HP’s had quite a 2011 and Jon Rubinstein, former Palm CEO and a top-level executive at HP after the giant acquired Palm in 2010, was along for the ride. But according to a report out of AllThingsD, Rubinstein has officially left the company.

Here’s the official quote out of HP:

Jon has fulfilled his commitment to HP. We wish him well.

Rubinstein was under contract with HP to complete a 12-24 month commitment post-acquisition. The report claims that Rubinstein doesn’t have any plans so far, but has said that he is “going to take a well deserved break after four and a half years of developing webOS.”

On December 9, 2011, HP CEO Meg Whitman announced that webOS, Rubinstein’s main project, would be open sourced after the company killed webOS smartphones and tablets back in August.

It seems like ages ago that HP announced that webOS would continue to live on as an open source project, probably because they’ve been awfully quiet on the subject since the big reveal in December.

Well, consider that silence officially broken. HP took to their webOS developer relations blog to tell what faithful users still remain all about how their open-source rollout is going to work, and the whole process has begun with the release of their Enyo application framework.

Enyo should be a familiar name to anyone who has developed a TouchPad application, but the 1.0 release was understandably focused on creating webOS-specific apps. Now that HP isn’t leaning on webOS to grow their stake in the mobile space, they’ve open-sourced Enyo 1.0 to make it easier to migrate existing apps to other platforms.

To that end, HP has also included in today’s release what they’re calling “the core” of the updated Enyo 2 framework, which further expands the number of platforms that Open webOS apps will be able to play nice with. Developers will be able to write an application once, and have it run within Chrome, IE9, and Firefox (not to mention mobile devices) without a hitch.

Today’s releases are just the tip of the iceberg though, as HP plans to pepper the next few months with newly open-sourced components. These releases (see below for the full breakdown) will continue in drips and drabs until September, when HP expects to open-source push to be complete and will rename the project Open webOS 1.0.

I for one am thankful that webOS has been given another lease on life, and I can’t wait to see what all of the mad, brilliant developers out there will do to it. We’ve all seen Android-to-TouchPad ports, but I’d love to see someone try and get webOS up and running on a Galaxy Nexus. It seems that the sky will be soon be the limit for webOS, so long as developers don’t get tired of waiting around.

Ah, the Spectre. HP’s latest and greatest ultrabook is certainly no slouch when it comes to performance, but it’s definitely a looker to boot. You probably already know all about the thing (and here’s a quick refresher in case you don’t), so I’ll just shut up and let you look at this beauty.

But before that, let’s talk about how the Spectre feels. It’s a very slim computer, and while it’s lightweight, it has a definitively study feel to it thanks to its glossy Gorilla Glass back. Definitely the kind of thing you won’t need to treat with kid gloves 24/7, although I’d resist the temptation to hurl it around just because it’s so light.

Its full complement of ports (think HDMI out, Ethernet, USB 3.0, and mini DisplayPort) make it a worthy computing companion, as do the Core i5 or 17 processor that the Spectre will ship with in February. Until then, let’s just take a look at these photos and dream, shall we?

HP has upped the ultrabook ante with a glass-backed HP laptop that looks a bit like a MacBook and a lot like the future of HP trade dress. The HD screen displays 1600×900 pixels and includes HDMI out, Ethernet, USB 3.0, and mini Displayport ports.

The glass on the back of the laptop is Gorilla Glass, which means it probably won’t break if you drop it. It includes a fat 128GB SSD drive for $1,400 and an optional 256GB upgrade. It runs a Core i5 or i7 processor and ships in February.

HP has been using this design quite a bit lately, which suggests they’ve gone all in when it comes to high-design ultrabooks. This one is a very special case – the glass back is more gimmick than anything else – but it will be interesting to see how HP is able to sell this to fleet buyers.

Ultrabooks are all the rage for 2012, and we’ll probably see quite a few of them at CES next week. But there are still some of us who prefer a more robust computing experience, which is why HP has today announced the Omni 27-inch all-in-one and the Pavilion HPE h9 Phoenix, the most powerful Pavilion model to date.

I actually was lucky enough to get hands-on with these puppies a few weeks ago, and the 27-inch Omni is a sight to behold. It’s sleek, seemingly well-constructed, and speaks to the minimalist in me. The PC hosts all the ports you’d expect out of an all-in-one, including HDMI-in, Blu-Ray disc drive, two USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, an SD card reader, and an ethernet jack.

You’ll also find up to 2TB of internal storage under the hood, along with an Intel Core i5 2400S processor and Beats Audio. The 27-inch screen reclines and can be adjusted so that everyone’s comfortable in front of the computer. HP also included its LinkUp software, which lets you sync content between devices over the WiFi network.

The base model will start at $1,199.

The Phoenix, on the other hand, really spices things up in the design department. It doesn’t exactly suit my tastes, but I’m glad to see HP getting a bit more aggressive in terms of design. It’s the latest in HP’s Pavilion E series, and packs an FX-8100 (8-core) processor, AMD Radeon 7670 graphics, has a 160GB SSD, and 8GB of RAM.

Connectivity is in no short supply, with memory card readers of all shapes and sizes, two USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, and two optical drives. Wireless mouse and keyboard are included, which is also the case for the Omni.

Base units start at $1,149.

Remember when researchers claimed a massive security vulnerability could potentially enable hackers to remotely take over Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printers and even cause them to burst into flames? Fun times, for sure.

Of course, HP was quick to point out that the researchers had it all wrong, lamented the “sensational and inaccurate reporting” surrounding the supposed security flaw and said not a single customer had reported any instances of unauthorized access to its LaserJet printers.

Nevertheless, the company recognized that there was indeed a potential security vulnerability with printers placed on a public network without a firewall, and at the time said it would soon issue a fix.

This morning, HP announced that the firmware update is now available and said it has still not received any customer reports of unauthorized access. From the looks of it, not a single hacker exploited the security flaw to burn down a house, skyscraper, hotel, casino, school or shed.

The company reiterated its recommendation to secure devices by placing printers behind a firewall and to disable remote firmware upload on exposed printers whenever possible.

If you were one of the lucky few that managed to snag a TouchPad during HP’s (maybe) final fire sale of TouchPad inventory two weeks ago, you might be receiving a little present soon via PayPal.

It seems that some people were charged quite a bit extra for shipping. It seems a bit fussy to complain about when you’re getting a device like this for such a ridiculous price, but hey, not everyone can spare ten bucks these days. Not only that, but there was chaos at eBay and PayPal during the promotion; many commenters complained of errors, lag, and lost orders. Fear not: you will be compensated for your troubles.

An email is going out to purchasers of the device that reads partially:

Due to an error in the calculation of Shipping & Handling fees for the HP TouchPad, you were charged an additional $10 in shipping fees for your order. We have recognized this error and HP’s eBay store will credit $10 to your PayPal account for each HP TouchPad you ordered. eBay and HP are also aware that in some instances, the shopping experience of HP’s eBay store was impacted by the overwhelming response to the HP Touchpad deal. eBay and HP are committed to delivering the best shopping experience possible on eBay and are providing you with an additional $9 credit to your PayPal account for each of your HP Touchpad orders.

So basically, they negated everyone’s shipping fees. How nice!

I suppose that as long as they were throwing money out the door, a few more handfuls didn’t matter when the satisfaction of their customers was at stake. HP still has plans for webOS despite open-sourcing it, so seeding a few good memories of the OS can’t hurt.

[thanks to Jeff for the tip]

HP is currently a company without a strong identity. This comes after a decade of products and CEOs that each fumbled in one way or another. The company needs to make a sharp statement and emerge from the doldrums that has seemingly trapped the iconic Palo Alto company. The purposed logo and rebranding (videos below) shown here would be a great first start.

The story goes that the designs shown here were drawn up by Moving Brands and released a few months back (prior to the ousting of Apotheker.) The abstract four line logo is a clever play on the classic HP logo using a 13-degree slant, which is already a common feature in many HP products. As The Verge notes, it’s a bold design and perhaps one that’s too radical for the slow-moving corporate machine that is HP. But it’s hard to look at that logo and not dream of HP rising from the ashes with those four lines proudly displayed on its standards waving over the consumer electronics battlefield.

HP’s current CEO, Meg Whitman, has the daunting task of steering HP. She’s the fifth leader in as many years with the task. So far during her time at HP’s helm the company’s stock has slowly regained lost value. One of her first major announcements was that HP’s personal systems group, the part of the company that makes PCs, would stay within HP rather than being spun off. She is in a sense reorganizing HP, an HP that needs rebranding as much as it needs to stop hawking printer ink that costs more than the printers themselves.

Moving Brands details their purposed rebranding here. Apparently the project began way back in 2008 and was just recently released to the public. Clearly the new logo and branding has not been implemented, and seeing how the design company released it themselves, HP will probably never use it. Companies tend to package rebranding with a major marketing campaign to maximize exposure. But HP needs to do something along these 13 degree lines. They might make capable computers but there is little excitement around the brand.

UnderConsideration astutely notes that “HP’s logo has been around for so long that it’s not really questionable anymore, it just is and it just exists.” Per Moving Brand’s charts, the slated HP letters first appeared in 1941. Over the years the two letters have seen little change, more often updates involved adding and remove a surrounding shape like a rectangle or circle. But the two letters, H-P, representing the company’s founders, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, have remained constant. And they should. However, HP is a stale, lifeless machine and needs a shot of energy. Whether HP will ever implement Moving Brands’ four line logo (they won’t), or instead uses something different, the logo and HP brand need to evolve to help springboard the company into a new era of exciting products — yeah, the logo is just the start, and HP actually needs to make exciting products as well but that’s a topic for another “HP Sucks” post.

And like that they’re gone. $99 TouchPads hit ebay right on schedule and were gone within minutes. But that’s to be expected, really. It’s not often that a solid piece of hardware like the TouchPad is available for so cheap. And thanks to HP’s recent moves, the tablet’s operating system, webOS, will be around at least in some capacity for as long as there’s a demand (and developers).

The sale started at 7pm EST on HP’s ebay store like the memo we leaked indicated. Both the 16GB and 32GB models were available for $99 and $149, respectively. I watched the 16GB model disappear from ebay within 10 minutes. As of this post’s writing, 2 hours after the sale began, only one SKU of the $150 32GB TouchPads are still available although those will likely be gone soon as well. But good luck as ebay is still flaky hours after the sale started. Twitter and forums sites quickly relayed the troubles of many buyers shortly after 7. Ebay was crashing. PayPal was lagging. The whole thing was a mess. For a short moment in time, HP’s tablet was anything but an unwanted iPad clone.

Some what surprisingly, consumers could buy more than two TouchPads. The original memo indicated only two SKUs, which as interpreted as two TouchPads per person. But there were several SKUs for each the 16GB and 32GB. Some buyers likely took advantage of this and bought up a gaggle of TouchPads.

This land rush of sorts reaffirms that consumers overwhelming want a tablet but are seemingly turned off by the current prices. The iPad dominates the $499 and higher price point and Apple has encountered little trouble selling units even at that price. Competitors have not been so lucky for a number or reasons. However, instead of fighting the iPad directly with competitive hardware, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are undercutting the current champion with low-cost hardware and a curated (some would say walled) user experience. It’s working.

The $199 Kindle Fire was the top seller on Amazon for weeks before it was even released. Likewise, B&N managed to ship more than a million Nook Tablets in just a month. Consumers want a low-cost tablet device — something Arrington and others tried to produce starting in 2008.

Tonight’s fire sale might be the last HP webOS hardware the world sees for a while. But webOS isn’t dead. HP stated last week that there will be new hardware in 2013. As for the operating system itself, HP is releasing it under an open source license, effectively releasing a domesticated animal into the wild. But for a very short time that puppy was loved. Unfortunately, it’s owner (Palm) didn’t have the room to let it grow so the dog was sold to HP who, as it turns out, didn’t have the patiences or the time for proper development — you know, metaphorically. But now that webOS is open, or will be shortly, the TouchPad has a real shot at living a full life.

HP just took to the wire and announced to the tech world that webOS will live on as an open source project. Shortly thereafter, Meg Whitman informed HP employees about the decision. The internal email I obtained, which is included in its entirely after the jump, gives a bit more insight than HP’s public press release including Meg’s feeling that webOS will continue to grow and this is a postive move for HP and webOS alike.

Whitman’s email indicates that the HP leadership team saw webOS could be “a platform that is both open and has a single integrated stack.” By making webOS open source, HP’s short-lived OS neatly fulfills this desire. However, like the company already stated, talk of new hardware is nearly absent from the email besides stating “hardware manufacturers” (read: HP is done) will be able to continue to “contribute” webOS. The TouchPad was likely the last of the HP-branded hardware — unless of course the open source community turns webOS into a magnificent creation worthy of new hardware.

From: CEO – Meg Whitman
Sent: Friday, December 09, 2011 2:03 PM
Subject: webOS to be contributed to the open source community

Meg Whitman
CEO

TO/ All Employees

SUBJECT/ webOS to be contributed to the open source community

Today, we announced that HP will contribute our webOS software to the open source community and support its development going forward. We believe that this is the best way to ensure the benefits of webOS are accessible to the largest possible ecosystem.

Since we announced the discontinuation of our webOS devices last August, the executive team has been working to determine the best path forward for this highly respected software. We looked at all the options in the market today and we see a clear need for a platform that is both open and has a single integrated stack.

webOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected, and scalable. By providing webOS to the open source community and other hardware vendors we have the potential to fundamentally change the landscape.

HP engineers, partners, other developers and hardware manufacturers will be able to contribute to the development of webOS. Together, we have an opportunity to make it the foundation of a new generation of devices, applications and services to address the rapidly evolving demands of both consumers and enterprises.

I would like to thank the webOS team for continuing your efforts under very difficult circumstances during these last couple of months. Your dedication is very much appreciated.

This is a very positive move for the development of our people, our software and HP overall.

We strongly believe that the best days for webOS are still ahead.

Best,

Meg

Well, there we have it. After weeks of deliberation, HP CEO Meg Whitman has just announced to all of the company’s employees that HP will make webOS’s underlying code available under an open-source license.

Before I go any further, I’d like to take this chance to applaud HP on making the right decision: they managed to make some lemonade after all.

According to a company-wide email from Whitman, making webOS open source “is the best way to ensure the benefits of webOS are accessible to the largest possible ecosystem.” A new release from the company goes into slightly more detail: HP will help “accelerate the open development of the webOS platform,” and “will be an active participant and investor in the project.” The rest is up to webOS developers, who are now able to pick up where the personal computing giant left off.

While the news will certainly be welcomed by webOS enthusiasts (myself included), let’s not forget that HP sunk over $3 billion dollars into the webOS experiment before ultimately giving it away for free. Still, I’m sure HP has picked up some much-needed brownie points from webOS users whose devices have suddenly been given a new lease on life.

Of course, with that shift toward open source, drastic changes will almost definitely be made to the company’s existing webOS team. AllThingsD reports that no official word has yet been handed down about staff rearrangements, but webOS’s smaller role in the company’s future means less manpower will be devoted to it.

Meanwhile, HP has remained quiet on the hardware front. After former CEO Leo Apotheker give standalone webOS hardware the axe, it was widely rumored that HP would find a home for the wayward operating system on their scores of printers. It’ll be interesting to see if the landscape shifts now that third-party hardware vendors have access to yet another open source OS, but for now we can rest assured that webOS will indeed live on in one form or another.

And hey, now you should feel a bit more comfortable about picking up some of the $99 TouchPads HP is throwing on eBay this Sunday — they should have a bright future after all.

Hewlett-Packard has acquired a German company called HIFLEX, based in Aachen, which develops software that helps companies in the print and media industries automate their business and technical processes.

HIFLEX products include HIFLEX MIS (Management Information System), HIFLEX Print Support and an open web-to-print system dubbed HIFLEX Webshop.

Read more at TechCrunch Europe.

Cloud storage platform Box.net is announcing a major partnership with HP today to bring the startup’s offerings to select HP desktops.

Box, which has 8 million users and stores over 300 million documents, is a cloud storage platform for the enterprise that comes with collaboration, social and mobile functionality. Box has evolved into more than just a file storage platform, and has become a full-fledged collaborative application where businesses can actually communicate about document updates, sync files remotely, and even add features from Salesforce, Google Apps, NetSuite, Yammer and others.

Starting today, select HP Elite and HP Pro desktop business PCs users will have access to special offers from Box that include increased storage capacity and enterprise sync for enhanced collaboration and content management in the cloud.

For example, users that purchase a new HP Compaq Pro 6500 or 6200 Series PC will receive a free Box account with 10 GB of storage (that’s double the size of a typical Box account), with the option to upgrade to additional capacities at a reduced annual rates. Users that purchase a new HP Elite 8200 Series PC will receive a Box account with unlimited storage and sync at no cost for one year.

Of course for Box, this is another way to help add new customers is the business world. Currently, Box provides storage solutions for 77% of the Fortune 500 with 100,000 businesses using Box’s service (250,000 new users are joining each month). Box just raised $81 million in funding from Salesforce, SAP Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, NEA, Andreessen Horowitz and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

“Yes. I think it’s possible if you integrate tablets,” said HP’s CEO, Meg Whitman in response to a question from French newspaper Le Figaro [translated] concerning Apple’s possible takeover as the world’s top PC maker. “Apple does a great job. We need to improve our game and our products to take over the leadership position. Apple could go past HP in 2012. We will try to become the champion in 2013. It takes time for the products on which I have come to influence the market.”

Whitman’s candid response echos a current debate: Should tablets, such as the iPad, be considered personal computers? If so, then Apple is on track to replace HP as the top PC maker. This comes after British research firm Canalys decided to include tablets in their analysis, basically crowning Apple as top dog. While Meg doesn’t dispute this technicality in the interview, she basically concedes all of 2012 and states to wait until 2013 for HP’s return to glory. After all, she says, that’s when the products she influenced would hit the market.

Wow.

Interestingly enough, during the same interview, Whitman talked a bit about the future of webOS. She stated that a decision would be made in the next two weeks as there are currently 600 employees in “limbo.” The only hint about its future is that Whitman stated that HP needs two OSes (could Android be the other option?).

It’s clear that Whitman understands Apple’s surging numbers and doesn’t see a quick fix. The company already flubbed its first attempt at an iPad competitor and per her statements about waiting until 2013, there isn’t likely a killer product in HP’s product pipeline. After all, the former HP CEO, Leo Apotheker, was clearly steering the HP machine away from the consumer market and down a path blazed by IBM and Oracle that leads to enterpriseland.

However, from an outsider’s vantage point, HP hasn’t looked this good in a while. After taking the helm, Whitman quickly decided to keep the Personal Systems Group within HP. The company’s stock is on an upward trend and HP beat Wall Street’s estimates in the fourth quarter. A sign of good leader is respecting competitors and keeping a straight head. Apple really is on track to beat HP in PC shipments if tablet computers are counted (they should be). It’s refreshing to see HP’s leader acknowledge it’s going to take some time to right the massive ship that is HP.

We knew that HP’s gamble on webOS was an expensive one, but thanks to the company’s Q4 and full-year financials, we’re finally getting a feel for just how dearly the webOS experiment cost them. This past year, the company lost a staggering $3.3 billion thanks to their most recent foray into the mobile space.

I know I’m not the first to say this, nor will I be the last, but one word comes to mind: Ouch.

HP’s financial results also reveal that the TouchPad fire sale netted HP $200 million in revenue, though the tablets were sold below cost. It certainly explains why the company seems intent on using their remaining TouchPads to drive sales across their other product lines. It’s perhaps a fitting end for the TouchPads — the HP tablet that didn’t sell was used to support a division of HP’s business they nearly sold.

I was a very big fan of webOS (the Pre was the first phone I ever sat in line for), and to see it lose support so unceremoniously was actually sort of painful. Frankly speaking it was unlikely that webOS would have ever become a major player in the market, but it still embodied a few concepts (cards/multitasking, for one) that deserve to live on. And live on they may, if HP can decide what the next step is.

As Greg pointed out a few months ago, webOS isn’t completely dead yet — rather, it’s stuck in OS limbo while HP decides what to do with it. Earlier reports suggested that HP would sell off webOS to whomever wanted it most, but newly-installed CEO Meg Whitman said it was important to make “the right decision, not the fast decision,” and held off on the sale. Now that we understand how much webOS cost HP, I’m surprised HP didn’t cut webOS free as soon as they could, but the waiting game continues and we’re still left without answers.

So, with the year’s numbers on the books, HP has a decision to make: should they go ahead and sell webOS? Or should they take the “expensive bet” and give webOS another go? Or should they pursue some other unseen option? Meg Whitman said that answers would come within the span of a few weeks, and that time is running out. What’s it going to be, Meg?

HP has just reported fourth quarter and fiscal year 2011 earnings today, with fourth quarter non-GAAP net revenue of $32.3 billion, down 3 percent from the same quarter in 2010. The company posted non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $1.17. Analysts expected HP to post earnings of $1.13 a share on revenue of $32.05 billion.

Full year fiscal 2011 GAAP net revenue for the fiscal year 2011 was $127.2 billion, up 1% compared with the prior year. Non-GAAP net revenue for the full fiscal year 2011 was $127.4 billion, up 1% compared with the prior year.

For the fourth quarter, GAAP net revenue of $32.1 billion was down 3% from the prior-year period. GAAP diluted EPS was $0.12, down 89% from the prior-year period.

HP Software revenue grew 28% year over year, driven by revenue growth in licenses
and services. Revenue in HP’s commercial businesses declined 2% year over year. Revenue in HP’s consumer businesses, within PSG and IPG, was collectively down 9% year over year.

“HP has a great opportunity to build on our strong hardware, software, and services franchises with leading market positions, customer relationships, and intellectual property,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. Whitman joined HP in September. “We need to get back to the business fundamentals in fiscal 2012, including making prudent investments in the business and driving more consistent execution.”

So I promised that Bag Week 2011 would be worth it. There were the naysayers, the no-no-never Nancies, the nattering nabobs of negativism, and the like but you stuck through Bag Week 2011 and now it’s nearly over. But before we go, we want to offer one final parting gift to you all – everyone except Adrian Scott, that is. Mr. Scott wrote, and I quote:

Worst. Techcrunch. Coverage/Idea. Ever… Please put this on another site… What’s next, soda reviews? Or how about articles about rare medical conditions and asbestos (for the adsense revenue).

While I admit we only do this for the millions it brings us in Adsense revenue (bag makers are rich, FYI), we also do this because people who use computers and read this site like to put those computers into bags when they transport them. Rather than pepper the site with bag reviews, we picked some of our favorites and wrote them up. If that’s wrong, then I don’t want to be right, Mr. Scott.

Anyway, here’s what everyone except Adrian Scott (unless he apologizes publicly) can win from Office Depot, the folks generously donating this final prize:

• An Ativa Mobil IT bag
• HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 e-All-in-One Printer
• HP Pavilion dv6-6108us Laptop Computing Device
• Ativa LD600 6-Sheet Cross-Cut Shredder

That’s right: essentially a whole home office/Bernie Madoff kit for you and yours. In addition to the bag, Office Depot is throwing in a brand new OfficeJet printer, a really nice laptop, and a shredder. Why a shredder? Heck if I know.

They wanted us to talk up the printer so here you go:

· Printing from mobile devices via HP ePrint, which allows the user to print from virtually anywhere using any email enabled device
· Printing, faxing, scanning, copying and web functionalities
· Built-in wireless
· A color touchscreen display
· Web-connected printing with business apps
· Automatic two-siding printing

Amazing, no? To win, comment below describing your ultimate bag, sac, purse, murse, rucksack, or container. Be descriptive. I’ll pick a winner randomly on Monday and, provided you’re not Adrian Scott, happy Bag Week 2011 and to all a good night.

UPDATE – The winner is Chris Miller.

The $99 TouchPad fire sale was the best way to close the book on webOS and the TouchPad itself. It got the TouchPad into the hands of the fans. Only those that cared about the product lined up outside of Best Buy to grab one of the cheap notebooks. It’s also probably safe to say that most of these people do not have any interest in HP’s crapware notebooks. These people just wanted a solid tablet for a great price.

HP, you should have taken your win and walked home. But you didn’t. You’ve screwed up. Again.

The TouchPad’s story is a sad one. A product born out of Palm’s inspiring vision for the future of mobile and HP’s expertise at killing innovation. Despite featuring a solid operating system, the product landed with a thud and only webOS die-hards opted for the $499 TouchPad. HP announced just 7 weeks after it launched that it was killing all webOS hardware development and would clear out the remaining supply for just $99, which sold out nearly overnight.

The story all along was that another batch of TouchPads was coming. Retailers and even the HP website had sign-up pages to notify potential buyers of available TouchPads. But here we are, a couple months later, and the $99 TouchPad hasn’t resurfaced.

However, the TouchPad has randomly popped up at different retailers, but there is often a major caveat. Best Buy got a round of 32GB $150 TouchPads late last month but they were only available for purchase with an HP notebook. Then Tiger Direct (and sister site, Circuit City) started selling the TouchPads but only with an expensive accessory pack, bringing the price up to $279. Then, just today, Office Depot’s Black Friday ad leaked showing a TouchPad deal similar to that found at Best Buy; buy any HP PC and get a 32GB TouchPad for $150.

You just know somewhere deep in the corporate machine that is HP, an overpaid executive and his team of cronies thought up this scheme. “People want the TouchPad, right? Alright, then let’s make a quick buck off these people. If they want one, we’re going to force people to buy one of our cheap, adware-filled notebooks. Oh, and we’ll pull support for the TouchPad or, maybe, half-heartedly support it for the stragglers.”

This isn’t about capitalism or free trade. HP had a chance to make some friends and earn some good will. The TouchPad is clearly not worth anything to HP. The first fire sale demonstrated that. Now they’re using it as a bait, waving it in front of potential buyers, just hoping to trick someone into buying one of their crappy notebooks. HP has every right to make a buck but sometimes it’s worth foregoing a tiny bit of additional revenue to earn some respect. After years of self-destructive behavior, HP needs respect more than anything else.

Back in June, HP announced something very unusual: a plan to shift production of business notebooks for the Japanese market from China to Japan. The company then actually started manufacturing these devices in its plant in Akishima near Tokyo, in August.

It appears the US company is seeing some potential in the move, as now Japan’s biggest business daily The Nikkei is reporting that HP will bring the production of notebooks for the consumer market in the country from China to Japan, too. The goal is to reduce delivery time, use the “made-in-Japan” moniker in marketing, and simplify logistics.

One of the models that will be produced in Japan soon is the 15.6-inch Pavilion dv6-6b00, for example. HP says that with the move, notebooks can be shipped to customers in just five days after an order comes in, significantly less than the 14 days it takes from plants in China.

HP plans, by February next year, to manufacture a total of 500,000 notebooks yearly in Japan. The company also produces all desktop PCs sold in the country in its plant in Akishima.

It looks like Best Buy managed to let a few of those 32GB TouchPads slip through their fingers, as TigerDirect has concocted a $279 bundle around HP’s stillborn tablet.

Yep, people looking to score a TouchPad on the cheap may need to look elsewhere (good luck, by the way). There always seems to be a catch when it comes to TouchPad deals, and TigerDirect is more than happy to oblige.

For $279, you get not only a 32GB TouchPad, but a Belkin tablet case, a Belkin FlipBlade tablet stand, and a pair of Creative Lab D80 Bluetooth speakers. Oh, and who could forget the 16GB HP flash drive TigerDirect is throwing in just to sweeten the deal?

Whether or not all that extra swag is worth an extra $130 is entirely up to you, but the bundle seems much easier to stomach than Best Buy’s PC purchasing ploy. Personally, it doesn’t seem like such a bad deal — just write up a list of people you begrudgingly have to buy holiday gifts for, and divvy up the accessories accordingly. Or hell, jump on Craigslist after the fact and flip those goodies for a profit.

TigerDirect will open the floodgates on TouchPad bundles today at 2:30PM Eastern, so those of you yearning for one final taste of webOS had best be ready to go by then.