Archive for the ‘webOS’ Category

HP’s Todd Bradley recently revealed in a third quarter earnings call that their webOS tablet is on schedule for an early 2011 release date.

"You’ll see us with a Microsoft product out in the near future and a webOS-based product in early 2011,"  - Todd Bradley in response to a direct question about tablet PCs

Stay tuned for more details!

PC Mag has released a list of the top free apps for your mobile phone.  Take a look to see what they suggested below:

The Top 40 Free iPhone Apps
The Top 30 Free Google Android Apps
The Top 10 Free BlackBerry Apps
The Top 10 Free Palm webOS Apps
The Top 5 Free Symbian Apps
The Top 5 Free Windows Phone Apps

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Hewlett-Packard finalized their buyout of Palm on July 1, 2010, and have officially announced a webOS tablet!

From HP’s website:

HP today announced it has completed its acquisition of Palm Inc. at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash.

The combination gives HP significant headway into one of technology’s fastest-growth segments with Palm’s innovative webOS platform and family of smartphones, plus a rich portfolio of intellectual property from the smartphone pioneer.

HP’s global scale and financial strength plus Palm’s award-winning webOS experience, as well as its acclaimed Pre and Pixi smartphone product lines, enhance HP’s ability to participate more aggressively in the highly profitable, $100 billion smartphone and connected mobile device markets.

“With webOS, HP will deliver its customers a unique and compelling experience across smartphones and other mobility products,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. “This allows us the opportunity to fully engage in growing our smartphone family offering and the footprint of webOS.”

Under Jon Rubinstein, former Palm chairman and chief executive officer, the Palm global business unit will report to Bradley. Palm will be responsible for webOS software development and webOS based hardware products, from a robust smartphone roadmap to future slate PCs and netbooks.

“With HP’s full backing and global strengths, I’m confident that webOS will be able to reach its full potential,” said Rubinstein. ”This agreement will accelerate the development of this incredible platform with new resources, scale and support from a world-respected brand.”

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With Palm’s recent acquisition by HP now underway, developer advocate Josh Marinacci assured an online audience that future devices are on the way and a new version of webOS.

"I’m not allowed to talk about future road maps, especially because we’re in the process of being acquired by HP, but yes, we have a road map. We are working on future devices. And … [a] new version of the OS. So I think you’re going to find the next year very exciting."

Sounds good to me!

HP CEO Mark Hurd originally said that HP would use Palm’s webOS (operating system) software with a new line of Slate PC’s and printers in the coming months, but never mentioned smartphones, making many believe that HP would not be entering the smartphone market any longer.

But now, he’s rephrased his statement and it looks like there WILL be future webOS smartphones and that Palm’s legacy is far from over.

“When we look at the market, we see an array of interconnected devices, including tablets, printers, and of course, smartphones. We believe webOS can become the backbone for many of HP’s small form factor devices, and we expect to expand webOS’s footprint beyond just the smartphone market.”

Thank you Mr. Hurd!

During Hewlett Packard’s Q2 financial results call Tuesday, HP CEO Mark Hurd told analysts that Palm’s webOS technology will be integrated in their web-connected printers and slate computers very soon.

Hurd is waiting on the merger between Palm and HP to close before moving forward with the integration of Palm software with HP hardware. Hurd’s actual words about the merging of the technology from the Q2 meeting were:

"…in order to enhance our intellectual property…in the connected-mobility space. We expect to leverage WebOS into a variety of form factors, including slates and Web-connected printers,"

“With a whole series of Web-connected printers, as they connect to the Web, they need an OS,".

I’ll keep my eyes open for more information and definitely will be getting a printer with webOS, because the possibilities are endless. Imagine printing pictures from your Picasa account or Facebook account online without the need for a computer at all!

Recently HP bought the struggling company Palm for $1.2 billion dollars, and their reasoning just got a little clearer. It seems that HP decided to dump Microsoft’s Windows 7 platform from their upcoming Slate device, and will instead be using Palm’s webOS software.

Reports coming from insiders claim that Microsoft’s Windows 7 was drawing too much power from the Slate’s Intel Atom processor (which also might be dropped from the device). Insiders are also claiming that they’re dropping Windows from the device because it’s too expensive to license, and is raising the price of the Slate considerably. By using Palm’s webOS, HP will be able to drop the price significantly, and will be in a better place to compete with the iPad price-wise.

If all of the information is reliable from the insiders, the revised HP Slate (possibly renamed the HP Hurricane) could be available by year’s end.

HP Palm announced a new update is coming to webOS / Palm Pre / Palm Pixi this Fall 2010 that will have several new features including:

• Apps with exclusive access to the camera and microphone
• New media indexer
• New Application Catalog makeover (see picture above)
• New security and cryptology API’s for competitive or cooperative gameplay
• Printer discovery / access
• Bluetooth serial port profile for use of third party peripherals
• Javascript instead of Java background services
• Use of cloud-based services for apps
• HTML5 usage
• Use of “Mojo-Core” to allow developers to quickly and easily port their apps to webOS

More information to come soon!  Stay tuned!

Palm has been in bad shape as of late.  With stocks down to almost $4 a share, the company’s outlook was grim.  Rumors of a buyout started spreading far and wide on the net, with Lenovo (IBM) in the lead of potential buyers.  Once the rumor “dust storm” settled down, the true buyer emerged.

HP, the famous computer and printer manufacturer, purchased Palm for $1.2 billion dollars and bought all shares of the company for $5.70 a share. 

This is outstanding news, considering that webOS is a very viable platform that could be used on a range of devices!  Check out the press release below!

Read the rest of this entry »

According to an April 23rd Reuters report, Lenovo (IBM) is looking to be the most likely candidate to buy Palm after its shocking decline in the market.

HTC was going to buy the struggling company, but after reviewing Palm’s books, they passed on the opportunity.

“There just weren’t enough synergies to take the deal forward.” – Reuters source

Palm’s CEO, Jon Rubinstein is still holding out hope for the company however, and believes they can make it without buyers.

“I believe Palm can survive as an independent company. We have a plan that gets us to profitability.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Those who have jailbroke BETA copies of Apple’s next operating system for the iPhone (OS 4), have noticed strands of code that seem to be pulling Facebook contact information and calendar events.

If you own a Palm Pre or Pixi or any of the new HTC phones with SenseUI, you already know what this does and means (and it’s pretty darn convenient too!).  Basically, when you enter your Facebook credentials on the device, it goes out and pulls your Facebook contacts and events and integrates them instantly. 

So, if you are friends with (we’ll say for this example) James T Kirk on Facebook, you will now have him in your Contacts screen on your iPhone along with his birthday, and any events he’s added to Facebook in your Calendar.  If he ever changes his info, it will automatically update on your device too!