LAS VEGAS — Of all the amazing technology on show here at International CES, the most surprising so far is Hewlett-Packard’s weird Sprout, a multitalented Franken-puter that looks like a ton of fun.
The HP Sprout is a touchscreen computer married to a multitouch pad, with a projector/camera/3-D scanner peering overhead. It looks like a bad prop from a Lego version of War of the Worlds.
I’d seen the press releases when it launched last October and had pretty low expectations. It just looked too weird. But I was genuinely delighted to see it in action.
I was peering over someone’s shoulder as the Sprout scanned an old print photograph and a colorful swatch of fabric. Placed on the touchpad below the camera, the machine quickly scanned them in and presented perfect facsimiles onscreen.
It also took a picture of a real object — a big juicy orange — that was quickly turned it into a digital photograph. After scanning, the images could be blown up, rotated, zoomed in and out, copied, pasted and all the other normal digital manipulations using the multitouch pad, just like manipulating objects on an iPad.
Then the operator, HP product ambassador Marvin Florentino, created a 3-D scan of a white plastic theatrical mask. The overhead camera took a series of images that looked like topographical maps from different angles. It was impressively sci-fi. A minute later, a 3-D model of the mask was inside the machine.
“It gives you the ability to turn the physical into the digital,” said Florentino. “This brings out the creative in all of us.”
https://youtu.be/IBnf_lHxPdE
Although I played with the Sprout for only a few minutes, the machine was intuitive and fun. Indeed, HP calls it a ” “creativity station.”
Tom Hackenberg, an analyst with market research firm IHS who was standing next to me during the demo, was also impressed. “This is going to capture a huge part of the 3-D printing market,” he said.
The only problem in my mind is that the Sprout runs Windows 8.1, a Franken-operating system designed for both PCs and tablets. But perhaps it’s perfect for the Sprout, which is a fusion of the two. The Sprout is available for $1,899.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
