Get ready for your home's 'fourth screen'

Sep 17, 2009 10:39 GMT  ·  By

Early this week, Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard has come out with a number of new product announcements, updating its product portfolio with a series of new solutions. It now appears that the company continues to roll out new products, announcing the debut of a new category of connected displays, part of its DreamScreen family of products. According to HP, the new solutions have been designed to enable customers to stay connected with their Facebook friends, listen to Pandora Internet Radio, share photos through the Snapfish service or stay up-to-date with the weather forecast.

“Constant, always-on access to friends, information and entertainment is a common expectation today,” said Satjiv S. Chahil, senior vice president, worldwide marketing, Personal Systems Group, HP. “With HP DreamScreen, social media, web services and digital entertainment can be enjoyed in more areas of the home.”

With the launch of its new line of DreamScreen displays, HP brings PC users a choice for what the company calls the “fourth screen” in people's lives, with the other three including a computer, TV and a mobile phone. The features of these new displays include the possibility of connecting to a wired or wireless home network, which consequently allows the device to connect to Facebook, the Pandora Internet Radio service (available only for US customers), or HP's own Snapfish and SmartRadio services.

With the launch of the new series, the company has introduced two new DreamScreen models, namely the DreamScreen 100, boasting a 10.2-inch display, and the DreamScreen 130, measuring 13.3 inches. The two models are featured with 802.11 b/g connectivity, 2GB of built-in storage and content can be loaded via the USB drive or a memory card (HP claims that the device supports 'most types' of flash drives).

The DreamScreen 100 is already available in the United States for US$249, while the DreamScreen 130 will go on sale this fall for US$299.