Android has become a hedge against Microsoft and Windows

HP, in a way, is putting Microsoft and Windows on notice with its new Android offerings.

HP SlateBook x2 is both an Android tablet and laptop. The laptop part is an Android first for HP.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

Hewlett-Packard rolled out another Android device this week. This could become a pattern as PC makers hedge against a world that's less about Microsoft and more about Google.

On Tuesday, the largest PC maker in the world -- a dubious distinction these days -- added a laptop-tablet hybrid to its growing stable of products based on Google operating systems.

The $479 HP SlateBook x2 is an Android first for HP. It's "powered by Android, the world's most popular mobile operating system...100 percent tablet, 100 percent notebook, 100 percent Android," according to the company's ad copy.

The operative phrase is "most popular mobile operating system." HP knows that mobile, not desktop, OSes are where things are headed.

This follows the announcement of an HP Chromebook and the Slate 7 Android tablet in February.

Don't expect HP to stop there. Android is a force of nature that's only going to get bigger and more important.

Asus, another big Windows PC maker, is leaning more on Android these days too. It makes the popular Nexus 7 for Google (second-generation 7 is due soon), its Transformer Pad has been well received, and Asus came out with an Intel-based Android FonePad recently.

And Acer, after whining incessantly about Microsoft's foray into the PC business via Surface, has been busy introducing its share of Android devices, like its most recent entrant, the Iconia A1.

All of the above "PC makers" will continue to make Windows laptops, hybrids, and tablets (HP also announced the Windows 8-based Split x2 this week), but the market momentum is in Android's favor.

-By Cnet.

Microsoft's new IllumiRoom puts a living room in your Xbox (Durango?)

Summary: Many expect Microsoft to announce its next-generation Xbox (720 or Durango maybe?) but it could be missing one its best features - a projector which extends your video over an entire wall.

Microsoft has given all indications that its yet-to-be named, next-generation Xbox will be unveiled at its "A New Generation Revealed" event May 21 at 10am PT / Noon ET. One feature that is expected to bring the Xbox 720 to a new level (but might not be ready at launch) is IllumiRoom which Microsoft first showed off at this year at CES.

Microsoft Research describes it as a system which "augments the area surrounding a television screen with projected visualizations to enhance the traditional living room entertainment experience."

Here's a video that Microsoft prepared to show off the basics of IllumiRoom.

As usual, rumors about what is going to be included in the new gaming console are flying everywhere but Microsoft, following the footsteps of Apple and Steve Jobs, has dilvulged almost no information and no one has left a device in a bar, as yet.

The name of the new device is not even known. Most people and publications are calling it the Xbox 720, but some say it was given the code name Durango which could stick.  More on this and other rumors at the end of this gallery.

IllumiRoom projects across an entire wall.

Credit -Brett Jones Microsoft and ZDnet.