What Is New

If you're going to CntrStg during CES, the presentation schedule is now posted. Couple of topics you'll want to check out: Mobile PC Day on Thursday, HP discussing Touch technology on Friday afternoon, and of course you shouldn't miss the Tablet & Touch Community Gathering on Saturday afternoon.

If you still need to register for CntrStg @ CES 2009, you can do so at http://cntrstg.eventbrite.com/.

RSVP to the Tablet & Touch Community Gathering on Facebook or Upcoming.Yahoo.com

Introduced in September 2008, the HP TouchSmart PC IQ804 supports Windows Vista Home Premium. An added bonus for those who are testing the upcoming Windows 7 is that the hardware supports consumer OS features from improved Media Center to multi-touch.

The TouchSmart PC IQ804 has a 25.5" diagonal, widescreen display. The TouchSmart PC's slim, TV-like design reflects how it can be used by your family for: home video production, watching and recording high definition movies and stations, photo slide-shows, in addition to standard PC Internet browsing and productivity. Place it in a central entertainment area and enjoy. You can even mount it to a wall, but if you do this make sure it is at a height everyone can reach!

TheIQ804 supports high-definition content. We attached an antenna by Pinnacle to receive over-the-air HD stations. Reception was solid and were able to use it quite easily. Alternatively, you can connect the built-in tuner to cable and play DVD movies. If you want Blu-ray, then you'll want to get the higher-end IQ816.

HP TouchSmart Model IQ804 with 25.5" diagonal screen running Windows Vista Media Center. The football game was over-the-air, high definition.

Out of the box the HP TouchSmart PC Model IQ804 runs Windows Vista Home Premium and also has a special launch application for your family center.

Input choices: Keyboard, Mouse, Remote, and Touch

Equipped with wireless keyboard, mouse and remote control, it's easy to use the PC as a standard PC or TV. The HP TouchSmart IQ804 has an optical touch screen that supports tapping the screen lightly with your finger or stylus. In Windows Vista Home Premium you can use a single point to touch. When you install Windows 7 (M3 or beta) with the NextWindow multi-touch driver (beta), multi-touch is available and the PC will see two fingers.

You're probably saying to yourself, "Isn't that uncomfortable to reach out and poke at the display?" Surprisingly, no. We moved the giant slate from dining table, to coffee table, and then to desk just to see how we would interact with it. Multi-touch was easiest when we sat or stood close to the screen. A distance of about 10" was comfortable, which is much closer than we normally keep a monitor on a desk.

Balance of height of the display to your arms is important too. Even retailers will want to consider physical position. In one store, the base was roughly 4' off the ground and some people may have had a difficult time reaching the top of the display for a quick game of Solitaire or Mahjong.

Playing InkBall with one-finger touch in Windows Vista.

The updated Windows 7 Paint supports multi-touch. This is an example of how position of two fingers can be tracked at the same time to draw squiggles.

HP TouchSmart PC IQ804 Specifications and Unboxing

Display:
* Optical Touch-enabled 25.5" diagonal widescreen BrightView LCD with tilt adjustment

* 1920 x1200 display resolution

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS HD graphics module with 256MB dedicated video memory

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5850, 2.16GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 667MHz FSB

Memory: 4GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM, 200-pin (2 - 2GB modules occupied; 2 slots total)

Storage: 7200RPM SATA drive

Optical Drive: Slot load SuperMulti DVD burner with 8x DVD+-RW, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD +-R DL, 5x DVD-RAM, 8x DVD-ROM, 24x CDR, 24x CDRW, 24x CD-ROM

Network: 10/100/1000 BaseT

Wireless network: 802.11 b/g/n with built in WLAN antenna; bluetooth

Personal Video Recorder: TV Tuner Dual format NTSC or over the air ATSC high-definition TV tuner

Remote Control: HP Media Center remote control with IR receiver

Mouse & Keyboard: HP low-profile wireless keyboard with numeric keypad and wireless optical mouse

External ports:
* 5-in-1 memory card reader (SD, SDHC, MultiMedia Card, Memory Stick Pro and xD)

* 1 FireWire IEEE 1394 port (front)

* Headphone (front)

* Line-in (back)

* 5 USB 2.0 ports (2 front, 3 rear)

* Line-out (back)

* Digital Audio Out (back)

Webcamera: Integrated 2 megapixel webcamera

Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, 64-bit

Energy Star and EPEAT silver qualifications

iPhone snapshot of the HP TouchSmart box straight from the store. The box does have a warning that it should be lifted by two people. The TouchSmart PC weighs 35.3lbs and packaged weighs about 58lbs.

Slit tape and opened the lid to see simple set-up instructions.

Items are packed in two layers. This is the first layer with the power adapter, power cord, remote control, remote batteries, manual, and keyboard.

Layer two is the HP TouchSmart display.

Connecting power adapter.

Booting HP TouchSmart for the first time. Windows Vista Home Premium is loading.

HP TouchSmart PC with 25.5" diagonal, widescreen display next to TabletKiosk and Motion Computing LE1700 Tablet PCs with 12" displays. A Zune (in front of TabletKiosk) made it into the photo too, as did the dog.

Closer photo of slze comparison.

Dual Boot with Windows Vista and Windows 7

The HP TouchSmart PC comes preinstalled with Windows Vista Home Premium. If you have access to Windows 7 beta bu ilds, then you will want to create a dual boot. Fortunately, this is straight-forward and considerably easier than in the past.

Though you can use EasyBCD or  VistaBootPro, you should not need these to create the dual boot.

In short,

1. Backup your PC and if it is brand new, create system recovery DVDs
2. Log into Windows Vista
3. Click Start button
4. Right click Computer, select Manage and Computer Management window appears
5. Select Disk Management and you will see the system's disk volumes
6. Choose the disk volume that you want to split. Click on it, then right click and select Shrink Volume.
7. Follow the wizard instructions for shrinking the volume and creating a new. You will need to enter the new volume size.
8. Format the disk, NTFS. Make sure disk volume is set to primary. You may need to change drive letters, so that the new disk volume is labeled above optical drives.
9. Follow Microsoft instructions on installing Windows 7 beta.

When your system restarts, you will have a choice about whether to enter Windows 7 or Windows Vista. In our set-up it boots to Windows 7 if no selection is made manually.

Dual boot with Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Once you have Windows 7 installed you will need to install the drivers for the HP TouchSmart. We installed 64-bit and pointed the drivers back to the Windows Vista WindowsSystem32 directory.

After you've completed basic driver installation, go to http://www.nextwindow.com/windriver/ to install the multi-touch driver (beta). Follow instructions on NextWindows' website.

When complete you will have access to multi-touch, improvements in Media Center, and a glimpse of future computing.

Windows 7 features improved Touch technology, such as a large button Tablet Input Panel onscreen keyboard.

Software developers, early adopters, and beta testers of Windows 7 should consider using the HP TouchSmart PC. The simple design influences the way you can interact with the PC and will give you a new view of Windows 7 and the application possibilities for the future. Consumers will appreciate the easy set-up and positive out-of-the box experience that HP has obviously put considerable effort into. The flexibility of this entertainment all-in-one makes it appropriate as a family PC.

HP has exceeded our expectations with its current HP TouchSmart PC line. This super-sized, slate form factor breaks from prior all-in-one PCs by adopting features found in entertainment systems and leading the way in natural interaction. We look forward to seeing how this line advances.

For more information on HP TouchSmart PCs:

• IQ804 Product specification sheet (pdf)
• HP TouchSmart PC website
• Videos on HP.com

International CES 2009 starts this week and as product announcements roll out it will be easy to get engulfed by products on the trade show floor. However, CES is much more than vendor exhibits. It is one of the largest networking events in the industry and a conference with sessions discussing the future of the industry.

You can find the session list at http://www.cesweb.org/sessions/search/default.asp. Here are a few sessions that I find particularly interesting because they focus on current trends, such as solid state drives with mini-notebooks / netbooks, and future concentrations, like kids & our environment.

Which sessions do you hope to attend?

Conference Sessions

Track: Kids@Play: Building a Smarter World

Disruptive Technologies in Kids' Education
Friday, January 9 at 11:05AM - 12:05PM
The Venetian Lando 4203
Moderated by Sue Tave Zelman, SVP Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Panelists: George Cigale, CEO Tutor.com; Rob Franek, VP Publishing at The Princeton Review; Cheryl Petty Garnette, Director Technology in Education Programs, US Department of Education; David Lord, CEO of Knowledge Adventure; Adam Masur, VP Marketing at Tutor.com

Intel: A Vision for Education
Friday, January 9 at 2:15PM - 2:20PM
The Venetian Lando 4203

Intel plans to unveil a new design, adding to its Intel-powered classmate PC family at CES this year. The company will show off this latest design targeting the education space during our Kids@Play Summit.

What's Dust and What's Magic
Friday, January 9 at 3:30PM - 4:00PM
The Venetian Lando 4203
Speaker: Warren Bucleitner, PhD., Editor, Children's Technology Review
A spirited look at the best and worst of 2008 and what we can learn from them in 2009.

Track: Technology & The Environment

Better Batteries and a Greener Charger
Thursday, January 8 at 10:30AM - 11:30AM
LVCC, North Hall N254
Moderator: Suzanne Kantra
Panelists: Jerry Hallmark at Morotola, Christina Lamp-Onnerud of Boston-Power, James Prueitt of MTI MicroFuel Cells

Going Green: More than a Label
Thursday, January 8 at 12:00PM - 1:00PM
LVCC, North Hall N254
Moderator: Ron Schneiderman of Electronic Design
Panelists: Jeremy Arditi of Greenzer; John Frey of HP; Robert Scaglione of Sharp; David Thompson of Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company (MRM); Mike Trainor of Intel

Track: Flash Memory

Collaboration Successes in enabling SSDs in a Windows Environment
Thursday, January 8 at 2:00PM - 3:00PM
LVCC, South Hall S104-105
Presenter: James Borden, Senior Technical Strategist, Microsoft

Solid State Drive Standardization Activities
Thursday, January 8 at 3:30PM - 4:00PM
LVCC, South Hall S104-105
Presenter: Scott Graham, Sr. Manager, Micron Technology, Inc.

Track: Just the Facts: Research, Reports, and Revelations

The Millennials' Influence on CE Purchases
Thursday, January 8 at 3:00PM - 4:00PM
LVCC, North Hall N264
Presenter: Ben Bajarin, Director, Consumer, Creative Strategies, Inc.

The Future of Display Technology in Consumer Electronics
Saturday, January 10 at 10:30AM - 11:30AM
The Venetian Lando 4302
Presenter: Sweta Dash, Director LCD and Projection Research, iSuppli Corp

With all the conversations about start-ups operating on a small budget through this recession, I am reminded of the ways we scaled and operated during the last recession. Specific Google adwords for no more than $2 a click; blogging every day at random times; participating in newsgroups & forums every day; writing detailed product photos, videos and reviews for online and print on a regular schedule; help forum communities; networking at events were all ways to help get the word out.

Thankfully technology is more mature now than it was several years ago. Many of these same things can be done simply and much more quickly than before. New techniques are possible too. Here are a few to get the conversation started:

1. Make search engines can actually search your website
2. Feed feeds - Get your post listed under the proper keyword category at Alltop
3. Link & be linked - there is more than Slashdot to help you drive traffic; places like Techmeme show that others are linking to you
4. Go beyond forums to interact with your potential customers and your existing customers - start by trying FriendFeed & Twitter
5. Read & post in topic relevant forums to keep communication with the community and understand their needs and product trends
6. What are your tips? What works best for you?

Are mini-notebooks an indicator of shift in innovation versus simply an emergent price category?

When Microsoft launched Windows XP Media Center and Windows XP Tablet PC Editions in November 2002, the PC industry was infused with a level of excitement and hope that people involved had not experienced in the prior 18 months. Tech companies were strapped for cash flow, change was minimal in stationary PCs, premium performance ruled the PC ecosystem at the high end, $299 and $199 PCs bottomed out desktop profits, and a few were ahead of the technology trying to force desktop processors into notebook form factors.

To some, Media Center and Tablet PC were simply new and perhaps would help pick up ailing sales. To others, the platforms offered potential for innovation and new tools. By Microsoft infusing over $400 million into Tablet PC development alone and Intel developing Centrino technology that eased wireless connectivity and power issues, confidence in the future of mobile PC technology was reinforced unlike anything prior.

Since 2005, we have seen continued improvements and introductions in ultra-portable, mobile PCs. With the coordination of hardware changes, such as lower powered chipsets, processors, and solid state drives we've seen acceptance of miniaturization of classic notebooks and a pop in excitement.

Yes, the ASUS Eee PC, Acer Aspire One, Gigabyte M912V and dozens of mini-notebook models that are or about to be available hit the sweet spot for users: an affordable balance of price, portability, and practical performance. Growth rate is good. Sales are strong.

However, profit margins are minimal, sales are skewed, quality is passable on the top selling models, and return rates are higher than average. These factors are likened to the previous $199 PC race. It is reasonable to expect an adjustments in business decisions relatively soon. These issues are easily addressed, and should be handled with attention versus cuts.

Even though mini-notebooks aren't the most creative implementation of technology, I do hope that it is an indicator of change the industry - a willingness to advance it, with major innovation to follow.

TabletPc2.com started to post its 6th annual List for Santa: Holiday Gift Guide. With over 160 products, items will be added to the list over the next several days. Tablet PCs, Entertainment PCs, Mini-Notebooks are already up and Fun & Entertainment and Digital Cameras are going up soon.