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So lately I've been hanging out in Seattle as I recover from my broken hand. I had a series of interviews yesterday, as we started sending out the new Envy notebooks to reviewers. You want to know what's cool? DragonDictate NaturallySpeaking, it works amazing!

Anyways, posted today.

No, the rumors aren’t true. As confirmed earlier today, Voodoo is not being shut down by HP. In fact, according to Rahul Sood, Chief Technology Officer for the Hewlett Packard Global Voodoo Business Unit, HP is pumping more money into the brand—even if layoffs may be occurring in the background. The goal is to ramp up production of sweet-looking machines like the Envy 133 (we just received today) in order to get them to market faster and to take Voodoo global. But Sood had a lot more to say to LAPTOP on a wide variety of other subjects, ranging from how the Envy 133 stacks up against the Macbook Air to whether consumers want to plop down more than two grand for an ultraportable at all given the state of the economy. As it turns out, though, you can use this system to look for jobs!

Some customers have complained about delays with the Voodoo Envy. Was there ever a promised ship date?

We never gave a specific ship date. We just said that we’re announcing the product and pre-launching it, and then we’re going to start shipping sometime in the fall. It slipped between two and three weeks in September. We actually did start telling customers in September that they should start seeing their products early September or in October. But the challenge for us was that we’re using carbon fiber material which is very fine material and getting the yield up and getting it to a point where we were able to produce enough volume was a challenge, but we’re all good to go now.

Do you feel like you’re able to meet demand now, or is it a wait-and-see kind of situation?

So far, we’re able to meet demand. The thing that we’re doing now — thanks to overwhelming success— is integrating Voodoo into the larger HP engine.

There were some rumors floating around recently that HP was shutting down Voodoo. Can you set the record straight?

That’s just not the case. The Envy was received overwhelmingly positively in Berlin. And because we’re not able to produce the volume we need to scale it into an extremely large global SKU, one of the things that we’re doing that will benefit us in the future is integrating the Voodoo business into the larger execution engine of HP. So, for example, there’ll be Voodoo people sitting on the notebook team of HP and creating not only notebooks for Voodoo, but also helping with notebooks for HP and Compaq.

The idea is that it will be managed by a larger team who is already set up for global scale and global growth, and they’re going to help us scale out a lot quicker than we were able to do it before.

Do you feel that Voodoo will be able to remain autonomous, or do you feel that the brand might be compromised?

Autonomy is not necessarily a good thing in this case. We’ve learned over the past two years that we’re a much stronger company working together than we are apart. And as far as the design or our flexibility, I think that what you will see is a lot of influence from Voodoo on the HP portfolio and our overall portfolio will become a lot nicer. So it’s definitely not a negative.

It’s a really good thing for us. And integrating into the HP engine, not only in the notebook business but in the desktop business as well, is a huge deal for us.

Why didn’t you say anything publicly sooner?

I broke my hand and I’ve just kind of been recovering, but yeah, it’s going to be good man. Our next launch is a very cool notebook; very unique that will be coming out down the road. It’s going to take everything that we’ve learned and put it up to a much greater scale.

Will your next notebook sport a larger display and function more like an entertainment notebook than an ultraportable?

It’ll be fair to say that it’ll be badass.

Because the Envy 133 was announced months ago, other ultraportables have surpassed it on the specs front, namely with Centrino 2 and larger-sized SSDs. How soon can you refresh the Envy in order to catch up?

This notebook is not really just about the specs. It’s not about the processing power and stuff like that. The innovations that we have in there are designed for a really specific user. Quite frankly, there are people out there who love the style, love the design, and love the feature set that comes with it. The specifications of a competing product, even though they may put a faster processor in there, [that product] is thicker, it’s not as nice, it doesn’t use the same materials as ours. This notebook was designed with a very specific user in mind. Going forward, I imagine that you’ll see a refresh and we’ll update our portfolio as we go along. I can’t be specific about that. But what I can tell you is the people that are buying this notebook don’t look at the most recent specs.

What is the target audience of the Envy 133 then?

Well, the target audience is looking for mobile performance. They want decent battery life. They want it to be lightweight. They want it to look cool. It’s a lifestyle thing. It’s not just about the speed, it’s about the overall experience. The target audience that’s buying the Envy is buying it based on a number of factors.

But, as you say, there are new technologies coming out and you want to make sure that things are refreshed as quickly as possible. Those are they kind of things that we are working on. We’ll refresh when we feel that the technology is good enough to go into an ultra-thin product like this.

What can you tell us about the gesture support that’s built into the touchpad? What can you do with it?

They’re a couple of things. It’s a Synaptics touchpad and there is a driver in there that’s continually being updated. And what we’ve done is enable the touchpad to be used with two-finger touch. You can use the pinch gesture and take your fingers, put them together, then pull them apart to zoom in and out of documents. Other things, like scrolling, for instance, is a single finger gesture or a position gesture. So basically, to scroll, put your finger on the right-hand side of the touchpad, hold it there, and you’ll see a scroll icon. Then you can move [your finger] up and down to scroll. The same thing goes for a horizontal scroll. You hold your finger on the bottom of the touchpad. You can also adjust the area of scroll as well. With the Synaptics driver, it’s pretty flexible, and we’re continuing to work with them on making new gestures.

One of the other unique features is the instant-on OS, which is using Splashtop technology. Do you feel like your implementation is better than that of ASUS?

It’s completely different. Ours is completely custom from anyone else. Splashtop is just the enabler, but the actual interface is a much cooler design.

How would you say the Voodoo Envy 133 stacks up against the Macbook Air and the Lenovo X300?

Well, the closest competitor would be the Air. I look at the Lenovo and I think it’s a sort of completely different product. But looking at the Air, for example, the Envy is thinner, it uses material that is much nicer, it’s much more exotic looking, and it’s got a lot of features that you would think are perceived negatives but are actual positives. Like the Presentation Adapter. Like the E-SATA optical drive as opposed to a USB port. It’s got a very very bright display. The display is better than the Air. It’s better than the Lenovo.

The speaker system is really awesome. Believe it or not, we were able to tweak the audio so that it actually sounds pretty good for a notebook [of the Envy’s size]. That’s almost impossible to do, but we got some excellent audio out of it. We got a better microphone, too. We have audio-freaks working on our team so we got a better speaker/microphone system. Instead of having a mono speaker, it’s got stereo speakers. When you’re using Skype, for example, you don’t need a headset.

Given the state of the economy, do you feel that there’s more or less of an appetite for luxury notebooks than there was 6 to 12 months ago?

When you have a situation like the one we have now, which is a very unique situation, people won’t go out and buy cars or houses or that sort of thing, but this [a notebook] is a sort of feel-good thing. It’s a relatively inexpensive purchase to go out and buy a notebook.

It’s two things, really. One is if people are at home and they lost their job or something and they need to go out and look for another one, they obviously need a computer to do that.

There’s also a market of people out there where the economy doesn’t affect them, so they’re still out there buying things. It’s one of those things, where we haven’t really seen a huge impact yet, so I’m not really sure how it’ll affect us longterm. But we’re hoping that the global scale that HP is going to give us will allow us to go into markets that aren’t being affected. Markets like Russia, India, and Dubai, places where economies that are strong might balance out places where the economy isn’t so strong.

Great Job Rob, I couldn't have said it better myself. I couldn't have typed it either - still nursing broken hand.

Is HP's Voodoo PC Unit Finished?
Digital Trends, 9/29, Rob Enderle

It seems that a number of people are lamenting the passing of Voodoo, the high-end gaming company that HP bought in 2006, and more recently, is rumored to have killed off. But the brand and products aren't going away. The unit is simply being merged into HP. This will mean a number of changes for Voodoo, most good, some possibly bad depending on where
you sit. None of this is unusual. Cadillac and Lincoln started out as separate companies at one time and now, decades later, they continue to be distinct from other GM and Ford products.

Let's chat about why people likely got excited in the first place, and what the future holds for Voodoo.

The Scary Part of an Acquisition

I've been part of an acquisition three times in my career, and can categorically say, as an employee at any level in a company: Being acquired tends to suck if you don't like change. The bigger the differences between the acquired company and the company doing the buying, the greater the process is likely to suck. People who like to work for small companies often don't fit into large enterprises easily, and it is hardly unusual for the smaller firm to find its offices shut down and the employees, or their jobs, moved to the larger firm to
contain costs.'

That is likely how the news of the Voodoo change leaked out. I expect that an employee who really didn't like the idea of relocating decided to leak the information out about the consolidation, in the hope that the Voodoo fan base would go ballistic and stop the changes. I've actually never seen this happen, and the result, typically, is a much higher level of distrust between the parent company and the one that was acquired.

Also, when you are talking companies of HP's scale, they can typically trace down the leak. And if they find you, the words "career limiting" are generally an understatement. Your only real choices are to either suck the change up, or take a package (assuming there is one) and go work someplace else. In this economy, I'm thinking the second choice may not be the best one.

What This Means for Voodoo

For some time now, functions like marketing had already been shifting from Voodoo to HP, and many of the most creative people had been moving into HP to assist with projects ranging from the HP Blackbird to enterprise workstations and servers. To Voodoo's advantage, it gained access to the massive HP labs facility, and the technology contained within it. Much of what's inside (and I always get the mental image of the warehouse in the first and last Indiana Jones movies) has never seen the light of day.

Taking a bunch of creative types and giving them access to cutting-edge super-secret enterprise tech is like letting a little kid who loves candy into a candy store, unsupervised. The eyes get big, the pockets fill up, and hopefully something sweet results.

The new Omen and Envy resulted from just the initial light merging of the two firms, and now the plan is to take the Voodoo brand worldwide, with a broader line and even more interesting products. While this is happening, some of the concepts being used to create these high-end Voodoo offerings are also migrating down into HP branded products that
the rest of us can afford, substantially enriching the HP line. So there will be both an increasing number of premium Voodoo branded products, and HP products with Voodoo DNA, like the Blackbird PC.

You may recall that HP makes smartphones, and has a bunch of ex-Apple people helping to create their next-generation phone. You may not, however, have thought through the likely coming of a Voodoo phone, which might actually surprise both Apple and Google, who also have likely not thought of it. This is the kind of thing that the consolidation of these
two units makes possible.

Wrapping Up

When a large company buys a much smaller one, change is inevitable. If they remain separate, there is a high likelihood that the effort will fail and the unit will either be shut down, or sold. That isn't happening here. Voodoo is not only becoming part of HP, it's changing the firm, helping to make it more dynamic and exciting. Given that few of us can afford Voodoo-branded products, but virtually all of us can afford HP products, this gives more of us a chance to own cool stuff. It is hard to argue that this isn't a good thing, while we wait for the Voodoo HP smartphone.

 

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rs

www.rahulsood.com

I wrote this article for the latest issue of CPU Magazine, it's about the recent announement that Intel is jumping in to the solid state hard drive business.

I have been writing quite a bit about Intel lately, often about the company’s quest to increase its platform real estate from within a personal computer. Last month I touched a bit on Intel’s much-anticipated Larrabee graphics platform; this month I’m writing about the chipmaker’s solid-state drives. Unless you’re living in a Unabomber shack somewhere in the deep woods, you probably heard that Intel announced its new SSDs at IDF this year.

Let me start by saying that I have a pair of these babies running in my Blackbird PC in RAID 0. Based on my experience, Intel has completely changed the game with these drives. Not only has the company made SSD relevant in high-performance scenarios, but through some complex algorithm management, Intel has managed to wipe the floor with any other storage technology on the planet.

Of course performance is important, but what about battery life and drive efficiency for notebook applications? Months ago, Tom’s Hardware wrote about the SSD battery life issue. They missed a few points, one of the most notable being that there is a direct correlation between the efficiency and performance of the drive and the overall battery life on the device. In other words, the slower the SSD, the longer it takes to run a task, thus the more battery life it eats. This is not the case with Intel drives; they are fast, efficient, and they actually extend the battery life of the machine compared to other SSDs. After installing a pair of them drives in RAID, my system literally boots Windows Vista Ultimate in seconds. Overall, I would say these new SSD drives rock, both in notebook applications and in desktops.

You might wonder what this means for Intel, and you wouldn’t be alone. My guess is the company is working to increase its aforementioned platform real estate through technologies like NAND, SSD, chipsets, CPUs, wireless, and soon through graphics. Imagine if Intel can pull off the seemingly impossible by making its next-generation graphics much better the previous Intel Extreme graphics. I’m not speaking from insider information here; I’m simply guessing that Intel has some incredible things in the back room at the moment, based in part on rumors that the company is apparently hiring some of the best graphics engineers in the industry. I can only imagine what the new Centrino will be like; after all, if the company can suddenly jump into the storage business with an industry-leading product, then anything is possible.

The industry is changing. The days where customers would spend thousands of dollars on a huge, 2-kilowatt, multi-GPU desktop PC just to play one game well are almost gone. People are generally very well-informed in making buying decisions, and they’re looking for “greener,” more efficient PCs. They want a system that works and supports all of their applications.

So, what’s the point?

If Intel can pull off creating the ultimate integrated graphics part, it will likely make third-party discrete graphics irrelevant in notebooks. Why would anyone want to integrate a third-party discrete chipset when all you need is an Intel processor combined with whatever Centrino-branded devices you need to create a hardware simple platform? Now throw in the Intel SSD and you have a bigger, even uglier Intel than you do today.

As a builder of systems, I’ve learned that the success in this industry isn’t as simple as taking the best components and tossing them into a box. The secret is to look at what companies like Intel are doing, listen to what your customers are looking for, and work backward into cool, innovative new products. As such, we spend a lot of time imagining ways to create thinner, lighter, less expensive, and more powerful devices. Yeah, it’s a continuing process, and Intel seems to be leading the way, again.

 

rs

 

One of my biggest interests is finding ways to improve healthcare with technology. If I wasn’t the founder of a high end branded personal computer company, I would be doing something in medicine. Maybe not becoming a doctor, but something around actually bridging technology together with medicine in an effort to further medical research and collaboration.

I’m also deeply concerned with raising awareness about autism, a developmental disorder that currently affects millions of families worldwide.

We’ve all been in the mall and witnessed a child in the middle of a supreme temper tantrum, that usually involves throwing themselves on the ground and yelling, kicking, and sometimes hitting. And many of us are guilty of giving the parents of these kids a nasty glare. It’s unfortunate that parents of children living with autism have to go through “the stare down” from people around them, most of whom have no idea what it must be like to be in that situation. The bottom line is, there is no explanation as to how autism is caused, and unless you know what to look for, most of the time you’d never guess that these children live with it.

As a neurological disorder that manifests itself in early childhood, autism today affects an increasing number of children. Autism most frequently impairs the child’s ability to communicate with others and to respond to the environment. Autism also affects children differently. Some may have difficulty eating, drinking or sleeping, while others may experience odd responses to sensory input. As far as the lack of communication goes, imagine being the mother who may never hear her kid say “mommy”. Imagine being a mother who may never know what’s bothering her child, or what they are thinking at any given time of the day.

As a result, having an autistic child can have a huge impact on family relationships. I have some very close friends who are currently coping with the effects of autism and I know all about the stress and communication issues it can cause. That’s why I’m extremely proud to be part of a company that has the ability to make a difference.

I was in New York about a year ago riding in a taxi cab, and I was watching the advertising on the screen in front of me. There was a human interest story on ArticuLab, a Northwestern University research unit that looks at how society can improve communication, notably with those living with autism, and social interaction using technology. Their research was so amazing, and unique compared to anything that I've seen related to autism that I immediately took down the number, contacted my boss Phil, and said “we need to do something fast…”

At last check, autism is one of the fastest-growing developmental disabilities in North America -- with a new case diagnosed nearly every 20 minutes. Currently, autism gets under five percent of the research funding of many less prevalent childhood diseases. The least understood part of autism is the fact that there are an alarming number of people who are now affected, and thus will be growing up with this disorder. In other words, we are experiencing a huge bubble of people currently living with autism at a young age, but what happens when they’re older? Who is going to take care of them if something happens to their primary caregivers? This is the part that people need to think long and hard about – parents don’t live forever.

Upon returning home I contacted Justine at Northwestern and we spoke at length about her research. If you have ever watched a child living with autism you’d know that they tend to fixate on specific things. Some children like books, others like coloring, but most of them like to watch videos and play on the computer. Northwestern is developing a cool piece of software called “Sam the Virtual Peer” which allows children with autism to walk into a room where there’s a large screen with “virtual peers” inviting the child in to play games. Anyone who has a child living with autism will tell you that videos are a great way to communicate with your kid. This is the next step, and Justine was mentioning that they were looking for devices that had touch screens on them. We hooked her up with a few HP TouchSmart PCs, and this is only the beginning. I plan to fly out there in a few months to follow up on the research and see what other roles we might play in their research.

With the donation of new HP TouchSmart PCs, along with the time and expertise of the dedicated technology experts in HP’s Personal Systems Group, we’re playing a small part in learning more about autism and developing innovative ways to improve the lives and social experience of those living with it.

Check out more about this fantastic effort over here.

Autism Research at ArticuLab Gets a Boost from HP

EVANSTON, Illinois -– The ArticuLab, a Northwestern University research group that studies how humans communicate with and through technology, announced today its autism research received a pledge of support from HP. The support will come in the form of a donation of three of the award-winning HP TouchSmart PCs and consultation with technology experts in HP's Personal Systems Group.

The ArticuLab uses virtual peers to help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) improve social interaction. Social experiences between the child and the virtual peer are controlled using a video game-like interface and an interactive surface. The HP TouchSmart PC has a touch-enabled screen that recognizes natural touch gestures such as taps or sweeps, making it ideal hardware for the program.

"Working with HP will give us access to valuable new resources in the form of both innovative hardware and creative thinkers," said Justine Cassell, director of the Center for Technology and Social Behavior and the AT&T Research Professor and professor of communication studies and electrical engineering and computer science. "HP’s contribution will not only help speed the discovery of groundbreaking techniques to help autistic children improve social interaction skills, we hope that it will ultimately improve the lives of some very special young people."

In addition to the TouchSmart PCs, contributions from HP include access to specialized expertise in the areas of gaming and human-computer interfaces.

"We are excited about the positive impact we can have on the lives of children living with autism by applying our expertise in gaming, touch technology and the development of innovative hardware," said Rahul Sood, chief technology officer, Voodoo Business Unit, HP. "Watching children with autism interact with technology is a fascinating experience, and we believe that working with the ArticuLab is also a great opportunity for HP to explore the critical intersection between technology and medical research."

Autism is one of the fastest-growing developmental disabilities in the United States, with a new case diagnosed nearly every 20 minutes. Other facts about the disability include:

• One in every 150 children born in the U.S. is diagnosed with autism.
• There are 24,000 new cases diagnosed in the U.S. per year.
• Autism receives less than 5 percent of the research funding of many less prevalent childhood diseases.
• There is no medical detection treatment or cure for autism.

ArticuLab research helps autistic children rehearse and experiment with important skills for social reciprocity, ranging from fundamental behaviors such as participating in conversations and turn-taking, to understanding the perspectives of other people and additional complex interactions. Studying the effects of using virtual peers may contribute important information about the underlying mechanisms of communication and social reciprocity in ASD while providing an innovative intervention for building skills vital to peer interaction.

About the ArticuLab
The ArticuLab is part of Northwestern University's School of Communication and McCormick School of Engineering. At the ArticuLab, researchers study how people communicate with and through technology. Researchers use technology as a way of better understanding human-human communication, and use the study of human-human communication to design better technology. This interest leads to questions concerning the intersection of language, learning, the body, and computational systems through a range of interdisciplinary methods and tools. Benefiting from the synergy of rigorous experimental methods and extensive computational modeling, the ArticuLab’s work contributes to theoretical research in cognitive science, communication studies, learning sciences, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, and many other related disciplines.

For more information please visit the Articulab Website.

Great work guys, I hope eventually we can make a difference in the lives of those living with autism.

rs
www.rahulsood.com