HP gets (more) personal

Hewlett-Packard has three different lines of personal computer products. There are relatively low-cost devices for consumers, slightly more robust hardware for small business users and swept-up models for larger companies that run fleets of computers.

Strictly speaking Hewlett-Packard's Elitebook 800 laptops and Z series workstations are built for the last group. They are interesting because they include nice touches which those of us working at the sharp end of the economy could use.
HP's latest laptop models use the same Intel processors found in Apple's MacBook Air, which gives then long battery life. HP market development manager Simon Molloy says you can expect to get ten hours use between charges. He says the new chips also help make the laptops up to 40 percent slimmer and 28 percent lighter than the models they replace.
HP has added new security features too. There's something called a "self-healing bios". The bios is the program that controls the boot process and in recent years criminals have targeted the bios because it means they can take control of a computer. However, HP has added a second copy of the bios software – during the boot, the computer checks that the bios it is using matches the second copy. If it doesn't it stops the process, makes a fresh copy of the good bios and starts again. The computers also come with encryption software so you can send mail to colleagues that anyone who intercepts your messages simply cannot read.
HP has designers and creative workers in its sights for its Z series workstations. These provide extreme levels of computer graphics power for dealing with video or photography. To demonstrate these devices HP used Chris McLennan, a professional photographer who takes workstations to remote locations to store, process and forward his work to clients.