Mimicry
"As an all-in-one computer, the TouchSmart 610 mimics Apple’s iMac series"
What ?
This is going to be good. I reviewed the first TouchSmart 600 all-in-one home desktop computer in January 2010, and loved it, frankly. I fondly remember Reg Hardware readers expressing their admiration for my gushing praise at the time... That was sarcasm. Enough, I’m over it. HP TouchSmart 610 Finger friendly: HP's …
this unit's ability to sit like a wacom graphics tablet makes it much more useful than any other all-in-one, including Apple's and Sony's.
However, the bezel design is an ugly mess, if you compare to the clean looks of sony and Apple...
"At a time when USB 3.0 devices are still rare and specialised, HP reckons an owner of a family computer may want to connect two of them. Gosh, I’m seriously behind the envelope compared with those bleeding-edge home users."
Why would you moan about the inclusion of an (specialised??) industry standard that is fully backwardly compatible with the previous generation?
With that mentality we'd still all be using single core CPU's because multi-threaded programs are "rare".
Some people.....
"USB 3.0 devices are still rare and specialised, HP reckons an owner of a family computer may want to connect two of them. Gosh, I’m seriously behind the envelope compared with those bleeding-edge home users."
Is the sarcasm really necessary? I imagine the chip supports (at least) 2 ports, and the physical connector comes as a dual block, so it's no difference in terms of design and manufacturing to have 2 instead of just one.
Please don't marr an otherwise fair review with a bit of misplaced 'humour'.
I've played with a few of these all-in-one PCs and none of them really work. That tilting has some benefits, but I honestly believe Apple have the right approach here: for desktop PCs, a multitouch trackpad makes a lot more sense than making the screen itself multi-touch capable.
Not least because you won't be constantly cleaning grubby fingerprints off the trackpad anywhere near as often as you would on a touch-sensitive screen. From a purely practical point of view, the trackpad is a lot easier to maintain, and cheaper to replace if broken! Remember: these machines are intended for home use, which means kids.
The tilting screen is an Apple patent, so I foresee lawyers at dawn. I honestly don't understand why HP would tempt fate like this: that patent clearly shows an all-in-one iMac design, rather than a "generic" computer display design. All HP's designers had to do was hark back to the old "Anglepoise iMac" design and put the computer itself in the base.
This would also have helped with the movement, as the mechanism wouldn't have had to support the full weight of a PC *and* screen. If Apple ever do release an iMac with a multi-touch display, I'd fully expect them to take a similar approach: having all the peripheral connections mounted on a *moving part* is just wrong.
"......and put the computer itself in the base...." The problem with that is the base then becomes too big and bulky and takes up nearly as much space as a regular slim desktop. Personally, I'd just buy an ultra-slim desktop and one of those monitor stands that lets you mount the base unit behind the screen - a lot cheaper! I really like the hp Touchsmart tech, it's really cool, but I don't really see the need for a touchscreen I'm going to have to clean every time I want to watch a movie.
Is there something like the i360 for this (turntable for the unit). I am in the market for an all in one computer but need a proper swivel as it will be on a table that would need to be viewed in different directions at different times (and change rapidly enough that I do not want the family picking the whole computer up and moving it).
Has everybody fallen to the 'Apple invented everything' hypnosis?
A little over 30 years ago, most smaller computers were all-in-one.
I don't hear automobile reviewers relating every single car review to how its "similar to" Mercedes or Ford, by being packaged in a boxy shape with 4 corners and 4 wheels and a motor. The all-in-one car vs having horses in front?
Its getting tiresome and retarded.
If the media would stop feeding this hysteria, maybe the ass-hats at Apple would one day be forced to let go of their horrible business practices, walled gardens and control freakishness, that prevents anyone with an IQ over 100 from buying their great-looking crap.