HP Unveils Touch-Screen PC On Vista At CES

Hewlett-Packard has unveiled several new consumer electronics products, including a touch-screen desktop PC running on Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system.

The new products were introduced Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Along with the TouchSmart PC, HP introduced nine high-definition devices, a home media server, and a Blu-ray disc writer. The latter is for watching and recording high-definition content.

The TouchSmart includes a 19-inch LCD screen, remote control, and personal video recorder for cable TV programming. The touch-screen PC also includes a keyboard and mouse for traditional access to functionality. The computer includes built-in wireless technology.

Along with the new desktop, HP also introduced a Vista-enabled tablet PC, called the Pavilion tx1000 Entertainment Notebook. In addition, the company unveiled nine new plasma, LCD, and MediaSmart TV models for viewing high-definition content. The MediaSmart device makes it possible to wirelessly stream digital photos, music, and videos from a PC onto one of HP's LCD displays.

HP also showed off a new computer server based on Microsoft's new Windows Home Server platform. The MediaSmart Server provides access, back up, and sharing of digital music, videos, and photos over a home network.Finally, the HP bd135 Blu-ray disc writer shows movies and records high-definition TV broadcasts, as well as stores data, digital photos, music, and camcorder footage. Blu-ray is a Sony-developed high-definition format that isn't supported by all consumer electronic devices.

Pricing for the various devices wasn't disclosed.