At HP, the paperless Web is a myth to rival the paperless office.

HP held a one-day Imaging and Printing Conference in New York City on Wednesday, announcing that it will collaborate with blogs to add “print” capabilities, in addition to the “print” functions already built into browsers.

HP also announced that its Tabblo subsidiary, which HP acquired in March, would develop a Web toolkit to make it easier to print content from Web sites.

What HP calls “Print 2.0″ is made up of three principles: to make it easier to print from websites, such as blogs and travel sites, and bring new printing capabilities to online properties; to extend the company’s digital content creation and publishing platforms – for example, Snapfish and Logoworks – across customer segments spanning from consumers to enterprises; and to deliver a digital printing platform that increases print speeds and lowers the cost of printing for high-volume commercial markets.

“Today, we’re introducing a new era in printing. We’re redefining what it means to print and further accelerating the transformation from analog to digital printed pages,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of the company’s Imaging and Printing Group, in a statement. “In today’s world of ‘mashed media’ – words, pictures, video, songs – the question becomes ‘How will people publish this content?’ Print 2.0 is the answer. This vision centers on empowering our customers to create and consume their content, their way.”

On June 29, HP will release a plugin to allow the company’s Movable Type blogging software to add “print” buttons to their pages. On the same day, the Tabblo template will become available, to allow users to pick and choose content off of a Web page to print.

I am eagerly waiting for a similar blogger feature.

Source: yahoo

Did you buy a computer from one of the above big brands and faced lot of problems. You must have called there tech support for help? How was the response? Were they willing to help you? Or were they fulfilling there responsibilities? It is time to spit all the problems you faced with the company’s tech supports to Vocal Laboratories, a company that helps other companies improve customer service by surveying customer calls. After all you paid them!

Next time you have a technical problem with one of these computer manufacturers, call the numbers below instead of the normal technical support number. The call will go to Vocal Labs and get forwarded to the company in question. Within an hour after the call is over, Vocal Labs calls you back for a 2-minute interview.

The numbers are:
Apple: 800-894-3218 (instead of 800-275-2273)
Dell Technical Support: 800-894-3639 (instead of 800-624-9896)
Gateway Technical Support: 800-894-3552 (instead of 800-846-2301)
HP Technical Support: 800-871-4439 (instead of 800-474-6836)

Related:
HP Ruining Its Name

Source: Consumerist

I just now returned from a friends home who has recently bought a new HP computer last weekend. He had called me up to see if I can optimize his system for better performance. Let us do the talking in lay man’s language.

A brand new Pentium4 3.0 GHz processor, 512 Mb RAM, 160 Gb hard disk, a combo drive with Windows XP Home Edition installed, was using 538 Mb of RAM on start up (as per the task manager). The vendor had installed Norton Internet security 2006 and Oracle (the two major softwares which I think were responsible for low speed, but man…538? That is just too much for new systems).

A general user who buys a computer from HP, does that as it has trust on the brand, and gets THIS in return? A very slow computer (slower than his Pentium 3 which he earlier used to have). And this wasn’t the first case which I heard of. Another friend of mine faced same problem few months back with same company, HP.

This does not mean that HP isn’t supplying standard computers. They got some world class labs which takes care of user needs very well. But I think it is necessary for them to keep an eye on the vendors who sell there computers “with there own sweet time killing methods ( that vendor hasn’t turned up yet to fix the problem, even after a week).” HP needs to start scrutinizing these guys else the general buyer would always think that it is HP’s system which has the problem and not the supplying vendor. (As was the case with both of my friends, which is ofcourse just a myth, HP is big and real good at computers).

Time to make some changes at the grass root level Hewlett-Packard. Giving away franchisees to anyone doesn’t seem to be working concept. The systems which vendors supply should be speedy, NOT using 500+ Mb of RAM on bootup. May be the problem is not really that big, but a company like HP should care about every customer…

Instruction for buyer: Along with the brand (HP in this case) you must also do some research about the middle tire seller selling the systems. Its history and its trust in your local market.