September 14th, 2009
HP: New Quicklook, revamped Media Smart Server top fall product news
HP is making some fall announcements today - some new business desktops, some notebook and netbook lineup upgrades and some pretty cool design features, as well. But during a recent preview of the products, there were a couple that really stuck with me.
One of them was a technology called HP Quicklook, which is built into HP business notebooks. To understand it The marketing slogan pretty much says it all: “Look it up and mark it up without booting up.”
When the laptop is powered off, the user taps the Quicklook button and, within 10 seconds, a scaled-down version of Outlook opens with all of the data someone might need quickly - calendar, contacts and e-mail messages. The trick is that the system isn’t actually booting up Windows and opening Outlook. Instead, it’s tapping into what amounts to the cache of the program, allowing users to not only view information but also edit (for later synchronization.)
As much as I was impressed with the technology, I couldn’t help but wonder how much usage a feature like this might get, seeing how all of those things - email, calendar and contacts - are accessible through pretty much any mobile device today. And my guess is that a business user who would find value in such a feature, already has a Blackberry, iPhone or other smartphone on his hip.
Another one of the products that caught my eye at the preview event was a revamp of the home server product, called Media Smart Server. With capacities starting at 1 terabyte, the device brings the server experience to the family, where multiple computers - with everyone in the house sharing music, photos and other data. 
The product has been through a once-over, now including a new user interface, a Web-based home page, von-the-fly video conversion for various formats and remote media streaming to devices, such as the iPhone. In addition, execs were quick to point out that it is more Mac-friendly. The 1TB version has a $549 price tag while a 1.5TB version is $699.
The Media Smart Server, at full capacity, is expandable to 17TB. Yes, it’s kind of pricey, but when you think about how our demands for storage have grown exponentially over the year.
Also see: HP (Voodoo) Envy 13, 15 thin-and-lights expected this month
Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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