The world has been waiting for an official Facebook tablet app, and waiting, and waiting. But that app may not appear on the iPad first (although Facebook is working on an iPad app for sure). Instead, Facebook’s first tablet app will appear on the HP TouchPad, which comes out this Friday and runs the WebOS it bought with Palm. Unless the iPad app also launches this week, the TouchPad will become the first tablet with an official Facebook app. Given the tension between Apple and Facebook, a concurrent launch on the iPad seems unlikely. Update: Facebook has reached out to clarify that “this app was not built by Facebook but by HP.”
How do I know? I got my hands on some screenshots of the Facebook app for the TouchPad. You can see them here. But what I wonder is if this is also what the app will look like on the iPad. All I can say for sure is that these pics are from Facebook’s tablet app running on WebOS. → Read More
I see it right there, staring me in the face. It’s like a laser beam burning a hole in my retinas. I can’t help but click. That damn iOS notification red dot gets me every time.
And things are about to get much worse.
I’ve been addicted to Push Notifications since their inception with iOS 3 — and that’s in spite of the fact that they’ve more or less sucked for all but a handful of apps. But other apps like Boxcar have fixed that for me. And now Apple is on the verge of fixing them system-wide with iOS 5. → Read More
Speaking at All Things D’s D9 conference today, HP CEO Leo Apotheker answered some audience questions and cleared up some concerns over whether webOS would simply be HP’s exclusive in-house OS, or whether they would be spreading it around.
When asked about the licensing situation, Apotheker responded that “It’s a great OS — why wouldn’t we want to offer it to other companies?” → Read More
HP’s TouchPad was announced about a month ago, but no solid shipping date has been set. I’m not sure what it is about companies announcing products with no real information on availability, but tablets seem to be especially prone to this phenomenon. We heard June, then we heard April, and now HP’s Leo Apotheker, in a Q&A, has said that yes, June is the month it will ship, alongside the new Pre 3 and Veer. He also remarked that he wanted webOS to make its PC debut this year — though a full roll-out would have to wait until 2012. I’m interested by skeptical. PCs are PCs and tablets are tablets. I think crossing the breeds may make for a bit of a mutt. → Read More
HP’s Todd Bradley just went on stage at the webOS event and said: “I’m excited to announce that we’re bringing webOS to the device that has the biggest reach of all: the personal computer.” Now, let’s not all go insane here. We’re pretty sure that what he means is webOS will be flavoring HP products, probably taking over the role of TouchSmart in their multi-touch all-in-one PCs. But hey, they just put out a phone with a 2.6-inch screen. Maybe HP is going all out. → Read More
Last week, we saw what appeared to be a legit leak of HP’s Topaz and Opal webOS tablets, previously known under the moniker Palmpad. Pre Central has gotten hold of some slightly less exciting, yet still interesting, design documents showing off potential UI ideas. → Read More
Apple just announced its massive Q1 numbers yesterday; they sold 4.13 million Macs. Now that’s only in one quarter, but HP thinks they can also pull off some massive numbers by selling 45 to 48 million notebooks in 2011. In 2010, HP did….
More after the break. → Read More
Sorry, HP. The ruthless Internet just ruined your February 9th event with a set of webOS tablet pics and a whole bunch of info. But you know what? It might be for the best. I’m at least interested now.
It’s kind of hard to write this up without drawing the iPad comparison. Not only do the renders physically look like the current iPad — sans the home button at least — but the specs line up with what most assume are going to be on the next iPad build. There’s a set of speakers, front-facing camera, and a micro-USB port, which will no doubt handle the charging and file transfer duties. But the one place where this tablet sets itself apart is where it counts most: The OS. → Read More
A week and a half ago, we were invited to join HP on the morning of February 9 for an “exciting announcement”. But it appears that they’re now also reaching out to others about another event later that day.
This new invite reads: “HP webOS. The future revealed.” Below that, it lists the same February 9 date, but lists the time as being from 7 PM to 9:30 PM. And it will be in the same venues: Fort Mason Center, Herbst Pavillion in San Francisco. → Read More
We’ve just been invited to an HP event on February 9 in San Francisco. The topic? webOS, according to the invitation.
The invite’s main header reads: “Think big. Think small. Think beyond.” Could this mean an expansion of webOS to many types of devices? At the very least, we should get the skinny on the full webOS 2.0 release, which is only available in a very limited way thus far. → Read More
Industry sources at Foxconn Technology and Compal Communications are stating that they are currently manufacturing multiple WebOS devices including the so-called PalmPad. → Read More
Say what you will about Spotify‘s delayed US launch or whether its freemium model is ultimately flawed, but when it comes to rolling out mobile clients, the music streaming service can’t be bettered. While other companies set the bar at an iPhone app (and possibly Android), Spotify, with its European roots, has already gone where many dare not, developing a fully-fledged client for Nokia’s Symbian, along with iPhone, Android and Windows Phone.
Today, the company has announced a version for Palm’s webOS, a niche platform if there ever was one. Although with HP’s acquisition of Palm, that will hopefully change. It’s also a particularly US-centric brand, so that could be telling in itself. On that note, it’s curious that RIM’s BlackBerry is still missing in action. Any theories on why? Jump in on the comments. → Read More
WebOS was initially a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. Sure, there are die-hards that love it, but lets be honest, most people went with Android or the iPhone. Palm’s hoping to change all that with WebOS 2.0, and while there have been some still shots floating around, no one has seen any video until now. Check out the video after the jump. → Read More
HP’s working on new webOS hardware. That’s a fact, but that’s about all we know so far besides the Palmpad trademark. The company is doing a damn fine job keep things under wraps. Well, I guess there was that insignificant leak the other week that caused HP to go somewhat ballistic just because someone found that webOS 2.0 finally has a virtual keyboard as expected. But other than that, we know jack about HP’s webOS hardware.
Rahul Sood, founder of VoodooPC and now CTO of HP Gaming after HP’s acquisition of VoodooPC, went on a tweeting storm today and while he didn’t really reveal any details about hardware, there are some nuggets in here about HP’s overall webOS philosophy. Spoiler: It’s about the hardware, not the apps. → Read More
In season 1 of AMC’s hit show Mad Men, Rachel Menken comes to the advertising firm Sterling Cooper because she wants to give her department store, Menken’s, a makeover, so to speak. She wants to transform it from a successful department store into an elite one. “What kind of people do you want [coming into your store]?,” Creative Director Don Draper asks Menken. “I want your kind of people Mr. Draper. People who don’t care about coupons — whether or not they can afford it. People who come into the store because it is expensive,” Menken replies.
Based on what we’re hearing, HP has been having similarly themed meetings in recent months. They want to transform themselves — from HP, the successful tech juggernaut, into Apple, the sexy one.
When you think of HP, what do you think of? For most consumers it’s printers and sort of crappy, cheap computers that you get at Best Buy. But that’s not what HP aspires to be anymore, sources familiar with HP’s thinking are telling us. They want to be Apple. They want be the makers of high-quality consumer gadgets all connected by way of a digital ecosystem. An ecosystem they own and operate. One tied together by webOS. → Read More
Palmpad, eh? That sounds nice and could signal a sort-of departure from the normal slate business model. HP might be prepping more than one tablet product line. Perhaps the Windows 7 Slate project isn’t dead after all. We all know the story. HP bought Palm for a billion dollars, partly for the webOS mobile phone platform. Said operating system will soon be found in other HP devices, including printers and tablet computers. However, HP is unlikely to rest its tablet’s future on someone else’s defunct brand name. There will be more than one tablet model from HP right from the beginning. → Read More
HP was apparently working on an Android tablet along with a Windows 7 and webOS model. Yeah, all three at the same time. The Android flavor was even scheduled for a late-2010 release. But the project was reportable canned just like the Windows 7 edition.
That’s probably for the best, really. It’s not that surprising to hear that HP had three different versions of the Slate in development all at the same time. The goal was likely to determine which one was best suited for the market and not to release three tablets each on a different platform. It seems, however, the best option won and HP is going with the webOS over Windows 7 or Android. → Read More
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