Ya know, touchscreens are awesome and have absolutely no drawbacks. They’re – Wait! Shoulder. Cramping. Hard to… keep… arm… lifted… for so long. Must… find… way… to continue.

Ahhhh! Better now. HP is rolling out the new TouchSmart 610 on February 9th, and it is the answer to your touchscreen prayers. The screen is mounted on a reclining hinge that allows it to tilt back by 60-degrees to an almost horizontal position. The TouchSmart 610 also features a 23-inch LED-backlit HD display and comes preloaded with the TouchSmart user interface, so it’s ready to go as soon as you plug it in. Also, thanks to its simple, one-cord set-up, ensures you’ll have things humming along in no time.

A touchscreen is only as good as its apps, and HP has you covered. On top of the touch-optimized apps from Hulu, Netflix, Rhapsody®, and Twitter, HP lets you add new apps via the TouchSmart Apps Center. You can also jam in style with audio delivered by Beats Audio – a high-performance tech developed by HP and Beats by Dr. Dre. Gamers aren’t left out of the touchscreen fun either, as they use multitouch navigation to lead their nation to victory in Ubisoft®’s real-time strategy game, R.U.S.E. (Hey, Bub! That’s a $49.99 freebie right there so remember to say ‘thank you.’)

The TouchSmart 610 does more than ease the strain on your arms; it gives your eyes a break too. Thanks to the new HP LinkUp, you can wirelessly link to a notebook PC to take advantage of both the touch interface and the larger HD screen while working on notebook files. Changes are saved directly to the notebook so you don’t have to mess with any file transfers. File transfers? We don’ need no steenkin’ file transfers.

Whew! My arm is feeling better already and $899.99 can take that pain out of your neck too.

If you need your angled touchscreen with a little more lean towards work than home, there’s also the TouchSmart 9300 Elite Business PC – which might be better suited to what you’re looking for. But, that one has no release date as of yet.

Dell’s answer to the Mac Mini, the Inspiron Zino HD, officially launched today with a base spec price of just $229. The ultra-portable (and ultra-colorful) desktop runs on a range of AMD processors and includes native HDMI output for use as a home theater PC.

The $229 base model starts with a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon 2650e processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 250GB HDD, ATI Radeon HD3200 graphics and an 8x DVD drive as standard.

Three other Zino HD models step up the specs and can be personalized with some serious options including up to a 1.8GHz dual-core AMD Athlon Neo X2 6850e processor, a 512MB ATI Radeon HD4330 GPU, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB HDD, a Blu-ray drive, WiFi as well as add-on HD monitors.

All models of Dell’s Inspiron Zino HD ship with 2 USB ports, a headphone connector, a 4-in-1 card reader and a 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium as standard and are available now over at Dell Home & Home Office priced at $229, $399, $549 and $649 before customization.

Sources:
Dell via Engadget

Computer manufacturer Shuttle yesterday announced the official release of their X Vision X50 touchscreen all-in-one PC. The slim, versatile nettop offers up a 15.6-inch 1366×768 widescreen display within a body just 1.4-inches thick, which sips a mere 30W of power.

The X50 was previously exhibited at CES 2009 in Las Vegas and features a convertible stand that can also be used as a handle, or removed altogether for wall-mounting via the standard VESA mount. Shuttle claims the X50 starts up quickly and have included a stylus for greater precision pointing over the touchscreen interface if required. No keyboard is included, but you can attach one if you need to.

Shuttle’s X50 nettop comes equipped with an Intel dual-core Atom 330 processor, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 160GB HDD, WiFi, USBx3, Gigabit ethernet, 4-in-1 card reader, 1.3 megapixel webcam and runs on Windows XP Home.

According to Shuttle, their new all-in-one PC is quiet too, emitting an “astonishingly low” 22dB. Dimensions measure 15.4″ (391.3mm) x 12.87″ (327mm) x 1.4″ (36mm) and the word is that the X50 will cost around $500 when it hits later this month, though no official pricing has yet been announced.

Sources:
Shuttle (Press Release) and Shuttle (Product Page)
Via: Electronista

Fujitsu Siemens have today announced what they are calling a zero-watt PC, which consumes no energy when in standby mode. The computer, called the Esprimo Green, can still be managed by technicians whilst in its zero-power sleep mode, potentially saving big money on energy costs in large IT departments.

There is little information about how Fujitsu Siemens achieved this zero-watt sleep, nor for how long the PC can remain in standby unpowered, but apparently all will be revealed on March 3rd when the 2009 CeBIT trade show kicks off in Hannover, Germany.

The Esprimo Green will mark a giant leap forward in PC power conservation and will be well ahead of meeting EU legislation demanding that electronics products consume less than 1 Watt in standby from January 5, 2010.

The new PC’s are due to be released around the middle of 2009.

Sources:
VNU Net and Register Hardware

Sony updated its media center lineup today with two new models, the VGX-TP1D and VGX-TP1DQ/B. Both will feature major improvements including a 2 Ground Digital TV Tuner and better video recording capabilities.

Both models come with updated hardware including an Intel Core 2 Duo T8100, 2GB RAM, a GeForce Digital 8400M GT graphics card, integrated WiFi, four USB ports, 4-pin FireWire, TV tuner, HDMI / VGA outputs, multi-card reader and a wireless keyboard.

The VGX-TP1D comes with a 320GB hard drive and a dual-layer DVD writer while the more expensive VGX-TP1DQ/B beefs up that spec with a 500GB hard drive and a Blu-ray burner.

Both of these new media centers will be available in Japan in about two weeks for an asking price of ¥150,000 ($1,392) and ¥200,000 ($1,856), respectively.

Sources:
Akihabara News
Engadget

HP has announced its new TouchSmart 2 all-in-one PC which features an amazing fully portable 22″ touchscreen within a 2.6-inch thick chassis.

The TouchSmart 2 comes in two models – the IQ504 PC is the standard and the IQ506 PC comes with a TV tuner.

Both models come with a 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo T5850 processor, 500GB of storage, 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300 M HS HD graphics and 802.11n WiFi.

“The new HP TouchSmart family of PCs features HP software designed specifically for touch. A finger tapped or swept across the high-resolution screen delivers quick access to information, entertainment and social networks. Without using a keyboard or mouse, consumers can play music and create playlists, zoom in or out of photos, and quickly check the weather or watch TV,” says the press release.

The launch date is expected to be July 13 and the PC will be available in 17 countries with prices expected to be set at $1,299 for the IQ504 PC and $1,499 for the IQ506 PC.

Sources:
Crunchgear
HP TouchSmart Press Release

HP’s Voodoo division has overhauled its Omen PC which is designed for very high-end workstation and gaming use.

The full 22-inch tall tower is sleek and minimalist with an aluminium chassis and includes a 7-inch, 800 x 480 display on the front for useful information or to play videos or music.

The internals have been completely redesigned which, according to Voodoo, makes it extremely quiet. It features one of the first uses of a quad radiator and has the mainboard positioned at 90 degrees to take advantage of heat naturally rising.

Cooling is provided by a Voodoo designed water cooling loop which would be essential if using the up to 2x CPUs and 4x GPUs.

At the top end you’ll find a pair of 3.2GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9770 processors, 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM as well as support for next generation technology from ATI graphics and NVIDIA.

The case has tool-free side panels that can be replaced with leather, wood or glass plus internal and external LEDs that offer aesthetic appeal as well as lighting your workspace when adding components.

No word on specific configurations but expect a price anywhere between $6,500 and $20,000 depending on spec.

No launch date has been set as yet but should be sometime this year.

See also:
HP Voodoo Envy 133 Notebook Thinner Than MacBook Air

Source:
Electronista
Engadget