By Chris Scott Barr

If you’ve got an HP laptop that you purchased between August 2007 and March 2008, you might want to stop and pay attention for a minute. Yes, I know there’s plenty of other fun stuff to look at, but if you value your legs and the pants you’re wearing, stop for a moment. HP is recalling some 70,000 laptop batteries due to overheating issues. Apparently there have been incidents of property damage with some of these, so it would be worth checking into. The models affected are listed below, more info after the jump.

If your laptop happens to be one of the models affected, you can take a further step and look at the bar code on your battery. If it matches any of these, then you qualify for the recall.

If you do in fact have one of these batteries, you’ll need to stop using it. Head over to the HP site setup specifically setup for the recall and request a replacement. Until then they suggest keeping the battery out of your laptop and running it off of the power cord. Sure, that’s inconvenient, but there is a bright side. You’re getting a brand spanking new battery to replace the one that’s a year or so old and probably doesn’t stay charged quite as long as it used to.

[ HP ] VIA [ GearLog ]

By Shane McGlaun

I worked on a few business class notebooks over the years and one thing they all had in common was that they were plain looking black boxes with nothing redeeming about the way they looked. I always thought showing up to a meeting with an ugly notebook was about the same as showing up with an ugly tie.

HP is offering some new business class notebooks called the HP ProBook series that are designed to be functional, but good looking as well. HP says that the new notebooks are designed with an eye towards minimalist style and combines matte and glossy surfaces. The machines are available with glossy and merlot finishes.

Among the ProBook models are the 4410s and 4415s with 14-inch screens and optional Blu-ray and HD 4330 graphics. The ProBook 4510s and 4515s are 15.6-inch machines with HP Mobile Broadband technology that uses Gobi technology to work with multiple wireless carriers. The final machine in the series is the 4710s with a 17.3-inch screen and an ATI HD 4330 video card and more. Pricing for the machines starts at $529 and they will be available in June.

[ HP ]

By Shane McGlaun

Ever since the MacBook Air launched consumers have had a bit of a fascination with super thin notebooks. Back at CES 2009 in January, HP was showing off its new thin notebook called the DV2. The thin little machine wasn’t as svelte as a MacBook Air, but it looked more usable to my eyes.

HP has announced that the DV2 is now officially available starting at $799, making it much cheaper than the Air. The machine uses the new AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 CPU that it aimed specifically at ultra-portable machines. Other features include a 12.1-inch LCD with a screen resolution of 1280 x 800 and LED backlighting.

The DV2 measures 11.5-inches L x 9.45-inches D x 0.93 to 1.29-inches H. HP uses Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit allowing it to see all 4GB of RAM included. Graphics are via ATI HD 3410 with 512MB of dedicated RAM. Power comes from a 6-cell battery and the machine has a DVD burner and HDMI out along with 802.11n Wi-Fi. Storage is to a 320GB HDD. The little machine is very nice looking to boot.

[ HP ]

by Shane McGlaun

In your office, odds are your boss buys the cheapest computers that can be found. That $300 eMachine might work just great for the receptionist whose most taxing application is Solitaire and spends most of her time entering names into a mailing list. However, if you work in a demanding field like medical imaging or at a design firm, that cheap computer is worth less than the box it came in.

For the worker needing a really powerful workstation HP has announced its new Z series line including the Z800, Z600, and Z400 workstations. The new systems use the recently announced Intel Xeon 5500 series processors featuring Intel Turbo Boost technology and integrated memory controllers.

The machines aren’t plain like most workstations we see with a brushed aluminum exterior designed by BMW Group DesignworksUSA. Inside the chassis is a modular system that has no cables and is designed for optimal serviceability. The machines will ship on April 6 with prices starting at $1,999 for the Z800, $1,679 for the Z600, and $969 for the Z400.

[ HP ]

By David Ponce

We spent a good portion of Thursday morning listening to HP’s execs talk about their new products with an enthusiasm of near onanistic intensity. Sure, their lineup of laptops, printers and desktops is slick and all, but we here are OhGizmo! tend to stay away from the “Bigger, Faster and Slimmer” school of technological innovation. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to hear HP had been working on an application for the iPhone which allows you to print any pictures you take directly from your phone, on any of HPs WiFi enabled printers connected to your network. We’re not talking revolution here, but it is an added bit of functionality that’s more than welcome on the iPhone.

It will print pictures up to 4″ by 6″, and is available right now from the App store. I saw a demo, and it works just as advertised.

One side note. I’m amused by the fact that HP refers to the “App Store” with quotation marks on their web page. I guess they’re still “getting used” to this whole “iPhone thing”.

[ iPrint Photo (direct download) ]

[ HP's Website ]