Announcement: Reddit IAMA with HP Workstation team tomorrow (01/28/2013) - 9:00am PST

[Gavin Gear]

Hey everyone- as you know, RED has worked with the HP Workstation team (as well as ProMax and Tekserve) team to create the Z820 RED Edition. There are other great HP options for working with RED footage ranging from the 8770w laptop to the Z1 All-In-One to the Z820 tower.

Tomorrow, I'll be hosting an IAMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit.com to talk about HP Windows Workstations. This is your chance to ask the team that created these PCs anything!

You can find out more information here: http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/...ors-ask-the-hp-workstation-team-anything.aspx

*update* - here's the live link to the IAmA: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/17fo2g/i_am_gavin_gear_of_windows_with_the_hp/

Hope to see you there!
- Gavin

 

[Bruce Allen]

Thanks for letting us know. I know what I'm going to ask:

I own an HP consumer laptop that supports drawing on its screen with a Wacom pen. I got the fastest model HP offered but it was still too slow to use with a lot of graphics apps. It also had a really glossy and not-that-nice screen. Sad because I know HP can do better (I own a Dreamcolor too!). The laptop only cost around $1000 but I would gladly have paid $2000 or $3000 for a better CPU + GPU and screen.

Why have HP and other PC manufacturers never made a laptop that combined:
1. decent Wacom-compatible screen
2. decent GPU and CPU to handle graphics apps

Seems kinda a no-brainer to me if you're targeting mobile graphics pros.

We don't WANT to buy Apple, you know... but if nobody's offering me a fast laptop with a Wacom-enabled screen, I'll at least get a shiny Apple laptop with a Retina display. That's how a lot of artists' thought processes go, I think.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

 

[Rob Anderson]

Great! Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Gavin Gear]

I just got the IAmA link, here it is: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/17fo2g/i_am_gavin_gear_of_windows_with_the_hp/

 

[Gavin Gear]

It's starting now, jump on over and fire away your questions for the HP workstation teams!

 

[Gavin Gear]

Bruce- I took the liberty of posting your question:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/17fo2g/i_am_gavin_gear_of_windows_with_the_hp/c852vmx

 

[Bruce Allen]

Gavin - I already asked it and got great response. Thank you!

I would love to be in touch with anyone from HP who wants to chat about this.

To be honest, as graphics professionals, we feel stuck between PC manufacturers who do not innovate and Apple who doesn't care. But at least Apple are doing things like improving display resolutions (which have been frozen for ages), giving us faster expansion via Thunderbolt, etc.

To me, a graphics workstation shouldn't be stodgy.

Why do HP's workstation laptops limp along without Retina graphics, without Thunderbolt, in a bulky form-factor?
Why is HP's Z1 just a more expensive iMac with a couple of user-replaceable bits? Just because Apple doesn't think you should draw on their screens, why do PC manufacturers think they should follow that?
Why has HP's DreamColor monitor never been updated?
Why is it that every affordable increase in desktop and laptop display resolution has been pioneered by Apple first?

I'm not saying that just adding Wacom pen support and touch is the answer to everything, but it would be a start in terms of actually doing something before Apple does.

Trust me: a lot of graphics pros like me would prefer to run Maya on a PC. But we have to deal with a bunch of PC-hating Mac luddites... and the only way to convince those folks is to start producing things that are obviously way better for graphics work than what Apple is doing. So... yeah. Wacom-enabled screens seem like a good place to start?

HP is welcome to do other things too! 4K display? External graphics adapter for laptop? Also, check out what Levono is doing with their Thinkpad Helix (kinda like a slightly souped-up Surface Pro) and their wireless displays with Wacom support...

Please feel free to email me boacinema [at] gmail.com or come and visit us if you're ever in Los Angeles.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com