"Mobility and Technology"; HP Bloggers Meet-Up, Lahore

It has become an old saying now that the technology has changed our lifestyle. As for now the reality says that the technology has become a part of life as important as oxygen is. Right from getting up in the morning with the alarm sound coming out of a cell phone, to the hitting the sack again after saying good night to all our friends we use technology. Over past few years we are getting more and more attached to the technology around especially after the cell phones and GSM connections in economical prices. Now, as our life has become a tech slave (I am sorry if someone get, offends with this line) mobility and technology go hand in hand. I think it's better to say they are turning into one and a same thing. Technology and/with mobility are one of the most demanded things now days.

This past Thursday (December 10th, 2009) Evening, I got chance to be in an environment where Mobility and Technology was the topic of discussion. It was HP Bloggers Meetup at Pearl Continental Hotel, Lahore. Initially it was to be held at Holiday Inn, but due to some reason its venue was changed twice. It was changed to Holiday Inn to PC, and, than Kashmir Hall, where this event was going to be held as per the best of my knowledge. Thanks to Talal Massod, he helped me to reach the “real” venue; Shalimar Hall.




I was there at 2:57 PM and the event was supposed to start at 3pm but finally it began at 4pm, “many people” had to suffer the irritation of waiting as they were present there since 1:30 PM. Talal Masood, Haris Nadeem, and Uzair were the panelists. Mr. Khalid Muhammad was there to represent HP. I forgot to mention that the meet up was arranged by HP to launch HP mini Net book.

In the beginning it was quite boring to me, and the overdose of the comparison between the cell phone, as a tool of connecting the world, and Net Book or Lap Top was forcefully prolonged. Few things I must like to mention here such as showing the union on the never lasting need of desktop computers by the panel and recalling us that technology is getting mini day by day. One fact was quite shocking for me; it has nothing to do directly with the machine in focus, that Mr. Haris Nadeem spends 10 hours a day on Gaming. Two thumbs up to you man on such determination.

Talal said while talking about “why we still need desktop computer”, desktop computer is still used due to the VGA and customization is still a better feature in Desktop Computer, and it is a lot easier to upgrade a desktop one. He also mentioned that the laptop computers are very slow when it comes to graphic designing and video editing.
During the question answers session Ms. Marium Chaudhri asked “I have a laptop and a good phone than, why I need a net book?” Panel tried their level best to answer that question but as much I can figure out from there attempt is the fact that the question remained un-answered. Mr. Khalid helped the panel describing some features of net book e.g. compatibility and its small & handy size.

“HP cloud service is an advantage of caring HP”, said Talal Masood. He further added, “We can have bet that Laptop can replace desktop in all works”. Talal also said that net book is not a complete laptop it is something which is much more than a cell phone as some tasks which we cant perform on cell phone can be done on HP Mini Net book but still it is not a complete lap top, so if you are planning to buy hp mini as a full laptop, than think again.

During the discussion some how eating habits of Haris Nadeem popped out which turned the direction of panel address to the connection between food and tech e.g. searching where one can find good chicken by utilizing mobilized technology. Talal also mentioned that how he managed to attend his friends wedding ceremony by utilizing Latitude.

One thing which really got my attention, though I am no more a gaming person, is the fact that one can enjoy and play heavy games such as Counter Strike and World of the Warcraft on HP Mini Net book. Well this statement of Mr. Khalid shows that the machine is good enough for the people who love gaming and they remain on the go.

Mr. Khalid also said that Social media is a part of Technology and Mobility. He also confessed that he is a “Mac user”; I really appreciate his courage of saying so while he was standing in HP arena.

Over all the event was nice but it could have been better. I really enjoyed the tea and snack break, nice coffee and fine snacks are not the only reason of liking that part but the networking part of tea break was the real thing to enjoy for me, as I got to meet people like Saad, Mustafa bah (it was nice meeting him again after the fountain house meeting), and Tauseef Ikram, I am really impressed by Tauseef Bhai and would like to meet him again or I should say very often as I seldom find such multi-tenanted yet down to earth people. Miss. Mariyam Chaudhri, it was nice meeting her as well but I really feel sorry for her as she had to wait this event to start more than any other person there as she was present there in the hall since 1:30 PM.

Mr. Khalid apologized for the late proceeding of the event and told us the reason for the delay. As I said earlier this even could have been better if the information abut the change in venue was delivered to the people in time.

Now come to the machine, I am not as good tech person such I met in that hall but still it does not reduces my potential to review a thing which I might be using or buying in near future ;). It's a nice machine, looks good and its keyboard is quite comfortable and it has almost the same size as normal keyboards have, to me it is an added advantage keeping its handy size in focus.
The machine is in a quite portable size and weight also goes with the theme of a net book. The display is better, which is 10.1” diagonal WSVGA LED or HD LED anti-glare wide screen. The graphic compatibility is good enough to handle some big games and this feature is supported by Intel Graphic media Accelelerator 950. There is 5-in-1 integrated digital media reader to handle media cards, Multimedia cards, memory stick, and memory stick pro, or xD picture cards. It got 3 USB 2.0 ports; there is VGA, Headphone-out, Microphone in combo jack, and the most required AC power port.

It is available in both WINDOW XP, and WINDOW 7, so you need to choose between models running either of them. The window 7 is which is coming with this machine is STARTER which is not a very good choice so that is one of the drawback I found in this machine.
After this all discussion let me talk about the price of this HP Mini, the price starts around Rs. 33,000/-, and every color e.g. black, pink, and white have got different price.
I think it's a good machine and for a user like me who need a machine for using Internet, blogging, handling social networking sites and performing other tasks which cannot be performed on a cell phone when one is away from the desktop computer, this machine is a good choice and as Talal said while describing its price; one can buy this piece of technology in the price of a pair of headlights of Honda Civic. Still i feel the price set by HP is bit higher than the Net books available, by other brands

Pictures Courtesy: Sultan Dar from University of Central Punjab,Lahore