Hasta La Gadget!

HP‘s acquisition of Palm and its webOS mobile operating system may have turned out to be somewhat of a failed effort, but webOS is nowhere near extinct. They just brought open webOS out of beta a few days ago, and it sounds like they have some big plans for the now-open source mobile OS. It turns out HP is hiring over 50 developers to help out the open webOS movement.

According to the job listings, HP is looking for 53 top-class developers to work in both Shanghai, China and Sunnyvale, California. All of the positions appear to be high-paying jobs as well, so it seems that HP is putting a lot of time and resources into its webOS platform, which has been slowly disappearing the past couple years.

However, that brings us to the lasting appeal of the platform. Even though HP is starting to put more effort into webOS, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll become successful. The company has stiff competition from Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8. Is it possible that HP’s open webOS can make a dent in the other mobile OS platforms?

Either way, HP’s looking at a long road ahead. CEO Meg Whitman said that she expects the company to struggle all next year and not make a profit until 2014 comes around. Even then, the company isn’t exactly guaranteed a profit. We can only hope for the best for open webOS and just wait for some new devices from HP to hit the market. Hopefully they don’t crash and burn this time around.

[via TechCrunch]

HP hiring 50+ developers for webOS is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Hewlett-Packard was once the king of Silicon Valley. Not anymore. After years of executive turnover, the company has lost its soul although the money keeps pouring in. Meg Whitman intends to right the massive HP ship and just outlined an ambitious five-year plan that promises new products by financial year 2014 and finally growth by 2015. So three years from now. Gah.

Whitman took over for ousted Leo Apotheker in September 2011. Apotheker replaced Mark Hurd in 2010. Today during HP’s Securities Analyst Meeting,Whitman blamed HP’s current position on this constant turnover. She indicated it caused multiple inconsistent strategies. And she’s right.

While the PC landscape was radically changing, Hewlett-Packard, the largest PC company in the world, experienced unprecedented leadership changes. Now, in the latter half of 2012, the unofficial definition of a personal computer has shifted to mobile devices. HP does not have any mobile devices anymore. Under Mark Hurd, HP purchased Palm for $1.2B, but the first product from that venture was released under Apotheker. HP killed the TouchPad after just 49 days on the retail market.

HP’s revenue and non-GAAP operating margin is dropping quickly. Whitman has a huge task on her hands. The company rolled out several department heads at today’s meeting but Whitman gave the overview. She aims to get HP back on track but it’s going to take sometime with growth not expected before FY2015. The company doesn’t expect to reap the benefits from new products until 2014. 2013 will see more financial loses and, yet, this year the company plans to continue cutting costs (i.e. layoffs).

This plan promises changes in HP’s four primary businesses. Enterprise Services will get an entirely different operating model. Likewise the Enterprise Group plans to further utilize the cloud (*cough* *cough*). It will simplify the operating model by reducing its product line in the Printing and Personal Systems group while implementing a new cloud-based consumption model for the Software group.

The key to HP’s turnaround will come from stability. Hopefully Whitman can dramatically outlast her predecessors and provide the company with the leadership it needs. HP is a founding member of Silicon Valley. It used to stand for pure innovation and radical change. HP lost its way years ago and while its sheer size hinders quick course corrections, the company will find its way back to the path blazed by Bill and Dave those years ago. Hopefully.

[image via Linda Rae Duchaine/flickr]

When it comes to the world of tablets, there aren’t too many choices if you were to take the operating system as the defining factor. After all, most folks would go for one of the two – Android or iOS, although it does seem as though iOS is going to remain top dog for some time to come. We might hear whispers of Microsoft’s Windows RT and Windows 8 operating systems making a splash later this year, but they are still an unproven equation, so the Android-iOS argument will just have to continue at this point in time. Well, here we are with yet another tablet device that has entered the market – the HP ElitePad 900, and no surprises here, it will run on the Windows 8 platform which might just be Microsoft’s next big hit in the mobile arena.

The HP ElitePad 900, at its core, is a tablet which balances a beautiful design with enterprise-grade features, functionality and support, all in a single device. Specially designed for the business and government, it will offer HP ElitePad Smart Jackets, which will add a new dimension of connectivity options alongside an additional ultra-slim battery for longer runtime, not to mention specific add-ons which allows one to customize the tablet for specialized uses.

Features on the HP ElitePad 900 is said to keep IT managers happy, not to mention carrying a design where employees will not be ashamed to pull it out of their jacket or bag to use. Offering full serviceability, enhanced security and manageability along with military-grade durability for drops, vibration, dust, temperature extremes and high altitude, the HP ElitePad 900 does seem to be the tablet to get when it finally arrives.

Todd Bradley, Executive Vice President of Printing and Personal Systems, HP, said, “Businesses used to face a tough purchase decision: How to find a product that will delight employees and help them be more productive, while also making sure IT can secure and manage it. The HP ElitePad meets all those tests. It combines the great style and user experience consumers demand with the features IT requires.”

It will also carry a 1080p front-facing video camera and an 8-megapixel rear camera with an LED flash, now how about that? Would you get the HP ElitePad 900 when it finally hits the market before the year is over?

Product Page
[ HP ElitePad 900 announced copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Remember those hazy days of summer when HP ran an ad during the Olympics, slipped in a a shot of an unannounced tablet and thought we wouldn’t notice? (P’shaw!) Well, you can finally lay your speculation to rest, as HP just formally unveiled the mystery tab, along with a slew of accessories. It’s called the ElitePad 900 and, as rumored, it’s a 10-inch Windows 8 slate meant for business users, with features like pen input, drive encryption and optional 3G / 4G.

Like HP’s high-end EliteBook laptops, the ElitePad has a premium look, marked by a machined aluminum back cover and 400-nit IPS display coated in Gorilla Glass. Also similar to the EliteBooks, it meets the military’s MIL-spec 810G durability requirements, and can withstand three-foot drops, among other accidents. All told, it weighs 1.5 pounds and measures 9.2mm thick. Going by weight, that’s more along the lines of what you’d expect from a larger, 11-inch tablet, but 1.5 pounds is still manageable, especially considering how armored this thing is.

On the inside, it runs an Atom-based Intel Clover Trail processor, buffered by up to 2GB of RAM. Like so many other systems with this kind of chip, it promises about 10 hours of runtime — a clear improvement over similar devices packing Core i5 CPUs. Storage-wise, you’ll have your choice between a 32 or 64GB SSD. The screen has a resolution of 1,280 x 800, making it the one feature likely to disappoint power users. Take a tour around the device and you’ll find an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1080p shooter up front for video chats. Hidden behind a service door on the back are two slots: one for microSD cards, and another for 3G / 4G SIMs.

And how ’bout those accessories? In addition to the tablet, HP will be selling two so-called SmartJackets, cases that do a little more than just shield the device from wear and tear. One of them, for instance, has two USB ports, HDMI output, a full-size memory card slot and room for an optional battery slice. That battery, by the way, has a capacity of about eight hours, so while the case does add some heft it could be worth it if you need a PC that will last through a flight from New York to Tokyo. As for the second case, its defining feature is a built-in keyboard, which plugs directly into the tablet.

Though HP announced the ElitePad 900 today, the tablet won’t go on sale here in the US until January. Hopefully we’ll also get a final price as we get closer to that launch date. Luckily, we’ve already gotten a chance to play with it, so meet us after the break for hands-on photos and a short walk-through video detailing our first impressions.

Continue reading HP announces the ElitePad 900, a business-friendly Windows 8 tablet arriving in January

Filed under: Tablets, HP

HP announces the ElitePad 900, a business-friendly Windows 8 tablet arriving in January originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s Friday once again folks, with most of you already enjoying the weekend. Today, the iPhone 5 launched in 22 additional regions around the world, setting Apple’s plan to have it in over 100 countries by the end of the year on track. Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized for the sad state of Apple Maps today (recommending some other Maps apps in the process), and we took a closer look at his words in a new column. Even more surprising is the fact that the iOS App Store now features a download page specifically for other Maps applications.

All of you Apple dissenters will definitely want to watch the iPhone 5 get destroyed by some powerful lasers, and Sharp reassured today that it’s making plenty of iPhone 5 screens, which are rumored to be the bottleneck on production. Today we got a closer look at the vibrator inside the iPhone 5, and learned that it costs less than $1 to charge your iPhone for an entire year. Microsoft has assured that it has tested Windows 8 thoroughly ahead of next month’s launch, and it seems that Kodak will soon be dropping out of the inkjet printer business.

Google now lets YouTube creators re-download their movies in their original format, and the FCC has approved an auction to reclaim broadcast TV spectrum. HP has launched Open webOS 1.0, and Amazon gave us a little video detailing the technology behind the Kindle Paperwhite. Good news for all of you Call of Duty fans: Modern Warfare 3 is free-to-play on Steam this weekend, and there are rumors floating around that HP will soon be jumping back into the mobile market.

Microsoft was spotted lamenting the lack of highly skilled technology workers today, and Notch is refusing to certify Minecraft for Windows 8, despite Microsoft’s requests. For the first time ever, Instagram has beat Twitter when it comes to daily mobile users, Sony has invested $640 million into slowly dying camera company Olympus, and a new BlackBerry 10 video gives us our first look at RIM’s new QWERTY device. Finally tonight, Chris Davies takes an up-close look at RIM’s Q2 results, which were posted yesterday, while Chris Burns has a new review of the movie LOOPER, starring Bruce Willis and Jason Gordon-Levitt. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, enjoy your weekend everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: September 28, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.