The largest PC manufacturer in the world may be about to go through a rebranding. The centerpiece to the new design is a new logo, showing off simplistic lines to represent HP brand. Right now the design hasn’t been implemented and to be honest, it may never, what we do know is that HP are considering it.

The companies logo has largely remained the same since its origins way back in the early 1940s, so a change would be big news. Changing logos at a company of this scale would have massive financial costs. The thought of changing at this scale seems a monumental task, everything from websites, business cards, banners, advertising, apparel and most significantly, the production line that stamps that logo on computers would need to change.

The company entrusted to design the HP of tomorrow is Moving Brands, who have worked with ShowYou, Ovi, MTV, Nokia and many more. Moving brand has been chosen as the lead agency to set a creative vision for the HP brand. The vision was to transform the world’s biggest technology company into the world’s most powerful brand. Ambitious.

“If you step back and think about when the transformation project began in 2008, so many of our people did not understand HP, and were falling into the same trap of our customers: thinking of ourselves as commodity, or just hardware, and not seeing HP as relevant.” said Greg Johnson, HP’s Global Creative Director of Brand Strategy and Experience Design.

The logo progression pictured about includes the original logo (very similar to the current version), the 2011 proposed new logo and a far out distant projection for 2021 which you feel free to disregard. Check out some of the potential branding videos to see what a rebadged HP would look like.

With a rebranding, it has to be more than just an expense, to be a true vision for the future and change of company direction a lot more needs to happen than a new logo. Changing culture and the way people, from employees to customers perceive your brand takes a visionary. It takes someone to formulate a successful direction for the future that people can get on-board with, that sets you apart and makes people not just use, but fall in love with your brand. Change is hard and often expensive, but with the right people, budget and relentlessness, it can be done.

HP, are you ready for a new HP?

More @ Moving Brands via UnderConsideration

Last week HP announced they were discontinuing their failed tablet, the TouchPad. Exclusive Australian retailer Harvey Norman immediately pulled it from shelves and their website. As other countries slashed TouchPad price to run out existing stock, Australian’s began to question why the same wasn’t being done here.

This afternoon at 2pm, Harvey Norman did just that. They dropped the price from $598 to just $98 for the 16GB model. As news spread quickly on twitter, cues of people began forming at stores around the country. While Harvey Norman posted that there was a string 1 per customer limit in place, I know of a number of customers who were able to bag 2 by choosing a 16GB and a 32GB model.

Naturally stock didn’t last long with most stores around Australia being sold out of HP TouchPads within an hour. Apparently buying a discontinued product and dead ecosystem didn’t concern people. Most gadgets we purchase are upgraded and improve over time with iterations of software and additional applications. The HP TouchPad however is as good today as it will ever be.

Naturally with a device that runs a discontinued OS, owners begin to look to ports of other mobile platforms to solve the issue. Conversation around an Android port to the HP TouchPad has already begun. So did you manage tackle the crowds and grab one this afternoon ? If so, are you happy, or regretting your decision ?

I was able to get a quick hands-on with the HP TouchPad (thanks Ben), after the review unit was cancelled. My initial impression was positive for the TouchPad, with one of the most critical factors, touchscreen responsiveness, being on-par with the iPad. The display was also good quality, but weight was notably heavier than the iPad. By far the biggest issue will be application support, but with more of the web going HTML5, then you maybe able to get by. For $98 its clearly a good deal, personally I couldn’t find a real need for it, so kept the cash in the pocket for something I actually need, not just want.

There’s been some discussion online about whether HP should have killed off the TouchPad given the ‘demand’. Let me make this very clear. The HP TouchPad was a failure and sold at a dramatic loss. The only reason people ‘demanded’ it today was the price. On the market for 4 days, only 1200 were sold in Australia, that’s the real demand, not the rush at 2pm today.

This morning started by rumors that HP, number 1 PC manufacturer in the world, was getting out of the business and moving to enterprise. As the real details emerged the timeframe for ‘evaluating’ the future of the business was said to be 12-18 months. As the day progressed things turned sour.

Harvey Norman, the exclusive Australian retailer for the now discontinued HP TouchPad, entered private discussions with HP. Just hours later radio and TV advertisements are now on-air confirming Harvey Norman are slashing HP products by 40% Australia-wide. There’s no waiting for 12-18 months, Harvey Norman are clearly cutting ties.. NOW!.

Laptops, Desktops, All-in-ones and multi-function printers are all included with the sale running from now till Sunday.

Update
Harvey Norman’s discount brand Joyce Maine are now also advertising the 40% off HP Products. The two images below are photos from TV ads, which are running thick and fast. It’s impressive how fast HN can turn these around.

The Harvey Norman website has now been update to reflect the sale. More information @ Harvey Norman.

HP have just dropped a bombshell, they are pivoting the company in a big way. During their quarterly earnings call, HP said “These are tough decisions. There are four elements to the path."

• "First, sector trends impacting PSG as consumers change habits. The tablet effect is real, and sales of the TouchPad are not meeting expectations."

• "Second, our enterprise service business needs to be reshaped."
• "Third, there are tactical issues that we are facing. We are confronting the challenge of the Japanese earthquake on our printer business."
• "Fourth, we must address the needs of our customers, which we are accelerating with the acquisition of autonomy."

The new direction from HP means they will focus on enterprise and infrastructure, namely cloud technologies. This morning they also announced a new Vice President of Enterprise Services which will report directly to CEO Leo Apotheker. With this focus on enterprise, it seems HP is destined to become the next IBM – a company that’s important, but not in the consumer eye.

Many are reporting this morning that the PC division is being killed off, that’s not actually true right now. They are evaluating a range of options including a spinoff, which is expected to take 12-18 months to complete. While its certainly a strong indication the company’s focus is moving from consumer to enterprise, the largest PC manufacturer is not as of today pulling the plug.

News for the Mobile division isn’t good, HP management we brutally honest saying “Due to market conditions, continuing to execute in this market space no longer makes sense for HP’s shareholders." Essentially they tried to compete with Apple and Google and lost. This means they are killing off the HP Touchpad and mobile devices which run webOS. The mobile operating system they acquired from Palm. Device shutdown will happen in Q4 2011.

Update
HP will no longer make webOS devices, but will continue to develop it and licence it. “We are not walking away from webOS.” says webOS GBU VP Stephen DeWitt. This move seems the most diss-jointed of the whole announcement. If HP itself couldn’t make it work, what would make a 3rd party manufacturer take it on?

HP are also making an acquisition as part of this new direction, enterprise software and search company Autonomy will be swallowed up be the end of 2011.

The one part of the business HP are keeping hold of is Printers. While we would all like to think printing is going away, the reality is, businesses print.. a lot and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. While not legal to do it, the printer business is pretty much a licence to print money with relatively low hardware costs and premium renewables.

This dramatic change in direction appears to have come by surprise with HP sending out TouchPad review units as recently as yesterday and recently telling ThisIsMyNext editor Joshua Topolsky they are committed to tablets.

More info @ http://live.thisismynext.com/Event/HP_Q3_2011_earnings_call

Tech Specs [More info]
Operation System: Web OS 3.0
Display: 9.7-inch XGA capacitive, multitouch screen (1024×768 resolution)
Sesnsors: Light sensor, accelerometer, compass and gyroscope, GPS in 3G version only.
Storage: 16GB or 32GB internal
Battery: 6300 mAh battery (not sure what this translates to in real world usage hours)
Weight: 740 grams
Connectivity: Wifi-only, 3G and 4G models coming

So while there are a lot things the same, there’s also some important differences. Like the fact it has a microUSB connector (USB 2.0) and a Dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon running at 1.2 Ghz. Then there’s HP’s touchstone, which allows you to place the TouchPad on the touchstone and commence charging, no cables required.

Availability is expected this summer in the US, now specific word on international availability at this stage. Also yet to be announced is price, which is probably the single determining factor as to wether the TouchPad is a success. The other is the question of what Apple has in store with the iPad 2.

Update – Check out the video.

More information at.. Palm ?

HP also killed off the Palm brand, by announcing a two new smart phones, the HP Pre3 and HP Veer, both of which work well with the TouchPad.

Well things just keep getting worse for at the next version of Windows Home Server – Vail. Today, Microsoft’s biggest hardware partner for WHS has decided to pull the pin on there MediaSmart Servers. It’s a damn shame too, because they really solved an bunch of issues facing a modern day home.

Bill Gates vision was to have a computer in every home. Well in 2010 most homes have many more than one computer, lots of data that needs to be backed up and streamed around the home. MediaSmart servers running WHS provided the perfect solution to this.

With Vail due early 2011, I was planning on updating to a new MediaSmart running Vail enabling even more features. Then passing my existing EX490 to my parents. Unfortunately the decision today from HP ends that plan. I’ll be hanging on to my MediaSmart, it just got a whole lot more valuable.

It’s hard not to join to dots between HP’s decision to pull out with the announcement last week that Microsoft was killing Drive Extenders in Vail. Drive Extenders is the technology that allowed us to throw drives of any size together which combined to make one simple pool of storage. This sparked massive outrage online, many calling it the death of WHS. Apparently HP thought so too. While WHS has many great features, this was certainly a big one.

More @ Windows Team Blog

HP have released details on their upcoming 8.9”, Windows 7 running, Slate 500. The HP-released video for the device below is meant to promote the device, instead shows off a number of issues with the slate.

Multi-touch
17 seconds: We see a radiologist insert an SD card into the Slate 500 and use the pinch and zoom multi-touch gesture to zoom in on an X-ray. There’s a couple of things that happen, the first is that it registers the touch as a single touch first as the mouse cursor jumps the location or one of his fingers. The second issue is the noticeable lag between making the on-screen gesture and the image actually updating on the screen.

Performance lag
55 seconds: When accepting a Skype video call you can see just how hard the user has to press to register a touch. Once the tap is complete, the finger is lifted and there’s a real lag before anything happens. So much so the shot is actually changed before we see Skype respond and accept the call.

Practical use of the camera
1:44: None of us have ever tried taking a photo with a 8.9” device, or frankly anything over the size of a camera or smartphone.. there’s a reason for that.. it’s awkward, clunky and not something your going to want to do. This is perfectly demonstrated by this guy attempting to take a photo of damage to his car.

Watch the video for yourself.

As the device hasn’t yet shipped, these observations are NOT based actually using the device, but rather just observations from the video. Hopefully these issues aren’t present when the Slate gets in the hands of professionals.

Engadget has the price of the HP Slate 500 at US$799. More than the 10” iPad, but less than the 7” Samsung Tab. No word on Australian availability at this stage.

More info @ CrunchGear

There’s a new and improved version of the MediaSmart iPhone app. A couple of the new features are increased speed and coverflow for audio files.

For more details, checck out the pics below.

Overview

The HP EX490 MediaSmart Server is a small, quiet server designed for home use. Its provides a great solution to the storage, backup and streaming of media and documents around the home and across the web. First launching in the US a couple years ago, is finally available in Australia !

A lot of the features I’ll explain are available due to Microsoft’s Windows Home Server (WHS) Operating System, whilst some are custom-written by HP and only available buy purchasing a HP MediaSmart Server.

Features

Storage – Running Windows Home Server OS, it features a unique custom-raid that allows hard drives of different sizes, but internally and externally connected, to be pooled as one large storage drive. This allows you to divide up content just using folders rather than drives, which may sound like a small technicality, but actually makes a big difference. (e.g. You have a 1GB file to move, you don’t have to worry about which drive has enough remaining space to successfully copy).

Combining the 1TB drive that comes with the EX490 and a few drives I had lying around, I’ve already filled the internal drive bays with 1TB + 1TB + 750GB + 500GB. Add on the 1TB external drive and I’ve got just around 4 Terabytes (formatted).

Backup – There’s a saying that “unless data is in 2 places, it doesn’t exist”. I agree with this saying and in the past I have lost data as a result of not having an adequate backup solution. My previously solution was a 1TB WD External USB drive. This had a couple of problems, firstly it was slow, secondly I ran out of space. The EX490 has 4 internal drive bays, 3 USB and 1 eSATA port which means there’s plenty of room to grow.

Connector Software – The MediaSmart doesn’t have any video out ports on the back of the box, it’s not designed to be accessed directly. On each client you want to connect to the Home Server, you’ll need to install the connector software. Fire up your browser and head to http://mediasmart:55000/ (where mediasmart is the name of your server).

This is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS. The other way of accessing the server (not recommended) is using remote desktop. This is actually required to update to PowerPack 3 (more on this soon).

Streaming – Streaming from the MediaSmart arrives in a number of ways. Your media can be streamed to devices like your Xbox 360 and PS3, as well as your iPhone (see below) and also to your browser.

Remote Access – When you buy a home server, you also get a user-defined domain name. e.g. https://techAU.homeserver.com. This gives you access to your files from any internet connection in the world. Great if your travelling and leave an important document at home. Or maybe your bored in a lonely motel room and want to catch up on your latest video of the Big Bang Theory, well you can stream it through the web interface.

iPhone App – This provides access to your Pictures, Music and Video via your iPhone wherever you are. The free application works on 3G but is best used with Wi-Fi. Also remember if your going to stream any video, your really going to need to convert the video into an iPhone friendly format. Whilst technically it will scale a 720 video down to the iPhone screen, the bandwidth and processing required to do this makes for a poor timely experience.

iTunes Server – This allows users on the home network to fire up iTunes and stream the content on the Home Server. The downside to this method is that iTunes presents all media in one list, rather than separated out into music, podcasts etc, like your normal iTunes library.

Addons

LED LightShow – Whilst the lights on the front of the EX490 MediaSmart are blue, they can be customised with the LightShow plugin. There’s a little trick to this Easter egg, once installed, you’ll need to jump into the Home Server Settings, click on MediaSmart Server from the left panel, then click the LEDs tab. While pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift, left click on the Home Server icon, if you do it right, a Egg with a HP logo will appear.

Once activated, you can choose from a combination of light colours (Red, Blue, and Purple (which is actually closer to white) and sequences – Holiday Lights, Descending/Ascending chaser, Pulsing, Night Rider and Morse code credits. It seems the devs have sense of humour.

Overall one of my favourite plug-ins.

TiVo Publisher

If you have a TiVo like myself, it’s likely your most used piece of electronics in your home entertainment setup (besides your TV). Given it’s always on, it makes sense that you’d be able to stream content to it, rather than fire up a dedicated device (i.e. X360 or PS3.

The way TiVo works mean it has to copy the video content has to be copied to the TiVo to be played. You can begin playback before the content has finished copying, the downside being that your taking up valuable space on your TiVo. As long as you remember to delete the content when done, it’s fine. The convenience is key here, yet another great plug-in.

For all Home Server Add-ins, check out the official WHS add-ins page. There’s plenty more like uTorrent, but the thought of torrenting right next to my critical data just didn’t sound like a good idea.

Price

All these features don’t come cheap, the EX490 costs A$899. In my mind, it’s worth every dollar. As with most consumer devices, I’d like to see the price come down to open the market to more home users. That said there is the less featured MediaSmart LX for those on a tighter budget.

One thing that’s not included in the price is security protection. With Windows Live Essentials on Windows7, many users are now used to having free security. Unfortunately, not many security products will run on Windows Home Server because the current version is built on Windows Server 2003. You do get a trial of McAfee Total Protection and there are trials of Avast and F-Secure, but ultimately, there’s no free security protection WHS.

Overall

Like many of you, my storage needs have grown substantially over the past few years. I had a scattering of drives between internal and external, laptop, desktop, things were getting out of control. So personally I’d been waiting for the day these came on sale, naturally I jumped at the chance to finally own one. After having it for a little over a week, I’m incredibly happy with it today, and with additional powerpacks and add-ins that’ll only improve in the future.

If this sounds like something you want, head over to HP Australia’s online store.

I’ve just purchased my EX490 MediaSmart. I told you, I’ve been waiting for this for years.. now the wait for delivery.. “10-14 Business Days once payment is received”. The nice part is delivery comes free.

Check out the store now.