acquired boutique PC builder, Voodoo PC.

The system itself looks like a stylized take on the HP's newly redesigned Pavilion Elite desktop … Read more

Better site-rendering speeds and an option to ditch ads called Elite have landed in the public Wi-Fi protector Hotspot Shield today. Published by the Mountain View-based AnchorFree, Inc., Hotspot Shield (download for Windows or Mac) claims to be the world's largest Virtual Private Network (VPN) with more than 10 million users. The Elite version gives upgraders multiple ad-free payment methods and plans, and offers site-load times that are "up to 100 percent faster" than the standard flavor of Hotspot Shield.

A version of Hotspot Shield that uses servers based in the United Kingdom, called Expat Shield (download), … Read more

As Hewlett-Packard mulls the fate of its PC operations, this is a good opportunity to contrast HP's ultraportable workhorse with Apple's popular MacBook Air.

Just before the news broke about Hewlett-Packard considering a spin-off of its PC operations, I received an EliteBook 2560p from HP to try out. Call it uncanny. Or, better yet, call it an opportune time to take a high-end HP laptop for a spin and compare two competing design philosophies from two of the most successful--and biggest--computer companies in the world.

And, yes, I wondered for a moment if this was the last opportunity to handle a new HP-branded laptop. But that thought quickly vanished. HP Executive Chairman Ray Lane has said--as recently as Thursday--that the $40 billion PC operations will either be spun off as an "HP branded" company or kept inside.

With that preamble, let's get down to business. First, some quick notes about the EliteBook 2560p. Among the business models announced in the last six months or so, the 2560p is the closest that HP gets to the Air. (Some might argue that the ProBook 5330m or Pavilion dm1 are closer, but I'm sticking with the 2560p as the best point of comparison for reasons cited below--besides, that's all I've got to work with.)

(Note: this is not a formal review but general impressions of the 2560p after using it for about three weeks. And also note that I am not comparing it to the latest MacBook Air with Intel Sandy Bridge chips inside. I'm sure the MacBook faithful will cry foul on that account. My everyday machine is the MBA spec'd below.) … Read more

Carol Bartz is out at Yahoo and the stock is up, which has got to hurt. They're still raking in the cash, but shareholders hate nothing more than a plateau. Plus, Netflix swears that at least this time, its jerk move (restricting users to only one stream at a time) was a total accident, and they're definitely not doing that. Promise. Plus, Groupon's IPO roadshow is off and the IPO itself may be off for good, and the Droid Bionic has finally arrived. Hooray!

The four-tuner Tivo Premiere Elite makes its debut, Netflix cracks down on people who stream more than one video at the same time, and Yahoo's board fires CEO Carol Bartz after less than three years on the job.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded: