HP to launch iPod Photo

Hewlett-Packard is getting deeper into show business.

Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Friday morning, HP chief executive Carly Fiorina offered a sneak peek at the products her company will try to insert into people's living rooms, as well as prototypes of other things yet to come.

Fiorina said, for instance, that HP will come out with a version of Apple's iPod Photo later in the year, and she gave the first public demonstration of a media hub that comes with high-definition television capabilities, a digital video recorder and in-house screen technology that improves the resolution.

"The result of all of this is a much clearer and cleaner picture," she said.

The box, which is due in the autumn, also comes with an automatic update service for upgrading the software and an electronic programming guide designed by HP.

HP will also begin to promote a technology called Visual Radio for mobile phones, which provides users with artist information, ring tones and the ability to buy tickets. Trials have been conducted in the United Kingdom, Finland and Singapore. The service will come out commercially in the first half of the year in Europe and Asia, she said.

In the spring, HP expects to introduce a new version of a current digital camera that will sport a shell designed by singer Gwen Stefani. The design of the camera was inspired by Harajuku, a neighbourhood in Tokyo where teenage girls come to show off their homemade fashions.

Fiorina said 258 million digital images get downloaded a day. "If you can see it, you can shoot it," she said.

In a video, Rob Corddry from The Comedy Channel's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" joined HP engineers in showing off things the company is tinkering with in the labs. Custom TV is a programming guide that lets consumers record television shows at any time. The engineers also showed a television shaped like a table. Images on the screen can be moved with a finger. Panasonic has shown off a similar table, and LG is displaying one on the show floor.

Celebrity guests also extolled HP as a mover and shaker. Jeffery Katzenberg of DreamWorks Animation came on stage to recall how HP helped his company set up a render farm of servers to get the movie "Shark Tale" ready for the Venice Film Festival. HP managed to put the render farm together in three days. (Katzenberg also showed a clip from the upcoming animated film "Madagascar", set for May 2005.)

In another video, actor Matt Damon thanked the company for giving printers, PCs and a trailer to "Project Greenlight", in which unknowns received funding to make a film.

"Thank you, Carly," Damon said. "I think I'm married to Carly. I've thanked her so much today."