HP and designer Michael Bastian prepping a luxury smart watch

HP is no stranger to collaborating with designers to create special edition notebooks. This time around, HP's going with designer Michael Bastian to create a luxury smart watch. The working outline for this device, which is an Android Wear compatible watch, goes as follows, " it will feature a circular, 44mm stainless steel case and three swappable bands: black rubber, brown leather, olive green nylon and a limited edition black."

Interesting to see HP, which doesn't do smartphones anymore, try and capture some of that sweet wearables market buzz. The design inspiration for this as of yet unnamed watch will be taken from automobile industrial design and interiors and HP  apparently differentiate the experience by adding to, "the watch's smart features, which will include notifications like email, text and calls, along with user controls for music and other apps." The HP smart watch is earmarked for a fall release.

Source: Engadget

Special Feature: HP Houston Labs Tour – A Focus on Quality Part 1

Photo courtesy of Mario Nagano of www.ztop.com.brText and photos by Alex Davies

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of touring HP’s Houston Labs, where they put their commercial hardware through the wringer to test its durability and quality. This large facility was the former headquarters of Compaq before the merger with HP, and it was interesting to see the relics of the former company everywhere we went. Many of the engineers we spoke to on the tour were former Compaq employees who have been working in these labs for years.

One of the mantras that we heard during the tour is that they “freeze it, bake it, shake it, break it”, and as we walked around the facility, we really did see HP’s engineers  subject desktops, notebooks and tablets to all manners of torture – the job wasn’t done until the product broke.  Hit jump for our report on HP's Houston Labs.

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HP to cut an additional 16,000 jobs or 5 per cent of workforce

Alarming news coming from HP today as the company says it needs to cut 16,000 jobs which is around five per cent of their workforce, in order to make ends meet, the latest numbers mean that as many as 50,000 employess could be let go in the wake of the ongoing global restructuring efforts.

No turnaround is easy and the PC market, which HP is a leader, has been taking a beating these last few years mainly because of the rise in mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Some companies, like Lenovo, are doing better than expected but HP's trying its best to right the ship.

With the first half of our fiscal year completed, I'm pleased to report that HP's turnaround remains on track," said Meg Whitman, president and chief executive officer, HP. "With each passing quarter, HP is improving its systems, structures and core go-to-market capabilities. We're gradually shaping HP into a more nimble, lower-cost, more customer- and partner-centric company that can successfully compete across a rapidly changing IT landscape." 

Source: HP

HP aims for SMBs with new Android-powered Slate21 Pro all-in-one

HP just revealed its Android-powered all-in-one (AiO) desktop which is coming to market for $379.99 and boasts a 21.5-inch diagonal Full HD4 IPS touchscreen, Android 4.3 operating system, and access to over one million apps on Google Play. This really is the largest commercially available Android tablet made to fit on a desktop in an office setting/

The new HP Slate21 Pro AiO offers seamless integration with Android-based phones and tablets with autosyncing and Google Cloud Services; as well as, provides access to efficient manageability tools, security enhancements and apps available through the Google Play app store. Here are a list of features designed for SMBs.