Chris Pirillo » hp

Dear Fanboys: Go Away

Chris Pirillo — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 03:54:01 +0000

Do you have any idea how much I loathe the fanboy mentality? I honestly don’t care if you’re an Apple lover, a Microsoft admirer or an Android proponent – you’re all equally insane! Being a fanboy does not mean you enjoy or believe in one product more than another these days. It means that you are so insanely narrow-sighted that you cannot possibly understand that a different brand may just work better for another person – or even yourself.

Hat tip to Chu Chu for this fantastic fanboy depiction!

I had an eye on Twitter a few moments ago, and noticed that a friend was sad to realize that her three-year-old HP TouchSmart is slowly starting to fade. This has been her primary machine since August of 2008, y’all. She works from home and spends about ten hours per day – seven days each week – using the heck out of this beast. I’d say it has held up pretty well, wouldn’t you? Through blogging, Tweeting, video editing and even gaming, this setup has never let her down. Not once in nearly three years has she complained about this piece of equipment being bad, wrong, cheap or poorly made.

Wouldn’t you know it – an Apple fanboy was quick to jump down her throat in a Tweet response. His response? “That’s what you get for buying cheap crap. You should have gotten an iPad.” Fanboysaywhat? Are you serious here? Any computer that holds up for three years under intense usage – with NO upgrades or hardware changes at all – is obviously not “cheap crap” as you claim.

This is what I’m talking about. This person is so blinded by his lust for all things Apple that he has failed to realize his beloved product wouldn’t even work for what she needs. (Let’s also not forget that the iPad didn’t even exist when this particular computer became hers in August, 2008!) Would you honestly attempt to use an iPad as your main computer? If you can then kudos to you. As much as I adore my iPad 2, there is no way in hell I am going to get rid of my desktop. I’m willing to bet most of you wouldn’t, either.

Here’s a tip, fanboys: lighten up. Learn to embrace the fact that other people have different needs, wants and likes than you do. Stop harassing them and shoving your favorites down their throat each time there’s a problem with their favorite product. Guess what? Yours isn’t perfect, either.

How Do You Focus on the Task at Hand?

Chris Pirillo — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:14:04 +0000

Sometimes, focusing our brain can be a difficult task. Things happen on a daily basis in our lives that end up muddling our minds. It becomes difficult to shut off the noise and truly focus on whatever it is we’re supposed to be doing. Even though the thoughts running rampant may be serious or life-changing, we still have to find a way to push them aside for a bit of time so that we can finish our work. Life goes on, even when we may not want it to.

My question is… how do you accomplish this? How do you manage to stop thinking about everything else and get the things done that you have to? What do you do to clear your head and distract yourself when you need to? I happen to know someone who is going through a very difficult and painful time right now. However, she still has to work in order to take care of her family. She’s having a lot of trouble concentrating. Instead of thinking through what she’s trying to write, she ends up having her thoughts consumed by what is going on in her life. I am hoping that our community may have some advice and tips for her to help her get through this period. I’m sure that she’s not the only one having this problem, either. I’m willing to bet all of you have had to deal with this at some point or another.

How do YOU turn off the noise and just focus?

You won’t find any type of noise or external clutter when you head over to our software center to get the latest software and apps for your devices and computers.

HP Buys Out Palm

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:52:24 +0000

Struggling mobile manufacturer Palm is being bought by American computer giant HP for $1billion.

Palm, a pioneer in the smart-phone industry, has been hotly tipped as a prime target for a corporate take-over following their failed efforts to compete with the likes of Apple and Android in recent years.

The company was founded in 1992, and was once a trend-setter in the mobile marketplace. However, recent ventures such as its webOS and Palm Pre have not hit expected sales or market targets.

Brian Humphries, HP’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development, said earlier today: “This is a great opportunity to take two Silicon Valley idols and put them together,” Humphries noted. That’s an obvious statement, but he quickly moved on to the meat. “WebOS is the best-in-class mobile operating system. Our intent is to double down on webOS.”

HP has made a statement on their website outlining some of their plans for Palm, which includes development of the webOS platform into HP mobile devices.

As part of the deal, HP will pay $5.70 per share in Palm, a premium on today’s closing price of $4.63, but a far cry from the lofty-heights of their 52-week high of $18.09 per share prior to the launch of the Pre handset.

Should I Get a Mac or PC?

Chris Pirillo — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:10:11 +0000

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I had to chuckle when this particular caller tried to start the old war… Mac vs PC! *sigh* Do you know how often I hear that? However, this guy was a bit more specific. He’s starting college, and wanted to know whether I felt an HP TouchSmart computer would be better for him, or a MacBook Pro. I hate when someone asks my opinion on what is better for them! I really do!

I cannot begin to tell you what will work best for any of you. That’s something only you can decide, and it depends on any number of factors. How much do you have to spend? What will you need the device for? These are the kinds of things you need to think about. I have no way of knowing what will fit your particular needs. You have to do your homework.

That said, I do happen to have an HP TouchSmart. It’s an excellent machine, to be sure. It’s functional, but it’s not as responsive as the interface on the iPad is, largely due to the type of screen and the technology that was used to build it. Not all touch screens are made the same, just like all cars are not built alike.

I recommend you get what you want. Ultimately, there will be one killer feature for you. If touch is the killer feature, then the obvious choice is the HP. It may boil down to price or support for you, as well. You have to decide what features are important to you, and what will fit your lifestyle the best.

Don’t take my word for it. Choose wisely, young grasshoppers.

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Which is More Usable – a Mac or Windows PC?

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:47:30 +0000

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During live calls the other night, I had a guy ask me whether I felt that Macs are becoming more mainstream than Windows machines. He went on to say how he knew that in the past Macs weren’t very “user friendly,” and that he feels they are much more so now. The user interface on a Mac has certainly changed over the years, yes.

But you have to look at it like this: it’s still completely different than what Windows users are used to. Many long-time Windows power users give up when trying out a Mac. They feel they cannot find their way around. I’ve seen it happen many times. With that said, though, it all comes down to a matter of opinion and preference. I cannot possibly tell you which is better for you – or anyone else – to use. It depends what your likes and needs are.

I made a change to Mac as my primary system back when I was completely disgusted with Windows Vista. Vista had zero usability as far as I was concerned. The Mac operating system had what I needed, and works well for me. I don’t have a problem with Windows 7. In fact, I have a machine right in my office that runs it. For my needs, though, Apple builds a better system.

The only similarity between Microsoft and Apple is the fact that they both create an operating system. That’s where it begins – and where it ends. Apple makes a piece of hardware to go with that software and attempt to control it. Some people don’t like that. However, as consumers, we SHOULD like it. We know who manufactured each and every part inside of our Mac system. We know who to blame if it goes wrong. We know who to contact if things go awry.

Apple is pretty much the only company on the planet that controls everything from stem to stern… hardware, software and service. Don’t get all freaked out because you have to pay for Apple’s One Care. You have to pay for ANY extended warranty, right? It doesn’t fail me – ever. Every problem I’ve had was covered under the repair system. I don’t have to question “who is to blame for this problem?” It was all made by Apple, and it all goes back to Apple.

If I had to wager a guess, I’d say that HP will come the closest to being what Apple is as a company. Its problem, though, is that it currently has to support another company’s operating system.

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HP Photosmart Premium Review

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:47:47 +0000

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Yes, this is a printer. It happens to be connected to my network wirelessly. It also boasts bluetooth features and a touch screen! This HP Photosmart Premium allows me to print, copy, fax and scan. It also allows me to connect to parts of the Internet, such as coupons, Google Maps and more!

I can even print wirelessly using the HP iPrint application on my iPhone. It happens to be a free App, even! Without connecting my phone to the network, the App detected the printer on my network and sent the photo to it! How easy was that?!

The coupons feature is pretty cool, even if I do prefer my own coupons. These are ones that you can sort by category, and print out to use in your local store. Enter your zip code, and receive coupons to local stores! Who doesn’t love to save money?!

I can also print a map out for myself, so that I don’t end up lost anymore. I can target whatever location I want using Google Maps, and print out what I need. If you are subscribed to my Twitter, you know that my GPS system called me an idiot recently when I kept missing my turn. By printing out a map, that will hopefully never happen again!

I didn’t have to connect this printer to any computer in order to download updates or anything. This thing is really simple to use. If I wanted to, I could add or change the included widgets. This printer has just about every feature you could want, and then some! I love the fact that it’s connected to my entire network!

[awsbullet:hp photosmart premium]

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What Would You Do With a Million Dollars?

Chris Pirillo — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:10:55 +0000

Over on Geeks today, people have been talking about what they’d do if they suddenly won a million dollars. It’s funny to read the answers, and touching as well. Many people would donate to charities, which I would do more of myself if I won that kind of money. I’d also invest plenty of it, in order to retire at an early age!

But we all know me, and we all know that I would be going on a massive Geeky shopping spree! There’s so many gadgets and USB gizmos out there that I don’t have yet!! Don’t lie – you know you’d be buying some, as well. So come on… tell us… what would you do if you had a cool million in your bank account?

I had a look through what’s new at our downloads site today. Holy cow there are some excellent pieces of software. Did you realize you can find everything from games to productivity software… for your Windows machine, your Mac AND your phone?

[awsbullet:windows 7 upgrade]

HP Home Coupons

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Would You Like to Win an HP Laptop?

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:17:48 +0000

Anne, Karen, and their teams from HP were an awesome addition to the Gnomedex sponsor roster last year. They were on-site with several of their products – and even gave away many things! I was fortunate to receive a TouchSmart from them during this time period, to review and use for myself. Even though I’m a Mac guy at heart, I have to admit I really love using the TouchSmart whenever I need to be on Windows. It runs beautifully, and has never given me any issues at all. It’s a powerhouse of a machine, honestly. I can convert videos while searching on the Internet, having multiple other programs open and even running a Skype conference all at once. There is no “lag”, like you would find on many systems while trying to do all of these things. And, of course, you can’t beat the sheer fun (and yes – functionality!) of using the actual Touch features! It’s not just me who loves this machine. My assistant, Kat, won a TouchSmart after the conference was over. She has used hers ever since as her primary machine, and is quite happy! HP continued with a presence this year at Gnomedex, too!

So why am I waxing poetic about HP and their products? I’m glad you asked! Not only were they awesome to work with during Gnomedex last year, they continue to support our community to this day. They’ve come up with an excellent new contest – just for all of you reading out there! You have a chance to win for yourself a brand-new HP Pavilion dv6t series laptop! Entering is so simple, you won’t even believe it. All you have to do is leave a follow-up comment on this blog post, (including your email address!) talking about HP. You can tell us what HP products you own – or have owned. You can talk about the ones you’d like to own. It doesn’t matter, so long as your comment talks about an HP product or service. Any comments which simply state things like “I want to win the HP laptop” will be disqualified. Put some effort into it! You should pore over the contest rules prior to entering, though. The contest is open now, and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on September 30, 2009. The winner will be notified via email within three days of that date, provided they are proven to have a valid entry (as described above).

Not only is HP giving away a laptop, they also have cooked up an awesome deal for you to take advantage of! Take 30% off of the purchase of a customized HP Pavilion Notebook PC, configured at $1199.00 or greater at the HP Home and Home Office Store. Use coupon code: NBR49875. The offer excludes the HP HDX16t, HP Minis and all Compaq models. The offer is limited to the first 1800 coupons redeemed, and will become void after that. Only 1 redemption per person or address is allowed. The coupon is not valid with other promotions and restrictions apply. For complete conditions, see Coupon Information in the Customer Service section.

I gotta thank everyone at HP for their continued support, and all of the opportunities they keep bringing to our community. Good luck to everyone who chooses to enter!

HP Color LaserJet CP2020 Review

Chris Pirillo — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:49:31 +0000

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I bet you didn’t think I had more than one room in my home, did you? Let’s face it – all you ever see is my office! However, I shot this video in the “hub” of my home… the kitchen/den/open area. I don’t know how to properly describe it! Anyway, that’s where my new HP Color Laser Jet CP2020 sits. Since I have computers scattered all over the house, it makes sense to have my printer in a central location.

You’re likely going to want to buy one of these for yourself… if for no other reason than the fast double-sided printing on ONE page!! Yes, you read that correctly. I demonstrated this by choosing to print something directly from YouTube. You’ll notice that the page prints – and then goes back into the printer! How cool is that? I didn’t have to take the paper out and feed it back in. It didn’t pick up a second sheet. It just yanked that little sucker back in, and printed the second side. It was fast… and the quality is excellent!

The printer connects either via your home network, or by USB. This makes it easy for you to use it in any situation where you have a network with several printers. Why would you need a few cheaper printers that don’t work well in each office location, when you can have one AMAZING one connected to all the machines?

Check out the new HP CP2020. I can pretty much guarantee you’re going to fall in love just like I did!

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How to Print Wirelessly from Your iPhone

Chris Pirillo — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:59:33 +0000

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Just about every mobile device has a camera on it these days. But how do you get your pictures to your printer? If you have an iPhone and an HP Photosmart C6300 printer, you can use a brand new App to send your pictures to print. Usint HP iPrint Photo, it’s a snap to send your pictures to your HP printer – even wirelessly!

HP iPrint Photo is a free downloadable software application that allows you to quickly and easily print 4″ x 6″ photos. Images stored on your iPhone or iPod touch can print on most HP networked ink jet printers connected to a local WiFi network. Wireless printing is a fun extension of the iPhone / iPod touch’s easy photo capture and viewing experience.

It’s very simple to do this. Click the iPrint icon on your iPhone, and then browse to the picture you wish to print. Select the print option on the lower part of the screen, and off you go! If it’s the first time, you’ll need to select which printer to use from the drop down menu. Once you have set the default, you’ll not need to do that again – unless you get a new printer, or need to change the default.

I demonstrated how quickly and easily this happens by snapping a picture of the live chat screen using my iPhone. It only took a couple of seconds to pull up the picture and send it to the printer. I then ran downstairs to where the printer is… what do you know? The picture had printed perfectly.

There you go! I’m very impressed with this App. It’s easy to use, it works great… oh, and did I mention it’s also FREE?? Nice going, HP.

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Do You Have Network Media Storage?

Chris Pirillo — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:39:33 +0000

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There’s something to be said for having network attached storage. If you haven’t invested in any hardware yet, you might consider HP’s new offering. It’s a bit more than the average NAS device. Not only was HP at Macworld showing off their Media Smart Server, they also received a trophy for “Best in Show”!!

Maximize the power and potential of your home network with the HP EX475 MediaSmart Server, which enables you to conveniently centralize your files and access them from multiple PCs in your home. Based on AMD Live processing power, the MediaSmart Server enables you to back up your home’s PCs as well as share and enjoy digital music, home videos and photos from any computer or entertainment system on a home network. The server also has the expandability to grow with your family’s changing needs.

This is so far beyond a regular old NAS drive. The HP Media Smart Server runs what is called Windows Home Server operating system. HP introduced the first generation about fifteen months ago, and feedback was amazing! Install the client software on your PC. Once it’s installed on the PC, you can connect to your Mac as well.

You’ll get a preferences pane that opens up, and all of your computers will connect to it. Time Machine on the Mac will even back up to the Media Server. Simply specify how much space on the HP you want to use, and schedule your backup. It couldn’t be simpler to keep copies of all of your files for safe-keeping. The fact that you can use the HP Media Smart Server to do backups across all of your network is something that the folks at HP are very excited about.

They Media Server is expandable up to 9TB of storage!! That’s a lot of file storage, folks. Think about it… an average home user will likely never have that much stuff to back up. Imagine putting every file from every computer on your home network all in one place. If there’s ever a home emergency… grab that ONE machine and go! That type of peace of mind is well worth the cost.

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HP Mini 1000 Unboxing and Review

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:12:08 +0000

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A Netbook is like a subset of a Notebook. They’re ultra-portable, relatively affordable, and they have decent processing power. A Notebook has more than enough power, but do you really need one? The HP Mini 1000 is good for doing word processing and any other tasks you may need to do on the road. It has 1GB DDR2 RAM, a 60GB Hard Drive, and a 3 Cell Lithium battery. It has a webcam and microphone built in, so that you can easily make use of VoIP clients when you need to.

Ponzi has a slightly different HP Mini, designed by the very uber awesome Vivienne Tam. Hers is red, with Peonies all over it. It’s cool looking, I suppose. I just prefer black. Mine has swirls all over the case, but they aren’t like overwhelming. They just add a touch of pizazz to it.

So anyway, back on track! The screen resolution is netbook-sized… 1024×600. The keyboard is great, with regular-sized keys. I’m quite happy with that. The HP Mini certainly does make a viable contender. HP is trying to think more along lifestyle lines when it comes to their hardware designs.

Some of the notes I’ve made just in the few hours I spent with it include that they’ve made a few engineering mistakes. The keys in the lower-left corner of the keyboard are out of order. A lot of desktop keyboards may not have the Function key.. and having it where it is on this machine will cause you to mis-type often. When you move between computers, you want it to be seamless, and the keyboard is a large part of that. We don’t have time to adapt to different keyboards all the time!

Another thing that I picked up on is on the trackpad in the middle – they put the buttons on either side (mouse buttons). It’s a little weird to use it in that way. Who knows… once I get used to it, I may like it. For now though, it is just odd.

Another thing to note… I don’t think HP is being very competitive on price. I bought the MSI Wind, and this one was sent to me as a review unit. The Wind has a few more features, yet the price is lower. Heck, the MSI Wind even has a 6 cell battery, so it lasts much longer than this HP Mini will.

HP is leading the charge when it comes to design. I know Ponzi’s review is likely going to be much different than mine. She’s been complaining for a long time about all computers looking the same. At least now, she doesn’t have that to worry about. Her Mini sure stands out from the crowd.

Email me if you know of another netbook that I should review and compare against both this HP Mini, and the MSI Wind.

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HP Coupons

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Would You Like a Computer Contest has Ended

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 05:00:56 +0000

Hey everyone! Our HP Magic contest is officially over! We will be going through all of the posts and comments tonight, and will announce our winner tomorrow. Please keep in mind that any comments made from here on out will not count towards helping someone to win.

Thank you all for participating… and good luck! We were completely overwhelmed with the amount of submissions we received (and underestimated the time it would take to edit / prepare those that were 99% perfect to begin with).

This is Kat, posting an update for Chris. He’s been sick with food poisoning since early last night. Ponzi reports that he’s completely knocked out, but I wanted to express my thanks to those of you who played by the rules and remained patient with us. I also wanted to thank both Ryan Courtade and Jamie Inscore, who helped us get things done – and kept things running smoothly for the duration).

We’re finding it difficult to discover the winner, as we’re starting to peel back layers of duplicate IP addresses, use of proxies to comment, as well as checking for comment validity (remember, insipid comments would be rejected or would NOT count towards the total number). Thanks again for your patience.