Hasta La Gadget!

We just spoke with both Brian Humphries, HP’s Senior VP of Strategy and Corporate Development, and Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein, and came away with a pretty positive picture for the future of Palm. The money quote is that HP plans to be “doubling down on webOS,” and that was confirmed in speaking with Palm’s honcho, who says that “that was the whole point.” Not only that, but we’ve confirmed on both ends that Jon will be staying on with the company, along with much of the existing Palm hierarchy. There are plenty of transition details to work out, but Jon says there will be lots of time for all that during regulatory and shareholder approval. The word is that Palm’s existing hardware roadmap is basically untouched at this point by this acquisition, but the good news on the HP end of things is that the company sees webOS as a “prized asset,” and they intend to “scale it across multiple connected devices.” That sounds like tablets to us, and HP didn’t beat back that assumption. On the Palm hardware end, Jon is very fond of saying “scale,” referring to the money and manufacturing resources at HP’s disposal, but he also says that he sees Palm working hand in hand with HP on devices. One point that both companies were less clear on was the Palm branding itself — you know, whether Palm will stay Palm. Both Brian and Jon said those kinds of details would be worked out as the acquisition went forward, but offered no concrete comment on it otherwise.

Money-wise we asked if Jon thought HP could provide the sort of “ammunition” to beat Apple, Google, and Microsoft at their own mobile game, and Jon says “I don’t think HP would do this unless they were willing to make the kind of investment necessary to win.” HP calls webOS a “compelling operating system,” but that Palm didn’t have the money to compete and “scale it across multiple form factors,” and that it’s exactly HP’s financial wherewithal, brand, and corporate culture that it brings to the table. HP and Palm won’t comment specifically on the forthcoming device roadmap, but HP did confirm that it had tested the platform “to make sure it scales.” They keep saying “scale,” but all we’re hearing is “tablet.”

HP: ‘We’re doubling down on webOS,’ Palm: ‘That was the whole point’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s mobile team rolled out changes to the way it shows image results when you search from some iPhones and Android phones. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-20003709-251.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Android Atlas/a/p

We get invited to a lot of PR events, but this has to rank among the most odd–and awesome! At noon this Friday, April 30, shaving-gear company Norelco is bringing erstwhile Baywatch star and current babe Carmen Electra to New York City’s Madison Square Park (on Madison Ave. between 14th and 17th Streets) so that she can shave 100 a few lucky guys [Corrected; sorry, we got carried away! But 100 guys will get a free grooming product.]. That’s right, shave them.

All this is to publicize Norelco’s new green initiative:

Norelco, in celebration of National Arbor Day, is partnering with the Arbor Day Foundation. Starting Friday through June 30, 2010, Norelco will commit to a donation of $75,000 – planting a minimum of one tree for every Philips Norelco Bodygroom product sold, up to 75,000 trees. The campaign is known as “Deforest Yourself. Reforest the World.”

Show up at around 11:30 to line up–first come, first shave. We’ll be sending our own PJ Jacobowitz (that’s him above), who has selflessly volunteered to sacrifice his stubble for the good of the environment.

Most cameras comes with built-in electronic flashes. You’ll improve your pictures greatly buying an electronic flash, also called a strobe, either from the camera maker or a third party such as Vivitar or Sunpak. Expect to pay $100 to $500. Yep, you could spend as much on the flash as you did on the camera. It gives you more range, naturally lit images, no red eye, sometimes outdoor shooting in bright light. The flash will likely work automatically on your pocket camera if it’s from the same maker.

After months of speculation regarding the fate of floundering smartphone manufacturer Palm, as well as a number of buyout rumors involving companies such as Lenovo, the company’s fate is finally clear. HP today issued a press release announcing that it has “entered into a definitive agreement under which [it] will purchase Palm.”

According to the terms of the agreement, HP will purchase Palm for $1.2 billion, or $5.70 a share. The deal has been approved by both Palm and HP. There’s not a lot of information being disclosed at the moment, but some will hopefully surface before the deal is closed at the end of June. According to a press release issued by the company, CEO Jon Rubenstein is expected to stay on board.

Said Rubenstein in the release:

We’re thrilled by HP’s vote of confidence in Palm’s technological leadership, which delivered Palm webOS and iconic products such as the Palm Pre. HP’s longstanding culture of innovation, scale and global operating resources make it the perfect partner to rapidly accelerate the growth of webOS. We look forward to working with HP to continue to deliver industry-leading mobile experiences to our customers and business partners

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Palm has been in rough financial shape for some time, particularly after its Pre and Pixi handsets failed to catch fire in a market dominated by the Apple iPhone and Google Android OSes. Questions have surrounded the future of Palm and whether or not it would license its webOS and get out of the hardware game altogether. From the sound of Rubenstein’s words, it sounds like that may come to pass, under this deal.