Canon PowerShot G15 Review

Canon’s PowerShot G-series of compact digital cameras has everything it takes to bring smiles to enthusiasts. Tough build, brilliant optics, lots of external controls and stellar performance are only a few of the many great things about the cameras belonging to the series. Previous addition to the G-series was the G1 X, which was the first of its kind—a compact digital camera with a 1.5-inch type sensor (almost as large as ones found in entry-level DSLRs). The latest addition to the series is the G15, which is an upgrade to the G12 that was launched in 2010. Let’s find out what it packs in its compact shell and how much better it is than the G12 and its competitors.

An enthusiast-class digital camera with brilliant optics

Features and design

If you already own a G12, the list of upgrades will tempt you to go in for the G15. At 11.7-inch, the size of the sensor used in both the models is larger than the usual 12.3-inch type sensors used in mainstream digital cameras. However, the resolution has been bumped from 10 to 12.1 megapixels and the sensor used is of the CMOS type instead of CCD. The optics used in the G15 is to die for! The lens used in the G12 was 28 mm at the wide end and extended to 140 mm, thus translating to 5x optical zoom. G15 too uses a 5x zoom lens with the same focal length, but it’s way brighter. At the wide end, G12 had a fairly large f2.8 aperture, which narrowed to a pedestrian f4.5 at the telephoto end—quite respectable. The G15 has a large f1.8 aperture at the wide end, and you can stick to f2.8 throughout the zoom range. This allows handheld shooting in low light without having to use flash. Also, the shallow depth of field or background blur is very well pronounced when you shoot using the largest aperture, especially in macro mode wherein you can shoot from as close as 1 cm from the subject.

Well laid out buttons and a 922k dot LCD display

Next in the list of upgrades is the display. A bump from a mediocre 461k dot to 922k (twice as dense) is a welcome change. It has been noted that while Canon upgrades or adds new features, it takes away some useful features. For instance, the G12 had a fully articulating display that allowed capturing creative shots from odd angles. The G15 does away with this feature and uses a fixed display, which seems to have been done to make the camera slimmer. This has helped making the G15 slimmer than the G12 by 8 millimetres. The width too has shrunk by 5 millimetres. However, at 107 x 76 x 40 mm, the G15 is just about pocketable—you’d feel more comfortable having it hanging around your neck than carrying it in your trouser pocket. This shrink in size has helped Canon bring down the weight of the camera by around 50 grams; the G15 weighs 352 grams with the li-ion battery loaded. Other minor upgrades include full HD video recording from 720p in the G12, a slightly improved EV range (±2 to ±3) and an increased ISO range. If you’re in extremely low light, you can set the ISO to as high as 12800 for steady handheld shots.

Design-wise, the G15 looks very similar to the G12, except for the subtle changes when you view it from the front. The rubberised grip is slightly larger because the horizontal dial now uses less space. Also, the top right corner is now empty because Canon has chosen to go in with pop-up type flash—there’s a tiny lever behind the flash that releases it. The top panel of the G15 looks empty when compared to that of the G12. The latter had a dial for EV in place of which there’s now the pop-up flash. This has now been shifted to the right, below the mode dial. The G12 had a third dial to select ISO speeds in one-third steps, on which the mode dial was stacked. The G15 has a shortcut for ISO on the D-pad instead, which isn’t as handy as a dedicated dial. 

Dials for mode selection and EV

The rear of the camera is dominated by the 3-inch LCD display. To the right lies the control panel that comprises a 5-way D-pad with a jog dial and buttons for metering modes, focus area and menu. The button with the asterisk icon, when pressed, automatically sets the optimal aperture and shutter speed. The portion above the LCD is home to an optical viewfinder (with dioptric adjustment) and playback button. A dedicated button for video recording is placed at the top right corner, next to the rubberised thumb grip.

Build quality and ergonomics

The build quality of the G15 is impeccable—right from the buttons and flaps to the shell. The front of the shell is made of aluminium and has a rough, grainy finish that lends a rugged feel. The rubberised grip on the front coupled with the thumb grip lends a firm grip even while using the camera single-handed. Plenty of external controls and their ergonomic placement contribute to fatigue-free shooting. What we found most useful was the second dial on the front—it comes in very handy when you want to adjust the aperture and shutter speed. In playback mode, it skips a bunch of pictures at a time when rotated one notch at a time.

The intuitive user interface makes the G15 easy to use. The mode dial lets you select from Auto, PASM, Scene, Creative filters and Movie modes. You use the Menu button to bring up the stack of parameters on the left side of the screen and then navigate/select values using the D-pad and jog dials—very straightforward, without having to delve into menus and sub-menus. 

The Scene mode has limited but the most useful presets including portrait, smooth skin, hand-held night scene, snow and fireworks. The Creative Filter mode lets you shoot photos using effects such as HDR, Nostalgic, Fish eye, Miniature, Toy camera, Monochrome and Color accent—again the most common ones that you’d want to use. Many of the effects are configurable, for instance, Nostalgic and Toy camera modes that allow changing the colour tones.  The G15 can record videos at full HD and even shoot super slow-motion videos.

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Mobile Grudge Match: HTC Butterfly vs Sony Xperia Z

The battle of flagship smartphones is a never ending story. Each year, a new chapter begins and we kick off 2013 with the HTC Butterfly vs Sony’s Xperia.

The battle of flagship smartphones is a never ending story. Each year, a new chapter begins and we kick off 2013 with the HTC Butterfly vs Sony’s Xperia Z. Both these handsets mirror the absolute best of what their respective manufacturers have to offer with today’s technology. Let’s take a quick look at each of them before we put them in the ring for a face-off.

HTC Butterfly 
The Butterfly managed to impress us quite a bit and despite its poor battery life, we do think it’s one of HTC’s best attempts yet. Some of the features that would make us run out and buy one despite its shortcomings are the camera and the display. Along with the awesome burst mode that made the One X a huge success, HTC has packed in a better 8MP sensor with a very large aperture of f/2.0. Not only does this improve the level of detail for low light shots, you can really have fun with the amount of depth of field you get in macro shots. The level of details captured is also a lot better compared to its previous flagship. The display is superb as well and even though we feel 1080p for a smartphone is pushing it a bit, it’s still a gorgeous display thanks to the Super LCD3 technology.

A handsome looking brute

Sony Xperia Z
Sony has finally upped its game and the Xperia Z shows that the company means business. The Z is very similar to the Butterfly in terms of specifications as it also has a 1080p screen, quad-core CPU and full HD capable front facing camera. The similarities end here though, as the Z raises the bar by offering a massive 13MP camera sensor, is a lot slimmer than the Butterfly and best of all, has passed the IP55 and IP57 certifications, which officially makes it dust and water resistant. Sony claim that the Xperia Z will easily work up to 1 metre underwater and for up to 30 minutes. All this from a phone that still manages to look every bit as glamorous as, say, the iPhone 5. 

Premium on the outside, rugged on the inside

It’s now time to put these two flagships in the ring and see which one looks like the better option, at least on paper.

The Xperia manages to nudge past the Butterfly

The bottom line 
Since both the handsets are extremely similar, it’s a very close match. In the end though, the Xperia Z manages to edge out the Butterfly and that’s the phone I’d go with too, given the choice. Aesthetics is very subjective and both handsets are a head turner. However, the glass-laden back of the Z should give it a little more street cred. The main reason why I would personally pick the Sony over the HTC is the IP57 certification and due to its slightly larger battery, which should help prolong the need to recharge. Being water resistant means you don’t have to worry about protecting it during monsoons, or if it gets a bit dirty, simply wash it under a tap. More than wireless charging and other such gimmicks, I feel every flagship smartphone from now on must have an IP57 certification as it’s a feature that truly impacts the way we use high-end phones. 

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Crowdfunded NCase M1 Mini-ITX enthusiast chassis inches toward reality

Although there are some solid small form factor cases available, none of them are perfect -- at least not if you're Wahaha360 and Necere from HardOCP's forum. Disappointed by popular enclosures such as theSilverStone SG05, the guys teamed up last year to design their ideal chassis. After months of feedback from HardOCP members and Lian Li engineers, the pair have unveiled the fruits of their labor: the NCase M1.

Some of the M1's specs could change by the time it hits production, but on paper, the 12.59-liter box has the features you'd expect from a standard enthusiast chassis. At 160 x 328 x 240mm (250mm with the feet -- 6.29 x 12.91 x 9.44in), the case is designed for Mini-ITX motherboards, which is more compact than MicroATX at 170mm long versus 244mm and allows the M1 to house a power supply in a unique top front position.

Besides supporting standard ATX power supplies, the M1 can accommodate a triple-slot graphics card up to 317.5mm (12.50in) long, a processor cooler up to 105mm (4.13in) tall, four 120mm fans and one 80/92mm fan, dual 120mm radiators, as many as three 3.5in or four 2.5in storage drives, and one slim slot-loading optical drive. The front panel carries two USB 3.0 ports and audio jacks around a central power button.

As we hinted above, the M1 is still in a prerelease phase. NCase wants to have two prototypes made by Lian Li soon, but they need a few bucks to get started. The team is asking for $3,000 via Indiegogo and they're a little over halfway there with four weeks to go. Once the prototypes are created and the design is refined, NCase plans to gather funding for a limited production run where the M1 will be sold for $160 to $200.

There are only four donation tiers: $1 gets you a pat on the back, $5 earns you a mention on NCase's site, $10 puts you on a priority shipment list for the production run and $2,000 scores you a prototype when NCase is done testing. Besides helping two enthusiasts build their dream case, NCase says backing the project will prove to companies that getting involved with the community can break stagnation and promote innovation.

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Scientists develop computer that never crashes

Depending on what you are doing, a computer crash can be classified as anything from a minor annoyance to a complete disaster. I’ve been experiencing some BSODs lately of unknown origin and let me be the first to tell you, it’s pretty darn annoying when you are right in the middle of something important – like work – and everything shuts down before you get a chance to save.

Fortunately, researchers and scientists at the University College London have come up with a solution they say will end computer crashes forever.

Today’s computers typically work procedurally by pulling data from memory, working on the data then sending it back to memory. This usually happens in a fixed order and until something goes wrong, all is well. When a process fails or crashes for whatever reason, however, everything hits the fan and the computer will often times lock up.

The computer that UCL has developed is different in the fact that data and instructions are essentially mirrored across several different systems. The systems work simultaneously although independent of each other – the only thing they share is a section of memory for context-sensitive data.

In the event that one system crashes or data becomes corrupted, the computer is able to rebuild that set of data from another system and start fresh again. The systems are said to execute in a random order using a pseudorandom number generator that acts as a task scheduler.

At this point, performance isn’t all that great but there’s certainly room to improve upon. If you’re interested in learning more about this developing technology, the developers will present their findings at the IEEE International Conference on Evolvable Systems in April.

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Microsoft's Digital allows Computer Interaction with Hand Gestures

Microsoft’s research lab in Cambridge, UK has developed a new way to interact with the digital world using intuitive hand gestures. “Digits” uses 3 different IR cameras to track the positions of fingers with respect to each other.

One of the applications for this technology includes 3-D spacial interaction with a mobile device. By assigning gestures to certain functions, the user could conceivably control any aspect of a device. This also allows for vision free control of the device. In example used in Microsoft’s video, they assigned the the “thumb’s up” to answer an incoming call.

Other applications include sign language interpretation and endless possibilities for gaming. Could this be the new controller for XBox 720? Guess we will have to wait to find out.

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Surface Pro sells out quickly - due to high demand or low supply?

Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablet hit retail shelves last Friday but you wouldn’t know it if you happened to venture into any number of big box stores this weekend. That’s because the slate was nowhere to be found – sold out in virtually every location, we’re told.

Both the 64GB and 128GB units were sold out online through Microsoft’s website by Saturday. All of this could mean one of two things: either Microsoft had a fantastic sales weekend or they didn’t ship nearly enough tablets to fill demand. At this time, it appears that the latter might be the more likely scenario.

Why exactly would Microsoft intentionally release the Surface Pro in short supply? For the same reason that a number of other companies have been accused of doing – to create buzz and further build demand. We aren’t saying that is what happened, but others are certainly making that accusation.

Richard Hay from Windows Observer did some investigation and found that one store said they only received one model each of the Surface Pro (64GB and 128GB). Another store said their shipment never made it in time for the retail launch while another retailer noted they only received five of each tablet. A number of locations told him they didn’t have any display models of the tablet or only had the 64GB model on display.

Of course, it’s also entirely possible that the shortage is due to higher than anticipated demand. ZDNet points out that Microsoft didn’t take any pre-orders for the device like they did with the Surface RT devices. It’s unclear why Microsoft wouldn’t hold pre-orders, however. Hopefully we will know more sooner rather than later but it’s not likely that the company will release sales figures unless they are astronomical.

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Rumored Apple "iWatch" to feature curved glass design

Fueled by sources purportedly familiar with Cupertino's developments, a report by The New York Times indicates Apple's rumored wristwatch-like device will feature curved glass. Rumors suggest the "iWatch", as it is being called for now, could enter production as early as this year.

Interestingly, Apple was issued a patent in December for a novel process which yields high-quality, curved glass. Could the company be leveraging this technology for their iWatch? Perhaps.

Two of the Times' sources also claim that Apple's iWatch will stand apart from the competition based on the company's understanding of how glass can curve around the human body. Could this also mean flexible glass? Although Apple's patent doesn't touch on flexible glass specifically, companies like Corning are able to produce flexible glass composites like Willow Glass -- a watch may be an interesting use for such a material.

Smartwatches are hardly new, but an impressive crop of increasingly sophisticated wrist-mounted devices made their way to CES this year. Thus far, manufacturers have managed to stuff social networking features, texting and even calling capabilities into these tiny wrist-hugging devices.

Rumors suggest the iWatch will feature a 1.5-inch passive display, Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity and of course the latest addition: curved glass. However, little else is known (or thought to be known) about Apple's possible smartwatch entry. Will it be a directions-giving, Siri-backtalking, app-installing, iOS-based cellular device? Or will the iWatch merely be a wrist-wearable iPod Shuffle? It is simply too early to tell.

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Australia subpoenas Microsoft, Apple to explain why products cost Aussies more

Australian parliamentary officials have launched a formal inquiry which aims to examine why many tech products cost Aussies up to 50 percent more than they do for American consumers. Reportedly, Microsoft, Apple and Adobe are among some of the companies who have been ordered to appear on March 22 in Canberra for questioning.

''I'm firmly of the view that the only way to get answers from some of major IT vendors is to compel them to appear,'' the Sydney Labor MP Ed Husic said, reaffirming parliament’s decision to subpoena American-based multi-nationals to answer for higher-priced goods.

Consumer group Choice claims that when compared to the U.S., Microsoft Office is 34 percent more expensive in Australia, on average. Additionally, Australians pay about 232 percent more for digitally-distributed PC games than Americans, 73 percent more for iTunes purchases and 41 percent more for most computer products.

Apple and Microsoft have reportedly already made submissions to the committee, outlining increased taxes, freight and foreign exchange rates as key reasons for higher prices.

In one clear-cut example of absurdly priced merchandise, Choice noted it would be more economical to employ someone for 46 hours at $21.30 per hour, provide them with round-trip airfare to the U.S. and have them purchase a particular Microsoft-made enterprise software package rather than buying it locally for $8,939 in Australia -- and then have them repeat the process once more. The India Times did not specify what this enterprise-level software package was, however.

"For some time consumers and businesses have been trying to work out why they are paying so much more, particularly for software, where if it's downloaded there is no shipping or handling, or much of a labor cost," Husic told Reuters.

The Register offered some less extraordinary examples though, like $119 AUS for Office 365 Home Premium versus $99 USD in the U.S. and $539 AUS for a 16GB iPad as opposed to $499 USD. The exchange rate of AUS to USD is currently 1 to 1.03, making the currencies relatively equal.

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Phones that beat iPhone 5 in U.S.?

Though Apple's iPhone still the reigns as "the phone that redefined phones," there are four Android phones from Motorola, HTC, and Samsung that U.S. users like better than iPhone 5 and have rated higher for user satisfaction, according to a poll from OnDevice Research. 

Check out these phones that users rated higher than iPhone 5.
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Microsoft's SkyDrive now hosts over one billion Office documents

Earlier today Microsoft revealed that its cloud-based SkyDrive service now plays host to more than 1 billion documents. There’s little doubt that the service saw a massive increase in use thanks to its tie-in with the recently released Office 365.

Microsoft also used the occasion to announce a new feature in SkyDrive and the Office Web Apps. Up to this point, anyone that wanted to edit a document would first have to sign into a Microsoft account. As you can imagine or may have firsthand experience with, this can be rather frustrating if you need to simply make a quick edit.

Sarah Filman, Microsoft’s lead program manager for SkyDrive, points outs out that this has been one piece of feedback that they have consistently heard about, especially from students. That’s no longer a concern as anyone can click a link and begin the editing process without signing in. Of course, the person sharing the document can still require a login in the event that privacy or security is a concern.

As PC Mag points out, surpassing 1 billion documents is a significant milestone but until we know how many documents are hosted on major competing services like Google Drive or Dropbox, there’s really no real way to gauge the impact of Microsoft’s achievement.

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Alleged iPhone 5S photos from inside Foxconn leak online

A new batch of alleged next generation iPhone photos have found their way online courtesy of a Chinese website. The pre-production images appear to have been taken inside a manufacturing facility – said to be Foxconn – and show the front and rear panels of a device that looks very similar to the iPhone 5.

Details are lacking at this hour but based on rumors circulating last week, we could see not one but two new iPhones launch later this year. The iPhone 5S would be much like what the iPhone 4S was when it was released – a handset with beefier internals inside an identical outer shell. That’s almost a given when you look back at Apple’s past releases following an entirely new design the year before.

The more interesting of the two handsets would be the iPhone 6 which is rumored to have a larger screen somewhere between 4.8-inches and 5-inches. All of this comes from a Chinese blog that claims to have an inside source that saw both handsets. As you can imagine, all of this should be taken with a healthy dose of salt.

Either way, we’re all but certain that Apple will release some version of the iPhone this year as they have done every year since 2007. Aside from what phone we will see, the other big unknown is when will the new handset(s) arrive? The past two releases have come later in the year while the first several were geared more towards Q2 and early Q3.

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Weekend Open Forum: At what age did you get your first cell phone?

I grew up in a time when landlines were the primary means of voice communication. Sure there were cell phones in the early ‘90s but they were typically reserved for business executives and the wealthy. The pager (or beeper) was the go-to device for getting in touch with people on the go through most of my teenage years.

My first cell phone was a Nokia 5110 that I got when I was 18, arguably the most popular handset at the time due to the fact that you could buy aftermarket faceplates, frames, batteries and antennas to create a look that was uniquely your own – something that seemed immensely important in high school. What’s more, few people my age had mobile phones at the time which made owning one that much more attractive.

With this week’s open forum, we want to know how old you were when you got your first cell phone and what kind of phone it was (if you remember).

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Dead Space 3 PC Graphics Test

The third installment in the Dead Space series was released this month, and considering the game made our list of 2013's most anticipated PC games we thought we would check it out to see how it looked and performed. Dead Space 3 is the direct sequel to the January 2011 release of Dead Space 2.

Like the first two games, Dead Space 3 79 is a survival horror third-person shooter. In addition to drop-in/drop-out co-op, Dead Space 3 introduces several new gameplay mechanics, such as the ability to roll for more responsive control and an organic, automatic cover system that doesn't require you to press a button to duck behind something.

Like its predecessor, Dead Space 3 has been developed in-house by Visceral Games using their own Visceral Engine. With this we anticipate to see just subtle improvements in terms of visual quality over Dead Space 2 which was a DirectX 9-only title.

The reason for this is simple, Dead Space 3 has been developed for consoles and then ported directly to PC. Although it is possible to turn some settings up a little higher on the PC, modern features that are part of DirectX 11 or high-resolution textures are not supported out of the box.

This is a real shame, but not at all surprising as this is how most cross-platform games end up on PC. Normally we'd skip console ports, as we did with Dead Space 2, however Dead Space 3 was already being heralded as "one of the best games of this generation" by Game Informer just days after its release and therefore we felt it was worth checking out.

The game seems to be receiving higher praises on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 when compared to PC, and as expected PC fans of franchise are not impressed with the lack of visual features. Visceral has been copping some heat, however executive producer Steve Papoutsis is a bit baffled as to why...

"It's confusing to me that this question even comes up, it’s by no means any less important to us and it gets a lot of attention. The PC is a very different platform. As developers, you want to deliver an experience that's as similar as possible on different platforms. In Dead Space 2, I felt we made some great strides in terms of controls, responsiveness and even the visual improvements we got into it. We continue to evolve our games as we develop them, but we certainly don't target PC as something that's going to be significantly different. We aren't trying to create disparity in the experience that our gamers enjoy; we want to make sure everyone's having that same experience.”

We believe Steve Papoutsis is missing the point. Dead Space 3 on PC is competing in a market where other developers at least go to some effort to play to the system’s strengths and games such as Battlefield 3 and Crysis 3 are perfect examples of that. Keep in mind gamers are also paying top dollar for Dead Space 3, so the fact that it doesn’t support DirectX 11 features as offered by most other AAA ports should not cause Visceral's Papoutsis any confusion.

Testing Methodology

Normally we test new games with over two dozen graphics cards and use multiple platforms to measure CPU performance. However this time, knowing in advance Dead Space 3 wasn't going to be overly demanding we decided to run a more concise test of 11 graphics cards on a single platform.

CPU performance didn't seem too relevant as any processor supporting 4 threads is providing playable performance. For virtually the same reason we are only testing a range of current generation GPUs covering all price brackets.

As always the latest drivers will be used for both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards, and every card will be paired with an Intel Core i7-3770K processor. We're using Fraps to measure frame rates during 90 seconds of gameplay footage from Dead Space 3’s first chapter, Isaac’s Apartment.

HIS Radeon HD 7950 (3072MB) HIS Radeon HD 7870 (2048MB) HIS Radeon HD 7850 (2048MB) HIS Radeon HD 7770 (1024MB) HIS Radeon HD 7750 (1024MB) HIS Radeon HD 6850 (1024MB) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 (2048MB) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti (2048MB) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 (2048MB) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti (2048MB) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 550 Ti (1024MB)

Intel Core i7-3770K (3.50GHz) x2 8GB Crucial DDR3-1866 (CL 9-9-9) Asrock Z77 Extreme11 (Intel Z77) OCZ ZX Series 1250w Crucial m4 512GB (SATA 6Gb/s) Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 64-bit Nvidia Forceware 310.70 AMD Catalyst 12.11 (Beta 11 CAP 2)

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A third of PC owners are shifting tasks to mobile devices

A new report from NPD Group further drives home the notion that the PC industry has a serious problem on its hands. As we all know, the problem in question is mobile devices – they continue to chip away at an industry that most probably never imagined could fall on such hard times.

The report notes that 37 percent of consumers that used to access content from a computer have now switched to using tablets and smartphones to accomplish the same tasks. Unsurprisingly, accessing Facebook and surfing the web were named as the two most popular mobile activities in the rapidly approaching post-PC era.

Similarly, 27 percent of smartphone owners polled said they have decreased Facebook usage and web surfing on their desktop and notebook computers. For tablet owners, 20 percent said they are using Facebook less on the PC while 27 percent surf the Internet less frequently from a traditional computer.

Having said that, the PC still reigns supreme in a number of tasks. For example, 75 percent of computer owners use it to surf the web compared to just 61 percent of smartphone owners who use their device for the same task. Only 53 percent of tablet owners use their slates to navigate the web.

We’re still at the infancy of mobile and already, it’s had a tremendous impact on the entire industry. A number of companies are now reevaluating their roadmaps to include mobile while companies like Facebook are looking to capitalize on advertising revenue from portables as quickly as possible. Either way you cut it, the landscape as a whole is changing.

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HP rumored to be considering company "break up"

In 2011, former CEO Leo Apotheker proposed jettisoning HP's iconic PC business -- a division which suffers from notoriously anemic profit margins -- in an attempt to return HP to greater profitability. Although Apotheker's successor, Meg Whitman, canned that idea, unnamed sources "familiar with the matter" claim HP may once again be mulling over breaking the company apart. This time around though, it could be more than just its PC unit.
In December's 10-K SEC filing, HP stated (pdf) it had been considering the "disposition of assets and businesses that may no longer help us meet our objectives." Assuming HP's bottom line is one of those objectives, the company has likely had its corporate meat cleaver standing by for months. According to one of the report's sources though, HP wants to avoid further diverging the company's businesses; nonetheless, it appears the "break up" option remains on the table.
Last year, analysts projected that if HP were to cut up its business, some of its individual properties would be worth substantially more than the company as a whole, possibly valuing more than $25 per share. HP has been trading around $16-$17 in recent days.
HP announced last year it would slowly cut about 30,000 jobs during restructuring efforts which continue until 2014. This drastic measure was fueled in part by its acquisition of Autonomy which turned out to be a disastrously expensive $20 billion mistake.
Whitman warned in October that HP would be facing tough times in 2013. She referred to 2013 as a "fix and rebuild" year and warned that profits would fall way short of expectations. Investors rewarded Whitman's candor by fleeing the company -- HP's stock price hit a nine-year low that month.

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Microsoft 'Blue' to encompass Windows 8, Phone, Services and RT

Microsoft is currently working on a feature pack update for Windows 8, codenamed Blue, that’s expected sometime this summer or fall. This isn’t the first time we have heard about Blue as early rumors suggested it could be the follow-up operating system to Windows 8 but now, we’re hearing a different plan courtesy of Mary Jo Foley from ZDNet.
The journalist claims a trusted source told her that Blue not only represents updates to Windows 8 but instead, all Windows Phone, Windows Services (think SkyDrive, Hotmail, etc.), and Windows RT updates. That of course doesn’t mean that all platforms will see simultaneous updates but they will probably be ready around the same time. We can, however, expect to see yearly updates to each platform.
For Windows, Blue represents a major shift in the way Microsoft has been doing things for years. Foley points out that instead of Microsoft releasing a RTM every three or four years and hoping OEMs have time to get everything tested for a new release months later, Redmond wants to get the OS out much faster. Her source said they could possibly use the Windows Store to do so.
In the interim, users can expect to see the same old minor updates released as they are ready. Things like firmware updates and bug fixes all fall under this umbrella, including the Windows Phone update known as Portico that’s already installed on some handsets.

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