Tag Archives: palm

tablets

HP’s 9.7-inch Palm TouchPad Announced: 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon, Beats Audio engine and webOS 3.0 Platform

4 Comments

We’ve already seen a glimpse of what HP’s 9.7-inch Touchpad device looks like, and today it finally sees an official announcement. And while the tablet itself doesn’t break any design ground, the new webOS 3.0 platform is simply mind blowing. Weighing in at 1.6 pounds and measuring only 13.7mm thick, the Palm TouchPad, which used to be called Topaz, also includes a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, along with a very sharp  9.7-inch 1024 x 768 touchscreen display, an integrated gyroscope, accelerometer, your choice of 16/32GB of internal storage, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, A-GPS capabilities, and a 1.3MP front-facing camera, for audio/video conferencing support. Also, as far as music entertainment at this new Hewlett-Packard tablet goes, you get yourself a set of inbuilt stereo speakers, powered by HP’s own Beats audio engine that produces a  ‘Jump Smokers Sound’ that will make you dance, shake and rock.

Software wise, HP/Palm’s webOS 3.0 is beating everything easily so far. Generally speaking, it does kick Apple’s ass in some of the places, and certainly a lot nicer to use than any Android-powered devices we’ve ever had a chance to experience. Not only is the UI slick and geared toward public consumption, it is probably the only one out there to feature a true multitasking, to date (you hear that Apple?). Besides that, there’s a very cool email app preloaded inside, as well as a virtual keyboard, VPN capabilities, touch to share integration, wireless printing, and well established QuickOffice, Google Docs, Dropbox, and Box.net support.

Regretfully, price wasn’t announced yet (someone’s probably waiting for Apple to announce iPad 2 first) and the ship is set for this undetermined “coming this summer,” date…but that doesn’t mean we are any less excited, right?

While waiting, make sure you hit the jump to watch the video.

Update: We’ve just added another quick hands-on video, courtesy of TechnoBuffalo.

Continue reading HP’s 9.7-inch Palm TouchPad Announced: 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon, Beats Audio engine and webOS 3.0 Platform →

tablets

HP webOS Tablets Rumored For a March 2011 Arrival

1 Comment

Well, it looks like we don’t really need to wait until February 9 to get details about one of the most anticipated webOS products in the HP lineup – they’re right here, courtesy of Engadget tipsters, and we couldn’t be pleased more with this, could we? Generally speaking, we’re looking at two new webOS slates that HP adds to its most impressive burgeoning portfolio, a 9-inch codenamed Topaz and a 7-inch going by the name Opal. And while we couldn’t help noticing a certain similarity between Palo Alto’s future slabs and Cupertino’s trendy and fashionable iPad device, there are yet several differences distinguishing the two species from each other – the lack of “home” button, for instance, or the presence of a micro USB port on the bottom along with a 1.2GHz processor and a front-facing camera upfront. In addition to that, we can also spot a set of three stereo speakers for audio layout (in landscape and portrait modes) on both Hewlett Packard units, while their back side seems to be getting a black glossy coating material of some sort.

Aside from the minor details, and the fact that the first webOS tablets family may start shipping in March of 2011 (unconfirmed), we do not have much to say, except that at least one version, out of the two that HP plans to release, will be offered in three optional paths: as a WiFi-only model, as part of an AT&T 3G plan or with Verizon’s Wireless’ LTE network. Either way, we hope these rumors turn out to be true. Stay tuned.

Update1: As far as measures go, rumor has it that the Opal will be sized at 180 x 144 x 13mm while the Topaz slate is a bit bigger, at 241 x 190 x 13mm. Screen wise, we’re looking at a 1,024 x 768 pixel TFT LCD multitouch display, instilled on both versions, along with a “premium audio” system based on HP’s most  advanced Beats audio platform. Other than that, we also hear that potential buyers are likely to be given “tens of gigabytes” of cloud storage, which frankly sounds pretty neat as well, but then, you’ll have to wait for February 9 in order to get even more savvy.

Update2: The good guys over at Pre Central have managed to put their hands on an internal paper with a list of specs of HP’s upcoming tablet. As it turns out, the 9.7-inch HP Topaz is likely to include a 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor on board, along with 512MB of DDR2 memory, an Adreno 220 GPU for the graphics, a mic,  802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a 1024 x 768 touchscreen resolution, a front-facing 1.3MP webcam and either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage at your choice. Besides that, we also expect some neat goodies under the lid, such as a built-in accelerometer, paired with a gyroscope, and a light sensor for auto background colors, while battery wise, we’re looking at somewhere around 8 hours of continuous work.

[via Engadget]

Continue reading HP webOS Tablets Rumored For a March 2011 Arrival →

News, tablets

HP Slate 500 Spotted Online With Windows 7 Onboard

1 Comment

Oh what’s this? You may be consciously thinking that HP has already buried the idea of having a Windows 7 powered tablet released to the pond, right?  – but it didn’t – at least according to some official HP and Energy Star pages, recently surfaced and luckily tracked down by the good IDG News people. What’s in there? Not much besides some interesting details about an HP 500 slate which presumably runs a Windows 7 Premium OS inside, tucked with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor, two cameras and a batch of extensions we already know. So where’s the promised WebOS, you may ask? We’re not sure at this point but clearly, the US giant is literally working on something these days, we think, actually we’re positive. anyway, stay tuned.

Update1: HP has officially confirmed that it’s still working on some brand new tablet products. A spokesperson from the Personal Systems group told Engadget that they’re “in customer evaluations now and will make a determination soon on the next steps.” Dear HP, we’re really looking forward to getting this into our hands and seeing what you’re going to build.

Update2: According to Todd Bradley, EVP, Personal Systems Group, for HP it seem that Windows 7 slates will officially make a debut somewhere “this fall”, targeting the enterprise markets rather than consumer pockets, as we initially thought. Regretfully, at this point, there’s no word about when or where HP’s most anticipated WebOS slates will actually go live.

Update3: Now it’s official, HP confirms a webOS tablet for ‘early 2011’. According to HP’s Todd Bradley “You’ll see us with a Microsoft product out in the near future and a webOS-based product in early 2011.”

[via PCWorld]

Computers, General, Mobile, News

HP To Acquire Palm For 1.2 Billion Dollars

3 Comments

Hewlett-Packard has just announced that it would buy Palm for a staggering price of $1.2 billion dollars, roughly about $5.70 per share of common stock. The merge and acquisition, which are planned to close by July 31, can give the Palo Alto computer giant a great opportunity to get a bigger slice from the hot and trendy smartphones market, valued at $100bn alone and with annual rapid growth of 20% . HP executive vice president Todd Bradley said that “Palm’s innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices” and also added that “Between smartphones, slates, and potentially netbooks, there are a lot of opportunities here.” And he’s right, just think about the endless potential  possibilities of having Palm’s stunning WebOS integrated in HP’s future multi-touch devices, whether these are mobile phones, tablets or other portable machines – it’s HUGE and HP, in our opinion, has clearly taken a few significant steps in the right direction, especially now when strident voices, complaining about a sluggish HP Slate performance, start floating around – WebOS can definitely improve speed reaction dramatically –  and someone at the HP headquarters has probably figured this one pretty well. Brian Humphries, HP’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development quoted saying “our intent is to double down on WebOS”. That’s very important, considering the months of speculations where Palm was desperately looking for a buyer. And given the fact that HP is getting over 1500 patents that Palm currently owns (that probably has considerable value as well, isn’t it?), along with a very good team of young talented engineers and one relentless chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, who is expected to remain with the company another few years long, this very complex deal that few months back, could easily have seemed impossible, can all of a sudden turn into a nice and promising bargain. PR announcement after the break.

Update: Digitimes says that HP Taiwan VP, Monty Wong has officially confirmed a webOS tablet to go live somewhere around October of this year. Stay tuned for more to come.

Continue reading HP To Acquire Palm For 1.2 Billion Dollars →