4G HP Touchpad, AT&T HP Pre 3 4G, and Verizon HP Pre 3 show up on eBay!

3 HP/Palm products that may never make it to market appeared on eBay this afternoon, apparently from an employee who wanted to make some easy cash.  The seller listed the Verizon Pre 3 at $750.00 (USD), several AT&T Pre 3 4Gs for $600.00 each, and the AT&T Touchpad 4G for $900.00.

Why is this ebay listing so cool?  Because it confirms that the Pre 3 was indeed headed for Verizon (The rumored release date was September 18th...), showing off what the boxing looks like for the first time.

The Pre 3s sold out within hours, - while at the time of writing this the 32GB AT&T Touchpad 4G is still available for grabs.

Source: Touchpad 4G on eBay, AT&T Pre 3 4G, and Verizon Pre 3 [Thanks to @fxspec06!]

HP annouces webOS Pivot

This morning, HP annouced webOS Pivot -- a new tool for users to find applications for the HP Touchpad, based on their lifestyle and interests.  It's designed to be a service that compliments the webOS app catalog, and would showcase applications and the developers that create them.

Full Skype coming to webOS

As many of you know, the Verizon Palm Pre 2 has skype connectiving - allowing one to use Skype as an IM service, but exclusively for chatting -- and only when you're using Verizon's 3G network.  Well, with the HP Pre 3 and the Touchpad underway, it looks like there's going to be complete Skype connectivity with all webOS 2.2 and 3.0 devices, agnostic to what carrier it's on.

What Differentiates the Touchpad from other tablets

Touchpad Differentiators:

• Great Virtual Keyboard that's re-sizable, has a number row, next field key, and easy character accents
• Flash 10.3
• Cards/Stacks visual multitasking instead of task switching with only icons
• Synergy system that integrates multiple accounts
• HP printer drivers pre-installed with wireless network printing
• Up to 16 Exchange and other 3rd party email accounts at once
• webOS Profile Cloud Hosting  Environment Connecting Multiple Devices to One Profile
• Accepts Texts and Phone Calls from phones on the Touchpad
• Touch-To-Share data transfer with webOS smartphones
• Touchstone Charging  Dock that can charge the Touchpad even with its case on!

Here's a great video demonstration of the Touchpad: 

You can see that webOS runs on the Touchpad without the lag it had at the February 9th event.  The only thing I noticed slow in the presentation was the video streaming - which can be attributed to a slow network connection.

Source: webOSroundup

HP Touchpad: Wireless Charging

One feature that Palm has been praised for since CES 2009 has been their unique Touchstone charging technology.  Well, now with HP in control it's no different - with phones still using it, and a newer version being adapted for their tablet as well.  While Powermap and other 3rd party accessories can charge other cell phones inductively, HP is the only company to have a solution for charging a tablet without plugging it in.

HP Touchpad coming July 1st, AT&T cellular version later this summer

After months of waiting, the release date for the Touchpad was announced today -- July 1st in the United States, then in the UK, Ireland, France and Germany a few days later. Canada is poised to get it in mid-July, and it will be available in Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, and Singapore by the end of the year.

HP Discover Event - Day One

Not much was said about webOS today, and from a consumer's perspective, it was a boring conference (As it was intended for HP's enterprise customers).  HP's CEO, Léo Apotheker, did say the Touchpad would be arriving really soon.  The Touchpad was used throughout the conference, and a Pre 3/ Touchpad combo was seen in several promotional video clips.

Here's a good promotional used during the event:

First HP Veer Advertisement - Little Guys Can Pack a Punch!

The first advertisement for the Veer started airing on television this week - and with none other than Champion Boxer Manny Pacquiao!  Despite Boxing's popularity declining, I bet Manny's one of the fittest people in the world! The commercial is thirty seconds long, and shows off webOS's strengths - cards and gestures.  In my opinion, this commercial is leaps and bounds better than previous commercials for webOS phones, - hopefully it will help sell a few!

“So, why did I get a small phone? Well, if there is one thing I know: little guys can pack a punch.”  So, have you seen the ad on TV yet?  If so, tell us in the comments! If not, it's been uploaded on youtube:

What do you guys think of the advertising?  For a smartphone as unique as the Veer, do you think HP's got the right idea for marketing it?

HP Touchpad rumored to launch June 12; webOS 3.0 Application Roundup!

Precentral.net got their hands on a couple of manuals all pointing to a worldwide release of the Touchpad on  June 12th.  The device is HP and Palm's response to the iPad and will be running webOS 3.0 - a version specifically tailored to take advantage of  large amounts of screen space.

Now with the Touchpad's launch eminent, what applications can we expect to be available on it at launch?

Touchpad Mojo Emulator Leaked

Beta 5 of webOS 3.0 shows a refined, darker interface to the one shown off on the Touchpad in the last several months, along with an emulator to run older webOS apps alongside a gesture area.

The screenshots of the emulator were leaked to precentral.net, showing off the never-before-seen mojo emulator, the browser, copy and paste, the virtual keyboard, the email app, an unfinished exhibition mode, Bing Maps, and the photos application.

Full gallery after the break.

potential webOS netbook and printer in developer logs?

This last week in some developer logs two new devices appeared -- one with a 480 by 320 screen and no physical keyboard or removable battery; the other with a 1024 by 768 screen and a physical keyboard.

  The first one has the same resolution as the original Palm Pre, Pre Plus, and Pre 2.  But it wouldn't make sense to have another phone like the Veer with a small screen resolution, when the Pre 3 is coming out with an 480 by 800 screen resolution.  It could potentially just be a Pre without a keyboard, a webOS mp3 player, or something bigger like a Kindle but with a smaller screen resolution.  Maybe it's the rumored slab, but with the screen width and height cut in half to fool the logs?  Maybe.

But in my opinion it seems most likely to be a printer.  A screen with that resolution would do great on a printer, and the lack of a  keyboard or removable battery makes sense on a printer.

Then, there's the Touchpad-screen resolution with a keyboard.  It could be a webOS netbook, but it could also just be a Touchpad with a wireless keyboard.

 Time should show what these devices are, -- if they ever make it to  the market that is. HP's been talking about putting webOS on laptops and printers since last year, so this news shouldn't be surprising.

HP preparing for a rough 3rd Quarter; Earnings release today

Bloomberg recently leaked a memo from Hewlett-Packard, saying that they need to "watch every penny and minimize hiring."

Q3 is going to be another tough quarter, one in which we will be driving hard for revenue and profit. We have absolutely no room for profitless revenue or any discretionary expenditures.

This may look like bad news on the surface, but will probably be good news for webOS.  They aren't selling as much consumer products -- desktops, laptops, etc.  Which is where webOS comes in.  Windows can't compete with iOS on tablets, and as we all know the iPad is taking a big chunk out of the laptop and netbook sales.  This means that HP really needs to push the Touchpad, and along with it webOS on PCs, phones, printers, everywhere applicable.

HP Touchpad and Pre 3 pricing leaked?

According to none other than Playboy magazine, the HP Pre 3 will be $200 on contract, and the Touchpad will start at $500 off contract.  That sounds about right, though I was hoping the Pre 3 would come in at $150 / 2 year contract.  Prices are still competitive with Apple's -- the current iPhone is at $200 on contract and the current iPad starts at $500 on contract.

Though, uh, after the article was published on Precentral and Engadget, Playboy's editor posted on twitter that they were just estimates.

Source: twitter

HP Veer Launched today!

This morning Palm posted a lot of quotes of positive reviews with nice things to say about the phone.  Now that the phone is launched, time to see where the best deal to get the phone is...

A replacement magnetic headphone adapter for the Veer costs $10,  a magnetic adapter to usb cable costs $20.00, and a touchstone to charge the phone costs $50.00.

The phone costs $50 on a contract upgrade or a new contract from HP's website, the black Veer is avalable online at AT&T's official website for $99 on contract,  from Amazon.com you can get the phone for $50 on contract, or $399 off contract, and from Bestbuy's official website you can get either the white or black Veer on contract for free.

So if you want the phone the cheapest on-contract, I'd recommend Bestbuy.  If you want the phone off-contract, Amazon's the only place to get a reasonable price for it.

Anyhow, it looks like the Pre 3 and Touchpad are set to launch in the next couple of weeks - so if you want a decent-sized smartphone and/or a webOS tablet, stay tuned.

New Rebranded Touchstone Available!

The new HP Touchstone is now officially available from HP's website, and will soon be available elsewhere. It appears to have removed the Palm logo, and is now pure black.

They cost $50.00 each when ordered from HP's website, and charge touchstone-compatible webOS devices inductively -- by just setting it on the charger rather than mess with any cords.

Exhibition Mode - Time

WebOS 2.0 devices such as the Veer 4G or Pre 2 can automatically go into exhibition mode when placed on the charger, - which can show a variety of information ranging from just the time (Useful for an alarm clock), an agenda mode with your calendar info, to facebook and applications that also have exhibition features.

The phone will remember touchstones uniquely, so one touchstone can be programmed to be an alarm clock, while another can be set to be a photo slideshow.

Agenda View in landscape mode; Exhibition can
 be used in either portrait or landscape modes

Source: HP's Official Website 

Free White Veer on two year AT&T contract at Bestbuy?

Look's like Bestbuy's got the pricing right for this powerhouse-in-a-tiny-formfactor phone, so now it can compete with the iPhone 3GS, or the Samsung Captivate, pricing wise.

But only the white Veer 4G will be eligible for free on contractit might be the only Veer available in the store). It will be available tomorrow, but if you want to reserve yours before it launches it'll be a $50 deposit that will be refunded as a Bestbuy gift card when you pick up the phone.

Personally I think that universally the pricing should be the same.  Make it free in both colors, and have the pricing universal at all places you can order the phone.  Or, do $50 universally, and throw in free mobile hotspot (Like the Palm Pre Plus on Verizon).

Maybe that's just me, and with current arrangements the phone will sell well, -- but for free, this phone seems like an excellent deal.

Veer Application News

Well, I was expecting HP to announce the hundreds of HP employee created applications they created last year but mysteriously never released, but it turns out it was more of a small, but still cool announcement on Thursday.

Whitepages officially released an app for the webOS app catalog, taking full advantage of webOS features such as Just-Type and Synergy. Google set webOS to the list of browsers capable of using Google Docs web edit; and ScrollMotion announced they would be bringing SmashWords eBooks to App Catalog sometime in the next several months, but possibly as early as the end of the month.

As of right now there are 6779 applications in the catalog, which seems lacking because even Windows Phone 7 has over 15,000 apps -- and it hasn't even been around for a year!

Hopefully the Touchpad and Pre 3 are the hardware developers want before jumping aboard the webOS bandwagon.

Source: Smashwords, Precentral.net

HP Pre 3 hits the FCC in dual CDMA/GSM - world phone

Looks like the Pre 3 will be heading to AT&T and Verizon.   After hitting the FCC in AT&T frequencies a few weeks ago, the Pre 3 will also be hitting in a CDMA flavor, with world GSM bands and a SIM card slot.  Sadly it looks like no LTE support.   But, the more carriers with new webOS goodness, the merrier.

A launch seems imminent, with a German carrier having it available for preorder and shipping in the next "5-6 weeks".

Source: FCC / Precentral.net / Wireless Goodness / webosroundup.com

New webOS apps to launch May 15th?

According to ubergizmo, new HP webOS apps are to launch in the next 5 days to compliment the release of the HP Veer on AT&T Sunday.  This is good news, as webOS's app catalog hasnt even reached the 10,000, -- having around 6,000 official apps, and not all of them tailored to the Pixi/Veer screensize.

The annoucement is expected to come Thursday, at 8:00 AM EST.

Veer to launch on AT&T March 15th

Yesterday an official release date was announced for the HP Veer 4G -- along with confirmation it would be on AT&T, and would be available in black or white.  The phone will be avalibale for $100 on a two year contract, and is said to be marketed towards those who want a smart phone at a feature phone's price.

Highlighted features of the Veer include that it will have a full version of Adobe Flash 10.1, it will support being a wifi hotspot for up to five devices, and the device will support carrier billing for purchases in the app catalog.

The device will support HSPA+ up to 14.4Mbps per second (like the Atrix 4G and Inspire 4G), and will run webOS 2.1, but will be upgradeable to webOS 3.0 at a future date.

Back after a 5 day Hiatus

Sorry, had a couple of time-consuming projects to work on the last several days, but back to blogging and tweeting about webOS like usual!

Veer to launch in white?

According to Pocketnow, HP is hoping on the bandwaggon of having their device available in white.   Apparently a press shot, the Veer 4G will be available in white, when it launches on AT&T sometime this month.

Personally I'm digging the whole stormtrooper/penguin thing they've got going on.  What do you think?

full sized image
Source: webOSroundup; originally from Pocketnow

Verizon to carry the HP Pre 3?

According to a tipster, who sent the leaked photo of a "webOS Evo", the Pre 3 is going to land at Verizon wireless.  Which makes sense, - the last three webOS devices all landed there (Pre 2, Pixi Plus, and Pre Plus, respectively).  And what adds to this, Verizon has a thing for world phones (Which the Pre 3 is).  Hopefully the device will come to other carriers as well (Sprint users miss webOS, not having any new devices since the original Pre and Pixi 2 years ago), and T-Mobile USA hasn't seemed to get any webOS goodness yet.

Source: webOSroundup, originally from precentral.net

The Mysterious WebOS Slate (HP Pre 3 = Palm c40 part 2)

(quote webosworld)

 “The first thing HP introduced to this testing lineup was a new prototype phone with specs they wanted to see in the two previous models. It had:

• 4" LCD capacitive glass screen 

•   8MP camera with 720p recording 

•   Front facing camera

•   960 x 640 resolution 

•   DLNA support

•  1.2ghz CPU 

We have been told that the portrait slider has undergone the most testing. There is a very good chance that the c40 will be shipped looking very much like a Palm Pre on Steroids. We may see many of the prototypes phone’s specs to be carried over to the revamped c40.”

This was great news, after the 960 x 640 screen resolution was spotted in user statistics in webOS apps, -- the iPhone wouldn't be the only phone with the "retina display" screen resolution.  The device was predicted to be announced and available by the end of the year, but it never came.

HP Pre 3 = Palm c40

Back last August webosworld.com had an update on what the new webOS superdevice would be - from a leaked Sprint inventory sheet in January of that year the device was dubbed the "Palm C40."  No one had any clue what the device was, but hopes were high because the only two webOS smartphones to be announced at the time were the Pre and Pixi lineups.  Other devices in the leak came to fruitation in the summer of 2010 - the Evo 4G, and various other phones to land at Sprint.

Well, apparently in August, webosworld got their break with what happened to the device and its specs.  The c40 was supposed to be released in July 2010, to help kick off Sprint's 4G device lineup.

Introducing the HP Pre 3

The phone's screen is larger than
any webOS phone's screen to date.

The HP Pre 3 is the latest edition in the Pre lineup of smartphones running webOS.  The true successor to previous models, this is the first real change in the Pre design - a larger screen, a different processor (Snapdragon), a front facing camera, and new features to compete in the ever competitive smartphone race.  The phone remains a portrait-slider, with the same familiar gesture area as other webOS phones.  It's a millimeter thinner than previous 'Pre' smartphones, while the gorilla glass screen is a half inch larger (Going from 3.1 inches to 3.6 inches).  The screen's resolution is also increased - from 320 by 480 pixels to 480 by 800 pixels (shared by most Android devices).

Introducing the HP Veer

The Veer was demoed to be able to
run Angry Birds, but also intense
3D gaming.

Probably the most powerful smartphone for its size, the HP Veer was announced alongside the TouchPad and the Pre 3 at HP's February 9th "Think Big, Think Small, Think Beyond" event.  Apparently HP was thinking small, because the Veer is pretty much a smaller version of the Pre 2, with a potentially faster processor and GPU combination.

The Veer supports wireless
charging by setting it on a
Touchstone. 

Starting with the form factor:  The Veer is comparable to a the size of a credit card, and could fit inside a deck of cards case.  The device has a 2.6 inch, 320 by 400 pixel, glass touch screen that supports multitouch (If you can fit more than one finger on it, that is) and a slide-out keyboard, which is said to be engineered to be the best keyboard on any webOS device created to date.  The device has a 5 megapixel camera with extended-depth-of-field on the back, but lacks an LED flash - making it the only webOS phone to not have a flash for the camera.

Introducing the HP TouchPad

After months of rumor, speculation, and leaks, announced at HP's February 9th webOS event was the webOS iPad killer - the HP Touchpad.  Packing a similar, but more curvy design than the iPad, the two tablets go head to head with most specs:  They both have 9.7" glass screens with 1024 by 768 pixel, and like the iPad 2 - the Touchpad uses new pixel-on-glass screen technology.

Introduction

I've grown up with HP products all my life, - ranging from my calculator to my desktop computer.  My first laptop was an HP, just because I knew that they made quality products.

I used to never be interested in the "mobile OS" war, until early 2009 when there was buzz about a potential iPhone killer - the Palm Pre, running a brand new operating system called webOS.  In my eyes the phone was awesome, but there were two things I didn't like about it:  that it was exclusive to Sprint at the time, and that the hardware was considered mediocre.  So I sat it out, waited, and didn't be a first adopter for this new phone - waiting patiently for my carrier to be supported.